Q&A: Are “Nature” Jewelry Items Connected to Shamanism Idolatry?
Are “Nature” Jewelry Items Connected to Shamanism Idolatry?
Question
Someone asked me to help promote a website that sells jewelry, bags, and other things from “nature” that are somehow connected to “wisdom,” energies, and the like, supposedly learned from shamanism.
When I asked the guy, he said this is not belief in gods or idolatry; they believe in God.
Even so, I see that there are products there that were apparently created with the aid of a shamanic text, using various plants (maybe drugs).
Here is the website address:
https://www.wildmatterarts.com
The question is whether this is not idolatry, and whether it is permitted to promote such a thing.
Answer
The main problem I see here is aiding theft and misleading people. From the artistic angle, in my opinion there is no problem at all. If people buy it because it looks nice to them, that is perfectly fine. But if they buy it for healing and the like — in my opinion one should not do this.
By the way, according to Maimonides, the prohibition of idolatry is basically not to be foolish and think silly things have power. According to that, the theft and the idolatry are one and the same.
If drugs are involved, then I would certainly be careful about it.
Discussion on Answer
In my opinion, yes. Even if they are misleading someone unintentionally, it is still not right to lend a hand to it. As for the placebo effect, that is open to discussion, since in practice it really does work. But I think misleading someone in order to achieve a placebo effect is still problematic (except perhaps in illnesses for which there is no other treatment, or that are incurable).
I don’t think there is anyone here trying to deceive anyone else.
These are freaky / hippie types — people who believe in all these things and want to sell such things to other freaky / hippie types.
Meaning, they really do believe that it helps for various things (and by the way, it may be that some of it really does help, whether because of the chemistry of the plants or because of the placebo effect and the sense of calm that certain jewelry / products provide).
In alternative medicine too, they work with plants and so on — what is called Bach flower remedies. Is there a prohibition against promoting their websites?