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+--- Thread: Knock on Wood (/showthread.php?tid=2331)
Knock on Wood - FlickerOfLight - 09-05-2024
Before modern religions came around to spoil the party with their rules about idolatry, many pagan groups and other cultures—from Ireland to India to elsewhere in the world—worshipped or mythologized trees. Some people used trees as oracles. Some incorporated them into worship rituals. And some, like the ancient Celts, regarded them as the homes of certain spirits and gods.
The first possible origin of the phrase knock on wood is that it’s a more modern equivalent to the ruckus that pagan Europeans raised to chase evil spirits away from their homes or to prevent them from hearing about, and thereby ruining, a person’s good luck
The other suggested origin is that some of these tree worshippers laid their hands on a tree when asking for favor from the spirits or gods who lived inside it, and they would touch and thank the tree after a run of good luck as a show of gratitude to these supernatural powers. Over the centuries, the religious rite may have morphed into the superstitious knock that acknowledges luck and keeps it going.
“In either case, you are seeking protection against envy and anger,” Bechtel wrote. “The envy of evil spirits and the anger of the gods, who take a dim view on mortals bearing too much pride, and who get especially annoyed when they’re responsible for your run of good luck and you’re not grateful.”
Another possibility? That it simply came from Tig Touch-Wood, a Victorian-era children’s game. As described in the 1891 book The Boy's Modern Playmate, “Tig” is the person who is “It,” and after a number of trees have been chosen as bases, “as long as the player is touching one of these authorized posts, Tig cannot touch him; his only chance is to catch him while flitting from one post to another.”
But for anyone who may be superstitious, we’re sure knocking on wood is no child’s play.
It's eery to think of how many of these little "rituals" we've been doing for so long are actually deeply rooted in pagan mystical magick and, in this case, the worship of trees. Essentially, asking the "tree gods" to ward of evil spirits by knocking on wood.
Looks like it could be considered Idolatry to "knock on wood," apparently.
Who knew...¿
https://ssnews.page.link/nvYg7TUA5pwbQxwE9