9/17/2008 - Feather for Fortune

9/11/2008 - Thimble for luck

The thimble was once regaurded as a powerful sign of luck, which may be one of the reasons why porcerlain thimbles as souvenirs from places visisted. If someone gives you a thimble place it on every finger in turn and say:

All my fingers yeild good work

in my hands you sit for luck

Keep it safe and ask it for a "turn for luck" on days when life becomes a little too stressful.

7/7/2008 - Old Wives Tale

6/25/2008 - The Funny Bone

Most of us are familiar with the discomfort of hitting your elbow. But in days past it was acutally considered a lucky gesture.

To try and take your mind from the pain, and to turn this unfornatuate event around to your advantage, for good luck next time you bang your elbow knock the other one lightly and say:

To this elbow I do no harm

for happiness is now in the crook of my arm

Gript both elbows in oppisite hands and smile or laugh out loud.

Before the day is done at least two things should occur that make you smile.

5/13/2008 - Spider's Web

5/7/2008 - White Rabbit

Though rabbits or hares are not universally seen as lucky becasue of thier association with witches, these little creatures will bring you luck of you ask nicely.

When you spot a white rabbit or hare, blow the creature a kiss and say:

Messenger of the Lady Moon

Grant me luck this afternoon

Wish carefully, you have but one chance, and it may be for anything, but use your wish wisely.

4/17/2008 - Mirror Mirror

Mirros have a habbit of being associated with bringers of bad luck, though many are familair with the superstion revolving around breaking a mirror. Here is one of another sort.

Here is another superstion which is focused around the mirror, or glass.

On the night you meet someone special aviod looking at the moon refelected in a glass or mirror to aviod bringing ill luck upon the blossoming romance

4/14/2008 - Wish Upon A Bird

The most popular and prevelant superstions envolve a wide varity of ways to ask for wishes. And here is one quite appropriate for springtime.

Bluebirds are so famous they have been given the name bluebird of happiness. The robin has been assocaited with the same signs of cheefullness and joy (Bluebirds and Robins are in the same family).

Seeing a bluebird you should immdiately make a wish. It must be something inselfish and not depend upon the actions of another person. As the bird flies off, see your wishe ascending. Wish hard and steadily increasing happiness and release from strains.

Wheather you see a bluebird or a robin, if you see the bird again  within a few days in exzazctly the same place, your wish will certainly be granted.

8/23/2007 - Good Luck and Cats

I have already posted some of the more common supersitions which surround cats, so here are a few others I had come acorss, I rather like these, becasue they shed the cat in a more posistive light then many other well known superstions reguarding cats.

A cat of three colors is extremely lucky and will keep a house from harm, while a smutty-nosed cat will bring wealth to its companions.

Storking a cats tail nine times grants good luck at cards.

And just sharing your home with cats will bring you many blessings.

5/29/2007 - The Comb

On doing some reaserch on Banshees I came acorss a new superstion I have not previously heard before, but I found it of interest and thought it was worth sharing.

If you ever see a comb lying on the ground in Ireland, you must never pick it up, or the banshees (or mermaids - stories vary), having placed it there to lure unsuspecting humans, will spirit such gullible humans away.

One thing that is intresting about this, is that in the original, the Grimms Brother, version of the Snow White story, the comb was one of the many gifts that the Step Mother had tried to give to Snow White to kill her. In the Disny modified version there is only the apple, but in the origional there were a seris of gifts. One in which was a comb which was posioned I beleive. It has been a while sense I read the story.

3/16/2007 - Cats stealing breath

Well I got the idea to talk about the old superstition of cats stealing the breath of sleaping infants from something I read in another blog, now I have heard this one before of course, it is faily common, but I did not know much more about it then that, so I decided to try and research a little more of the history behind, though I could not find one solid source for what it came from, I have found several different possible theories for how it could have gotteon started, ranging from Christain preists using it as a ploy to further demonize Paganisim, becasue cats have always had a strong assocation with pagans dating all the way back to thier divine status in ancient Egypt to thier rather common association to witches. To the idea that the cats were attractcted to milk residue left upon the babies lips and it appeared to women of the 17th century that the cats were sucking the breath out of the babies, and the idea that the cats sought to harm the infants because they were jealous, and the idea that the rumor might have been started up from rare incidents of a cat laying upon a sliping childs face and unintionally causing the infant to suffocate, and the incident then being transformed into this myth of cats stealing the breath away.

3/7/2007 - Doors

Well I have not done one of these in a while, and here is one I came acorss that I was not previeously famillar with

When there is a thunderstorm, open your door and a window and make a strong wigh for better luck in the next few days. Wait untill the rain has poured down, then whip up as much mental energy as you can, attaching it to any affairs that are dragging and making you unhappy. When the storm has stopped raging , close teh door, but later bring in something green from the garden, or gfrom a potted plant that is still wet. By the time it dries, your luck will have taken a turn for the better.

10/24/2006 - Wishbone

Well the wishbone supersition is one that many of us were probaly told as a child and made for a fun game when one was lucky enough to find a wishbone. Most of us probaly heard that if you should find a wishbone, you and another should each take one end of it and make a wish and pull, and if you get the bigger half then your wish will come true, well here is another I have come acorss that might not be as common.

When you get a wishbone, don't break it with another if it is general happiness you seek. Wash it and rinse it, then let it dry in sugar for three days. Place it in a jar with more sugar and tie the jar with a pink ribbon. Wish for happiness and joy during your lifetime. Place the jar up on a very high shelf. Matters of many sorts will now flow more sweetly.

10/13/2006 - Firday the 13

Well it should be no surprsie what my topic is for today. Perhaps one of our most infamous of superstions and one in which near all of us are famillar with. The dreaded Friday the 13th, a day in which some of us still fear and try to aviod. To others it is but another day, and now to some it is a day that is looked forward, perhaps for little other reason then becasue the rest of society holds it as unlucky thier are those that embrace as as a way to show thier non-conformist beleifs. I do have to admit that even sense I was a child I had always been in the class of looking forward to Friday the 13th.

But how has it gotten such a bad rap? Well I thought I would do some reaserach into that, and well first you cannot try and evaulaute Friday the 13th which out looking at the number 13 itself which is considered to be on its own an unluky number. Though it cannot be tracked back to exzactly why this is an unlucky number. It has been considered unlucky by many different ancient cultures and there are many different therories behind the origins of fear of this number. Some dating back to the Egyptians, some envolving Christinanity.

So how did Friday get singled out in being particuarly unlucky in combination with this number, when there is a 13th of something every month?

Well it cannot really be tracked back to one sorce. Some track it back to stories in Norse Myth, others to Christainty, some theories suggest that is is becasue Friday in many anceint cultures on its own has been considered unlucky and so the combination of an unlucky day with an unlucky number is considered doubly unlucky. Some therories link it to the Knights of Templar.

Whatever the ture orgins, if there is a true orgin, the idea of Friday the 13 still holds sway and grip today, and has been an imporant and influencial figure throughout history reguardless of beleif.

10/9/2006 - Breaking Mirrors

I am sure many of us has heared that if you break a mirror it will bring 7 years bad luck

Now with all the mystisim that has surrounded mirrors, and the common Pagan beleif that mirrors do act as portals into other worlds, or different relams, and that they aree windows into the spritual world it is no wonder that there should be some consequence for breaking one, but I was driven to do a bit of reasearch on this supersition, as I wondered just who it was decipered that it would be precisiely 7 years of bad luck to come from breaking one, and this is what I discovered.

The 7 years bad luck penality came from the Roman belief that a mans body was phsyicaly rejuvinated evry 7 years, in essence, becoming a new man and so for the effects of the bad luck to wear off you had to wait untill you were "reborn"

One ward against the evil of breaking a mirror and to try and prevent the curse of the bad luck to fall upon you is to remove the mirror from the house, or building in which it was broken and bury it.

10/5/2006 - The Sneeze

I have not done one of these in a while and I thought it was time for a new one. Here is one that is perhaps one of the most well known and universally practiced of all supersitions. Something that perhaps we no longer even see as supersition anymore for it has been elevataed to a whole new level and is not considered to rank among simple polite manners. It is something I am sure all of us have done without even thinking about it, it has become such a natural act.

Yes I am talking about saying God bless you, God bless, bless you, Gazoontite when another person sneezes. How is it this act has earned some speical blessing when there certaintly nothing to say when soemone coughs or gets the case of the hiccups etc..

Well there are a couple different stories behind this little phenomen that has become so ingrained in society. Some say it is becasue people use to belive that when you sneezed it meant that your soul was trying to escape your body, and you had to bless them in order to make sure thier soul does not escape.

Another beleif is that it is said that during the time of the black death sneeizing was one of the first signs of the plauge and so people would say God bless when they heard someone sneeze becasue they figured that they were on the road to death and that only God could save them at that point.

9/14/2006 - Walking Under Ladders

Here is one of your well known and classic supersitions which I am sure most of us are familliar with and particuarly heard when we were kids. I thought I would talk about it today sense it did come up.

The idea that walking under a ladder is bad luck, now this is another of the ones in which you can see where there is some practicality behind it. As if could be unsafe to walk under a lader partiuraly if it was one in use.

This is one of the superstitions that I never really tought much of and just thought was silly and never could cliam any real beleif in it, and genreally tended to disreagurd it, but then today, perhaps simply becasue this month had a rocky start of my, or duing theses posts put it more subconciously in mind, but we are having the rook on the house worked on, and I had to go outside, and then I was comming back, there was a ladder that the workers were using propped against the house, and for a moment I almost passed right under it as that was the more direct route to the door, but something made me pause and walk around it instead.

9/6/2006 - Jinx

Not too long ago I had talked about knocking on wood and I said that I would do an entry on the idea of the jinx and I thought now would be a good time to do so. Most of us are familler with the concept of a jinx and it is one supersistion that I think is perhaps one of the most well known and practiced. The basic concept of the jinx in someways mirrors the old saying of not counting your chickens before they hatch. It is the idea of doing something that somehow tempts fight. For instance talking about a job premotion you applied for and feel confidaunt about but have not been offcialy given yet, or to make some bold statement as to say such and such has never happend to you before.

Jinx can be seen as a sort of mild form of hubris which is a speical kind of pride and the object of the story of Ulyssiess, it is when you tempt or insult the Gods in someway with your own self-assurance and not showing the proper resepect for the Gods.

8/30/2006 - Knocking on Wood

Here is another classic superstition that seems to be fairly common. When a person belives that they have jinxed themselves in someway (another supersistion I will talk about) or tempted fate in someway for example by saying Such and such has never happend to me. There is a fear that then becasue you stated it, such will now happen. So to counter react that is to knock on wood. Usually rapping three times upon a desk, table, wall, etc... basicaly anything that is wood. The idea or theroy behind this is that knocking on wood appeals to the wood spirits so they will grant you good favor.

Knocking on wood is something I have been doing for just about as long as I can remember, though I do not nessciarly know if I belive the knocking on would can acutally prevent anything from occuring but in someways I think it does act as some sort of security for the subconcious. It makes you feel as if you do have some control over the situation.

8/24/2006 - Dandelion Wishes