Supernatural!

Are you superstitious?

A superstition is defined by google as a widely held but irrational belief in the supernatural influences, especially leading to good or bad luck, or a practice based on such belief.

Tradition is defined as the transmission of customs and beliefs from generation to generation or the fact of being passed on this way.

Conservative is defined as being averse to change or innovation and holding traditional values.

I think I am a combination of conservative and traditional, more so because it got ingrained unconsciously. Am I superstitious? Maybe not! But do I believe in the supernatural? I don’t know, the jury is out on that, but I am interested in the occult (not enough to practice it), but enough to watch the entire series of Supernatural, Vampire Diaries, Teen Wolf, Sabrina, the Good Witch, The Craft, School for good and evil, you get the drift! I try not to follow something blindly because I was told to follow it, but if I find that there is a logical reason to not do something, I would rather do it that way.

Here are some common superstitions and l will tell you why I do or don’t follow them.

Opening Umbrellas indoors: unless you have a dripping leak in your ceiling, it’s unwise to open an umbrella indoors. The spring action that opens the umbrella automatically, can aid in knocking off valuable knickknacks off your shelves. If the space indoors is sparse, then the chances of you hurting someone should make you think twice about it. Now, if you are attacked indoors and your umbrella is handy, go ahead! Open it and defend yourself.

Have you ever tried to make a dash for it, from the doorway to your vehicle at the kerb? Did you fit through the doorway, with the umbrella open? And all that struggle just caused you to have a few more rivulets of rain directed at you through the half-opened umbrella in your hand! If that doesn’t teach you to not open umbrellas indoors. Nothing will.

Black cats: the color black has often been connected with negative connotations. No one appreciates the slimming nature of the color black. And black cats especially are considered ill omens as they are connected to the practice of witchcraft. I think the excessive production of melanin that contributes to the darker variant of a species makes for a very interesting option. Black panthers, also felines are especially magnificent and their rarity in the wild makes them an extremely fortunate click for any photographer. How, then can a black cat be perceived as an ill omen, I fail to understand. I don’t like cats per se, but if forced to choose, the colors hardly make a difference. The sphinx cat is another deal altogether and thank God, no one’s talking about them just yet!

Walking under ladders: I have always had to control the urge to move a ladder leaning against a wall somewhere else, just to see what it would result in. If a person were on it, then the temptation would be to see if I could move the weighted ladder around. But, walking under one when I see someone working on top, is not tempting to me. I prefer to avoid it, and add a few extra steps to go around. Dripping paint or dropping tools has never tempted me.

 If you believe in the Holy Trinity, then the number 3 and along with it, the triangle makes it sacred. A ladder against a wall creates this triangle shape, and walking through it is considered blasphemous.

Breaking mirrors/ broken mirrors: a broken mirror is said to bring you seven years of bad luck. I have never kept a broken mirror around because of the distortion it causes on the reflection. I am not a ‘cracked’ glass or mirror kind of person, so I would never let a broken mirror lie around as part of the décor. While broken mirrors are said to attract bad energy, a more interesting spin is the belief that a broken mirror is a sign that you have avoided disaster and could signal the start of positive changes in your life.

For the longest time, Mum refused to replace the mirror on the dressing table, because we were not careful enough. Eventually, she had it replaced, and a couple of weeks later, I brought home Tara, our dog. Tara had been living in a room, by herself and had not been socialized with dogs, or mirrors. So, when she saw her reflection, her first instinct was to snarl and attack. The result was a scratched mirror and Mum was livid. It was at that moment that I started believing in this particular superstition, that a broken mirror (actually let’s make that scratched), had helped me avoid disaster and was the signal of the start of positive changes in my life.

Tossing salt over one’s shoulder: salt is tossed over your left shoulder to ward off evil. This is a new one for me, however the one related to salt, that I had heard earlier was to never spill salt. This I would believe because of the cost involved in the purchase of salt, and the fact that, unlike sugar which when spilled attracts ants that then cart it off to their homes in pure ecstasy, salt would just remain there, a white mess on the floor. Spill the salt get bad luck, throw a pinch over your shoulder, and neutralize this bad luck. Or just collect it off the floor, warm it up, and use it to alleviate pain.

Knocking on wood: This pagan belief was followed by the Celts who believed that spirits and gods resided in trees and knocking on tree trunks may have served to rouse the spirits and call on their protection. It could also be a way to show gratitude for a stroke of good luck. I’ve often found folks saying, knock on wood and touch their head, and I don’t know where the belief came from, but if they believe that there are spirits in their head, they need all the luck in the world to get a good shrink.  

Finding a four-leaf clover: the four leaves of the clover is said to stand for faith, hope, love and luck, and Ireland is said to be home to the four-leaf clover giving meaning to the phrase, ‘the luck of the Irish’. As per Google, the odds of finding a four-leaf clover is 1 in 10,000. Looking for plants, anywhere in the world today is a matter of luck. The fact that we are having issues related to climate is because we are losing forest cover and four-leaf clover or not, finding a thriving countryside covered in a carpet of verdant greenery is the only luck our species requires.

Superstitions guide all aspects of our life and the stage is no exception. Here is a brief list of a few stage/theatre-related superstitions. I have not associated with theatre as a form of expression and cannot vouch for these beliefs personally, however, I’ve merely given a more informal explanation to why they may exist.

A bad dress rehearsal means the show will be a hit: a couple of days before the show, if you have a bad dress rehearsal, then you are going to do everything in your power to ensure that you don’t make the same mistakes again.

Mirrors on stage are bad luck: as they are said to cause forgotten lines and broken set pieces, probably because they interfere with the lighting. On a lighter note, the makeup on stage is always a little more on the ‘loud’ and ‘garish’ side so as to be visible from the farthest corners of the audience and this could scare the artist and cause forgotten lines.

The Curse of the Scottish Play: Macbeth is “cursed” and any mention of the play’s name, or quoting the play in a theatre requires the offender to leave the room (or building), turn around three times, spit, curse, quote Hamlet (or a line from any other play) and only then enter again. It is believed that a coven of witches objected to Shakespeare using real incantations, so they put a curse on the play. On the opening night in 1606, the actor who played Lady Macbeth tragically died and Shakespeare himself had to step in. This one, I have heard of, when I was studying the play as an undergraduate, and have always been interested in learning more about it. So, if you have proof of any kind, do send it across, I would love to update my learnings.

While these are the common superstitions followed around the world, here are a few from India. These are the ones, I have grown with and when questioned, I have had a variety of explanations given to justify their existence.

Nimbu Mirchi: Alakshmi, the sibling of Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth – brings poverty and misfortune. It is believed that she likes sour and spicy things and hence a thread consisting of seven chillies and a lime is hung outside your place of business, house or even vehicles in India.

Black cat: if a black cat crosses your path, then you wait and let someone else pass before you do, this way, they will get all the bad luck and you won’t.

Twitching of the eye is inauspicious: scientifically, this could happen due to stress, alcohol, tiredness, allergies, strain, or just dry eyes. However, this has been attributed to bring good or bad luck depending on the culture and the gender of the person as well.

Cutting fingernails or toenails at night brings you bad luck – the only explanation that I could understand for this would be the lack of light to do a good job, cutting too close to the skin could make for an unpleasant evening.

A crow cawing on your balcony means that guests are arriving. Crows have always fascinated me, probably because of the abundance of them I saw growing up. Of course, the series, Crows-The stairway to heaven, probably just increased my fascination for the birds. One of the rhymes left over from colonial times, was:

One for sorrow

Two for joy

Three for letter

Four for boy/toy (changed depending on the age of the person)

Five for silver

Six for gold

Seven for secrets never to be told

And that’s where I stopped the recitation. It was very very rare for me to see a murder of crows larger than 4. But I learned it until seven and beyond that left it to the unknown. Eventually, I also figured this was used about Magpies, but we just had crows in abundance. And it made sense to apply it somewhere.

Itchy palms signal the arrival of money. Or the loss. But beware, don’t scratch the itch or it could block the luck. Or as it usually is in my case, it could just be dry skin, rub in some moisturizer and let it be. It will stop itching eventually, and don’t look forward to that money, more likely than not, that’s just wishful thinking.

Removing evil eye: putting a black dot of kohl on the side of a child’s forehead is done to protect the child from any negative vibe. The belief is that the black dot will make the child look ugly to the evil powers and the kid will stay protected.

I don’t know if I believe it or not, but I have done this, for my kids. In the first couple of years of their life. In all the anxiety concerning their developing immunities, I ensured that luck would not be challenged. So black dot on, bad eye gone, or good luck on, depending on the situation would happen regularly. Has my belief about this changed? I don’t know. I just know that I was exhausted, and Mum used to get the kids ready, especially when they were babies. And if she did it a particular way, I just continued that, because I was too tired to think differently.  

Adding a 1Rs to the gift sum, to symbolize continuity. This is considered a blessing, it is seen as a symbol of good luck, prosperity, and blessings for the recipient.

I’ve often done this, although this is the first time I am learning about the belief. Today, you can purchase envelopes with a symbolic Rs 1 coin stuck on the outside, so whatever you put inside, there will always be the “+1Rs” for luck.

Do not sweep after sunset: traditionally, Goddess Lakshmi visits your house after sunset, so if you sweep your house after sunset, then you are not welcoming her and she will leave.

This I follow. Because I don’t like cleaning my house at the end of the day. I prefer to do it first thing in the morning, so I have a clean house for me to enjoy. I don’t need a clean house to sleep in. However, if you know me, you will also know, that all I need to see is one cockroach and I will bring that broom out even at midnight and won’t sleep until the pest is out!

This list is by no means exhaustive, it’s going to grow as I learn and add more to it. But it’s a start on a topic I have always been interested in. A topic that has always fascinated me. Probably because I was raised with a more than healthy dose of mythological stories. But, the occult and supernatural in reel India are stupendously more fascinating than it is in real India. Luck, superstition and the supernatural do not follow rules, and this has always intrigued the rule-follower/logical me.