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(Making sure we're on the same page beforehand, I'm talking about sodium chloride/table salt in this thread. Not the alchemical "salt")
So we all are probably familiar with the idea of salt as a purifying/protecting agent, right? It's used this way in ordinary magic, it's talked about in the Bible, and this spiritual significance of salt has even made its way into modern pop culture. Hell, I even remember growing up with the whole "throw a pinch over your shoulder to blind the devil" thing, if you ever spilled salt in the house.
But what is also significant about salt, is how it has been used and regarded for most of history. Up until fairly recently, it was seen as one of the most valuable substances known to man. Roman soldiers were paid with it, wars were fought over it, people used salt as a form of currency worth its own weight in gold, and having very much of it could get expensive for the average person. This was all largely due to its valuable food-preserving properties people made use of, allowing one to stretch their food supply beyond seasonal access. As well as the rarity of actually finding a source to mine it from, at least on land.
With this deeply entrenched value people gave salt on a functional level, for hundreds or even thousands of years, would this possibly have influenced the forming of the notion that salt rids one of their ills? It's interesting to at least speculate. If there were true mundane/cultural influences that played a part in the folklore of the good ol' white stuff, would you say it's possible salt isn't that special after all? Or does it indeed have some intrinsic properties to call its own, as far as the occult goes, and it just so happens to also be a huge cornerstone of human history.
I'm interested to see what anybody else here would think on the subject, while I've still got my hands a bit too full to delve in with the research. I personally have used salt for cleansing and protection before, with a fair amount of success. But it was also being charged with actual intent and energy, obviously. Perhaps that alone could've been what carried the purpose through? Who knows.
So we all are probably familiar with the idea of salt as a purifying/protecting agent, right? It's used this way in ordinary magic, it's talked about in the Bible, and this spiritual significance of salt has even made its way into modern pop culture. Hell, I even remember growing up with the whole "throw a pinch over your shoulder to blind the devil" thing, if you ever spilled salt in the house.
But what is also significant about salt, is how it has been used and regarded for most of history. Up until fairly recently, it was seen as one of the most valuable substances known to man. Roman soldiers were paid with it, wars were fought over it, people used salt as a form of currency worth its own weight in gold, and having very much of it could get expensive for the average person. This was all largely due to its valuable food-preserving properties people made use of, allowing one to stretch their food supply beyond seasonal access. As well as the rarity of actually finding a source to mine it from, at least on land.
With this deeply entrenched value people gave salt on a functional level, for hundreds or even thousands of years, would this possibly have influenced the forming of the notion that salt rids one of their ills? It's interesting to at least speculate. If there were true mundane/cultural influences that played a part in the folklore of the good ol' white stuff, would you say it's possible salt isn't that special after all? Or does it indeed have some intrinsic properties to call its own, as far as the occult goes, and it just so happens to also be a huge cornerstone of human history.
I'm interested to see what anybody else here would think on the subject, while I've still got my hands a bit too full to delve in with the research. I personally have used salt for cleansing and protection before, with a fair amount of success. But it was also being charged with actual intent and energy, obviously. Perhaps that alone could've been what carried the purpose through? Who knows.
