The first reflections man had of himself were found gazing into pools, ponds, or lakes. If the image became distorted in any way, it was a mark of impending disaster or a corruption of his soul. When he became more civilized he used polished stone, such as obsidian, to reflect his images. Then came mirrors of polished metal, but they were small and heavy and used mostly for decoration.
The Romans, Greeks, Chinese, Africans, and Indian cultures, believed that a mirror had the power to confiscate part of the user's soul. If the user should break a mirror it would mean his or her soul would be trapped inside the 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 origin of the ‘seven years of bad luck for breaking a mirror’ superstition can be traced back to the Romans, who were the first to create glass mirrors. They believed that a person's physical body renewed itself every seven years, which meant it would take seven years before the user's soul would be fully restored. Until the seven years passed, 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.
There are several different ways of warding off the ill luck caused by breaking a mirror:
* Throw salt over your shoulder.
* Directly after breaking the mirror, turn around three times counterclockwise.
* Since the pieces can still reflect the corrupted soul, grind the shards into a fine powder.
* Gather the broken mirror pieces and submerge them in the waters of a south-running stream.
This will wash away the bad luck after only seven hours rather than seven days.
* Burn the mirror, or at least blacken its shards in the flames of a fire. Save the fragments for a year and then bury them, and the curse will be counteracted.
* On the first night after breaking the mirror, light seven white candles and blow them out at midnight in one breath.
* Touch a tombstone with a piece of the mirror and the hex will be lifted.
* Bury the pieces under a tree during a full moon.
Other Mirror Superstitions:
John Dee, alchemist and court magician of Queen Elizabeth I, used a mirror for scrying. He has been credited with prophesying the plot to kill King James in 1605.
It is said that having a large number of mirrors in the home is lucky because of the mirror's ability to deflect evil and attract good.
The mirror is symbolic of, among other things, money. Hang one beside the table in the dining room or kitchen to attract wealth and food to the home.
Ideally, no mirror should be hung so low that it "cuts off" the tallest household member's head (doing so may cause headaches). However, mirrors shouldn't be hung too high either.
If you feel sad or troubled while home alone with no one to talk to and no apparent way to control your blue mood, stand before a mirror and gaze into your eyes. Your anxiety should disappear.
Any mirrors in a room where someone has recently died, must be covered so that the dead person's soul does not get trapped behind the glass. Superstition has it that the Devil invented mirrors for this very purpose.
To see an image of her future husband, a woman is told to eat an apple while sitting in front of a mirror and then brush her hair. An image of the man will appear behind her shoulder.
To see your reflection in a mirror is to see your own soul, which is why a vampire, who is without a soul, has no reflection.
If a couple first catch sight of each other in a mirror, they will have a happy marriage.
If a mirror falls and breaks by itself, someone in the house will soon die.
It is bad luck to see your face in a mirror when sitting by candlelight.
Someone seeing their reflection in a room where someone has recently died will soon die themselves.
Actors believe that it is bad luck to see their reflection while looking over the shoulder of another person.
Babies should not look into a mirror for the first year of their lives.
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