In the Cotswolds we see many more horses than our town-dwelling relatives, so it wasn’t unusual, when horses were even more common, to see horseshoes nailed up on doors, supposedly to bring local inhabitants good fortune. Modern children might be puzzled by the tradition: unlikely to understand that horseshoe should be nailed toe down and branches uppermost to bring good luck, otherwise the benefit will all pour out and be lost.
Apart from the assumption that good things are affected by gravity – although we could all imagine that they’re easily lost – it is interesting that we choose to associate certain inanimate objects with qualities of life events and experience. Just as we recognise that we have to try hard to ensure success in life, and consequently avoid doing things associated with evil or unfortunate happenings, we often invest an object with a kind of magic power to watch over our safety and even our profit in the tasks which face us.
For millennia, tribes, armies and sports teams have often set off to battle and competitions carrying a mascot. More recently people have carried religious symbols through their lives, not only as a badge or symbol of their belonging to a particular faith, but also to bring them luck in their daily undertakings. These objects, often worn visibly as a bracelet, pendant or other item of jewellery, are akin to personal totem poles, and to leave home without them would make their owners feel uneasy. It’s possible that for today’s brave new people the function these amulets perform is now carried out by mobile phones…
But as well as amulets, which are supposed to promote positive events, there are also talismans which have a subtly different intent. Not only do they accentuate the positive, but – as Johnny Mercer and Bing Crosby sang – they eliminate the negative. Often when renovation and restoration work is undertaken on houses which have stood for hundreds of years a bottle is found, containing all sorts of strange items. Called ‘Witch Bottles’ these are meant to protect the house from evil spells cast by witches or other supposed black magicians.
We might think we are far too rational to believe in elemental good and evil, but I do have some sympathy with the view that if you find a witch bottle in your house you should put it back where it was found:- it won’t do any harm, and as Shakespeare made Hamlet say; “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
That some sailors don’t want to tempt fate by setting out on a voyage on Friday 13th of any Month is understandable. And walking under a ladder doesn’t require health and safety to go mad to pose a genuine statistical risk.
Only a village idiot would think a rabbit would consider a severed foot would be lucky, however, a theory has been suggested which connects them with a ‘hand of glory’ – the mummified hand of a hanged murderer holding a candle made from human fat used for black magic, an example of which is on display at Whitby Museum in Yorkshire.
What about a black cat crossing your path. I’d always thought to see a black cat was considered lucky, then I heard it might be unlucky if it crosses from right to left. I was invited to dinner by a Hindu doctor – a man of science. En route to the restaurant a cat crossed our path. The doctor insisted we went another way.
“A black cat,” he said, “is very bad luck!”
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