Black Cats & Evil Eyes
A Book of Old-Fashioned Superstitions
By Chloe Rhodes
Michael O’Mara Books Limited
Copyright © 2012 Michael O’Mara Books Limited
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-84317-887-3
CHAPTER 1
HORSESHOES
Horseshoes can be found hanging above the doors of homes across the world and are thought to ward off evil. One source of this belief in the Western world is described in The True Legend of St Dunstan and the Devil, written in 1871 by Edward G. Flight, which tells the story of a first-century blacksmith monk who later became the Archbishop of Canterbury and one of England’s best-loved saints. Legend has it that during his days in the foundry, Dunstan was asked by a man to make some horseshoes for his own feet. As Dunstan prepared the man’s feet for shoeing, he noticed that they were cloven hoofed and realized with horror that his customer was the Devil. Exhibiting a fearlessness befitting a future saint, he drove the nails into the soft centre of the hoof, causing the Devil so much agony that from that day on he didn’t dare to go near a horseshoe.
The protective power of the horseshoe, however, pre-dates not only St Dunstan but Christianity itself. Hindu texts use the Sanskrit word ‘Yoni’ to describe the sacred temple or womb, representative of the Goddess Shakti, which was believed to be the origin of all lifeand is depicted in ancient stone carvings, paintings, and architecture as a downward-pointing horseshoe. It was also an important pagan symbol, representing the crescent moon and the ancient moon goddesses Artemis and Diana. In Arabic countries the horseshoe is incorporated into amulets that protect against the Evil Eye (seehere), while in British, Celtic and Germanic folklore a horseshoe nailed above the door was used to defend homes from witchcraft.
In the West, as the more secular idea of bringing ‘good luck’ has taken precedence over the need to ward off evil, the positioning of the horseshoe has become significant. In the UK and the US they’re most often hung with the open end up, to stop the good luck from falling out, though folklore traditionalists warn that this encourages trouble-making pixies to use them as seats, so open end up but tilted slightly is optimal. In the rest of the world the open end is usually down, mirroring the shape of the sacred womb. Whichever way a horseshoe is hung, more luck can be gleaned by keeping it in place with seven screws.
CHAPTER 2
PICKING UP PENNIES
This tradition comes from a nursery rhyme that we commonly recite as ‘See a penny, pick it up; all day long you’ll have good luck.’
In fact the original rhyme featured pins, not pennies: ‘See a pin and pick it up, all day long you’ll have good luck. See a pin and let it lie, you’ll feel want before you die.’ This may in turn be derived from the old English proverb ‘He that will not stoop for a pin will never be worth a pound’, which was first recorded in print in Samuel Pepys’s Diary in 1668.
It is one of many ancient sayings to promote the notion that it’s worth taking trouble over small things. People who used the rhyme in the 1600s would also have been fearful of leaving a pin on the ground because of their associations with witchcraft.
Pins were thought to have been used to bind a spell in place or to fix a desire – for good or ill, to an object that represented the person on whom the spell was being cast. If you didn’t pick up the pin, a witch might find it instead and use it in a spell against you.
Pins were also used in hexes, which could be performed to reverse the effects of damaging spells, often held responsible for th
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