The Luckiest Day of the Year

There is an old legend that tells that the archangel, Gabriel, revealed this day as one of the luckiest of the year.  On this day, July 12th, it is healing, planting, house building, traveling, and even waging war will supposedly proceed without a problem.   It is also said that children  born on this date is destined for a life of great wealth and success.  A new job begun today would be successful...

...but, if you feel as if you need a little more luck, how about a good luck charm?   A good luck charm is any object that you think brings you luck.  Talismans are general good luck charms. Amulets can be either natural or crafted by hand. Natural amulets are of many kinds: the feathers of birds, animal hooves, horns, teeth, and claws, bones, stones, plants and grasses. Smoothly polished pebbles are carried for good luck, and are called  lucky stones.

Do horseshoes really bring good luck?  Some people swear that horseshoes bring good luck; others say it's just a silly superstition. The idea of horseshoes as good luck charms started centuries ago, probably with the Celts.  They believed that iron repelled fairies so if one hung a horseshoe on their door, they just might keep the fairy folk from bothering their household. To have the luckiest horseshoe possible, it is said that you have to find it and not buy it, and that it must have been worn and lost by a horse. Then you have to hang it points up over your doorway.  Some say you should hang it points down so that the luck pours down over you. 

A rabbit's foot is one of the best-known good-luck charms and is still in common usage today. Seen as a symbolic guard against evil spirits, it is sometimes hung over a cot to protect a sleeping baby.  The rabbit foot
The rabbit foot as a lucky object has its origins in African-American folklore, specifically the practices associated with hoodoo, or folk magic.

The four-leaf clover, which originated in the Celts and Druids of the British Isles, is probably the most famous of all good-luck symbols, depicted over and over on lottery tickets, greeting cards and lucky-charm amulets and jewels.  The Druids believed that whoever found a four-leaf clover would be granted special power to see witches and evil spirits who roam the earth in order to provoke mischief and misery.  Each leaf is said to stand for something:  the first for faith; the second for hope; the third for love; and the fourth for luck.  

Create some good luck charms of your own. Choose something small that you can keep with you all the time, perhaps in your pocket, purse, or car. Every time you recall your lucky charm, by spotting it or touching it, look around! Say, "Is there a lucky opportunity somewhere here that I am missing?" A treasured object that someone has given you makes an extremely powerful good luck charm because of the personal associations it provides. It is also common today for many people to wear what they consider to be a lucky shirt, coat, dress, or jewelry on special occasions.

Hope the gods/goddesses are looking down on you!

“A farmer travelling with his load Picked up a horseshoe on the road, And nailed if fast to his barn door, That luck might down upon him pour; That every blessing known in life Might crown his homestead and his wife, And never any kind of harm Descend upon his growing farm.” --James Thomas Fields