Is “natural” jewelry related to shamanism idolatry?

שו”ת › Category: Halacha › Is “natural” jewelry related to shamanism idolatry?

asked 8 years ago

Someone asked me to promote a website that sells jewelry, bags, and more from “nature.”
Which are somehow related to “wisdom,” energies, etc. learned from shamanism.
When I asked the guy, he said it’s not belief in gods or idolatry, they believe in God.
Although I see that there are products out there that were supposedly created with the help of a shamanic text using all kinds of plants (maybe drugs)
Here is the website address
https://www.wildmatterarts.com
The question is whether this is not idolatry and whether it is permissible to promote such a thing.

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מיכי Staff answered 8 years ago

The main problem I see here is aiding theft and working on people’s eyes. From the artistic dimension, I don’t think there’s any problem. If people buy because it’s beautiful to them, that’s perfectly fine. But if they buy for medicine and the like – in my opinion, that shouldn’t be done. By the way, according to Maimonides, the prohibition in the law is not to be stupid and think about foolish things that have power. According to this, theft and the law are the same. If it’s about drugs, then I would be wary of it.

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אופיר replied 8 years ago

I don't think anyone is trying to work for anyone else here
This is a society of freaks/hippies – those who believe in all these things who want to sell such things to other freaks/hippies.

That is, they really believe that it is useful for all sorts of things (and by the way, it may be that some are really useful, either from the chemistry of the plants or from the placebo effect and the calm that certain jewelry/products give)

Alternative medicine also works with plants and the like’ what are called Bach flowers. Is there a ban on promoting their websites?

מיכי Staff replied 8 years ago

In my opinion, yes. Even if they work on someone accidentally, it is wrong to give in to it. Regarding the placebo, it is worth discussing, because in practice it really works. But I think working on someone to achieve a placebo effect is still problematic (except perhaps in diseases that have no other treatment or are incurable).