Walking under Ladders
It is probably not unreasonable to believe that some misfortune could come from walking under a ladder leaning against a wall. However, the roots of superstitions about leaning ladders are much less practical in origin. Some believe that the fear relates to ladders and gallows. As felons went up the ladder of the gallows to their death and their corpse returned the same way, the widespread belief was that their restless spirit lurked under the ladder. However, the idea of the unluckiness of walking under ladders is much older and esoteric.
A ladder, the wall it leans upon and the floor supporting it, combine to form a triangle, a geometric shape that has long had sacred connotations and one that is linked to one of the most widely accepted sacred numbers: the number three. For many, this number relates to the Christian Holy Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. To walk between the ladder and the wall is to break the trinity and so commit an act of blasphemy for which the punishment was ill luck. However, the concept of the Trinity itself is far older than Christianity. It is an integral part of many other, more ancient belief systems.
Hinduism, considered to be the oldest operational religion in use in the world, believe that their ‘supreme spirit’, Brahman, who was symbolized by the symbol ‘om,’ despite being all-encompassing had three main aspects: Brahma the creator, Vishnu the preserver and Shiva the destroyer. Other western traditions also had their ‘triads’ The Romans had Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva of the Capitoline tradition, whereas, for the Greeks, Zeus, Neptune, and Hades formed a ruling triad. The furies came in threes, as did the graces and the harpies and “The mysterious three” of Scandinavian mythology: ‘Har”(high), ‘Jafenhar’ (equally high) and ‘Thridi’ (the third) sat on three thrones in Asgard.
The philosopher and mystic Pythagoras, who lived in the sixth century BC, believed that mathematics displayed the order of the cosmos. His famous theorem involved the relationship between the three sides of a triangle. Pythagoras believed that three was the universal number. Some scholars think that Pythagoras was merely refining and documenting an existing concept of the triangle as the Egyptian the symbol of life. Either way, to break through the symbol of life and its associated number was a sacrilegious notion that carried on throughout the centuries.
Not all superstitions surround symbols. There are superstitions about animals too, with certain creatures being lucky and unlucky depending on your culture.