Between Karma and Monsters

Daily writing prompt Are you superstitious? View all responses

This is a great question, and it was the most intriguing for me out of all the Daily Writing Prompts for the week. For someone like me, who writes literary horror and often uses monsters as objects of karma or divine justice in certain situations, I think about superstition often. I write in superstition a lot as well, in my settings and plot devices. I rely a lot on fear of the unknown as an object in my writing. Monsters are a great metaphor for this fear.

We are all trying to avoid hardship, and if we can find a somewhat unexplainable pattern or ritual that our certain and specific patterns of behavior might help and suspend pain or trauma, we’re going to seize them. Ironically, in these areas of avoidance, well sometimes that is where monsters themselves fester. Sometimes creating patterns to be safe cause the unresolved pain to outgrow the avoidance. That is another blog post and monster.

Monsters can also be personifications of superstition. Some were born directly from them from various cultures and their mythologies. I have always found this lore intriguing. That being said, I wouldn’t say I’m necessarily superstitious, but I do believe in some perhaps related forces. The chief one being karma.

I for certain believe in karma. Whether it is something I have observed, or been judged upon, the universe has a way of remembering things and spinning them back at you. In my own life, for all the stupid and selfish mistakes I have made (and there have been plenty), if I ever refuse to take ownership over them, well, life, the universe, existence, and karma has done a more than adequate job of pointing out my misdeeds. Sometimes I feel like the mole in Whack-A-Mole, and karma has been the mallet whacking me whenever I emerge.

I’m hardly alone in that metaphor. I don’t challenge karma or the threads of justice that layer through the unseen world. Everything catches up with you. I suppose that is my biggest superstition. Granted, I don’t like breaking mirrors. It feels so unnatural.

One thing about karma that I think is interesting, is that time itself functions as karma. It makes negative or toxic behavior fester which causes bad outcomes to multiply. At least that’s my belief. Also, I think one thing I like to explore as a writer of monsters is that superstitions are given life, identity, and meaning, without any consent. This is easy to replicate with monsters in storytelling. Also, I don’t like walking under ladders.

Maybe I am superstitious.

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