They're always after me Lucky Charms!

LYRIC O’ THE DAY:

It’s like thunder and lightning,

the way you love me is frightening.

You better knock, knock on wood, baby

--Knock on Wood, Amii Stewart.

They're magically delicious.

Lucky charms, not including the pseudo-marshmallow goodness of the cereal variety, are objects culturally invested with magical properties.  People have described countless talismans as "lucky."  Many of those symbols have wound up in our every day lives.  Stars, keys, runes, medals, and crystals are part of our wardrobe and even are incorporated in the brands we buy.  One of the earliest ads for good luck jewelry ran in Art and Beauty magazine in 1926.


Today on Sunday mythbusters, I look at the history of a few of our good luck charms.

The Horseshoe
One of the most recognizable symbols of good luck is the horseshoe.  My house has one embedded in the corner of the entryway, in homage to the belief that a horseshoe placed at the right corner of the front door will bring all who enter good luck.  Some attribute this myth to Irish superstition that iron kept evil Fae away.  Others cite a story about St. Dunstan, who along with his more sacred talents was a skilled farrier.  The Devil approached St. Dunstan, presumably because he needed a little touch up in the hoof department.  St. Dunstan recognized the red one, hammering his hooves to the wall and filing like a demented manicurist until the Devil screamed for mercy.  St. Dunstan released him only when the Devil promised to avoid houses protected by a horseshoe over the door.  Lore says that the shoe should be points up, lest all that good luck spill out.

St. Dunstan gives the Devil a shoeing from Hell.

The Four-Leaf Clover
Veering back to the realm of the leprechaun, the four leaf clover has to be included in a discussion of good luck charms.  Legend says a four leaf clover was the only thing Eve was allowed to take with her from the Garden of Eden.  In Irish tradition, the three leaf clover is felt to be a representation of the Holy Trinity.  When the fourth leaf appears, it represents God’s grace.  A more secular view has the leaves symbolizing faith, hope, love, and luck.  To those who have pagan beliefs, the bearer of a four leaf clover is granted the ability to see spirits and fairies.  

If you want the odds of picking out a naturally occurring good luck charm, for every 1 four-leafer, there are 10,000 three leafers.  However, researchers from the University of Georgia found the four-leaf gene in 2010, making it now possible for breeders to genetically engineer luck.

Knock on Wood
Humans often tempt fate, and one way to avoid the consequences is to knock on wood--or if you furnish with IKEA, wood veneer.  This goes back to the pagan belief that every living thing had a spiritual connection.  Knocking on wood paid tribute to the spirits and asked for their blessings.  In Greek mythology, knocking on an oak was a way to ask for the blessing and justice of Zeus as the tree was one of his symbols.  In a Biblical theory, wood symbolizes the cross on which Christ was crucified and is a show of faith.  Other claim the saying got its popularity during the Spanish Inquisition, when an elaborate code of knocks became a secret form of communication for those sought out by authorities.

The Hand of Fatima (or Miriam, or Mary)
The hand is often seen as good luck.  Egyptian civilization believed the hands received spiritual energy and could also direct it.  In Islam, the Hand of Fatima is a good luck charm, named for Muhammad's daughter.  The fingers represent faith, prayer, charity, pilgrimage, and fasting.  Judaism embraced this symbol as well, although it was called the hand of Miriam to honor Moses's sister.  Christians in the area also adopted the symbol as the hand of Mary, although Emperor Charles V banned the use of the emblem in 1526, believing it was too closely associated with other religions.  

No matter what faith, the hand is a symbol of the grace of God, blessing the wearer with good fortune and protection against the evil eye.  Gypsies often would hold their hand up to a person with bad spiritual energy, shielding themselves from the negative vibes.

And now I know where that came from.

The Rabbit's Foot
My final charm is a little magical and a little macabre, which is probably why it is my favorite.  The rabbit’s foot has been a good luck charm since around 600 B.C. 

It wasn't very lucky for the rabbit, now was it?

There are possibly two origins for why a dismembering a bunny is considered lucky.  Pre-Celtic hunter tribes believed hunting and killing a rabbit was a rite of passage for their male children.  Once he achieved this milestone, the boy received the hind foot of his kill during a ceremony to celebrate his manhood.  The descendants of these hunter tribes saw the rabbit as a more revered creature.  To the Celts, rabbits and hares were animals capable of channeling the human spirit, and thus represented man’s connection to the Earth goddess.  They embodied fertility of both body and mind.  Rabbits may have been kept as pets, and their feet removed at death as a blessed talisman.  

I hope the Earth goddess has a sense of humor about Hef's use of the bunny.

In an alternate theory, African tribes had a tradition of carrying the foot of a swift animal, believing it would help them escape if faced with danger.  The belief was brought overseas with African slaves, and then Hoodoo folk magic took it a bit further.  The rabbit became a familiar for witches and spirit work, much like the maligned black cat.  To own a rabbit's foot was to have a connection to witchcraft--and possibly to have part of the witch herself.  

Don't even think about taking my foot.

Isobel Gowdie, a Scottish woman tried for witchcraft in 1662, gave a detailed confession (which some believed was the result of psychosis) about the relationship of witches with animal familiars, specifically the hare.  This is her shapeshifting incantation, although I read it several times and I'm still human.  I am having a strange craving for carrots.

I shall go into a hare,

With sorrow and sych and meickle care;

And I shall go in the Devil's name,

Ay while I come home again.

If you can't find a shape shifted witch-hare to get your foot from, Hoodoo followers offer a different method, although it's a bit more time intensive.  To reap the full benefit of serendipity, the foot must be from the left hind leg of a rabbit caught in a cemetery on the full moon, preferably on a Friday--the thirteenth if possible.  Some folklore even goes as far as to say the rabbit should be killed with a silver bullet by a cross-eyed red haired man riding a white horse.  Somehow I doubt those dyed creations in the prize bins at your local carnival were harvested in such a manner. 

In folk magic, animal bones are often used to represent human bones.  This type of magic, called sympathetic magic, uses poppets and imitations of humans to control them--such as with voodoo dolls.  For the ultimate in rabbit foot fetishests, killing the rabbit on the grave of a powerful spirit would give the talisman incredible potency.  It was reported in Scientific American that President Grover Cleveland kept a rabbit’s foot from an animal killed on Jesse James’ grave.

The Supernatural boys dealt with a cursed rabbit's foot in one episode.

I carry an arsenal of good luck charms, and some days I even don lucky undies.  However, I believe that luck is mainly determined by mindset.  What you think has a tremendous effect on your perceptions of life.  A mind full of negative thoughts enhances beliefs of being plagued by “bad” luck.  I leave you with a proverb from Seneca, the Roman philosopher, and a bit of The Rabbit's Foot Blues by Blind Lemon Jefferson.

         Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.  

And that's why you should never stick a flamingo up your skirt

LYRIC O’ THE DAY:

I never meant to be so bad to you

One thing I said that I would never do

One look from you and I would fall from grace

And that would wipe the smile right from my face

--Heat of the Moment, Asia

I am so fortunate to have met so many super cool bloggers out there, and I feel remiss that I have fallen behind in my awardly duties.

Two wonderful ladies awarded me the 7X7 link award.  Artistic visionary Heather Henry, of Little Red Henry has amazing talent and an eye for the beautiful.  Angela Orlowski-Peart has such a freeing optimism, I love her blog and her avatar.   This bloggery bauble made me have to think, not to mention go back and read some of my former posts.

Moral of that story is I need to refrain from blogging when I drink red wine.

The most beautiful post:  Bohemian vs. bohemian.  Not beautiful in the Bridget Bardot way, but about my heritage so beautiful to me.

The most popular post:  Crop Circles:  Message, Music, or Marsupials?  People want to see stoned wallabies.  Who knew?

The most controversial post:  Are you really what you read?  I don't think anything I write is too controversial, but I did have to take offense to some of the WSJ's offerings during this time.

The most helpful post:  Why Writing is a lot like a Bikini Wax.  If you can tolerate hair removal, writing is easy.

The most surprisingly successful post:  Cramping my Style.  For the woman with not enough black in her closet.

The most underrated post:  Of Fear and Phoebe Cates.  I have been paralyzed by fear so many times in life.  Starting to write has helped me through it.

The most pride-worthy post:  Poetry Schmoetry Blogfest.   It was the first time I’d written an “adult” poem.  It was cathartic.

Also, I have been Versatiled from every direction.  It wasn’t as erotic as it sounds, but I’m still just as happy about it.  I want to thank these ladies so much for bestowing such love on me.  E. Arroyo keeps me up to date on the best links every Friday at Chandara Writes.  Carol Kilgore from Under the Tiki Hut makes me want a pina colada and a cabana boy.  Not necessarily in that order.

To be versatiled fully, you must give seven facts about yourself.  I’m at loss, so I resorted to asking my family if there were certain things they think of when they think of me, and here are a few things they said: 

1.  At my junior prom, I shoved a fake plastic flamingo under my giant tulle dress on a dare and absconded with it.  I returned it Monday morning, but the prom director (my algebra teacher/vicious harpy), forced me to apologize to the entire school over the PA system.  As if prom could not suck more.

2.  I was attacked by a fighting cock as a child.  As in an uber-violent chicken.  Still have the scars and a fear of poultry.  Dad said he made good soup.

  

3.  Using an ironing board, I surfed in the showers of my sorority house at 3am, singing Beach Boys’ songs.  I might have been inebriated, but it was winter in Nebraska and perhaps I was also just a bit stir crazy.  This resulted in a letter from the house mom, a moratorium on shower use after 11pm, and the removal of the community ironing kit.

4.  As a toddler, I enjoyed washing my bottles in the toilet.  (Thanks, Mom.  Now I know.)

Would you like some E. coli with that?

5.  When I was little, I thought babies came out of your knees.  After all, whenever ladies on television had babies, their knees were up in the air.  Imagine my shock when I found out they actually come out of a way different joint.

Not where babies come from.

6.  I have fed baby pigs from a bottle.  Awwwww.

7.  I wanted to be a country music singer when I was a teenager.  Here is one of my songs; please cringe with me:

No I don’t have a Mercedes Benz

My skirt’s hemmed up with safety pins

I like bar-b-que, on a summer’s day

You can keep your brie and your chardonnay.

‘Cause I’m a beer and pretzels kind of girl

Trying to make it in a wine and cheese world

They’ve tried to change me but it’s always the same

This is the way I was born, and the way I remain

No I don’t have a cellular phone

Most Friday nights you’ll find me at home

I like football games and shopping malls

Opera it don’t interest me at all

{chorus}

No I don’t wear Christian Dior

My shirts are too tight and my jeans are torn

You won’t find me shopping Saks Fifth Avenue

I don’t pick my friends by the price of their shoes

{chorus}


I'd like to pass the love for the 7X7 award to Sarah Ahiers, of Falen Formulates Fiction and L.G. Smith of Bards and Prophets.  For versatility, I have to go with Rawknrobyn and Becky from Writer Searching for Bliss.

Once again, thanks to all of you who stop by and share some of your valuable time with me.  Have a country fried day!  

Splitting Hairs

LYRIC O’ THE DAY:

Gimme head with hair

Long beautiful hair

Shining, gleaming, streaming, flaxen, waxen

--Hair, The musical Hair

I hacked off my crowning glory this week.  I gave 13” of hair to Locks of Love, a charity I have always admired.  

Before

When I look at myself in the mirror now, I feel sort of odd.  I have identified myself with long hair for years.  I’m having a existential crisis of Sampson proportions.

After

Today on Sunday Mythbusters, I’m exploring this protein based biomaterial that springs from the follicles on my head.  

Does hair really have power?

Long hair has always been associated with strength and health.  This may harken back to our mammalian roots--long, lush fur represented fertility and desirable genes.  

Hey baby,  I got good hair.  And I'm a ginger.  Double threat.

The earliest civilizations depicted their gods and goddesses with long, flowing hair.  Hair represented a spiritual conduit that could connect a person to the otherworld.  The earliest barbers were often medicine men or priests who cut hair during religious ceremonies that exploited this connection. 

Thor, God of Hair.  From hannibalhuggbees.tumbler.com

In several religions, including Sampson’s, letting hair grow was an example of piety and godly devotion.  Long hair was the epitome of youth and fertility.  In some East Asian cultures it represented sexuality; women with unrestrained long hair could be seen as promiscuous.  Proper ladies wore their hair plaited or in a bun.  

Rapunzel was not a proper lady.

Because it was considered a personification of self, hair was often used as a way to recognize groups of people.  For instance, the Greeks forced their slaves to shave their heads as a sign of their lesser status.  In the Middle Ages, shorter hair represented servitude or peasantry.  However, as societies adopted a regimented military, problems with lice infestations prompted orders for men to have short hair.  That association with authority changed the view on short hair, making long hair the new symbol of rebellion and immorality.

The Egyptians were the first culture to focus on hair and its style.  They often wore hair extensions made of sheep’s wool or slave’s hair.  They used henna and herbal concoctions to create vibrant hair colors.  To evade the heat, men often would shave the head, leaving a single side lock to symbolize their virility and spiritual connection to the gods.  Both sexes wore elaborate wigs.

Egyptian wig of human hair and charms

The Greeks experimented with highlights and designed the first heated curling iron, called a calamistrum.  They even dyed gray hair with a lead sulfite based compound, a process that may have made them look younger, but likely caused death sooner. 

Hair color has been romanticized for centuries.  There are over 30 recognized naturally occuring hair colors by the Fisher-Saller anthropologic scale.  For the sake of brevity, I'm going to address the three main color groups: red hair, blondes, and brunettes.

Redheads make up only 1-2% of the human population and have been traced to Neanderthal ancestors.  Scotland and Ireland have the highest proportions of redheads, who are famous for passions that match their fiery locks.  They were also often accused of witchcraft or vampirism, their flame colored locks "proof" they had touched the fires of hell.  Interestingly, redheads are reported to have a higher pain tolerance, often requiring more anesthetic for medical procedures.  It is rumored to be good luck to touch red hair--but always ask permission to avoid some awkward moments.  The cartoon comedy Southpark attacked the ginger species in one of its episodes, comparing them to vampires that can't be in the sunlight and have no souls.

My favorite redhead

It's postulated that lighter colors of hair evolved in the cooler climates of Northeast Europe and the Ukraine.  Lighter hair, and thus lighter skin, requires less sunlight to trigger vitamin D production--necessary to prevent the bone disorder, rickets.  Folks with light hair would have a genetic advantage.  Others believe that these colors were sexually selected for--men preferred partners with blonde or red hair. 

                            

                            Out of the ash

                        I rise with my red hair

                         And eat men like air.

                                                    -Sylvia Plath

Mythology has been kind to the blonde; countless numbers of gods and goddesses have blonde hair.  The Fae are said to be attracted to blonde children, swapping them for changelings whenever possible.  The fair haired, despite their ancestry from Norse tribes and descriptions in mythology, are classically associated with attributes of frivolity and mental weakness.  Blonde hair was also associated with prostitution in ancient Rome. The idea of the morally irresponsible blonde continued through the ages.  The woman who holds the title as the first “dumb blonde” was a French courtesan named Rosalie Duthe whose life was satirized in a 1775 play.

Aphrodite

Alfred Hitchcock made his blondes beautiful and sophisticated with an icy demeanor.  He believed audiences were more likely to suspect a brunette, and blondes photographed better in black and white.  In interviews with Francois Truffaut, Hitchcock explained his idea of what represented the Hitchcock blonde, saying "We're after the drawing room type, the real ladies who become whores once they're in the bedroom."

Ahem.  Thank you for the stereotype, Mr. Hitchcock.  And Mr. Freud.

Brunettes fair pretty well in terms of hair lore--they are considered strong, loyal and lucky.  Black hair is sometimes lumped into the brunette moniker but truly is its own group, representing the most common hair color in the world.  Over 3/4 of Americans believe the first female president will have dark hair, associating it with stability and competence.  And according to my best dark haired friend, gentlemen may prefer blondes, but they marry brunettes.  Maybe that's why the Mona Lisa is really smiling.

One of my favorite urban legends gives coiffure compulsion an arachnophobic twist. There are two versions to the modern myth.  One was popularized in the 1950s with the emergence of beehive hairdos.

Classic blonde--but what could she be hiding?

The other focuses on men with dreadlocks. 

Jason Momoa said he cut his dreads due to migraines, but could it have been something else that scared Ronan Dex out of his lovely locks?

In the myth, the victim is so enamored with their hair that in order to keep the style just so, they never wash or comb it.  The resultant pile of goo and hair makes an attractive nest for a poisonous spider, who moves in and lays its eggs.  When the baby spiders are born, they attack the owner of their nest. 

There are variants of this tale dating back as far as the thirteenth century.  It probably gets its roots from an English story that tells the tale of a tardy church-goer, always late to Mass because she spent so long adorning her hair.  One day the Devil, in the form of a spider, descended into her hair and refused to leave.  Ultimately, she repented her vanity, allowing her priest to exorcise Beelzebub from her bouffant.  

Now that’s a bad hair day.

Although there have been no substantiated proof of the spider’s nest myth, in Yemen in 2000 there were reports of a young bride who died after her wedding hairpiece came with an added adornment--a scorpion.  The poisonous gift was from one of her new husband's five wives who apparently wasn't in the mood to share. 

Hair has been something people have used as a symbol since ancient times.  Followers of Confucius grew it out to show their filial piety.  Flappers bobbed their hair to push the idea of the feminine ideal.  Hippies liked it long to symbolize their rebellion against authority.  And rednecks rock the mullet as a symbol of what can happen when Billy Ray Cyrus is your icon.  

As for me, I’m starting to get used to the new ‘do.  If anyone is getting a haircut in the future, I leave you with a European saying and a clip from Hair, the musical:

Cut on Monday to attain health

Cut on Tuesday to gain wealth

Cut on Wednesday to hear good news

Cut on Thursday to get new shoes

Cut on Friday if you want sorrow

Cut on Saturday to see true love tomorrow

Cut on Sunday is terribly bleak--the devil be with you the rest of the week

The Humble Comma

LYRIC O' THE DAY:
Didn't hear your wicked words every day
And you used to be so sweet, I heard you say
That my love was an addiction
--Karma Chameleon, Culture Club


It's Friday and I'm feeling a bit cheeky.  I'm also revising--November for me is NaNoRevMo.  In the process I have discovered a bitter truth about myself . . .  


I passionately, insanely, and irresponsibly, cherish, adore, and love, commas.  


Today I celebrate that diminutive mark of punctuation, that Ivy League wannabe pauser, that impotent apostrophe, the humble comma.

Have a beautiful day, and don't forget to celebrate your favorite type of punctuation.

Author on Author Smackdown on the IWSG

Happy Wednesday!!  It's the third installment of Alex J. Cavanaugh's Insecure Writer's Support Group. 

In prior posts, I've explained how I try to handle insecurity with humor, because laughing in the face of adversity sure beats crawling in a dark closet with a bag of Oreos and a bottle of red wine.    


We all feel insecure at times, but there are decidedly different ways to handle it.  I think most writers approach insecurity on the defense, trying to prepare for the worst and muddle through.  However, some authors have adopted a more offensive strategy, in all senses of the word.  I think most people will agree that insecurity can be the root of other negative emotions like envy or in the extreme, hate.  When I saw this historical list of the top 30 author-on-author insult smackdowns, I had to wonder how much insecurity had to do with the animosity.


Never cross an author, they have mad insult skills.  And if you live with an author, take a cue from this clip from the New Yorker to keep insecurity--and the offensive author--at bay.