home > articles > Superstitions

Superstitions
by Stephanie Lechniak-Cumerlato

Have you ever taken a few extra steps to avoid walking under a ladder, crossing a black cat's path, or stepping on a crack? If so, there are many people out there who feel the same way as you.

Perhaps you're not that superstitious, but you can't help but avoid certain situations because they have been passed down to you from your family. Many core beliefs and attitudes, like our superstitions, tend to be culturally based. In fact our superstitions tend to define growth and evolution within our cultural frameworks. Almost every culture is driven in some senses by the superstitions and beliefs held by the group. Our Superstitions say a lot about who we are, how we feel and think about our world.

Categorizing Superstitions
_________________________________

Basic superstitions can be broken down into three broad categories: Predictive, Causative and Conversion.

Predictive superstitions are when people believe that a particular superstition will predict an oncoming event, such as a black cat predicting bad luck or a woman who catches the bride's bouquet at a wedding being the next to get married.

Causative superstitions are based on someone actually doing something to make something bad happen. For example, breaking a mirror is said to bring you seven years of bad luck. Also, if you open an umbrella inside a house you will receive bad luck. In this case opening the umbrella isn't said to have predicted bad luck, but to have made the bad luck happen to the person who opened it.

Conversion superstitions generally combine predictive and causative superstitions. If you spill salt, you will receive bad luck (which is a causative superstition). However, if you throw some of the spilled salt over your left shoulder, you will avert the bad luck. You have converted or negated the negative superstition!

Spirit Superstitions
_________________________________

Not surprisingly, there is an abundance of superstition and lore regarding deaths, ghosts, ghostly phenomena, and anything associated with the dead. Superstitions have given us one way to explain what seems to be inexplicable, and to protect ourselves from the ruthless whims of fate.

The points below are just to give you an example of various cultural superstitions and beliefs. Who knows, maybe you might decide to use some of them in your own efforts to contact ghosts, put a spirit to rest, or protect yourself from wandering souls.

Animal Omens

• In England, a large black snail appearing on the doorstep of a home may be the spirit of a deceased family member
• If a bee enters your home, it's a sign that you will soon have a visitor. If you kill the bee, you will have bad luck, or the visitor will be unpleasant.
• In certain African tribal societies, a white bird flying into a prayer hut bears the spirit of an ancestor who brings blessings.
• The cry of an owl symbolizes death. Where it builds a nest, ghosts will haunt for as long as the bird stays.
• The crowing of a rooster signals wandering ghosts that it is time for them to disappear until nightfall
• A bird that flies into a house foretells an important message. However, if the bird dies, or is white, this foretells death.
• If a black cat walks towards you, it brings good fortune, but if it walks away, it takes the good luck with it.
• Crows: One's bad, Two's luck, Three's health, Four's wealth,
  Five's sickness, Six is death.
• Throw back the first fish you catch then you'll be lucky the whole day fishing, but if you count the number of fish you caught, you will catch no more that day.
• A frog brings good luck to the house it enters.
• The bright scarlet ladybug is a luck-bringer, probably because it is traditionally associated by its color with fire. It is a sign of good fortune if one lands on a person's hand or dress. It must, however, be allowed to fly away of its own accord, and must not be brushed off.
• A big black moth in the house means a deceased one is just visiting reincarnated through that moth.
• A wish made on the first robin of spring will be granted.
• Superstitious people probably don't kill spiders because it has been unlucky since a spider spun a web over baby Jesus to hide him from Herod.

Binding a Ghost or Spirit

• Tie seven, fourteen, or twenty-one knots into a rope, while naming the soul you wish to restrict. Bury this outside the home to keep that spirit out, or burn the rope to release the spirit into another existence.
• In Malaysia, sacred water combined with incense is said to expel the grasshopper demon.
• Pinching a possessed person and blowing on his or her head banishes the unwanted spirit and returns the human spirit to its body. This tradition also comes from Malaysia.
• If someone is possessed with the spirit of sickness, have him or her drink coconut juice, followed by a bland diet for at least one week. This person should try to maintain emotional and digestive balance from that time forward to keep the malevolent spirit away.
• In the sixteenth century, a common recipe for banishing unwanted spirits was to fast, pray and drink wine mixed with holy oil, and carry appropriate religious charms or relics.
• Scatter dill mixed with salt, fennel, and mullein all around the area in which the ghost or spirit is believed to reside.
• Burning frankincense and myrrh may not completely banish spirits, but it helps to give them peace and rest.
• Hang a garlic wreath over your doorway. Whenever a spirit plagues you, bite a piece - then toss it away from the house. This carries the spirit with it.
• Gather knot grass by the waning moon. Take this to the area where the ghost abides and tie one knot in it. Bury this to confine the spirit to the grave.
• Burying a person's shadow in a specific location prior to his or her death will prevent the spirit from leaving that spot.
• In Denmark, there is a tradition that you can pin a ghost to a location using a wooden post. If the post is pulled up, however, the ghost will be freed.

Preventing Ghosts

• Closing the eyes of the dead before burial keeps their spirits from wandering.
• In Greece, dancing around the burial site of an enemy was a way to keep that person's spirit from returning for revenge.
• Wash the threshold of your house immediately after a dead body is removed. This keeps the spirit of that person from returning.
• Within the burial site, always place a cross of iron. This will keep the spirit of that person in the grave.
• Egyptians wrapped their mummies in sweet spices so the soul smelled pleasant to the guardians of the next world, who would then allow the soul to enter its new existence.
• Provide the body with things that it loved in life - a few coins, some good wine, and so on. This brings contentment to the spirit.
• In Spain, to guarantee that the soul rests peacefully, people at the wake danced seven times around the body.
• In India, placing a sprig of basil in the coffin provided the spirit with a peaceful journey.
• Open all the doors and windows in the area where the person died so the spirit can have quick passage.
• If a person did not receive a proper burial or cremation, give him or her one. This will stop a haunting.

Protection from the Dead

• Lodestone is a protective talisman against spirits. This may be due to its association with iron.
• Plant houseleeks on your roof. The Latin name for this plant, sempervivium, means "ever living", and the dead cannot bear its presence.
• Cover all your mirrors immediately after a death. This keeps a spirit from using them as a portal or getting confused.
• Jump into running water, or cross it. A spirit cannot follow you there: moving water represents life.
• The Aztecs considered jimson weed a sacred plant that would protect from ghosts any area in which it grew.
• Bonfires and other light sources drive away malevolent spirits.
• In the Middle Ages, people left candles near their beds to drive away spirits.
• On Hallows specifically, people carried turnips with candles inside - the original of the Jack-o-Lantern - for protection.
• Place a sprig of rosemary inside a seashell. Bind it within, using a read thread. Carry this with you as an amulet against ghosts.
• Hang rowan and St. John's Wort over the doorway of your home, and no malicious spirits can enter therein.
• Write the letters AGLA in the center of a hexagram and carry this token with you. The hexagram repels evil spirits and misfortune. Cabalists used this formula to banish spirits.
• Angelica and nettle worn or carried as an amulet will protect the bearer from evil spirits.
• Bathing in fennel water, or drinking it, protects one against the spirit of disease.
• In Greece, growing violets in or round a home was considered an effective ward against wandering spirits.

Seeing or Attracting Ghosts

• A child born at midnight, known as a chime child, has the gift of sight, as does the seventh son of a seventh son.
• Mayas of the Yucatan draw a chalk line from the grave to the hearth of the deceased's home. The spirit can then find its way back to visit, whenever it wishes.
• If you know a spirit's true name, you can evoke it.
• Ghosts are more readily seen and contacted at midnight (the time in between day and night), and on the anniversary of their death.
• The veil between worlds grows thin, and ghostly activities increases, during New Year's celebrations, and on festivals for the dead - Halloween is both.
• Medieval spell books say that burning a mixture of aloe, musk, saffron, vervain, and pepper in a cemetery will allow you to see the spirits that reside there.
• In the Middle ages, some felt that washing a clean piece of steel in mugwort juice would summon a spirit.
• Children born on Christmas will be specially blessed: they will never see a dreaded spirit.
• Write the name of the spirit you wish to evoke on parchment, and burn it wile repeating sacred words to help draw the spirit to you.

Signs of Impending Death

• A clock that stops inexplicably.
• A clock that chimes randomly between the hours.
• The presence of a "winding sheet" on a candle. This is a long sheet of wax, melting off one side of the candle and looking like a cloth. (Winding sheets have also been said to signify the presence of a ghost.)
• Bees swarming down the chimney.
• Birds flying into a house or banging against the windows.
• An owl hooting persistently, near the home.
• A lone raven flying over the house.

Stephanie Lechniak-Cumerlato

* Please keep in mind that Haunted Hamilton does not endorse or recommend these as practical approaches. They are folklore and cultural superstitions, and should be practiced with much caution.

References:

Superstitions and Beliefs: How our superstitions shape the world:
http://www.globalpsychics.com/lp/Superstition/menu.htm

Origin of Common Superstitions:
http://allsands.com/History/originscommons_ssd_gn.htm

The Dog Hause Superstitions:
http://www.doghause.com/super.html

Urban Legends Reserach Centre:
http://www.ulrc.com.au/HTML/Superstitions_Archive.asp

Telesco, Patricia. Ghosts Spirits and Hauntings, 1999

top