VERY SUPERSTITIOUS…
It’s great to be here visiting with you today, but it’s also a bit of a challenge. A good one. While we write thrillers together seamlessly, we were a bit flummoxed about how to go about writing a blog in one voice.
The two of us have been best friends since we were young mothers. Our kids met in a mother-toddler class, hit it off immediately, and so did we. We thought we’d end up in-laws one day, but that didn’t happen. Instead, we’re writing partners with five books written together and lots more written separately. Karen is outgoing, Jill is private, but other than that, we two are a lot alike, devoted to our families and to our writing. We finish each other’s sentences, we think with one brain, writing our books line by line together.
In THE ILLUMINATION, our new release, we explored the ancient belief in the Evil Eye, a protective symbol that plays a prominent role in the book. Before we started our research, Karen—being superstitious—already knew a lot about it, Jill not so much.
Karen: I’m obsessively superstitious. I come by it naturally, being raised in a Sicilian-Italian family where horseshoes wrapped in red ribbons hung over our doorways for protection and St. Christopher rode on the dashboard of our family car.
From as far back as I can remember, my mother and grandmother warned me about the evil eye—mal occhio—and how to protect myself if I thought someone was shooting the evil eye at me. More times than I can count, I watched my grandmother or one of my older female relatives perform the incantations to remove the curse from some hapless victim in our family.
Jill: I’ve never been particularly superstitious, though I’ll admit to avoiding stepping on cracks or walking under ladders. Because…why take chances? Those two are so ingrained, even my practical side won’t risk ignoring them.
Karen: And you always say, “bread and butter,” when we’re walking somewhere and have to go around opposite sides of a pole or bench or some other obstacle.
Jill: Okay, that’s another one. I learned to say, “bread and butter” as a little girl. It’s a way of saying “may nothing ever come between us” to avoid breaking a relationship. Has anyone else ever heard about this superstition, or is it a regional Midwest deal?
Karen: I’m into all of it. “Bread and butter.” “You owe me a Coke.” Throwing salt over my left shoulder if I spill some accidentally, avoiding black cats—about the only thing I don’t ascribe to is aversion to the number 13. It’s one of my lucky ones, in fact.
Jill: What I’ve never understood is why you think that if you cry on your birthday, you’ll cry all year long. Every time you say that, it cracks me up. Is that a genuine Italian superstition, or did your mother make it up?
Karen: Who knows? I don’t. But I try my damnedest not to ever cry on my birthday—even over sentimental cards. My sister, raised in that same Sicilian-Italian family, thinks I’m nuts. Still, when we started our research for THE ILLUMINATION, I learned there was more to the Evil Eye than I thought. The research was…well, eye-opening.
Jill and Karen: We had a blast learning about the incredible mythology surrounding this ancient symbol—one of the oldest and most wide-spread of all human superstitions.
The eye symbol appeared in Egyptian hieroglyphics and on the cuneiform tablets of the Babylonians and Sumerians. It was also mentioned in the Old Testament (Deuteronomy and Proverbs), and in writings by classical Greek and Roman writers such as Plutarch and Cicero. Even Socrates had a connection to the Evil Eye—he was rumored to have possessed it, holding his followers and admirers under the spell of his magnetic gaze. Who knew?
Here are some other tidbits we learned:
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Admiration, a compliment, or an envious, overlong glance, are all thought to impart the Evil Eye.
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In Scotland the Evil Eye is called droch shuil.
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The belief that a person can purposely cast an Evil Eye on others is held only in Southern Italy and Sicily.
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Protective talismans have been used to protect against the Evil Eye since antiquity. Blue beads depicting an eye are thought to deflect the evil back upon the person casting the Evil Eye, thereby protecting the intended recipient.
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In Turkey, a protective blue eye is painted on the national airliners.
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Animals and children were considered particularly susceptible to the Evil Eye.
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Spitting was thought to protect against the Evil Rye.
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Protective Evil Eye jewelry, worn for centuries, is still prevalent today, becoming increasingly popular in mainstream culture.
In fact, the two of us occasionally wear Evil Eye bracelets or hamsa charms (open-palmed hands) for good luck and protection. We’re wondering if anyone out there wears any sort of protective talisman to ward off the Evil Eye or to bring good luck. Most everyone buys into some kind of superstition or other—knock on wood, offer a “God Bless You,” or “gezundheit,” when somebody sneezes, and keep your fingers crossed, to mention a few.
Now it’s your turn. We’d love to know about your superstitions. What little rituals, charms or sayings keep you feeling safe?
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I try not to be superstitious, but for some reason I’ve always been uncomfortable putting a book down when I’m in the middle of chapter 13. If I find I’m getting close to the end of chapter 12, I’ll deliberately stop reading until I have time to read chapter 13 in one sitting. (Which means that I’m the opposite of Karen.)
Hi, Michael, and welcome to Jill and Karen!
My birthday is January 13th, and I have a brother and a sister born on the supposedly lucky numbers of 7 and 11, so growing up one of their favourite ways to tease me was to say I was born on an unlucky day. Of course, 13 became my favourite number. When I was older, I would go on to say I was born on the 13th day of the 13th month (if you keep counting after December). So I am no way suspicious about the number 13. 🙂
Suspicion hasn’t played a big part in my life, but when I was little, I HAD to touch certain items as I passed through my dad’s den on the way downstairs. I think that’s obssessive more than superstitious, LOL. Then my mother changed the lamp I used to knock with my fingers on my downstairs, and, voila, no more knocking items.
I grew up with a mother who was incredibly superstitious. It’s really hard to remember all of them and I’ve tried to forget most of them. The one that really cracked me up as a kid was “Never leave milk on the table if it thunders – it will spoil” No clue on this one. Maybe lightening will scare the cow and sour the milk.
Anyway, my kids know about this one and we all laugh about it. The family favorite and always followed is to hang a rosary on the clothes line the day of a wedding to prevent rain. Odd, but it works.
Fun blog! I’m not superstitious, but if I read a good horoscope, I believe it. If I read a bad one, I don’t believe it. I also wear good luck necklaces. And I had stones that were supposed to be good for healing, writing, etc. Then we adopted a cat who likes knocking stones off my desktop. It was either the cat or the stones, and I love my cat.
I don’t remember any particular superstitions growing up but as an adult I have noticed that slowly I have become a little more superstitious. Many years ago I placed a horseshoe under the drivers seat and passenger seat in my car. Originally I had done this only half heartedly believing in it, however the car I had the horseshoes in was in a very bad accident where it was surprising that the occupants (I had loaned the car to my friend) survived the crash – I can’t say they walked away as the passenger broke her back but no one died and now 14 years later everyone is in great health and doing well… In November I sold my current car and when I cleaned it out I found my horseshoes. I thought of how silly a tradition it had become for me and yet I couldn’t bring myself to retire them to our basement. Now I’m probably one of the only mommies out there driving a minivan with horseshoes under the front seats!
Wow, I’m loving all of these quirky superstitions about chapters, birthdays, and stones. I keep some special objects around my work desk, near my computer — a lucky bamboo plant, some chinese coins tied with a red ribbon, a glass slipper, and a large brass evil eye charm (with the eye painted inside) which is about the size of an oreo cookie. I also have a couple of rocks under my desk, which a dear writer friend told me to put there in order to keep me (and my work?) grounded. I always figure, it can’t hurt!
One of my critique partners is married to an Iranian. The last time they visited his family in Iran, she brought back key chains with a bright blue eye set in white glass on them. Supposed to be good luck. But it felt really creepy to me and I put mine away. Sounds like it’s a reversal of the evil eye idea.
Loved the comments. The Iranian one brought me back to Iraq and the evil eye and the character in The Illumination, who no one could look at. I read The Illumination ( or most of it) on a 4hr plane ride to Los Angeles. Loved the book! It was a great read.
You’ve all been having fun without me. Actually, I’ve been having a blast with my sister’s nursery school class — telling them about being an author, reading them a book my son helped write and illustrate. And then they read me the book they wrote and illustrated — about Sammy the Spider.
Now I get to read all the great comments here. Yay, this is fun.
Ok, Michael — Wow. I hate to stop reading in the middle of any chapter, and only do it when my eyes close and the book falls off the bed. I’ll have to forget what you said when I get to Chapter 13 of Daniel Silva’s new book, or I’ll have a new superstition — just what I (don’t) need!
Cindy — Yep, you were born on the 13th day of the 13th month. I understand perfectly.
Oh, Donna, you just reminded me of another one of my Sicilian grandmother’s superstitions — one I didn’t take on for myself. Never put a shoe on a table or someone will die. I mean, seriously…
Edie — Of course you never believe a bad horoscope. Those are like bad fortune cookies. Who needs them?
Kim — I’d keep those horseshoes under the front seat of every car I owned from now on. When Jill and I were studying Kabbalah for our last book, THE BOOK OF NAMES, our teacher, a Hasidic rabbi, told us about a tiny Book of Adam which kabbalists keep in their cars and homes for protection. I made sure everyone in my immediate family had one in the glovebox. You can’t be too safe. “grin”
Jan — That same writer friend of ours gave me a brass stand with a crystal inkwell for my desk, and I keep various pieces of quartz and crystal on it, and inside the inkwell there’s no ink — just the fortunes from all my good fortune cookies. And I have the special, wonderful good luck elephant (with the raised trunk) you bought me for my birthday a year ago. Or was it two years ago.
Folks — Elephants with the trunk down are bad luck. A definite no-no.
Kathy — Go find that Iranian eye and hang it up inside the house, near your front door, for good luck! Or hang your keys on them! It’s all good. The eye reflects back any evil or bad vibes, redirecting away from you and back at the person with the envious glance, or the hairy eyeball.
Hank — It took us nearly a year to write THE ILLUMINATION, and you read it in four hours. We have to keep reminding ourselves about that while we’re writing. But we’re thrilled you loved it, and that you obviously couldn’t put it down! Yay!
Love the blog on superstitions. In my research of Viking times, a man carried his bride over the threshold to protect her from evil spirits luring within the entry. And in the Celtic myths, superstitions flourish. One of my favorites, that the fairies will come and steal a person away to the Otherworld. 🙂
Thanks for the enjoyable blog!
Diana Cosby
http://www.dianacosby.com
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Hi Karen,
Sounds like you had a fun morning. And I just realized I was born at 7 at night. Too bad I wasn’t born at 1 in the afternoon. Then I’d be born on the 13th hour of the 13th day of the 13th month. Of course, I could always travel back in time and choose to also be born in the year 1313. Except then I’d probably only live to 13.
I think I’ll stay in today. 😉
Ok, after all these years, this blog visit made me finally look up my mother’s warning not to cry on our birthdays.
She didn’t make it up!
I found several instances on a Google search, including a listing of it among the folk superstitions at this site:
http://library.usu.edu/Folklo/folkarchive/belief.htm
BTW, she also told me — when it rained on my wedding day — that that was absolutely good luck.
Cindy — In military time, you were born at 19 hours. That doesn’t help, does it?
Ok, going away for awhile….
When I was a kid, my cousin told me that if I looked in a mirror in a dark room, I’d see Mary Worth.
Who’s Mary Worth?
I also heard that if you looked in a mirror in a dark room, you’d see a ghost.
To this day, I still don’t look in a mirror in a dark room. It’s just so easy to flip on a light. 🙂
I used to be afraid to look in the mirror if I got up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night. I heard that if you look at yourself in the mirror in the dark, you’d see your face as you appeared in past lives. I was too afraid to come face to face with one or more of my former selves.
Then, one night about two years ago, I looked in the mirror in a dark room, squinting until my image finally was semi-visible. And it was just me.
Karen and Jill, you two crack me up.
Jill, I just googled Mary Worth. Wikipedia says she’s Bloody Mary. She appears in a mirror when her name is called three times or something.
Karen,
Okay, I NEVER look in a bathroom mirror in the middle of the night. So I guess I am superstitious. I always thought of it more as I have too fertile of an imagination. I’ve done the exercise you speak of before, and when I do it, my face starts to change shape. Still my face, but different. Different faces overlapping mine, etc. I don’t like the effect at all!
If I’ve watched a scary movie (which I try really hard not to do, as they give me nightmares) and then I have to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, I try very hard NOT to look in the mirror at all. I have no clue why. I don’t want to see a ghost is my best guess. Like I can summon a ghost by watching a scary movie. It makes no sense. But I won’t look in the mirror.
I may be giving away my age, but I think Mary worth was an older lady in a comic strip. My wife has a collection of elephants all with the trunk up!
Hi Hank. I saw Mary Worth the comic strip when I googled, too. There’s also the Bloody Mary or Hell Mary, though.
Hi Hank,
Another elephant collection! Your wife and I have a lot in common. Actually, Jill has an elephant collection, too.
Karen
Cindy — I don’t even like to be in a dark room after a scary movie. I am convinced something or someone is right there ready to grab me.
I just gave myself chills writing this. Eeeeeuuuwwww….shudder.
I am SO suggestible.
Karen
thanks, Cindy. Jill and Karen, what if you had a recurring character who had phobias or was very superstitious. Sort of a female MONK?
I don’t watch scary movies. Period. Ever. The last one I saw was THE SIXTH SENSE.
Jill
Hank —
Hmmmm…. Sounds like a fun character. She could have a lot of the superstitions we’re talking about today. Karen and I have a ton of ideas we’re working on right now, though, so if anyone out there wants to play around with Hank’s idea, feel free.
Jill
That’s the perfect word, Karen. I’m very suggestible, too. I’m easy to hypnotize, for example. When it comes to scary movies, if it’s something like Alien, where I don’t believe it’s plausible, I can actually handle those sorts of movies, although I try not to watch them as well. But something like Poltergeist? Yes, even though it sound silly I could buy evil entities entering my consciousness through the TV, so, nope, don’t watch them. I don’t even watch TV ads for scary movies. I switch the channel until they’re gone.
I have a story idea for a character who’s been hexed. I hope to write it someday under my pen name, as it’s a sequel to a story I recently published (under my pen name – big secret). 😉
Hmmmm, I don’t think I’m as superstitious as I am ,,,,,,,,gee, Karen, what would you call me? LOL. Sometimes I just know what I know and it has nothing to do with charms or superstition although I have been known to put people’s name in a baggie and put them in the freezer to ” chill out” or in a baggie full of hot pepperif I needed them to get moving on something! Does that qualify as superstition? I believe in drawing positive energy, call it Karma, Chi, Ka whatever you’d like to me so I have a special stone near my bed as well as a piece of connemara marble, an Irish wishing stone, near it as well. I’m a bit ” fey” as my Irish say but like Karen, watched my grandmother and her friends removed the “overlook” from someone. Great thread guys! Carol.
Loved the book but I am not at all superstitious, a fatalist, or a believer in the occult. I do not believe in predestination, lucky stars or the black hand. But I do believe in good fiction, and The Illumination is it.
Hank won the copy of THE ILLUMINATION. Congratulations, Hank!
I’ll contact you through email so Jill and Karen can send you a copy of the book. Seeing as you’ve already read it, you’ll have your choice between an autographed copy of THE ILLUMINATION and a book from their back list. Please check your email and get back to me.
Thank you again to Jill and Karen for being here and to everyone who visited. My next guest blogger is Harlequin Superromance author, Susan Gable. She’ll be here Monday, February 9th, and her promo post is going up Sunday. Make sure to drop by.
Winner Update!
Turns out Hank has already read not only THE ILLUMINATION but Karen and Jill’s THE BOOK OF NAMES, so graciously offered that I pull another name for the draw.
The new winner is…ta-dah!…drum roll…Donna! Congratulations, Donna. I’ve already contacted you, so I know you’re getting the copy. Enjoy, and please drop by again.
I will look for other of your books. Keep writing – love them. If you can think it, it can happen! [my mother was never surprised when I told her these things below that happened. She told me my grandmother also had this “gift” – and she called it “fey”. Best wishes to you both! Marge
A few experiences…For almost 6 decades I have had 6th sense-type experiences. At least two directly saved people from serious injury – myself and my husband included. I also very clearly “heard” my name called shortly after a dear friend was murdered (I was alone in my office @ 5:30am and didn’t find out about the her death until 9am and the time of her death until late the next afternoon – and it was estimated within 5 minutes of the time I heard my name called at least twice. By the way, I couldn’t get home fast enough, it was so real, and I do not normally “hear voices”!) Just recently, I was in a yoga class with my husband and friends when the outside door opened and shut. Three of us looked up – no one was there and no amount of wind could have caused this (it wasn’t windy anyway). One friend asked my husband if he was pulling a trick and he said he wished he could do that! During the yoga rest period, I figured out that it was the 4th anniversary of my mom’s death, and just about the exact time that she had died when the door opened and shut. When I told my husband, he said “yup”, that would be your mom visiting! Another time, one of the phones in my office would ring and ring, and even if you picked it up it wouldn’t stop ringing – until it just would stop. We had it checked a number of times, nothing wrong. Luckily, it happened once when one of my co-workers was there (she decided we needed to get out of there!) and once when my husband came to drop off some papers one Saturday afternoon when I was working. It never happened when I wasn’t there. He decided someone was telling me to “listen”, and I better figure out to what! (he is NOT superstitious, overally religious, etc. but experience makes one a believer.) P.S. My son is gifted (or maybe cursed, since it freaks him out) with the same “sensing” or drawing to him some type of spirit (luckily, it appears only good ones!)
Have fun investigating and writing. You bring new dimensions into the light and it is good and challenging, especially as our booming (NOT)economy has less a hold on people and they are focused more on people and daily lives (not spending money!) Bestest. M
What a wonderful comment, Marge. Thanks for popping by.
I am close to people who have had experiences like what you describe. More than one experience, as well.