Show WHY of superstitions by H KINQ SHOOTING STARS THERE are various superstitions connected with shooting stars or meteorites in this country and in england the most common ones are that a falling star means a and that if you wish when you see a star fall you will get your wish abo of the heavenly bodies to the primitive mind caused them to be re carded as gods or the abodes of gods and endowed them with a living aal anal character as well as a spiritual one and out of the belief that the latars in their course influenced hu man life sprang the pseudo science of astrology in which the position of the planets at the hour of a mans birth played so important a part the cast ing of nativities nativi ties or horoscopes F from earliest times the mastery of birth and the mystery of the stars ap pear to have been joined in some way in the primitive mind naturally therefore primitive man saw in a falling star a celestial visitant from the realms of the gods a new soul come to earth as does the persistent i primitive in man today when seeing a shooting star one man remarks to another nil we 11 hear of a birth in the neighborhood tomorrow wishing on the shooting star Is a remnant of the primitive tendency to the meteorite la a god suddenly manifesting himself and to him you appeal for the fulfillment of your wish this idea will be found in the beliefs of many savage peoples today the bew zealand natives for instance say that a falling star Is a god kicked out of heaven by a god stronger than himself once in a while we run across the superstition that a falling star means not a birth but a death this belief la prevalent in the italian mountains and in northern continental europe nd Is sometimes found in this coun try it comes from the old astrologi cal idea that a man Is born under a certain star with which his destiny Is linked ahen a meteorite plunges earthward blazes and disappears some ones star has fallen and gone out naturally Tatu rally the person whose star it Is dies by newspaper syndicate |