horseshoes

Episode Transcript

(00:16):
We walk a mongst ghosts every day, be it sights of war and strife,
are poverty and horror. The twisting, snaking paths are beautiful but can
lead us to some things undiscovered andterrifying. From the Mississippi Delta to the
jungles of the Far East, thedead demand to be acknowledged. This is

(00:40):
what we do here. Welcome tothe House of Asher. And yes,
hello, welcome to the House ofAsher. I'm your host, Steve Asher.
I hope you guys are doing prettygood. I'm doing all right.

(01:02):
You know, I can't really complain. Sure, things can always be better
for people, but I try tolook toward the positives because there's a lot
of them there, don't get mewrong. You know, everybody wants something
a little bit different. Maybe theywant a nicer house or a nicer car,
or this or that, or moremoney in the bank or whatever.

(01:25):
But the really important stuff, youknow, well, being your health,
family, those are things that youcan't really replace. So that's what I'm
trying to look at. And youknow, it's funny and some people we'll
look at that and sort of putit off to good luck or bad luck,

(01:48):
which kind of touches on what I'mgonna talk about in this particular little
episode which you make. Guys mightbe sorry. You guys may be listening
to me on speaker. Are youTube or iHeart or Spotify spreaker which is
the home base for this, Butwherever you're at, thank you for tuning
in. As I was saying,we think about good luck bad luck.

(02:15):
Of course, we think of fourleaf clovers or rabbits feed. Some people's
got a lucky coin, so heck, you know, some sports people have
lucky socks or lucky shirt. Youknow, they absolutely have to play in
the playoffs with that particular item.Where people by nature are superstitious, and

(02:37):
that's went a long time. That'swent a long way. One of the
things that comes to my mind,especially growing up in the South, is
the horse shoe. Now it dependson where you're at and your beliefs and
all that, but most people think, okay, well, horseshoes up,

(03:00):
that's good luck. Horshes down,well, it's all your luck's gonna fall
out of it. So for whateverreason, the horseshoe is sort of synonymous
with getting something that's more toward thepositive in the luck department. Well,
I don't know if you've ever noticedit, but most early horseshoes were iron,

(03:29):
okay, which you know if youtouch on a lot of different stuff.
I mean that ties in with alot of different folk or I know,
I'm not for sure. The originis probably the oldest that I remember
hearing was the story about the blacksmithand the Devil. Now, this is
an Irish story. Basically, thelongest short of it is there was a

(03:52):
blacksmith and he was hard at workin his shop. Now he was,
of course forging horseshoes and other things. Well, I don't know where the
devil appeared and demanded his own shoes, because apparently the devil does not have
a good shoe shoe designer in hell. I don't know why you would think

(04:15):
it would be, you know,within the rem of his ability to do
stuff. Anyway, Well, theblacksmith took one look at him, recognized
it was the devil. I don'tknow exactly what he looked like, but
he recognized him. Well, hetook a horseshoe was just burning hot right

(04:36):
out of the coals, and nailedit deeply into the devil's hooves. Maybe
the hoofs. That makes sense.Hoos is a pretty good tip off.
But the devil was in such justincredible, excruciating, maddening pain that he

(04:59):
ripped the horse shoes off. I'msurprised he was able to put two of
them on. I figured the devilto be kicking them. He ripped the
horseshoes off and basically swore he wouldnever go near one a horseshoe again.
So basically the tradition of hanging ahorseshoe over the entrance to a house to
ward off evil and dark spirits supposedlywas born again. Like I said,

(05:24):
you've got to remember that iron,like early Western Europeans really believed in that
iron had magical powers, could driveaway evil, and a lot of folk
Lord was just chalk full of talesof mischievous fairies, mystical creatures, different
sort of fay and brownies and stufflike that, that the horseshoes, being

(05:45):
made of iron, would naturally,you know, shun them, and it
was somewhat of a natural protective talisman. Now, this not only touched on
fay necessarily with other magical creatures,as Shrek would say, magical fetti tale
things. So Anyway, there waslegends talked about witches. Apparently they were

(06:09):
also afraid of iron horseshoes. NowI know they would travel by broom instead
of horseback, which I never reallythought about that. Maybe they're freaked out
about horseshoes on the horse. Imean they could rude something else, I
guess. But for whatever reason,the room was a better idea some people,

(06:30):
I believe it was eighth century.Oh, I'm trying to remember who
they were. I can't remember ifthey were Chaladean's or am sure I'm just
pronouncing it. But basically they believedthat the shape of the horseshoe, which
was if you look at it's kindof a crescent, supposedly protected against the

(06:53):
evil eye. Now this made thisa good luck charm. Okay, now
now even people in Kentucky know this. You know, also they talk about
the hose and a horseshoe. It'snot a random design. There's usually seven
holes. Now number seven, andthere's revere across different cultures, and it

(07:13):
is, you know, thinking aboutit, seven continents, seven seas,
seven colors in a rainbow, sevendays and a week. All this is
associated with the number seven amplifies it'slucky Aura. Now, I don't know
if that's particularly true. Again,as I mentioned earlier, some people think
resembling a you kept the good luckfrom spilling out. I don't know,

(07:35):
uh that God care very well couldbe. And some people believe that the
hills down orientation showered blessings onto thosewho passed beneath it. So it's again,
it's from what culture you're from.I've heard some people say maybe the
solutions. I have two horseshoes,one upside, one facing up, one

(07:56):
facing down, so you know,either way you kind of hang your bets.
I don't know of you think onewould cancel the other one out,
But I don't know. You know, to me, it was always a
very quirky, quirky thing, andI know it's it's funny because like when
I was a kid, we'd playhorseshoes. So I don't know what the

(08:20):
significant significance of that was. Inever felt particularly lucky playing horseshoes, but
it maybe just having those around.And when I was a kid, were
there metal. Everything's plastic now andall that, and I mean, but
this is also the time of lawndarts, so it was kind of an
early time, but we survived,right gen X, here we are.

(08:46):
But I do think that I justthink my nature were hardwired for superstition.
I think we're hardwired for believing thisis a lucky whatever this is, you
know, step on a crack,break your mother's back, that kind of
thing. It just seems that wecan't quite escape it. I mean,

(09:13):
we're a lot more advanced, Iguess we're in a lot of ways when
we were one hundred and two hundredyears ago, But we still have these
these traditions and these quirky little things, if nothing more in in you know,
artwork, and just things that wedon't even consider it really being a
superstition. We just consider it somesort of like local quirky, you know,

(09:37):
thing like that. Like I said, I mean, how many times
have you walked into a place that, you know, an older place that
had a horseshoe, or an olderhome that would have wagon wheels, which
some peoples like, well what dothey have wagon wheels? Will usually they
were made out of iron. Soagain another sort of talisman to help protect
against something. I've heard people talkabout wind chimes, which supposedly would scare

(10:01):
off creatures, but I don't knowwhere those early ones made of iron.
Maybe it also served that purpose.I really don't know, but I would
be curious what you feel about it. If you guys want, leave a
comment. And as always, ifyou like what I do here and you
want me to keep doing stuff likethis, send me some idea, send

(10:24):
me some suggestions. Criticisms are alwaysgreat. It's almost as productive. I
appreciate it, and tell me whatyou think about it. Tell me some
weird superstitions from your family, ormaybe depending on where you're at you're part
of the world. I would bevery interested to kind of see what you

(10:46):
know, what you grew up with. And maybe you didn't grow up with
any superstitions at all, but Ialmost can bet you there was something,
some oddball little thing. You maynot even realize it's a superstition, but
odds are has some route. Somebasis in a superstition are at least wishful

(11:09):
thinking. Let's just say that.But I want you enjoy the rest of
your day. Get out there andhave some fun. Don't worry about all
this other stuff. But as thesun sets behind the pines and the shadows
grow long, look down your hallway, Look down in your basement, look

(11:35):
out toward the winding hillside behind yourhome and back in the back deep valleys.
Watch you out, two dose.Maybe there's good luck for you there
there, and there's bad luck therefor your h house. But remember there's
learning in fear, so always takethe opportunity to face your fears and learn

(11:56):
something. I love you guys,thank you so much for tuning in it
and as always, do your listenersteady excuse it, M.