04/10/2026
Harm at a distance has always been an enticing proposition. Ancient humans also sought such remedies to prickly problems. To craft a stand-in of your enemy upon which you can inflict the desired damage symbolically: Probably to satisfy a much needed emotional release. This must have been almost instinctual. Even the mechanics of crafting the effigy with the hands strikes me as so utterly natural. I have a deep sense that the whole business of pins in dolls seems to be to be almost a natural, predictable consequence of human creativity + interpersonal dynamics + that very human instinct that we have within a touch of the numinous.
I do wonder what that first proto-sorcerer thought when their angry doll therapy resulted in a very tangible consequence for their target.
