It's real

[Stefan] Maul (Zukunftsbewãltigung : Eine Untersuchung altorientalischen Denkens anhand der babylonisch-assyrischen Lõserituale [Namrubi])argues that the animals, plants, or circumstances in the omens do more than signify disaster; they also play an active role in triggering it. In his view, the signifying entity infects its target with impurity—understood as a semi-physical substance—from the moment the sign is perceived. Here this entity is called a “harbinger,” a term that connotes an agent.—Forestalling Doom page 55

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In other words, they thought you could get the spiritual to attach to the physical and thereby control it. And this is the world that the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible inhabits. Think about that...
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