I adore the omnipresence of magic in Switzerland, as soon as you scratch the materialist, rationalist surface. From sorcerers who supposedly heal warts and light burns through telephone rituals (hospitals have informal lists of sorcerers to dispatch people to), to ghosts and exorcists, to various forms of magnetisers/de-magnetisers and gnomes inhabiting rocks, trees, etc... There is a whole untold mystical universe right behind the curtain of normality. Any conversation can all of a sudden take a very weird turn, as someone starts telling of their experience with that-sorcerer-who-cured-that-thingy-and-i-didn't-believe-it-at-first-but. It pops up everywhere, no matter the political or religious affiliation. I find it charming, in a world-re-enchanting way.

In Greece, I love the (evil) "eye". It's the mediterranean-widespread belief, slowly falling out of fashion, that bragging too much, or displaying a too flashy success, or just accidentally provoking envy, brings bad luck, through the magical glance of jealous people. It's unintentionnal, even making a sincere compliment to someone may bring them bad luck. It's usually aknowledged (the compliment is sometimes accompanied by a small counter-ritual, like a pretend spit on the ground, or just a comment of the "but let's not evil-eye it !" form), and most of times it's merely half-serious. But there's also the occasional urbal legend supposed to demonstrate that evil eye exists. And there are many little exorcisms that cure people of the symptoms of having caught the "eye".

I'm also amused by the readiness, by people who subscribe to these beliefs, to mock and dismiss exotic beliefs and magical anxieties. It's always fun to poke them with a "by the way, have you cured yesterday's evil eye" after one of their rants. Yet again, those beliefs on invisible causalities are not much worse than what they are asked to swallow in terms of economy mechanisms, conspiracy scapegoating, and other secular narratives supposed to make sense of the world. Of all the fictions that shape our worlds (from historical myths to ordinary soul mates), these ones aren't the most harmful...