Bad Omens

Ah yes, the omen post. I chose bad omens because those are the ones I'd rather notice. I don't too much care if good things happen to me, but I'd like time to prepare for the bad. Some of these I'm sure you've heard of and were told as a child but others are a bit stranger and far less familiar to western society. Just the same, they are ages old and have to hold some level of validity in order to survive for so long. I feel the same way about superstitions involving ancient creatures (no, bigfoot is not ancient) but I'll cover those another time, and likely individually as they deserve that amount of respect. Without further adieu, here they are:

Those Damn Felines

• As I'm sure you know, It is very bad luck for a black cat to cross your path. Another version of this omen is that a black cat walking toward you brings with it bad luck, and when it walks away it takes what good luck you had with it. That bastard. At any rate, in England there is a contradicting legend that black cats are good luck and it is the white cats that cause the most trouble.
• When a stray black cat takes up residence at your home there will be a lot of strange happenings during its visit. Not necessarily bad, but most definitely strange. Things you couldn't miss if you will Stevie Wonder will go missing, one person will move out and soon after another will move in, and other events of this nature are pretty much guaranteed.
• If a cat of any color jumps over a coffin of the deceased it is a very bad omen for the soul of the departed. He's basically going to hell.

Other Wildlife

• If a crow loiters along side you at the corner store (or anywhere else) your ass is as good as dead.
• If you have a dream that a crow plucks your eye out you're going to die - and soon. I've seen this one in action with a late relative, and she knew about this, so her last days weren't great ones.
• If you walk outside and there's a dead bird on your porch or patio something very bad is going to happen to a resident of the household. But don't worry, you'll live to deal with it. Well...maybe.
• This is news to me, but apparently weasels that take residence near your home are bad luck. In fact, weasels in general are fairly jinxed.

Miscellaneous Omens

• If an albatross circles a ship it's a sign that a storm is near. It's also bad luck to kill it because it carries with it the soul of a man lost at sea.
• If you say goodbye to a friend on a bridge you'll likely never see them again.
• If the flame of a candle flickers it's a sign that a spirit is in the room.
• A woman buried in black will haunt the family.
• If a dead person's eyes are left open he will find somebody to take with him, so do yourself a favor and close those motherfuckers.
• Mirrors left in a room with a corpse should be covered, otherwise the first person to see their reflection will die next.
• It was once widely believed that a person with the hiccups was possessed by the devil. Medical science still cannot explain this strange bodily occurrence, so who knows?
• If a mirror in a home falls and breaks by itself a resident of the home will die very soon.
• If three people are photographed together, the one in the middle will be the first to die.
• A salt trail in a doorway will block all evil spirits, both living and dead, from entering the home. My grandmother used to do this when she felt someone had a problem with her.

Well there you have it. You are now equipped with knowledge you can do absolutely nothing with, because let's face it - when it comes to bad luck, there's nothing you can do but brace yourself. But look on the bright side, the same people who believe these things also believe if you turn in a circle three times counter-clockwise you can reverse your luck. Just make sure it's bad.

Hand of Glory

A while back I traded my modern wicca-inspired rites in favor of works of raw energy and studies of the old ways and I find this one to be particularly fascinating. I could be posting a lot of magic(k) as I am well versed in many areas of the concept, but I've come to understand the basis for every ritual of that nature is the same - intent and will, and these are things that can't be explained no matter that people have tried to explain it. In my opinion you can or you can't, simple as that. In other words, expect little more than ritual posts of the following nature from me. On with the Hand of Glory:


Though the rite can be traced back to early 14th century Europe, I get the feelings it's much older than the best evidence conveys. Back in the day it was believed the hand of a newly hanged man held mystical powers and was incredibly lucky. So as you can imagine, when someone fucked up and was strung from a tree thieves were standing in line with a hatchet to chop of the hand and either sell it or harvest it for personal use. More often than not, it was the thief himself who cultivated the power of the Hand of Glory by lighting the fingers on fire, rendering whomever he chose motionless for as long as the hand was lit. Surprisingly no preparation was needed in making the hand flammable, as human fat burns easy - ask any mortician with an an urn and an oven. Burnable fat is also the reason why the hand had to be fresh. Too bad people don't get hanged anymore, otherwise instant power would be ripe for the pickin'.


Another superstition like it is one in which the tooth of a hanged man was charged and could be used for many ritualistic purposes, though these were often extracted and cultivated by women.




A Hand of Glory from the 'glory days'

The Penanggalan

It was oh, ninth grade I suppose, when I was actually bored enough to utilize the library of my humble high school in my oh-so-Baptist hometown. I didn't expect to find anything of interest but to my surprise the school actually gave in to the 'freedom of religion' schtick and provided the holy bible, and according to law a few other less checked-out books. One of them was called The Picture Book of Devils, Demons and Witchcraft, and it was in this book that I discovered the glory that is the penanggalan. Needless to say, I never returned it.

Originating in the Malay Peninsula, the penanggalan is a rather gruesome breed of vampire. There are many explanations of what causes the creation of such a
monstrosity, but one of the most prominent is the belief that it is the detached head of a woman who died during childbirth, that in her madness ravages the region in search of blood and flesh. The penanggalan is always depicted as a severed and floating female head with entrails and bit of bone hanging from the neck, as well as the heart.

According to oral tradition, the creature appears as a normal woman during the daytime, and it is only at night that the head detaches from the body and perches on trees or roofs of houses of women who are in labor, waiting to drink the blood left by afterbirth. The women who have been preyed upon almost always contract a fatal wasting disease and die soon after. The penanggalan is also referred to as the penanggal, and in the Philippines, the manananggal.