HORSE-SHOE SUPERSTITIONS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19803, 19 May 1934, Page 11

HORSE-SHOE SUPERSTITIONS

THE SYMBOL OF ISIS. Which side up should you hang a horse-shoe—There is no question, of course, about its luck-bringing qualities. In the old tradition it is most potent if you find it, but still efficacious if you buy it or borrow it off a horse. According to one book, the horseshoe of good omen is not a horse-shoe at all, but merely the crescent moon. “The most common symbol of Isis was a crescent moon which was worn by Roman women upon their shoes as a safeguard against witchcraft, and to prevent the evil spirits or the moon from afflicting them with delusions, hysteria, or lunacy; also to attract the good will of Isis, that they might be successful in love, happy in motherhood, and fortunate in life.” In all the crests of noble families, such as the Ferrers (or fariers), who adopted the horse-shoe as a symbol, the points were downwards. They are thus in the arms of William de Ferrers, Earl of Ferrers, in 1254, at a time when

a belief In luck, pixies, witches and similar phenomena was unclouded by philosophic doubts. On the whole, research shows that the “Points Upward School” has the verdict. Nelson had a horse-shoe nailed with points upwards to the mast of the Victory, and in the country districts of England the belief is universal that unless the points are upwards, the luck will run out.