Broken Mirror

Blogroll Me!
I went to gather some more of my belongings today only to discover that the mirror that my partner snagged from the dumpster is now broken and in the pathway. I remember thinking the other day that I would have left that giant mirror in the dumpster as I would not want to chance breaking it. I broke a mirror once and I had at least 7 years bad luck. I had no idea there was/is a remedy. My partner doesn't really recognize such superstitions so I probably shouldn't say anything to her about the remedy. She was very mean yesterday when I was trying to help her. She is not receptive to any other ideas but her own It would probably be counterproductive to try to help her with this new development as I believe her problem is hoarding. That will probably generate much more than 7 years of bad luck.

The origin of the "break a mirror, face seven years of bad luck" superstition can be traced back to the Romans, who were the first to create glass mirrors. Just because your culture invents something totally useful like a mirror doesn't mean you can't still have some irrational beliefs about its use. The Romans, along with the Greek, Chinese, African and Indian cultures, believed that a mirror had the power to confiscate part of the user's soul. If the user's reflected image became distorted in any way, this could mean a corruption of his or her soul.

To make bad matters even worse, if the user should break a mirror it would mean his or her soul would be trapped inside the Bizarro world the mirror represented. Essentially, a broken mirror created a broken soul, which in turn lead to the broken health of the unfortunate user. The Romans also believed that a person's physical body renewed itself every seven years, so under that criteria it would take seven years before the user's soul would be fully restored. Up until then, life for a mirror breaker would be one long string of unfortunate events, since he or she no longer had a healthy soul to ward off spiritual evil-doers.

Fortunately, there are also a number of rituals which are said to counteract the very bad hair day created when you break a mirror. Since the pieces of the mirror can still reflect the corrupted soul, the entire mirror should be ground into dust. No reflection, no problem. It is also suggested that after you break a mirror, you should invest in a shovel and bury the pieces under a tree during a full moon. African slaves working in America believed the bad luck could be washed away by placing the pieces in a river flowing in a southerly direction.