All kinds of animals and plants have been invoked over the ages to foretell the future, avert ill fortune and bring good luck. Their appearance and behaviour is believed to predict anything from the approach of bad weather to the character of a lover. And just carrying the image of an animal about your person, or keeping a lucky plant such as a four-leaved clover, may protect you from unforeseen dangers of many kinds.
On the basis that some animals may be witches or evil spirits in disguise, they need to be met, greeted and treated with respect – or summarily destroyed. There are countless stories and legends about such creatures, some of which were once thought to be servants of the gods. Among plants, deference is afforded to those with special symbolism, including the evergreens of Christmas whose all-year leafiness represents everlasting life. On all kinds of occasions, from getting married to setting off on a sea voyage, from giving birth to the rituals of death, the omens inherent in the natural world are deemed important; the many superstitions relating to such events clearly reflect the close link between human lives and those of plants and animals.
Though not real, the animal symbols seen in the constellations, and their changing positions relative to the sun and the planets, have for millennia been used to predict the fates of people born in different months or, according to the Chinese zodiac, different years. Whether we choose to believe the astrologers' predictions or not, the animal symbolism itself remains enormously powerful.
Certain birds – and some insects – are so 'charmed' or sacred that causing harm to them in any way can bring disaster. Some of these creatures are also greatly feared.
Insects that should be afforded respect include ladybirds (ladybugs or ladybeetles). Dubbed by some 'God almighty's Cows', they should be released (or buried if accidentally killed) while chanting the rhyme: 'Ladybird, ladybird fly away home,/Your house is on fire and your children are gone.' It is also unlucky to kill an ant because it is said to embody the soul of an unbaptized child – or a fairy transformed into a human.
Never kill a coyote or you may lose your wits. Killing a cat may shorten your life.
Deliberately killing a robin portends a life of doom. For a farmer it means that his cows will give bloody milk and his barns will catch fire. This is because the robin is revered as a bird with Christian connections (see page 35) and is believed to be protective and helpful, as in this ballad recounting the death of the Babes in the Wood:
No burial this pretty pair
From any man receives.
Till Robin Redbreast piously
Did cover them with leaves.
Swans, associated in myth with the white clouds that formed the chariot of the Norse sun god Freyr, are deemed sacred throughout northern Europe. In Britain all swans are protected by law.
Swallows, who return year after year to the same nesting places in homes and barns, can consider themselves safe because it's believed that destroying their nests would bring harm to the buildings from fire or lightning. It is said that even cats know that it is unlucky to kill a swallow.
The horse is an ancient Christian symbol of courage and generosity. It represents strength and fertility, and worldwide is linked with both life and death.
The Norse god Odin rode through the heavens and across land and sea on Sleipnir, a white or dappled grey horse with eight legs.
Epona, the Celtic horse goddess, was worshipped as a bringer of fertility and the protector of the dead. Some believe that the Uffington white horse carving, created between 1400 and 600 BC on the chalk downland of southern England, is an image of the goddess.
Until the 16th century it was customary to bleed horses for luck and health on St Stephen's Day, 26 December. To find out whether a mare was in foal the custom was to spit a mouthful of water into her ear as forcefully as possible. If in foal she would shake only her head, if not, her entire body.
For protection from the evil eye, horses' harnesses have long been adorned with brasses, brightly polished to shine light in the eyes of spirits and distract them. Popular motifs for the brasses include natural good luck symbols, such as the sun, crescent moon, acorn, heart, hand, bird and cat.
As a symbol of fertility the horse still appears as the hobbyhorse used in May Day ceremonials and in the horse's head staves carried by Morris dancers. In the USA and Europe, horses feature in the funeral rites of warriors and military commanders, with their boots symbolically set backwards into the stirrups.
Clover and ferns are among the many leaves that can, in the right circumstances, bring good fortune. But they need to be kept or grown in specific ways to exert their powers benignly.
Ash leaves occasionally have equal numbers of leaflets on each side of the leaf stalk: they are not only lucky but are used in charms and divinations. Finding one is the occasion for making a secret wish: Even ash, I do thee pluck,/Hoping thus to meet good luck./If no luck I get from thee,/ I shall wish thee on the tree.
Finding a four-leaved clover – or in Ireland a shamrock – is the height of good fortune, as the old rhyme says: 'If you find a four-leaved clover/All your troubles will be over.' Country folk say that they grow where a mare has dropped her first foal. If you are extremely lucky you will meet your true love on the same day – and this special clover may even confer the gift of clairvoyance.
Rather than being carried in a pocket or purse, four-leaved clovers are believed to give the greatest protection against the Devil and his allies if pressed between the pages of a Bible or other valuable family book. Or they can be put into your right shoe or sewn inside your clothes.
Rare five-leaved clovers send mixed messages. Some say that finding one presages great wealth, others that it is a sign of impending sickness. Yet others believe it to be bad luck if found and kept but lucky if given to someone else.
FERN LORE
Like clovers, fern leaves work for good and ill:
• If a woman puts a fern leaf in her lover's shoe he will love her forever.
• If you wear a fern you will lose your way and be followed by snakes.
• If you bite the top off the first fern you see in spring it will keep you safe from toothache all year.
• Bunches of fern leaves put over a horse's ears or on its collar will deter the Devil and confuse witches.
• To keep away unwanted guests – and insects – cut and burn fern leaves on 30 July, the feast of St Abdon (the patron saint of cleanliness, who buried the bodies of early Christian martyrs), and scatter them around the house.
The tea leaves left in the bottom of your cup can reveal your personality – and even the future.
For good luck, don't spill the milk you put in your tea, except if you are in Ireland, where such milk is believed to be the good fairies' favourite drink.
The time-honoured method of reading tea leaves is to invert your empty cup, having swirled it around three times, then place it on a saucer. The bottom of the cup is tapped with the index finger of the 'reader', who then picks up the cup and inspects it for signs to interpret. The practice reached the height of popularity in Britain in the late 1720s. In the 19th century amateur readers could make their interpretations with help from many books and articles on the subject.
Be sure to put the lid on the pot or, it is said, you will need to call the doctor or will be visited by a stranger. Two people should never pour from the same pot. Another indication that a stranger is on the way is to find a tea leaf or stalk floating in your cup. Such a stalk is often called a 'beau'. If, when the tea is stirred, the beau clings to the spoon, the arrival of a male marriage partner is imminent.
YOUR FORTUNE IN TEA
Some common signs to be found in the cup:
Few leaves – clarity of mind.
Many leaves, spread out – ambiguous: negligence but also generosity.
Two parallel lines – a journey.
Star – success, intelligence.
Triangle – jealousy, emotional involvement.
Heart – love, unless broken or crossed by a chain of leaves, when it means a broken love affair or divorce.
Cross – you are at the crossroads of life; a personal sacrifice may be necessary to resolve your problems.
Dots – letters on the way.
Dashes – surprises.
To keep death-dealing danger and the Evil Eye at bay, it has long been customary to wear a talisman or amulet bearing the image of a significant animal. The charm bracelet is a surviving form of such belief.
So widespread was the belief in the Evil Eye that prized livestock, including pigs and cattle, would also be provided with amulets to keep them free from harm.
A personification of 'the blighting glance of envy', the Evil Eye was much feared, particularly because it epitomized the idea of being 'overlooked'. An amulet was intended to attract the Evil Eye to itself and so protect the human who wore it. Frogs and scorpions were popular images, as were crocodiles, crabs, lions, dogs and ibises. On one ancient Greek example a man is being assailed by three scorpions, with a bird pecking his eye and a huge snake curled around his body. 'Envy, bad luck to you,' is the inscription, intended for any would-be evil doer.
As well as jewels and semi-precious stones, red or pink coral has been favoured for amulets, particularly to protect babies – hence its use in teething rings. In Africa elephant hairs are plaited into necklaces and bracelets. Sometimes the leaves or berries of poisonous plants such as woody nightshade would also be included, or plants such as betony that were known to have healing powers.
CHARMS ON THE BRACELET
These animal symbols may bring you good fortune:
Tortoise – protection from evil
Swallow – general good luck
Spider – safety from illness
Owl – acquisition of knowledge
Lion – strength and bravery
Fish – wealth and fertility
Eagle – success for the ambitious
Cat – liberty
The days of calm weather that usually descend on Europe around the end of the year are known as the halcyon days. And it is no coincidence that Halcyon is the scientific name of the kingfisher.
The kingfisher is a bird renowned for its darting dives and adeptness at catching fish. One legend says that when, during the flood, Noah was searching for land, the kingfisher was the second bird he sent out. But the foolish creature flew too high in the sky (which is why it has a blue back) and let the sun scorch its breast, turning it orange. Noah, in his irritation, made the bird stay on the ark thereafter, and dive into the water for food.
Halcyone was the daughter of Aeolus, Greek god of the four winds, and the wife of Ceyx, king of Thessaly, whom she dearly loved. On a sea journey to consult the oracle at Delphi, Ceyx was drowned when his ship was wrecked, and Halcyone was so stricken with grief that she jumped into the sea to be with her beloved. The gods took pity on the pair and changed them into kingfishers. What is more, to safeguard Halcyone's nest on the beach, Zeus declared that in their honour the winds of Aeolus should not blow for seven days before and seven days after the winter solstice, 21 December.
This period of calm is the time when Mediterranean kingfishers breed, and sailors say, 'So long as kingfishers are sitting on their eggs, no storm or tempest will disturb the ocean.' They are remembered in these lines from Milton's ode 'On the Morning of Christ's Nativity':
The winds with wonder whist [silent],
Smoothly the waters kist,
Whispering new joys to the mild ocean
Who now hath quite forgot to rave
While birds of calm sit brooding on the
charmed wave.
The behaviour of birds and animals has long been thought to predict the weather. When it comes to storms, the petrel and the cat take centre stage.
Hovering close to the ocean surface, storm petrels look as though they are 'walking' on the waves, so they are often called St Peter's birds, because Peter followed Jesus's command to walk on water. Another theory is that the name comes from their 'pitter-pattering' on the water. They are also called 'Mother Carey's chickens', supposedly from the words 'Mater cara', or 'Dear mother', uttered by sailors when storms strike.
Except when they are breeding, many storm petrels (Oceanites oceanicus) live entirely at sea, feeding on plankton, krill and fish. To superstitious sailors, their appearance bodes ill, often rightly so, because they follow ships in stormy weather, scavenging for food scraps.
Both cats and petrels are widely believed to take on the guise of witches and cause – and ride on – storms. To protect sailors, cats ashore would be shut up in cupboards. Even uttering the word 'cat' is still taboo among Scottish sailor folk.
CATS AT SEA
Some superstitions linking cats and storms:
• Cats can start storms through magic stored in their tails, which is why sailors always make sure that they are well fed and contented.
• If a cat licks its fur against the grain a hailstorm is coming; if it sneezes, rain is on the way; and if it is frisky, the wind will soon get up.
• Throwing a cat overboard is a sure way of raising a storm.
• Fishermen's wives keep black cats at home to prevent storms and other disasters at sea.
If you plan to bring flowers into the house, choose them with care or you may bring ill luck and even death in with them.
Be careful not to take home cut flowers that have been brought to you in hospital. If you do you will soon be back in hospital again. And avoid putting red and white blooms together – in Britain the combination signifies blood and bandages, and is said to augur doom.
The lilac, the fragrant flower of spring, is widely banned from the home as an unlucky cut flower with a 'drowsy scent', especially if white. This superstition may spring from the legend of the girl who died the night before her marriage but not before requesting that lilacs be planted on her grave. When they bloomed their flowers were white.
As well as being fatal to humans, cut primroses are regarded by country folk as the surest way to prevent chicks from hatching or to cause young hens to die.
Though a symbol of the hope that comes with the spring, the snowdrop, because it grows so close to the ground, is said to be more attached to the dead than the living, and is thought to look like a corpse in its shroud. For both these reasons it is regarded as a death omen if picked and brought indoors. By tradition, the single snowdrop is the most unlucky. The lone violet has a similarly morbid reputation. Primroses, especially in a bunch of fewer than 13 blossoms, are also unwelcome in the house, and should never be given as a gift.
The plants that grow on and around the home – our precious refuge – have long been chosen with care to keep us safe from attack by everything from fire to evil spirits. But there are some things that should never be brought indoors.
Peacock feathers shouldn't be brought into the house. They are said to bear the colours of the seven deadly sins. When God created the bird, so the story goes, the sins were jealous of its beauty. As punishment, God removed the yellow eye of envy, the green eye of jealousy, the red eye of murder – and all the rest – and put them into the peacock's tail. The sins themselves followed, in their vain attempt to regain the eyes they had lost.
The houseleek (Sempervivum tectorum), whose scientific name combines the Latin words for 'everlasting' and 'on a roof' was originally planted on the roofs of houses for the practical reason of preventing the tiles from slipping, but it has long been thought to protect a home from being burnt down or struck by lightning, as well as from evil spirits and the ravages of disease. The medieval emperor Charlemagne even passed a law that houseleeks should be grown on the roof of every dwelling.
Wall rue (Asplenium ruta-muraria), a small fern that commonly grows in tufts embedded in the crevices and joints of walls, was thought lucky because it kept witches at bay. A bonus was that it could be used to help cure rickets, a disease once known as 'the taint'. This explains its old name of 'tentwort'.
A LUCKY HOME
To protect your home from being struck by lightning – hang a laurel wreath on the door or plant an olive or a hawthorn tree in the garden.
To keep away evil spirits – plant cloves of wild garlic in the thatch over a doorway or hang them indoors.
To keep witches at bay – stick pins into a bull's heart and place it in the chimney.
To preserve good fortune – if a butterfly enters, shut the windows and doors to stop it escaping.
From snakes to sparrows, creatures that come into the home can presage good or ill, depending on their identity and the way they behave.
Welcome rooks who nest in trees near your home – they are said to bring good luck; but beware if they desert their rookery, for then bad luck may befall.
In countries where they are indigenous, snakes that come into the house are generally thought to be lucky. As well as generally bringing good fortune, they are believed to embody the souls of ancestors, and to be guardian spirits that watch over the members of the family, especially children. In Armenia a snake that arrives in the night is offered food and drink – the hospitality any stranger would be afforded. Similarly, the sudden departure of a house snake is said to presage misfortune. The sloughed skin of a snake, hung up in the house, is thought to make it fireproof.
Like house snakes, sparrows may also contain the souls of the departed. If they fly into the house they are said to presage death. That sparrows should be treated with caution is summed up in the old rhyme: 'The spink [chaffinch] and the sparrow/Are the Devil's bow and arrow.'
Ensuring fertility – of crops, cattle and humans – was the original purpose of dancing around the maypole on May Day. The tree that forms the pole represents the spirit of the forest springing back to life.
Even before maypoles were erected on village greens in Celtic times, decorated with garlands and flowers to make them look 'alive', the Greeks are known to have celebrated the festival of Daidala in an ancient oak forest in Plataea. First, cooked meat was set out on the ground, to attract birds. The tree chosen for cutting was the one on which the first bird with this food in its mouth was seen to alight. After being felled, the tree was carved into the effigy of a woman dressed as a bride and carried in procession in honour of the goddess Hera.
Because of their sexual overtones, maypoles – and the accompanying dancing – were banned during the English Commonwealth from 1649 to 1660. They were restored with the monarchy when Charles II reclaimed the throne.
Describing his delight at first seeing a maypole in 1820, the American author Washington Irving wrote: 'The mere sight of this May-Pole gave a glow to my feelings, and spread a charm over the country for the rest of the day …'
The birch, renowned for being able to avert the Evil Eye, is greatly favoured as a may-pole, and dancing around the flower-decked maypole is an integral part of the English May Day ritual. The ribbons on the pole, which the dancers weave as they dance in opposing circles, were introduced by John Ruskin in the 19th century. In Germany, desirable foods such as sausages were traditionally hung on the maypole, and young men climbed up it to win them.
Not only the maypole is garlanded on May Day – the May Queen and King are also adorned with blooms and leaves. To secure good fortune for the year, May boughs were cut on May Day eve or early in the morning of the day itself.
Until the calendar changed in 1752, the hawthorn was in flower in England for May Day, which fell 11 days later than it does now.
'Bringing home the May' symbolizes the arrival of new life. Garlands made from the greenery collected were traditionally carried in procession or taken from door to door, as a way of sharing the earth's newly sprung fertility – it was bad luck to refuse to give money to 'remember the garland'.
The people of Padstow in Cornwall sing a May Day song that reflects girls' wishes: 'The maidens of Padstow, they might if they would,/For summer is a-come unto day,/They might have made a garland of the white rose and the red,/On the merry morning of May.'
On 1 May the prettiest girl in the village is chosen as the May Queen or Bride and sits near the maypole swathed in flowers, especially May blossom. Wreathed in greenery (usually oak and hawthorn boughs) with only his face visible, the May King, also known as Jack-in-the-Green, first feigns death then jumps up to dance with her, mimicking nature's renaissance. In some places, the wrists of the May sovereigns are bound together, also with a garland.
May is the common name for hawthorn blossom, which brings good luck when it is used outdoors in May festivities but bad luck when cut and brought indoors.
To the Greeks the May (Crataegus monogyna) was a flower of great fortune, and a symbol of luck for newly-weds. May blossoms were often held over a couple as they wed, the bride wore them in her headdress, the altar was strewn with them and torches made from hawthorn wood were lit to guide the pair to their nuptial chamber.
The ritual of gathering the May is
Before the Reformation, people made 'May altars' – statues of the Virgin Mary surrounded by May blossom – that were believed to deter witches for the rest of the year. After it, when mass was forbidden, Roman Catholics put sprigs of May in their windows as secret signs that the priest would be saying mass there.
thought to date back to the annual Roman rite of honouring Flora, the goddess of flowering plants. The conjugal connotations were celebrated by many poets, typified by these lines from a 19th-century verse by John Ingram:
The hawthorn's bloom is falling, love,
We must no longer wait;
Each bird is blithely calling, love,
Unto his chosen mate …
That it is unlucky to bring May blossoms indoors because it will presage death may stem from the pungent odour of the blooms, said to be like that of the plague. Children are particularly discouraged from the practice, being told that it would kill their mothers.
In the country calendar, 23 June, the eve of the festival of St John the Baptist, is a night when witches are thought to ride abroad. They must be deterred with the help of protective plants if cattle, crops and people are to thrive until harvest time.
Though the summer solstice is on 21 June, St John's Day is traditionally celebrated as Midsummer Day. Special to this festival is St John's wort (Hypericum perforatum), a yellow-flowered plant with a pungent smell generated by the oil glands in its leaves, and whose red spots symbolize the spilled blood of the saint. When burnt on the Midsummer bonfire this oil scented the smoke, through which people had to jump to insulate themselves against evil. It was also often hung on doors and windows and placed around the home for protection.
PRESERVED FOR FORTUNE AND HEALTH
As well as St John's wort, other flowers were preserved on St John's Eve and hung around the house and cowshed to keep illness and evil at bay. These included:
Vervain (verbena) – long believed to be magical and holy, and to have healing powers.
Mugwort – protective against both witches and thunder.
Yarrow – strewn on a threshold to keep witches at bay.
Elder – given to the bewitched to break the spell and restore them to health.
Male fern (especially the root, which looks like a gnarled hand) – used to protect a household and their livestock from demons, witchcraft and the Evil Eye.
According to ancient superstitions, the way in which animals and plants are involved at the time of a death will affect the fate of those left behind – including family pets.
Bees were often also presented with food from the funeral meal to keep them totally involved in the proceedings.
One of the events deemed most unlucky is for a cat or dog to leap over a corpse, which will turn it into a vampire and could also make the next person it leaps over go blind.
To ensure that plants and pet birds continued to thrive after a death, pots and cages were ritually tied with black crape following a death in the family.
It is an old custom is to tell the news of a death to the birds and bees. Rooks, lucky when they nest near the home, need the information to make sure that they stay put. For a similar reason, someone from the family should go to the beehive, tap three times and say, 'Little brownie, little brownie, your master's dead.' They then need to wait to hear the bees hum, to signify that they are happy to remain.
To be doubly sure that the bees did not depart it was common for their hives to be lifted and turned at exactly the moment the coffin was lifted on to the hearse.
The plants that grow in a graveyard, from yew trees to grass, have long been associated with magical, mystical and even healing powers. Disturbing a graveyard's flora attracts great misfortune.
Even the grass that grows in a graveyard can be propitious. One Welsh story relates how a woman bitten by a mad donkey was sent to a churchyard to eat grass, which would cure her. A potion made from boiled nettles gathered from a graveyard is said to be a cure for dropsy.
Moss taken from a graveyard headstone can, it's said, cure illness, especially in animals. And nearby animals may suffer from death and illness if a grave is disturbed.
The yew, long revered for its ability to protect against evil, and a symbol of life after death, is a tree widely associated with burial grounds, and many English yews are thought to be older than the churches they grow by. To cut down a churchyard yew, or even to burn or damage it in any way, is believed to presage ill fortune, though sprigs of yew were once put into a dead person's shroud, and branches were carried by mourners before being put into the grave with the coffin.
After burial, prickly brambles were traditionally planted around the edge of the grave to keep the Devil out and to protect the soul of the departed from escaping. Monkey puzzle trees, with their hugely thorny leaves, are planted in graveyards to prevent the Devil from hiding in the branches and watching the funeral from above.
In dangerous situations even the names of certain animals should never pass the lips. To say them is to invite ill luck or, at worst, death itself.
For the best of luck on the first of the month you should, say 'Hares' or 'Black rabbits' when you go to bed the night before and 'Rabbits' or 'White rabbits' when you wake up in the morning. Don't make the mistake of saying 'Black rabbits' then, or luck will very soon desert you.
Regarding creatures' names – and indeed the animals themselves – sailors and fishermen are by far the most superstitious. At sea, for instance, a pig will be referred to as 'the thing' (as it will by friends and relatives while someone close is out on the ocean). Similarly rabbits and hares are called 'those hairy things'. Should anyone on board speak the animal's actual name a crew might well turn back to shore immediately for fear of being shipwrecked.
Be very afraid: on the Isle of Portland in Dorset, the word 'rabbit' is so feared that it is never even said – or even printed in the local newspaper. To put an evil spell on someone, the words 'Rabbits to you' are said to be horrifyingly effective.
The cat is another animal not mentioned by name on board ship, though to have a truly black cat, without a single white hair, is lucky at sea. Miners also avoid saying the word 'cat', and will even kill one they find underground. In the theatre a cat is lucky as long as it is not kicked and is prevented from running across the stage.
Once revered as messengers of the gods, and endowed with powers of flight denied to mere mortals, birds and their behaviour have strong links with the foretelling of death. The ways in which birds behave around a home are, to the superstitious, significant death predictors.
Two large white birds, the size and shape of albatrosses, are said to fly over Salisbury Cathedral when the death of the incumbent bishop is imminent.
Most to be feared are a bird that flies into the house through an open window or down the chimney, a bird tapping on the window or one hovering over the house. You also need to listen for the calls that birds make, especially at unusual times. Cocks crowing late at night, ravens croaking between 10 o'clock and midnight and a cuckoo that calls after August are all believed to presage death.
Certain places and families have had particular reasons to fear the appearance of birds. The Oxenham family of Devon long believed that when someone fell ill they would be sure to die if a white-breasted bird appeared in the bedroom and hovered over the sick bed before disappearing.
The numbers and positions in which birds are seen can be significant. Single magpies ('One for sorrow'), while generally unlucky, are not as bad as a whole flock seen flying past the house. A single white pigeon on a roof is a death omen, as are three seagulls seen flying close together.
MORE AVIAN OMENS
Expect a death in the family if:
• A swallow alights on you.
• A pigeon settles on your kitchen table.
• You meet a vulture.
• Hens lay eggs with double yolks.
• A cock crows all day and night.
The desire for fertility was especially strong when medicine was less sure and the hold on life more precarious. It was only natural to look to the living world for signs and symbols that ensure conception.
You may need to be careful what you keep about your person. For, as Pliny the Roman naturalist said, 'Mistletoe … will promote conception in females if they make a practice of carrying it about in their pockets'.
The crops of certain plants were seen as significant to fertility, and abundant crops of nuts and apples were once said to be 'good for children', while an ash tree that failed to bear its winged fruits or 'keys' was a sure sign that few children would be born the following year.
What a woman eats may be significant, too. It is an old country belief that lettuce could make women barren and men sterile. Consuming parsley was thought to have similar effects, though by contrast planting parsley seeds was a sure way to become pregnant. The mandrake (see page 73) has been revered since Biblical times for its power to bring about conception. The Old Testament tells of barren Rachel becoming pregnant by this means. However even the medieval herbalists were sceptical and the selling of mandrake roots for this purpose was condemned in the 17th century by Sir Thomas Browne as a trick against 'ignorant people' and a way 'to deceive unfruitful women'.
In the green world, several trees and their fruits have become symbols of fertility and acquired reputations as aphrodisiacs.
Its many fleshy seeds – each said to represent one child – make the pomegranate a fertility symbol. According to myth, the tree grew from the blood shed by the hermaphrodite monster Agdistis when it lost its male parts to become the Phrygian mother goddess Cybele. Some of the tree's fruits were picked by a river nymph. One fruit disappeared, and the girl discovered she was pregnant and gave birth to the god Attis, who became Cybele's lover.
The fig, with its fruits shaped like sexual organs, has a reputation as both an aphrodisiac and a fertility symbol, and in some African countries the fig tree is regarded as the spiritual husband of barren women. Quinces, revered in ancient Greece, were eaten by brides to ensure that they would bear children.
Carrying a pomegranate or a pine cone are old ways of ensuring fertility. The pine cone's phallic shape made it an obvious selection as a symbol of life and in various places the pine is planted as a 'wedding tree' that will bring many children. In ancient Mesopotamia the pine cone was the emblem of Marduk, the chief god of the Babylonians.
FRUITFUL SYMBOLS
The forms of certain plants and flowers make them obvious fertility symbols:
Mistletoe – highly regarded because it bears its succulent-looking fruits in midwinter.
Acorn – like the pine cone, a phallic symbol.
Lotus – revered because it opens with the sun in the morning and closes at night.
Orchid – a plant with overtly sexual flower formations.
Peony – an emblem of feminine beauty, traditionally worn by a bride to ensure that she will bear many children.
From the days when it was believed that witches worked their evil at childbirth, harming both mother and baby, many superstitions are associated with the moment of birth.
A mother-to-be should beware of the animals she meets. Coming face to face with a rabbit or hare is said to increase the chance of her child having a hare lip.
The skin of a snake has long been thought to ease childbirth and ease the pain. A record of 1897 called Lying Prophets describes how a woman 'picked up the adder's slough, designing to sew it upon a piece of flannel and henceforth wear it against her skin until her baby should be born …'
Named because they drift from the Molucca islands on to the beaches of Scotland's western isles, molucca or Virgin Mary beans (especially white ones) were once used as amulets to help women 'travailing in childbirth'.
According to a seemingly farfetched Scandinavian belief, a woman can avoid the pain of childbirth by crawling naked through the caul (membrane) in which a newborn foal was encased. However, if she does this, her first child will be a werewolf if it is a boy and a succubus (a female demon) if a girl. The only way to lift the curse is for the child – who can be detected by a hairy lump on the shoulder – to eat the heart of an unborn baby.
We have all heard tales of 'the birds and the bees' – the euphemistic terms for sex. But why were children told they were brought by storks or found by their parents under a gooseberry bush?
Modesty to the point of prudishness was, in a by-gone age, the chief reason for disguising the facts of life. The stork was probably given its symbolic role because of its meticulous parenting as well as its habit of nesting on house roofs. It was an ancient belief that storks picked up babies from marshes, ponds and springs, where the souls of unborn infants resided. In Germany and other parts of Europe, seeing a stork flying over a house is a sign of an impending birth.
Even today, small birthmarks on a baby's neck are known as 'stork marks', supposedly the place where the child was held in the bird's beak.
The notion that newborn babies may be found 'under a gooseberry bush' links human fertility with that of the earth. The parsley bed is another place where children may be found because of the links between this herb and fertility and health. An old country custom to ensure that a child had good eyesight was to collect rainwater during a thunderstorm, steep parsley in it and then use the liquid to bathe the eyes of a newborn.
There are countless ways in which would-be lovers have tried to conjure up an image or find the identity of a future partner, with rituals using everything from flowers to apple pips.
It was the custom for country girls to pick heads of rye grass and, as they touched each of the seeds growing up the stem, chant: 'Tinker, tailor, solider, sailor, rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief.' The last seed revealed what kind of man they would marry.
Tisty-tosties – balls made from cow-slips – were tossed between the young who, all the while, spoke a hurried list of the names of possible contenders for their favours. The name still on the lips at the moment the ball was dropped was 'the one'. Though this game was usually played between girls, boys might also be involved, or so this verse by Robert Herrick suggests:
I call, I call. Who do ye call?
The maids to catch this cowslip ball;
But since these cowslips fading be,
Troth, leave the flowers; and maids, take me.
Yet, if that neither you will do,
Speak but the word, and I'll take you.
To make a tisty-tosty, cowslip flowerheads were picked off close to the top of the stalks and 50 to 60 of them were hung along a string. The flowers were then pushed carefully together and the string tied tightly to gather them into a ball.
APPLE DIVINATION
There are lots of ways to use an apple to predict your romantic future:
• Throw apple pips representing your would-be lovers into the fire and say 'If you love me, pop and fly/If you hate me, lay and die.'
• Squeeze an apple pip between finger and thumb and shoot it, chanting: 'Kernel come kernel, hop over my thumb,/ And tell me which way my true love will come,/East, west, north, or south,/Kernel jump into my true love's mouth.'
• Chant the alphabet as you twist off an apple stalk. Your love's name will have the initial you are saying as the stalk comes off.
• Throw the peel of an apple, pared off entire, over your shoulder – or hang it on a nail on the door – and it will form the initial of your future love.
Depending on how and when you meet them and the way they behave, animals, too, may predict the course of true love.
The ladybird (or ladybug), which 'flies away home', is also believed to take wing to a true love. When you find the insect it should be gently blown off the hand or tossed into the air while chanting the words:
Fly away east, fly away west,
Show me where lives the one I love best.
Alternatively, you can use this old rhyme:
Bishop, Bishop Barnabee,
Tell me when my wedding be;
If it be tomorrow day,
Take your wings and fly away.
A bizarre old custom is throwing a herring membrane. Along the underside of the fish is a small strip of fat. A girl would remove this and throw it at a wall. If it landed upright, then her husband would be equally admirable, but a membrane that landed in a crooked fashion denoted a dishonest partner.
On St Valentine's Day, young women would peer through the keyhole of the house. If they saw a cock and a hen they could be sure to be wed within the year. In spring, they would count the calls of the first cuckoo, the number of calls being the years until marriage.
Even snails can be called on for the purposes of divination. When every home had an open fire, Shropshire girls were advised: 'Take a black snail by the horns, and throw it over your shoulder on to the hearth at night. In the morning, its slimy trail among the ashes will show the initials of your future husband.'
Animals may augur good luck or bad at Christmas time. They play an important part in many of the ancient Christmas customs, and it is a widespread belief that the descendants of those who were present at the Nativity still show their deference on Christmas night.
Christmas Eve, and twelve of the clock.
'Now they are all on their knees,'
An elder said as we sat in a flock
By the embers in hearthside ease.
We pictured the meek mild creatures where
They dwelt in their strawy pen,
Nor did it occur to one of us there
To doubt they were kneeling then.
Bees hum a sacred hymn on Christmas Eve. After the calendar changed by 11 days in 1752 (not to everyone's pleasure) people would listen on both the 'old' and 'new' Christmas to make sure they could hear it – and to reveal the 'true' date of Christmas.
So Thomas Hardy viewed the kneeling of the cattle in midnight homage; their breath is averred to be sweet because it warmed the infant Jesus. Sheep, also, are said to turn to the east and bow at this hour, and it is deemed especially lucky to meet a flock at this time of year. The power of the crowing cock to dispel evil spirits which, like the ghost of Hamlet, fade 'on the crowing of he cock', is particularly potent at Christmas, when it is said to raise its voice all night long.
Even to talk of a wolf during the 12 days of Christmas may bring bad luck.
Old Christmas country rituals involved parading animal effigies in the streets. In Dorset (where it was called the Ooser) and Wiltshire, a terrifying bull's head mask was worn by a man swathed in sacking, who demanded refreshment from anyone he met. In Kent a horse's head on a pole was paraded, demanding drinks and money: 'If ye the hooden horse doth feed,/Throughout the year thou shalt not need.'
One of the oldest Christmas foods is the roast pig served with an apple in its mouth. This tradition goes back to the pig called a julgalti, offered to the Norse god Freyr to ensure fertility in the year to come.
Until it was introduced from Germany by Prince Albert, the Christmas tree was virtually unknown in Britain, though the tradition of bringing evergreens indoors at this season goes back to ancient pagan festivals.
The Yule log represents the fires lit in the pre-Christian midwinter festival of the same name, at which gifts were exchanged.
Lights on the Christmas tree illuminate the dark days of winter as well as the advent of the 'Light of the world'. Legend has it that it was Martin Luther who first decorated a tree with candles.
One possible origin for the custom of decorating trees for Yule relates to legends that certain trees burst into bloom on Christmas Day. One was the miraculous Glastonbury thorn, believed to have sprung from the staff of Joseph of Arimathea who, on his mission to Britain, planted it in the ground on Christmas Eve. Such flowering trees were especially revered in Germany. In 1430 one writer recorded that: 'Not far from Nuremburg there stood a wonderful tree. Every year, in the coldest season, on the night of Christ's birth this tree put forth blossoms and apples as thick as a man's thumb. This in the midst of deep snow and in the teeth of cold winds.'
Trees were cut and used in plays performed at Christmas, telling the whole Christian story from Adam and Eve to the Resurrection. In this context the Christmas tree represented both the Tree of Knowledge and Christ's Cross.
The holly, ivy and mistletoe are the quintessential Christmas evergreens, and all must be handled correctly to avoid ill fortune. They must certainly be removed by 6 January, which is Twelfth Night or the feast of the Epiphany.
By old country lore, while the prickly holly represents the male, the ivy is undoubtedly feminine. The Greeks called it cissos after a dancing girl who danced herself to death at the feet of Dionysus and was transformed into the plant by the god, so moved was he by her art. Unlike holly, ivy is not always welcomed indoors, but kept for decorating doorways and porches 'just in case'.
For their Christmas celebrations, early Christians adapted the traditions of the bawdy Roman midwinter festival of Saturnalia, and brought in evergreens to decorate their homes and churches. Christmas Eve is the most propitious day for cutting greenery; if you use it before this date quarrels are sure to ensue.
Mistletoe, revered by the Druids and used on their altars, was originally hung up at Christmas to confer divine protection from fire, injury and all other ills and to drive away evil spirits. It was even hung in cowsheds to ensure the continued health of the livestock. It is, however, never seen inside a church.
MISTLETOE LORE
• When a man kisses his would-be love he must pluck a berry and present it to her. Only if she accepts it will her love be true.
• Keep the mistletoe all year and burn it before the new sprigs are put up. A good sign is a steady flame; a spluttering one means a bad-tempered husband.
• You will stay unmarried for the year if you are not kissed under the mistletoe.
• After being kissed a girl should pick a mistletoe leaf, and a berry. In the privacy of her room she must swallow the berry and prick on to the leaf the initials of the man she loves then stow the leaf as near to her heart as possible.
The original 'Easter bunny' was in fact a hare. The link goes back to pre-Christian times, when this creature was sacred to the Anglo-Saxon goddess Eastre, after whom the festival was named.
The fernlike leaves of the tansy (Tanacetum), a plant with yellow, button-like flowers, were an essential ingredient of the 'tansies' once eaten during Lent and at Eastertide. These were a kind of pancake consumed in imitation of the bitter herbs eaten by Jews at Passover.
The flowers of Easter are the daffodil and the Easter lily, the latter is often used in church decorations to commemorate the departed of previous fill text years.
Once revered as holy, the hare was associated with fertility and the return of spring, by tradition it is the hare that lays the brightly coloured eggs hidden for children to hunt for on Easter morning. The benevolence of the hare at this season was at odds, however, with the widely held idea that hares were witches in disguise. It was extremely unlucky to meet one and to do so was even thought to put you into severe danger.
At their spring festivals the ancient Greeks and Romans exchanged coloured eggs and today hard-boiled, painted eggs (dyed red in some countries to signify the spilt blood of Christ) still represent Easter's promise. One Polish legend relates that eggs were first painted by Mary to amuse the infant Jesus. Easter eggs are put into the fields to encourage good crops and protect them from hail and thunder, and in some places one may be kept in the house as a protective amulet.
To ensure a good harvest, grain must be properly sown and certain rituals observed when it is ripe, many of which go back countless generations.
The cock is often believed to be a protective 'corn spirit'. This explains why straw models of cocks were once placed at the ends of ricks. They served the same purpose as corn dollies, effigies (originally of the corn goddess Demeter, whose spirit was thought to reside in the corn) woven from the last ears of the harvest and ploughed into the earth the following spring.
When bringing in the harvest it is an old good luck custom to include the corn dolly in the final load, which is decked with flowers, ribbons or branches. On the way back from the fields the workers sing:
Red poppies and green bindweed adorned the rush hat of the harvest lord. He was the man who set the working pace of the harvest, and could fine anyone who hindered the proceedings by, for example, letting out chickens into uncut corn.
Harvest home! Harvest home!
We've ploughed, we've sowed,
We've reaped, we've mowed,
And brought safe home
Every load.
A bunch of hops from the harvest, kept over the hearth or chimney, will bring good luck to the home for a twelve-month. It must, however, be replaced each year.
SOW AND TREAT IT RIGHT
To ensure an abundant crop of corn:
• Along with your wheat, plant some twigs that have been blessed on Palm Sunday.
• Present any stranger who visits the wheat field with a nosegay of flowers.
• Avoid ploughing on Good Friday if you want your wheat to germinate.
• Sow all the seed you take to the field and scatter it with ashes from fires lit on Midsummer Eve.
• To deter rats in the granary, hang up a hot cross bun kept from Good Friday.
• Cut the corn with a flail that has a handle of holly or a hawthorn.
All Hallows' Eve, 31 October, is a day on which it is essential to foster good luck, for this is when witches and ghosts are abroad.
At Halloween, each family member takes an ivy leaf, marked with their name, and puts it in a bowl of water. If, by the morning, the mark has turned into the shape of a coffin, their death is imminent.
Pumpkins are hollowed out and lit at Halloween because they are symbols of both fertility and protection. The original intention of putting candles inside was to drive away evil spirits. Most protective of all are those fruits grown from seeds planted on Good Friday. Hanging garlic in the house will also keep evil spirits away.
Halloween is a date for divination. On this night it is an old ritual for girls to go blindfold into the garden and pull up a cabbage. A well-grown vegetable is a promise of a handsome husband but one with a crooked stalk is an omen of a crooked, stingy mate. A cabbage with a club root presages a man with a similar deformity.
According to Irish lore, to dream of his love on Halloween a man should pick ten ivy leaves and put nine of them under his pillow. Wreaths of ivy placed on graves at Halloween protect the souls of the departed.
HALLOWEEN PREDICTIONS
• If you can catch a falling leaf before it reaches the ground you can have a wish.
• Two people each put a chestnut into the fire. The person whose nut bursts first will be the first to be married.
• Put a snail into an enclosed box overnight and its trail will spell out the initial of your lover.
• A fire lit at Halloween will protect cattle over the winter.
Every bride and groom wishes for good luck, and many country superstitions contribute to an auspicious wedding day.
Rice, wheat and almonds thrown over the newly wed bride and groom are all ancient fertility symbols. Rose petals – either real or paper – should also confer a life of love.
As with other important family events, it is essential to a happy marriage to tell the good news to the bees before the event, ideally dressed in one's best. The bees should be invited to the ceremony and allowed to share in the feast by being offered a piece of wedding cake.
Wedding flowers traditionally include roses, the pre-eminent floral love symbols. Adding sprigs of rosemary will also bring luck and, as a guest, you can invoke both luck and love by putting rosemary in your pocket. At ancient weddings myrtle wreaths were worn by both bride and groom as symbols of love and peace, and this plant can also be included in the bridal flowers.
Animals met on the way to a wedding can also influence fortune. It is lucky for a bride to meet a horse, and for a horse and rider to be the first thing the couple see after the service. It is also lucky to have a toad walk across their path or for a dove to fly overhead. In the East, meeting an elephant is especially propitious.
WHO WILL BE THE BOSS?
A woman will dominate the home if:
• Holly brought in at Christmas is smooth, not prickly.
• Parsley grows profusely, because 'Where parsley grows faster, the mistress is master'.
• Rosemary flourishes in the garden, because this means 'the grey mare is the better horse'.
Nearly all of us wish, if not for wealth, at least for enough money to be 'comfortable'. If you read the signs of the natural world correctly, riches may indeed come your way.
For money, have a bee land on your hand. However, it is bad luck to exchange bees for money: they must be lent, or swapped for 'goods in kind'. And if stolen, they will never thrive.
When you hear the first cuckoo call of the season turn the money in your pocket and spit on it. And remember the old saying, 'Who eats oysters on St James's Day will never want.' (The saint's day, 25 July, once marked the beginning of the oyster season.)
Animals you encounter can also confer wealth. A frog is a sign of money (in Scotland a prudent housewife might even keep one in the cream bowl). And if, on the way to conduct important business, a black and white spotted dog crosses your path, you will meet with success. If you see the first lamb of spring facing you, it signifies a diet of meat for the rest of the year – and the money to afford it. But if you see the creature's tail first you will eat only milk and vegetables. Similarly, if the first butterfly you see in spring is white then you will eat white bread for the rest of the year. Conversely, a brown butterfly means brown bread, traditionally associated with poverty.
MORE LUCKY SIGNS
Expect money to come your way if:
• You see a ladybird with many spots. The number of spots was once said to equal the number of shillings a farmer could charge for a bushel of wheat.
• A money spider runs over your clothes.
• Swallows nest on your house, especially near a window.
• You see cranes flying in the sky – you will gain money and status.
• You hear your first cuckoo on 28 April.
While it is generally bad luck to harm any animal, there are some well-known instances in which killing a creature may be necessary to ensure good fortune.
It is deemed advisable to kill the first butterfly you see in spring to prevent it from 'haunting' you – because it is a malign soul or a ghost. Seeing one at night, at any time of year, is a warning of death and its demise is justifiable.
Millers would kill a cock at midnight on St Martin's Eve (10 November) and sprinkle its blood over their machinery. This custom of 'blooding the mill' was believed to protect the miller from accidents in the following year. To protect farmers' livelihoods nightjars were once shot with a silver sixpence loaded into a gun – no other ammunition would do. These birds, whether or not they were witches in disguise, were traditionally loathed because they were reputed to suck goats' udders, making them blind and infecting them with disease.
FOR HUMAN PROTECTION
Unfortunate creatures may meet their ends for many reasons:
• A white cricket on the hearth – because it is an omen of death.
• A sparrow you have caught – or your parents will not survive.
• A dog with rabies (hydrophobia). For fear of a mad dog's deadly bite, any hound that howled on Christmas Eve was once killed quickly and unceremoniously.
• A snake you meet on your path (except the first adder of spring). Certain rhymes said under the breath can make them twist themselves into suicidal knots.
Meeting – and greeting – animals and birds may bring good luck, depending on how you do it. Old superstitions often demand the reciting of verse, or even elaborate actions to ward off evil.
Dispel the bad luck of a crow by saying, 'Crow, crow, get out of my sight/Or else I'll eat thy liver and lights.'
The evil powers of bats, widely viewed as agents of death and the Devil, or witches in disguise, certainly need to be assuaged. One old way is to chant a protective verse such as:
Airy mouse, airy mouse fly over my head,
And you shall have a crust of bread;
And when I brew and when I bake,
You shall have a piece of my wedding cake.
The magpie, said to be coloured black and white because it refused to go into full mourning after the Crucifixion, may be unlucky or the reverse, according to the old rhyme (which has several versions):
One for sorrow, two for mirth,
Three for a wedding, four for a birth,
Five for silver, six for gold,
Seven for a secret, not to be told,
Eight for heaven, nine for Hell
And ten for the Devil's own sell [self].
There are many traditional ways of dispelling the ill luck of seeing one magpie. You may, bow and say aloud 'Good morning to you Mr Magpie, Sir,' or 'Good magpie, magpie, chatter and flee, turn up thy tail and good luck fall me.' You may remove your hat, or spit over your right shoulder and say, 'Devil, Devil I defy thee,' or make the sign of the cross on the ground. An onion kept in the pocket gives all-day protection from single magpies. And should you see a single bird flying away from the sun, defy bad luck by throwing something after it.
Though revered for its wisdom, the owl – with its nightly hooting and predatory habits – is also feared.
In Ethiopia it was an old custom that when a guilty man was condemned to death he was carried to a table on which an owl was painted. On seeing the bird he was expected to kill himself.
Owls are thought by many to be witches in disguise (and witches used parts of the birds' bodies in their 'brews'). They are especially loathed when seen flying in the daytime, and when they raise their voices. Hearing a screech owl hooting three times is thought to be a death omen. As in the cases of bats and magpies, the power of the sound can be dispelled with an appropriate action, as in this verse from the southern United States:
When you hear the screech owl,
honey, in the sweet gum tree,
It's a sign as sure as you're born a death is bound
to be;
Unless you put the shovel in the fire mighty quick,
For to conjure that old screech owl, take care the
one that's sick.
When an owl is seen flying around the house, perching on the roof or, worst of all, flying down the chimney, the omens are bad and a family death is likely, though killing the bird may dispel bad luck. Shakespeare's Lady Macbeth hears the ominous hoot of an owl while she perpetrates her bloody deed.
OWLS AND ACTIONS
• If you look into an owl's nest you will be unhappy for the rest of your life.
• An owl hoots every time a girl loses her virginity.
• A pregnant woman who hears an owl hoot will give birth to a girl.
• If you hear an owl hoot when a baby is born the child will be ill-fated.
As well as being feared, birds should be treated with the greatest respect, for you never know what their real identity may be.
Among the most respected of all birds are the resident ravens at the Tower of London. Legend has it that should the birds fly away the kingdom will fall.
Larks or 'laverocks' are birds that have long been sacred. Their nests should never be molested, though it was once the custom in Germany (where the bird is protected by the Virgin Mary) to give babies roast lark as their first food to make them more pious. It is taboo to look at the nestlings with their mouths agape, revealing tongues with three black spots, each of which is said to be a curse. And do not point at one or you will get a whitlow on your finger.
To avoid killing larks, the villagers of Meldreth in Cambridgeshire have, since the 13th century, paid the Earl of Clare an annual sum of three shillings in 'lark silver', in lieu of the 100 larks he demanded for his Christmas dinner.
Lapwings, said to be roaming spirits that cannot find rest, should not be touched. Even their cries sound like the words 'Bewitched, bewitched'. Swedish legend has it that the lapwing was originally the Virgin Mary's attendant, but was transformed into a bird after stealing a pair of scissors – which is why it has a scissor-shaped tail and forever cries 'Tyvit', which in Swedish means 'I stole them'.
TREAT THEM WELL
To avoid ill fortune:
• Don't steal robin's eggs or all your fingers will grow crooked, or you might become prey to witches.
• Because seagulls are the souls of drowned men, you should never feed one or look it straight in the eye because, should you be swimming or in danger of drowning after a shipwreck, it will peck out your eyes.
• Don't kill a swallow or swift because they are 'God Almighty's gift'.
The calls and behaviour of birds and animals were once among the country dweller's most important weather forecasters, and were taken seriously at such vital times as hay-making and harvest.
The chirping of crickets is a sign of impending rain – and more. The 19th-century naturalist Gilbert White observed: 'They are the housewife's barometer, foretelling her when it will rain; and are prognostic sometimes, she thinks, of ill or good luck; of the death of a near relation, or the approach of an absent lover.'
There is at least a modicum of fact to support some bird omens. In Scotland, for instance, where the frequent calling of a cuckoo is a sign of rain, it is true that episodes of poor weather – known as 'gowk storms' – coincide with the birds' arrival in spring. It is also thought that birds are sensitive to the atmospheric changes that precede rain, hence the rhymes, 'When the peacock loudly bawls/Soon we'll have both rain and squalls,' and 'If the cock goes crowing to bed/He'll certainly rise with a watery head.'
Though it may not actually rain, seeing swallows flying low means the air is damp and their insect prey are flitting near the ground. Larks fly high in the air when the weather is destined to stay fine.
BELIEVE IT IF YOU WILL
According to ancient lore, expect rain (maybe) if:
• Asses bray.
• Fleas bite more than usual.
• Rooks sit in rows on walls or fences.
• A black snail crosses your path.
• Swans take to the air.
• Spiders anchor their webs with short threads.
• Pigs rush around with straws in their mouths.
• A cat washes over its ears.
Predicting the arrival of spring is associated with Candlemas on 2 February, 40 days after Christmas, which is the feast of the Purification of the Virgin. In America it is Groundhog Day, when one animal's behaviour is closely observed.
The roots of Candlemas go back to at least the 6th century, when it was taken to be the middle of winter, after which the sun's intensity begins to increase. On Candlemas Eve, the feast of St Brigid, it was customary to make new effigies of the saint out of wheat or oats to ensure crop fertility (and to burn the old ones) and for a young woman to carry flowers into the home.
In the eponymous 1993 film, actor Bill Murray plays a wacky weatherman who becomes snowed in after travelling to watch the famous groundhog see his shadow and is forced to relive the same strange day over and over again until he learns the errors of his ways.
Candlemas is so named because it is the day when the church candles to be used for the rest of the year are blessed.
The bear and badger may make brief forays out of hibernation at this time, but the groundhog has been inextricably linked with Candlemas since 1886, when Clymer Freas, the editor of the Punxsutawney Spirit of western Pennsylvania, reported that, because the groundhog had emerged – but not seen his shadow – that day, there would be an early spring. Conversely, the emerging animal witnessing its shadow predicts another six weeks of winter. The prognosticating ground-hog is often known as Punxsutawney Phil, and his predictions follow a European Candlemas tradition brought to Pennsylvania by German settlers in the 18th century. Although the groundhog's appearances are almost certainly more to do with prospecting for mates than predicting the weather, the day has retained its newsworthiness.
As well as Candlemas, there are other times of year when it is possible to look for a long-term weather forecast from plant as well as animal signs. Their reliability, as ever, is doubtful!
Frogs have long been used as weather forecasters. Certainly it seems logical that when, in spring, frog spawn is seen lying in deep water, then a dry spell is predicted, while spawn at the edge of ponds and ditches means imminent rain and storms. In Europe an old tradition for predicting the weather is to keep a frog in a bowl of water and supply it with a ladder by which to climb out. As fine weather approaches the frog will ascend, and the higher it climbs the sunnier it will be. If rain is on the way, it will climb back down into its bowl.
Ladybirds (ladybugs) have a proven forecasting ability. In autumn, they may hide behind protective bark or leaves, in which case it will be cold, or stay out in the open on sticks and stalks – a sign of a mild winter to come.
'Oak before ash, only a splash' is an old country prediction based on the order in which these two trees come into leaf. As the oak is almost always the first, this forecast is not really reliable, though some notably dry summers have been preceded by oak leaves opening several weeks ahead. Even less certain is a cold winter following a heavy crop of autumn berries on holly and other shrubs. This old wives' forecast is more likely to be a sign of past weather than of what is to come.
LIVING LINKS
Many weather forecasts – often in verse – have direct and indirect links with nature:
• If there's ice in November that will bear a duck, The rest of the winter will be sludge and muck. (That is, mild and wet).
• If February brings drifts of snow There will be good summer crops to hoe.
• When squirrels early start to hoard, Winter will pierce us like sword.
• When in the trees the rooks build high, Expect the summer to be warm and dry.
In the Chinese iconographic tradition, certain plants and animals have long been viewed as particularly auspicious symbols, deemed to ensure good fortune and long life.
The bamboo, renowned for the fact that it does not break in the wind, was believed to be the symbol of the upright man, steadfast in face of temptation. By similar logic, fruits such as gourds and pomegranates symbolize fertility and the birth of many children. The lingzhi fungus signified both longevity and immortality. The only animal able to find and eat it was the deer, which itself signifies long life.
Bats, especially when five in number, are animals of good fortune for the Chinese. This derives from their name, fu, which sounds like the word for 'blessings'. The blessings of the five bats are longevity, wealth, virtue, tranquillity, and a good end to life.
WORD PLAY
More Chinese ways of signifying fortune with images and puns:
Quails – an – peace
Goats and children playing – xiyang – auspicious
Chickens and roosters – ji – good luck
Fish – yu - abundance
Of all the world's trees the peach has some of the strongest associations with immortality, particularly in the East, where peach blossom is traditionally worn by brides.
Chinese legend relates that in her garden the Taoist goddess Xi Wang-mu, the 'Royal Mother of the West' and the personification of yin (the feminine element) cultivates the peach of immortality. This tree flowers only every 3000 years, and it takes another 3000 years for its fruit to ripen. When this state of perfection is achieved, Xi Wang-mu invites the immortals to eat the fruit, restoring their immortality.
Peach wood will, it is said, prolong life by warding off evil spirits and it is often used in amulets, charms and seals. As for the fruit, a peach that is oval in shape and red on one side is thought to preserve the body 'from decay until the end of the world'. At New Year, young and old alike drink peach soup to ensure longevity.
The creatures that feature in thezodiac relate to the constellations that bear their names. The characteristics of people born under these animal signs are believed to reflect those animals' temperaments.
In medieval cosmology, everything was composed of the four elements, earth, air, fire and water, and each zodiacal sign was allotted to one of these. No animal signs represent air, the realm of intellect and imagination, but Aries and Leo exhibit the intensity of fire, Taurus and Capricorn share the stability of earth, and the water signs, Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces show emotion and intuition.
The dates assigned to each sign are those when the sun is said to enter it, representing an imaginary situation in which, were the sun viewed at the same time as the constellation, its stars would be surrounding the solar orb.
Astrology, one of the oldest forms of divination, began when people tried to make links between the positions of the stars in the sky and the cycle of the seasons. Today astrology makes its predictions on the basis of the positions of certain constellations at the moment and place of a person's birth, and their conjunction with the sun, moon and planets.
The practice of astrology as we know it was begun by the Babylonians who imagined the zodiac or 'belt' in which the constellations were contained. The stars, sun and moon travelled, they believed, in three celestial 'wheels', at whose centre was the pole star.
The courage and spirit of the ram are reflected in the characteristics of Arians, born between 21 March (the spring equinox) and 18 April. They are said to be idealists with implicit faith in their abilities and any causes they choose to espouse, but also to have fiery tempers.
That Aries is the first sign of the zodiac relates to the Mesopotamian myth that the world was created at the moment the sun entered this constellation. The Ram in the sky was believed to hold within it the stars of the winter solstice. It was no coincidence that in ancient Babylon the month following the spring equinox was the season in which rams, the prime symbol of the male generative force in a pastoral society, were offered as sacrifices to the gods.
The flowers associated with Aries are gorse, the wild rose and the thistle; trees of Aries are the holly, thorn and chestnut. The tiger and the leopard are also Arian animals.
Their love of domination is said to make Arians hard partners to live with and strict disciplinarians, but they excel wherever they can organize, take the lead and give rein to their intellectual powers. Their natural bent is to be guided by their instincts, though they are not noted for scheming or subtlety. Unable to be led or compelled, Arians may be easily deceived by praise or flattery – and will express their anger forcefully if find out that they have been duped.
The bull is an animal symbolic of fertility and power, associated with both the arrival of spring rains and with Zeus, king of the gods. The birth dates for Taurus are 19 April to 20 May.
Some early Christian astronomers associated Taurus with the ox which, in the Bethlehem stable, witnessed the birth of Christ.
Lily of the valley, rose, violet and myrtle are the flowers of Taurus. Lucky trees are almond, ash, apple, walnut and sycamore, and the dove is a Taurean bird of good fortune.
It was Taurus the heavenly bull who, according to the ancient Sumerians and Babylonians, brought the vernal equinox. This was the bull created by the sky god Anu (a creature whose bellowing was said to cause thunderclaps) to confront the epic warrior hero Gilgamesh. To the Greeks, Taurus was Zeus in disguise. Appearing from the sea, he lured Europa to climb on his back and abducted her to Crete, where a bull cult became prevalent (see page 237).
Taureans are lovers of beauty and nature, but no matter how vivid their flights of fancy may be they temper these with common sense. Though slow to anger, they will, when roused, display massive wrath, and they are equally tardy in forgetting slights. They shun deception and underhand dealings, naturally adopt leadership roles and revel in work that links them with the earth and with animals.
From 21 June to 22 July the sun is in the sign of Cancer, considered a 'sensitive' sign. The sign was named after the crab because, at the summer solstice (technically now in Gemini), the sun appeared to move sideways across the sky.
Poppy, water lily, willow and sycamore are lucky flowers and trees for this sign, and the owl and seagull are its birds. The otter and seal, both water-dwellers, are Cancer's lucky animals.
Astronomically, the most significant part of the constellation is a cluster of stars named the Beehive. The Chaldeans called this the Gate of Men and believed it to be the entrance taken by souls leaving heaven to take up residence in human bodies. To the Greeks, the crab was the creature that bit the feet of Heracles as he wrestled the Hydra. Though killed by the hero, the creature was rewarded by Heracles' enemy Hera (the wife of Zeus) with a place in the heavens. That the constellation appears faint, with no one bright star, is a reminder of its inauspicious end.
The Roman naturalist Pliny said that when the sun was in the sign of Cancer dead crabs lying on the sand would turn into serpents. Storms, famine and locusts were also once linked with this conjunction.
Like the crab, Cancereans are timid and hesitant, but tenacious. Those born under this sign are enormously sensitive, especially to criticism, and anxious over the small things in life. However they are shrewd with money (though poor gamblers) and have excellent memories. Family matters greatly to them. As befits association with a marine creature they are good sailors and happy at sea.
From 23 July to 22 August the sun is in the constellation of Leo, the fifth sign of the zodiac. As positive and noble as the lion, Leos are forceful and direct, though also extremely affectionate.
One of the first astrological signs to be recognized, Leo was identified with the lion by all the major ancient civilizations and coincided, originally, with the heat of the summer solstice. In Egypt, the sun in Leo was a time when the Nile flooded, so ensuring the coming year's fertility, but it was also when lions actually appeared.
The Nemean lion killed by Heracles was the Leo of the Greek world. It is thought to have been translated into the Judeo-Christian tradition as the lion defeated by the Old Testament hero Daniel.
The lion has many resonances in mythology. Leo may have been the Sumerian monster Humbaba, who guarded the forest of cedars where the gods resided. It was also linked with Nergal, a god of war and pestilence commonly portrayed with a lion's body.
Yellow flowers, the colour of both sun and lion, are lucky to Leos and include marigolds, sunflowers and cow-slips. The cock and the eagle are lucky birds for this sign, while trees of fortune are the palm and the laurel.
Simple nobility, combined with courage, are the characteristics of Leos, who are said to be strangers to fear. Their directness can make them tactless, and they can be severe in manner, even to those they love and admire. They are particularly quick to take offence if they think that their honour and dignity is being challenged in any way. Many Leos become leaders and statesmen and as such may command great devotion.
Extremes and contradictions are the outstanding attributes of Scorpios, born between 23 October and 21 November. Like the creatures whose constellation they share these humans have an infamous sting in the tail.
The Maoris of New Zealand call the constellation of Scorpio the Fish-hook of Maui, and it is believed to have caught their islands and heaved them up from the depths of the ocean.
Orion, the giant hunter of Greek mythology, renowned for his good looks, was stung to death by Scorpio. This monster also terrified the horses of the sun when they were being driven across the heavens by Phaethon, with the result that he lost control of his chariot, which then careered across the sky scorching the Milky Way in its path. The sign is traditionally associated with cold and darkness, and even with the start of wars and other evil deeds. In ancient times the only people who relished the sun in this sign were alchemists, who believed that it was the only time when they could convert base metals into gold.
Lucky flowers and trees for Scorpios are heather and chrysanthemums, hollies and thorn trees. The wolf and the panther are Scorpio animals, and the eagle and vulture are predatory Scorpio birds.
Talented but inclined to vanity, tenacious but biting and given to tempers, Scorpios will champion the weak and oppressed, and show little regard for convention. They are ambitious – often ruthless – and remarkable achievers. They are gifted actors, whether in the theatre or merely on life's stage, but often give totally the wrong impression of their character and temperament. They are intensely loving, but can also be extraordinarily secretive and jealous.
Between 22 December and 19 January, immediately following the winter solstice, the sun is in Capricorn, the sign of the goat, an animal noted for its persistence in ascending to the mountain tops.
In assessing its place in the heavens, the Chaldean astronomers of ancient Assyria assigned Capricorn to the 'Sea', a group of constellations they believed represented the army of monstrous creatures who protected Tiamat, a huge female dragon and the primordial mother. The goat was endowed with the tail of a fish, a characteristic the Greeks later explained as a result of the goat-footed god Pan being frightened by the appearance of the 'wind monster' Typhon and leaping into the water.
Placed directly opposite Cancer in the zodiac, Capricorn was the other Gate of the Gods, and the one through which souls passed on their journey from earth to heaven.
Capricorns are noted for being hard-working, shrewd and calculating, also reserved and often secretive. They are painstaking and methodical – stopping at nothing to achieve the goals they have set themselves – and, having supreme faith in their own abilities, are natural leaders and good communicators. By reputation they are tactful and slow to anger but equally tardy in forgetting any wrongs done to them, which can make them jealous and even vengeful.
Flowers lucky to Capricorns are nightshade and rue, and their trees are the 'everlasting' pine, yew and cypress. The knowing dog, elephant and owl are creatures with benign links to the sign.
The symbol of Pisces is a pair of fishes, which, though attached to each other, are moving in opposite directions, typifying those born between 19 February and 20 March.
The snowdrop is lucky to Pisceans, as is the foxglove. The pine is their lucky tree and the dog and cuckoo are their favourable creatures likely to lead them to success.
In the heavens, the two constellations of Pisces are connected with strings of stars that look like ribbons. The Romans believed that when the love goddess Venus and the vain Cupid (who inspired her jealousy by falling in love with Psyche) were chased by Typhon they ended up in the sky. In Christian symbolism the fish are the two with which (with the five loaves) Jesus fed the multitude.
Pisces is the sign said to control the weather and, by inference, the fate of sailors. Though generally a bringer of bad luck, its links with rain made it, to early civilizations, a fertile sign.
Pisceans are renowned for their dual nature. While intending to do one thing they in fact do another. With wide vision and rich imaginations they may dream up the wildest, most grandiose schemes but, when faced with reality, find themselves unable to put these into action. Romantic, kind-hearted and emotional, Pisceans are sensitive to rebuffs, though with the right guidance and backing they can achieve great things. They are also good learners and readily accumulate knowledge.
Like its western equivalent, the Chinese system of astrology classifies people according to 12 signs. However, all are animal forms and the sign to which you are ascribed depends on the year (according to the Chinese calendar) in which you were born.
This ancient perspective on our modern lives comes from the ancient Oriental art of divination and character reading. Legend has it that the Buddha invited all the animals to a New Year party, but from the whole world only 12 made the effort to come. He was so touched by their attendance that he gave each the gift of a year, beginning with the party-loving rat and ending with the pig.
The day on which each year of the cycle begins is determined by the moon, so the date changes each year. Chinese New Year usually falls between 24 January and 20 February. Overlaying the 12-year cycle of animal signs there is also a 60-year cycle, linking each animal with one of five basic elements: fire, earth, metal, water and wood.
CHINESE ZODIAC ANIMAL CHARACTERS
Rat – Ambitious, hardworking leaders, often charming to the opposite sex. Enjoy gossiping. Best with Ox, Monkey and Dragon (Years: 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984 …)
Ox – Responsible and hard-working, but can be bigoted, stubborn and absolutely assured they are right. Best with Rat, Snake and Rooster. (Years: 1937, 1949, 1961, 1973, 1985 …)
Tiger – Charismatic and courageous, deep thinkers but can be indecisive and sensitive. May be apt to show off. Best with Dog, Horse and Dragon. (Years: 1938, 1950, 1962, 1974, 1986 …)
Rabbit (Hare) – Financially lucky, funny, articulate, artistic and diplomatic. Peace-loving, slow to lose their tempers. Best with Dog, Goat and Bear. (Years: 1939, 1951, 1963, 1975, 1987 …)
Dragon – Vibrant, optimistic and brave. Inspire trust and confidence in others, but also judgmental and egotistical. Best with Rat, Snake, Rooster and Monkey. (Years: 1940, 1952, 1964, 1976, 1988 …)
Snake – Wise and confident, passionate but reserved, mysterious and evasive. Hate to fail. Thrifty and financially lucky. Best with Ox, Rooster and Dragon. (Years: 1941, 1953, 1965, 1977, 1989 …)
Horse – Talented, wise, cheerful, independent and adventurous, with many friends but slow to take advice. Best with Dog, Tiger and Goat. (Years: 1930, 1942, 1954, 1966, 1978 …)
Goat (Ram or Sheep) – Artistic and graceful, animated, romantic and popular, but beneath the surface may be shy, insecure and awkward. Best with Horse, Boar and Rabbit. (Years: 1931, 1943, 1955, 1967, 1979 …)
Monkey – Brilliant and curious, good problem solvers. Have excellent memories but can be impatient for results. Best with Rat and Dragon. (Years: 1932, 1944, 1956, 1968, 1980 …)
Rooster – Efficient and ambitious. Deep thinkers, but also enthusiastic, stubborn and vain with a good sense of humour. Best with Snake, Dragon and Ox. (Years: 1933, 1945, 1957, 1969, 1981 …)
Dog – Intensely loyal and honest, also witty and animated. A great friend, but also pessimistic and afraid of rejection, often finding fault. Best with Tiger, Rabbit and Horse. (Years: 1934, 1946, 1958, 1970, 1982 …)
Pig (Boar) – Generous and affectionate. Quiet, but with a thirst for knowledge and able to face life's problems head-on. Best with Goat and Rabbit. (Years: 1935, 1947, 1959, 1971, 1983 …)
Of all forms of divination, the interpretation of dreams is among the oldest. In the Bible, the Pharaoh's dream, interpreted by Joseph, was crucial to the fate of the Israelites in Egypt.
In dreams that feature animals, their significance often relates to the character of the creature. Dreams of domestic animals are thought, in general, to mean happiness, while those of wild predators such as lions and tigers signify cruel and treacherous enemies.
As Genesis relates, Pharaoh saw in his first dream 'seven cows, sleek and fat' followed by 'seven other cows, gaunt and lean', which devoured the seven fat animals. In his second dream he saw 'seven ears of grain, full and ripe', then after them 'seven other ears, thin and shrivelled', which swallowed up the plump ears.
Since his own counsellors could not help him, Pharaoh sent for Joseph, who told him that the seven good cows and ears of grain represented fertile years; the thin cattle and weedy grains meant seven years of famine. He advised frugality and saving during the good years, to counter the effects of the bad. So impressed was the Pharaoh that he gave him 'authority over the whole land of Egypt'.
ANIMAL DREAMS AND THEIR MEANINGS
Elephant – Prosperity, the arrival of new and influential friends.
Rat – You have powerful enemies. If you kill the rat in your dream you will defeat them.
Fox – Your rival or competitor. You must take immediate steps to defeat him or her.
Dog – Lucky if it is your own, but a strange dog is an enemy waiting to ruin you.
Turkey – Your actions will lead you into trouble, but the final outcome will be beneficial.
Ass – Be patient and good luck will come your way.
Among the many dream objects that have been subject to interpretation, flowers and trees have been linked with life and love.
Dreaming of an expanse of beautiful wild flowers may represent freedom and uninhibited growth. Conversely, the garden is a place of refuge and peace, and dreaming of one may signify happiness and even a forthcoming marriage. Some, however, interpret it as a self-imposed trap, because it is in our nature to favour safety and comfort over risk and adventure.
A dream of any tree in bud predicts new love. Luxuriant foliage denotes a happy marriage and children, but marriage problems may loom if you dream of a tree without leaves. Fruit on a tree in a dream is a sure sign of prosperity.
The meanings of flowers in dreams depend on their colour and context. Red flowers speak of romance and beauty, while white ones may symbolize purity and healing, though they are also said to foretell loss and disappointment. Beautiful, healthy flowers represent inner beauty, healthy emotions and spiritual development; dead ones the reverse. Flowers are often present in dreams about the dead, where they symbolize the natural cycle of life and death.
FLORAL REVERIE
Some more floral dream meanings:
Anemone – Your love is untrue.
Daffodil – If you have fallen out with someone, seek reconciliation.
Iris – Expect a message bringing good news.
Snowdrop – confide in a friend.
Primrose – You will find happiness in a new friendship.
Carnation – Expect a passionate love affair.
Honeysuckle – Beware domestic quarrels.
There are dozens of ways in which prosperity and general good fortune are represented in dreams that feature living things. Fruits, in particular, signify prosperity and abundance.
You can also expect money to come your way if you dream of melons or figs. If you dream of apples, note their colour. Red ones are said to mean the rapid arrival of money. If they are green you will have to wait a little longer. If your desire is for great riches, golden apples are the luckiest of all.
If you dream you are riding a horse, then expect both money and friendship to come your way. To fall off the horse signifies not actual poverty but, more likely, the break-up of a close relationship.
Of the many animals linked with money, the frog is one of the most propitious. A 19th-century Book of Fortune declared it to denote 'profits for the trader, good luck for the farmer, victories for the soldier and sailor and happy marriage for the lover'. The deer is seen as a bringer of good news, and is a dream symbol of both physical strength and material wealth. If you dream of a camel, expect a legacy
Dreams of birds can also be linked with money. If you are already wealthy, a dream of a bird on the wing may foretell the loss of your fortune, but if your finances are poor, dreaming of a bird in flight indicates an upward trend in your affairs. An owl in a dream may mean impending poverty while the magpie signifies a broken contract and financial misfortune.