One of the oldest belief systems in the world is animism, which holds that all objects have two distinct aspects. The first is rooted in reality – a cup for example, is made of clay, plastic or metal, and we can experience ‘cup’ by using all five of our senses, sight, touch, taste, hearing (try tapping it with something!) and even smell (have you ever smelled a tarnished silver cup? Ugh!) The second aspect of cup is its intangible, possibly magical aspect. Most people can’t experience this – but some claim to do so.These become the shamans or priests in a society, people who apparently can access this ‘other worldly’ aspect in life.

Note I say ‘claim to do so’ and ‘apparently.’ I am being cautious here. Although undoubtedly some can access and manipulate the normally unseen worlds, I have no doubt that some people do make it up. That’s human nature. And unfortunately the people who boast loudest about what they do are often the ones telling the biggest fibs. It gets everyone else a very bad name. But then as Bertrand Russell once said, ‘The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.’

Doubt should come with any religious territory. It’s part of spiritual growth. How can we possibly go anywhere if you don’t grow because we’re so convinced that we’re right? Because my own pagan beliefs are reasonably flexible (though I do work within some framework, I admit) I feel there’s always room for growth and movement, and this is progress, not a failing. After all, I ought to expect to learn something over a couple of decades. Without that, my beliefs would become moribund.

Back to the matter of the cup. I mentioned the idea of accessing and manipulating unseen worlds, but how do we do this? One of the main methods is through language, whether it be prayer, incantation, chanting or whatever. But we use certain words on an almost daily basis, and one thing I’ve noticed over the past forty years is the dramatic increase in the use of certain swear words (especially the so-called ‘four letter words.’)

Don’t get me wrong; I’m not naïve. People have always sworn. But not so often and so publicly. Also certain words were reserved for the most extreme situations and this gave them a real shock value. Because such words are used regularly now, they don’t shock any more. Indeed, society has lost its little store of expletives that could be relied upon in real emergencies.

So in the context of today’s blog, the increase of swearing means we have abused a very powerful means of accessing and manipulating the unseen worlds around us. Every time we let rip unthinkingly with language that might have horrified our parents, let alone our grandparents, we are, in effect, throwing stones into a pond. Throw enough and you create waves.

Nor is it only actual swear words which cause the problem. If you call a woman a bitch you are, in a magical sense, making her become one. Or call someone a freak and an element of freakiness suddenly descends on them. I hate political correctness, which I feel has all but stifled debate and free thinking. There’s no need for it, and weirdly, one of its by-products is that we now have verbal free for alls where language has become twisted and distorted. Words which were once powerful (swear words, curses, oaths) are bandied about as part of everyday conversation. Worse, the media bombards us with them, so whether we like it or not, these powerful epithets are propelled our way.

And all this is hurtling around bouncing from the magical worlds to the real one and back again. And we are going to be picking up the pieces.