Mirrors and Superstition


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http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/velazquez/velazquez.meninas.jpg

Las Meninas (The Maids of Honour), or the Family of Philip IV: Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velázquez, 1656-1657 (Museo del Prado, Madrid)


I'm not superstitious about mirrors.


File:Las Meninas mirror detail.jpg

Las Meninas (The Maids of Honour), or the Family of Philip IV (detail): Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velázquez, 1656-1657 (Museo del Prado, Madrid)


But then I avoid mirrors religiously,



Las Meninas (The Maids of Honour), or the Family of Philip IV (detail): Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velázquez, 1656-1657 (Museo del Prado, Madrid)

and I don't really know why this should be so,



Las Meninas (The Maids of Honour), or the Family of Philip IV (detail): Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velázquez, 1656-1657 (Museo del Prado, Madrid)

for in truth there is nothing to be feared from a mirror,



Las Meninas (The Maids of Honour), or the Family of Philip IV (detail): Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velázquez, 1656-1657 (Museo del Prado, Madrid)


perhaps it is merely because I am a religious person,




Las Meninas (The Maids of Honour), or the Family of Philip IV (detail): Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velázquez, 1656-1657 (Museo del Prado, Madrid)


not a superstitious one,



Las Meninas (The Maids of Honour), or the Family of Philip IV (detail): Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velázquez, 1656-1657 (Museo del Prado, Madrid)


or then again, perhaps it is because



File:Meninas detail Don José Nieto Velázquez.jpg

Las Meninas (The Maids of Honour), or the Family of Philip IV (detail): Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velázquez, 1656-1657 (Museo del Prado, Madrid)



there is so much to be feared from everything else.


London Character Shoes, business in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. View into mirror

London Character Shoes, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, view into mirror: photo by Gottso-Schleisner, Inc., 1948 (Gottscho-Schleisner Collection, Library of Congress)