Old Traditions: The Mystical & Supernatural

How many people remember the old stories about persons who were born with special gifts? And the stories of the scary occurances?

I remember the mysticism that surrounded unusual births; like a child being born with a veil/caul over its face, a breech baby or even twins. The child born with the veil has supernatural powers. They could communicate with the dead and/or see into the future. After reading two books by Tina McElroy Ansa "Baby of the Family" and "The Hand I Fan With" I realise that African people in the USA shared many of those beliefs with old-time Dominicans.

If a baby was born left handed then it would always be protected from obeah spells from others. No socouyants or lougahoo could scare them. The foot first baby from what I remember would be a blessing to its mother in adulthood b/c its birth was far from anything anybody could call a blessing. For twins, I just know that they are viewed with a bit of awe and wonderment. You are just downright special b/c you are connected to another human in ways nobody can explain or understand.

I fall into three of these categories. I am a foot first baby, the side of a twin and I am left handed. I eh know about any of these special powers...my twin brother and I are not as close as I am with my other sibs... as kids we fought on a daily basis.

My left handedness has brougt me frustration more than anything else, especially as a child. My parents at least gave up forcing me into using my right hand as they had done for an older brother but I was made to operate in a right-handed world without adjustments. I could not change the cutlery settings for meals for example...could not switch the sides of the glass or knife and was not allowed to turn my books at weird angles to write either.

Lawd di foot first ting well my mum had twins and then I had to come first and foot first ontop of all that. LAWD! I guess I owe her quite a bit in my adult life then....but it is not for this that I make sure that my mum is well taken care of to the best of my abilities. It is b/c she was a super mum who did wonders in dire circumstances.

Anybody else knows about these things? Maybe if you have an old grandmother around, you should have a go down memory lane with her...see what else they believed in, back then.
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Comments

Abeni said…
First time am hearing about lefthanded persons being protected from obeah spells.I heard about the caul though and actually knew of a girl born with one who reportedly saw spirts
ThandieLand said…
Yes girl, obeah spells it is said are often done with an item handled by the victim.

The lefthand handled items seem to upset the whole works, the whole balance of things, the natural order of things. It is like everything is moving clockwise and all systems are set up for that kind of motion and then bram you get one thing going anti-clockwise; chaos everything gone haywire.
Left handed people are indeed special. Don't know about being protected but I once read that left handed people don't have strokes. Not sure how true that is.
Anonymous said…
Y'all dotties too silly! Believing in ghosts! who ever heard of such a thing? How come none of y'all never personally see a ghost and only know somebody who know somebody who see one?
Unknown said…
I have seen a ghost, I'm really into science so I believe it could be an hallucination, but I know what I saw, still remember till now, it was about 5 years ago...

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