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Breaking a mirror is said to bring seven years of bad luck [1]; A bird or flock of birds going from left to right () [citation needed]Certain numbers: The number 4.Fear of the number 4 is known as tetraphobia; in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean languages, the number sounds like the word for "death".
In Native American Ojibwa culture the human mind was believed to be susceptible to dark spirits, when the mind is weakest (I.e. asleep) and would give bad dreams. In defense the men and women would weave dream catchers. These talismans would let the good dream spirits through, whilst trapping the bad spirits in the pattern. [14] [15] Fish
An omen (also called portent) is a phenomenon that is believed to foretell the future, often signifying the advent of change. [2] It was commonly believed in ancient history , and still believed by some today, that omens bring divine messages from the gods.
A "Jonah" is a long-established expression among sailors, meaning a person (either a sailor or a passenger) who is bad luck, which is based on the Biblical prophet Jonah. Clergymen are considered bad luck, as they are all of Jonah's ilk. Redheads and women are also to be avoided as passengers. [2]
A thunderclap cost Marcellus his very brief consulship (215 BC): thereafter he traveled in an enclosed litter when on important business, to avoid seeing possible bad omens that might affect his plans. [2] Bad omens could be more actively dealt with, by countersigns or spoken formulae. Before his campaign against Perseus of Macedon, the consul ...
These signs could be interpreted according to the appearance of the organs, for example, if the liver was "smooth, shiny and full" or "rough and shrunken". [6] The Etruscans looked for the caput iocineris, or "head of the liver". It was considered a bad omen if this part was missing from the animal's liver.
[2] To make sure that they were properly transferred to the substitute, all bad omens pertaining to the eclipse along with any other ominous signs were written down and proclaimed to the substitute king and queen after their placement on the throne. The substitutes then had to recite the omens in front of the god Shamash, the cosmic judge. This ...
An early reference to monstrous birth is found in the apocryphal biblical text 2 Esdras, where it is linked to menstruation: "women in their uncleanness will bear monsters." [1] Monstrous births are often placed in a religious context and interpreted as signs and symbols, as is evidenced in the 1493 Nuremberg Chronicle.