From the curse of the lottery winners to the good feng shui of a local restaurant, this quirky, wacky, weird, and wonderful collection of superstitions uncovers the truth about some of our most familiar beliefs, as well as others that are much stranger. It turns out that everywhere in the world, people still put their trust in luck, magic, and mystery. By the end of this look at the bizarre world of illogic it’s clear: superstition is alive and well...and really spellbinding!

Across all cultures and spanning centuries, superstitions rooted in cultural legends and myths have formed and influenced daily life. Superstitions: A Handbook of Folklore, Myths, and Legends from around the World​ explains how and why these legends and the associated behaviors behind them developed, accompanied by beautiful illustrations. In this definitive reference, you’ll learn the fascinating and often bizarre histories of a comprehensive range of superstitions from around the world. For example, the belief that one will have seven years' bad luck if you break a mirror is said to come from the Romans, who were the first to create glass mirrors. And in Japanese culture, cutting your nails at night is thought to lead to a quick death because the two phrases sound similar. You’ll also find out why some superstitions vary from culture to culture. For instance, the “unlucky” number 13 is considered a bad omen in some countries, like the US, and “lucky” in other countries, like Italy—where the number 17 is considered unlucky. The information is organized by country, so you can easily investigate the popular superstitions linked to your own or other specific ethnic heritage or cultural identity. Satisfy your burning curiosity with this complete guide to superstitions, folklore, and myths. The Mystical Handbook series from Wellfleet takes you on a magical journey through the wonderful world of spellcraft and spellcasting. Explore a new practice with each volume and learn how to incorporate spells, rituals, blessings, and cleansings into your daily routine. These portable companions feature beautiful foil-detail covers and color-saturated interiors on a premium paper blend. Other titles in the series include: Witchcraft, Love Spells, Moon Magic, Knot Magic, and House Magic.

Artist Mark Menjivar was in an antique bookshop in Fort Wayne, Indiana, when he found 4 four-leaf clovers pressed between the yellowed pages of an aged copy of 1000 Facts Worth Knowing. Their discovery beguiled Menjivar so much that he began a multiyear exploration into the concept of luck and its intersections with belief, culture, superstition, and tradition in people’s lives. Menjivar has spent hours and days engaging people in airplanes, tattoo shops, bingo halls, international grocery stores, public parks, baseball stadiums, and voodoo shops—and out on the streets and in their homes. Along the way he documented his findings to create a physical archive that contains hundreds of objects (rings, underwear, food items, clovers, horses, pigs, herbs, rainbows, lottery strategies, seeds, day trader insights, statues, patches, crystals, spices) and the stories and pictures that go with them. Through photographs and first person accounts, The Luck Archive takes the best of these ideas, thoughts, and objects and gives readers a glimpse into the cultures and superstitions of a colorful array of humanity.

Lush canyons with Sycamore and cottonwood trees, rugged mountains with towering ponderosa pines and alligator juniper tree, hidden creeks and waterfalls, majestic deserts and wildflowers, prehisatoric ruins, abandoned mines, prospector camps and ranches--all in a National Forest Wilderness less than a hour from Phoenix, Arizona. In addition to providing directions to these spectacular places, this guide brings alive the colorful history of the Superstitions.

Arizona’s Superstition Mountains are like no other mountain range in the continental United States. The ancestral ground of the western Apache and sacred heights of the neighboring Pima, these mountains were once a veritable no-man’s land of soaring cliffs, dead-end box canyons, and eerie hoodoos of stone, marking them as one of the last places on earth that any person would dare to tread. While this range appears on the surface to be a veritable nature lover’s paradise with towering saguaro cactus forests, desert wildflowers, and roadrunners, it is also home to rattlesnakes, plants and animals that stick, sting, or bite, and modern gun-toting, dry-gulchers. In fact, in the last century, the Superstition Mountains have claimed the lives of more than 500 visitors, marking it as the West’s deadliest wild area. Part hiking guide, part history book, Superstitions: Hiking the Ghost Trails of Mystery Mountain vividly brings the supernatural beauty, mystery, and majesty of this unique area to life.Within the pages of Superstitions, readers will first be swept up in the legends of the Superstition Mountains, encountering colorful historical characters such as 1840s gold prospectors, brave-hearted Apaches, and sly outlaws. Readers will encounter the native flora and fauna of the range, from poisonous rattlesnakes to rare flowers. And finally, an in-depth guide to every trail in the range, will satisfy even the most experienced of hikers.Including a foldout map and dozens of original photos, Superstitions belongs on the shelf, or in the backpack, of every history buff and every veteran hiker.

Do you touch wood for luck, or avoid hotel rooms on floor thirteen? Would you cross the path of a black cat, or step under a ladder? Is breaking a mirror just an expensive waste of glass, or something rather more sinister? Despite the dominance of science in today's world, superstitious beliefs - both traditional and new - remain surprisingly popular. A recent survey of adults in the United States found that 33 percent believed that finding a penny was good luck, and 23 percent believed that the number seven was lucky. Where did these superstitions come from, and why do they persist today? This Very Short Introduction explores the nature and surprising history of superstition from antiquity to the present. For two millennia, superstition was a label derisively applied to foreign religions and unacceptable religious practices, and its primary purpose was used to separate groups and assert religious and social authority. After the Enlightenment, the superstition label was still used to define groups, but the new dividing line was between reason and unreason. Today, despite our apparent sophistication and technological advances, superstitious belief and behaviour remain widespread, and highly educated people are not immune. Stuart Vyse takes an exciting look at the varieties of popular superstitious beliefs today and the psychological reasons behind their continued existence, as well as the likely future course of superstition in our increasingly connected world. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.