SUPERSTITION 



5633 



SUPERSTITION 



mighty of the earth; Napoleon seems to have 

 had a sincere belief in his star of destiny. No 

 less astrological is the belief that when mo- 

 mentous human events are to occur, portents 

 are seen in the sky as on earth; when Rome 

 was threatened the earth trembled, volcanoes 

 broke forth, lightning bolts flashed, the heavens 

 were obscured. In some minds a comet still 

 strikes dismay as a sign that the end of the 

 earth is approaching. 



The Horoscope. Astrology shows the close 

 relation of science and superstition. Impor- 

 tant facts relating to the sun and moon, the 

 stars and planets, were gathered under the mo- 

 tive of studying the celestial influences upon 

 human life. Only three hundred years ago, 

 Kepler, the most scientific astronomer of his 

 day, practiced astrology. Though he spoke of 

 astrology as the foolish daughter of a wise 

 mother (astronomy), he had a measure of faith 

 in the horoscopes which he cast and by which 

 he earned his living. Astrology is a system of 

 divination (which see), requiring astronomical 

 data; the horoscope which predicts the fortune 

 of the individual by reference to the position 

 of the heavens at the time of birth is the most 

 elaborate product of superstition that the hu- 

 man mind has devised. 



It is not easy for our minds to follow or 

 state its basis. We can understand the exer- 

 cise of the imagination by which the planets, 

 stars and constellations received names; these 

 names were those of the gods of mythology, 

 who in turn were accredited with certain pow- 

 ers and attributes. Again, some of the con- 

 stellations were named in fancied resemblance 

 of their outlines to the shapes of animals, and 

 these animals, too, have qualities. Also, the 

 movements of the heavenly bodies bring about 

 changes of position rising and setting, oppo- 

 sition and conjunction. Out of this elaborate 

 set of relations a zodiac is formed and predic- 

 tion begins. Mars is the name of a planet and 

 of the god of war; Venus is the name of an- 

 other and of the goddess of love. Jupiter has 

 one disposition, and Saturn another. Conse- 

 quently (?) a child born under the ascendancy 

 of Mars will be violent and pugnacious; one 

 under the dominance of 'Venus will be given to 

 ardent love affairs; those at whose hour of birth 

 Jupiter presided will be jovial (for jovial, de- 

 rived from Jove-Jupiteris an astrological 

 word) ; and those with like relation to Saturn 

 will be saturnine, or morose and gloomy in 

 disposition. "A child born under the sign of 

 the lion will be courageous, but one under the 

 353 



crab will not go forward in life; one born un- 

 der the waterman (aquarius) will be drowned" 

 and so on; and this merely because the ar- 

 rangement of certain stars suggested the shape 

 of a lion, and the lion is a bold, courageous 

 beast; another the shape of a crab, which has 

 the habit of walking backward; a third that of 

 a water carrier, and in water one may drown. 

 No other attempt at least none with so an- 

 cient and influential a history to bring to- 

 gether in the way of cause and effect the most 

 remote happenings and relations, is quite so 

 far-fetched and extravagant. But that kind of 

 reasoning underlies many systematized super- 

 stitions and loose beliefs. Such argument is 

 called an analogy, in this instance a most fee- 

 ble, remote and fanciful one. Pretentious sys- 

 tems like astrology may be called pseudo- 

 sciences, because they attempt to build up a 

 body of doctrine after the manner of a science, 

 upon a basis that is entirely, or largely, akin to 

 superstition. 



Everyday Superstitions Survivals of As- 

 trology. Survivals of astrological notions ap- 

 pear in such practices as planting potatoes or 

 cutting hair when the moon is waxing; the 

 analogy being that as the moon grows, so will 

 the potatoes or the hair. Conversely, alders 

 and undergrowth and anything that one wishes 

 to be rid of, should be cut when the moon is 

 on the wane, so that as the moon disappears, 

 so will they. The pathetic incident of Barkis 

 going out with the tide reflects a like notion 

 of sympathy between human life and the move- 

 ments of nature. This manner of connection 

 or sympathy or analogy or however we de- 

 scribe the slight, fanciful, remote bond ex- 

 tends to many details. Religious processions 

 must follow the direction of the sun (from east 

 to west) , and never the reverse. In stirring bat- 

 ter for bread, or in churning butter, the motion 

 must be sunwise. Reversing the direction will 

 spoil the result or invite bad luck. Such re- 

 versal is itself an apt instance of analogy as it 

 prevails in superstitious thinking. A reversal 

 of a normal direction becomes unholy or un- 

 lucky. Since right-handedness is the normal 

 relation, something of the weird or prohibited 

 attaches to the left. Sinister means literally 

 left, but has the secondary meaning of suspi- 

 cious or of bad omen. A reference to the left 

 shoulder reverses the meaning, or averts the 

 consequences of a falsehood; or by the value 

 attaching to the unusual, the left hind foot of 

 a rabbit becomes a charm, or one must see the 

 new moon over the left shoulder, and with sil- 



