I've spent most of my life in the presence of troubled sports teams. Growing up Chicago area. I was always where how long the Cubs had gone without winning a world series title is less a point. In and more a number spot in the collective conscience of everyone around me when I moved boss. In the late nineties, discovered a similar culture. This time centered around the Red Sox again here is a team that has been decades waiting year after year, would be manufactured in piled high in the cart of expectations only to have that are dumped on its side at the end of each season until two thousand, for that is that was the year. Things changed now is a year that brought

the tower of hopelessness and doubt, but our that took eighty six years to construct brick by brick year after year,. And brought it all crashing down, the weight was over. No, I don't wanna talk about baseball today, but I do think that the story of these teams, like the Cubs in the rents have something valuable to teach us about how our minds work. Our ability to justify to explain to make sense of what seems so to not make any sense at all. That's what I find fascinating humans are so very good at finding reasons. Lurking behind the Red Sox eighty six year, wait like a shadow and still hovering over the cubs, R. One hundred seven long years are the excuses. More specifically, the curses, I mean How else are we to explain such droughts? Such logic, define.

gaps in their scorecard. Of course, both of these teams had to be cursed right. but there may no and Billygoat word the first curses in history and they were far from the last and while some persons have been entertaining or even laughable. Others have defied explanation long enough to make people wonder if act. Some have even been deadly. I Marin Monkey, and this is lore. The word curse comes from the old english word: curse just drop the ie and you'll have through the meaning

Is it actually very clear, but one of the uses of the old english word is to denote path or around. Now. I'm no etymology, yes, but I think the word picture here is actually pretty clear. Life is like journey. Sometimes we walk along the path of our choosing and sometimes were pushed off and into the woods it's in those moments, a chaos of the unexpected and the unfortunate that we feel like we have lost control. It's as if someone or something has knocked us off the path we were travelling in those moments, it might be appropriate to say that we ve been cursed. The curses as concept thou and been around since the beginning of humanity earliest examples. A curse was a punishment handed out by a deity to miss, behaving or devious human beings. The story of Adam and Eve in the Christian Bible is full of curses doled out. After the

disobedience to gods, instructions, hard physical work, painful childbirth and expulsion from Paradise are all described as curses. The irish speak of curses as if they were something like birds once a curse is spoken allowed. A second float around the place. tell it finds its intended target. If the receiver wasn't in the room, a curse could drift around for up to seven years, not aimlessly, though the curse was like a heat seeking missile, waiting until the moment when the person would arrive in Scandinavia, nurses were more like bullets, a person, my utter curse at an enemy, but it could be turned back or returned to the speaker where it would. The effects of the curse on the speaker instead Think Harry Potter, one duels. If you will the

Wars of the middle ages also had a very interesting tradition involving curses. It was said, said. If a man followed a prescribed set of rules and requirements, he was allowed to ask others to help him with something important. If, after jumping through all of the correct hoops, his request was still refused A curse was said to descend upon all who refused him, not a specific curse that made up himself but a general social curse, as if tradition itself were punishing the unhelpful people. According to legend, that celtic people of Europe use curses and a powerful way if attend Farmer was fired and evicted from the land that he had been working. He would quickly go and gathers only from all over the property, then he would put those stones in a lit fireplace fall on his knees and pray, and what did he pray for exactly? Well, they break

that, for as long as the stones remain unburdens, every possible curse would do and upon their landlords, his children and all the generations after them, and then, rather than leave the stones in the fireplace where they could eventually become burned, thus ending curses, they would gathered them up and scattered them all across. the countryside. Curses have been there since the beginning, it seems, but over time they have evolved to be more than just. something you do to another person as if they were weapons. Many Stories that we tell on dark nights around camp fires have more to do with the implications is sometimes the horrible tragedies.

life refuse to be explained away without the mention of a deadly curse. We in Prince and of Savoy, told his father in law. sixty seven nanny plan to marry Maria Vittoria, adult bozo, his father Was enraged sure she would. ignoble birth, but she was no princess and she certainly was worthy of the son of a king. He was said to have cursed there, you on the morning of their wedding, Maria's dressmaker, committed suicide. Maria took the hint and found a different dress to wear later, as the bridle party made their way to the palace church in a grand procession, one of the military leaders fell off his horse and died right there in the street,

the wedding procession, continued on no and finally reached the palace gates, only to find them shut, A quick inspection reveal the reason why the gatekeeper, was found in the gatehouse line in a pool of his own blood. The death toll continued, though. Immediately after the wedding, the best and shot himself in the head wedding party headed to the train station and perhaps in an effort to outrun the curse but when they arrived the man who had drafted their marriage contract at a brain hemorrhage and died on spot he was soon followed by the stationmaster, who somehow got pulled under the royal train carriage and was crushed to death, apparently saw a pattern and recalled the entire party to the palace while they were leaving the train, though one of a fell beneath the same train car.

Medallion. On his chest, most likely a gift from the king was pushed through his skin. standing him in the heart. Maria was the final victim of the curse. They say she died in childbirth. At the age of twenty, nine team or the lame or Tamar Lane, as he was known, was the great great grandson of Genghis Khan. Taking the throne and thirteen sixty nine, he was fishes Mungo Warlord and was known for his bloody military campaigns. Captain bill pyramids after his victories now of stone mind you know he preferred to use the heads of the defeated army. Sometimes tens of thousands of He died in fourteen o five and I imagine more than a few people were elated at the news, was buried in an area that we now know, as was Pakistan at large,

slab was placed over his tomb as a safeguard. The stone was inscribed with a word of warning when I arise from the grave it said the world will tremble Some report say that another message referred to a great battle that would be unleashed. Should his grave ever be disturbed. You see where this is going right, the in forty one. Joseph Stalin send a team of soviet archaeologists to look for team as when the low lose back elders, heard of the search and planned excavation. They spoke out in protest. They made reference to an old book it made it clear just how bad of an idea was to open the tomb they spoke of a curse. They spoke, but no one listened on June. Twenty four Nineteen forty one, the tomb of Tamar Lane, was opened skull was removed the very next day. Hitler's forces cross

into the Soviet Union beginning the law just german military operation of war to in. If the second world war a great battle. This was it hands down. The body of Tamar was studied for a year while the Soviet Union was torn apart and destroyed by Hitler's army, all told the Soviet Union lost twenty six point, six million, men and women to the invasion more than any country in human history. Its unclear. Why? But in November of nineteen forty two, the Soviets decided to return timorous body to the tomb complete with a proper islamic burial days

The german invasion was repelled at Stalingrad, finally, pushing them back to the west and marking a turning point in the war. A turning point. Some say that was caused by the curse. The idea of the curse is common throughout folklore. In any popular stories, use it as apply devise a cursed, spinning wheel of sleeping beauty, snow, whites, cursed apple in the curse, brothers of the seven ravens all come to mind, but there's For example, in irish tradition, the tops them all, however obscure it might be. There's an ancient norse work. Call the kings, mirror net. Tell a fascinating story about Saint Patrick MAGIC of course, was known for his work and Christianity throughout Ireland in the fifth century, but he apparently did not always meet

Success on his travels, according to the account say, passion once visited a clan that live in the southern kingdom of Ireland called Ossory, like any other visit, Patrick's mission, Was to bring his message of Christianity through the people there, but it appears that he struck out. The kings mirror goes on to describe how the people of the clan made every effort they could to insult book. Patrick and God he represented Patrick to his credit carried on in tried his best. He preached the same message. He always did then followed the same protocol. Meeting with the clan in their place of assembly. The people wouldn't hear him out. Instead, they did so That might seem incredibly odd to our modern ears. They howled like wolves, it's not that they after him, and it happened so my calling these people literally howled at Saint Patrick.

The reason was incredibly logical, the totem or spirit animal, for this clan happened to be the wolf to them. They were just responding to. message of an outside deity with the sounds of their own. Now this was pretty unheard of for Saint Patrick in the Van This event was recorded in a nurse history book highlights. Just how unusual it was even more unusual was Patrick's response to this stubborn. Insulting clan clearly upset Patrick stop speaking it. Pray? It was said that he asked God to punish the people of the village for their stubbornness. He wasn't specific, but he asked for some form of affliction that would be communal, that would carry on through the generations as a constant reminder of their disobedience. According to the story, God actually listened

We said that the people of our three were forever curse, to become the very thing. they worshiped wolves, but his curse followed a very specific set of rules. Every seven years one couple from knowledge of would be transformed into a wolf. They would be stuck in this. Day and night year after year until the next couple would take over transforming into wolves themselves and part of the curse was said to be, the people of our three maintained their human minds, while in the form of a wolf. But although they thought and spoke as humans, it were equally bound the cravings of their new form, specifically the craving for human flesh this way the curse affected. Everyone from the man and woman transformed to them pull around them who live in constant fear of being attacked.

ever since that day, so the legend goes, the people of our three have been cursed There is media hype and then there's grasping at straws resume people. declaring someone or something to be cursed, adds an air of mystery and drama. It's the sexy bit and sex cells right, for example, the Cannon Family story is sad and tragic, but when we add a dash of curse, we elevated to near mythic proportions. Other people, though, really do believe either they ve experienced the sting of unexplained

misfortune, or they watched the lives of people around them crumble. For no discernible reason, the human mind once answers it demands them. It seeks them out people, love story, but only the ones with closure and that's what curses offer us. The end of the day curses help us make sense of a thing person or place that seem to be haunted by misfortune. The act like a walking stick for people who are having a difficult time stain on the path to help us make sense of life, I can imagine that life in the sixth century in Ireland was incredibly difficult, and it would make sense that eventually, some one would begin to tell stories that try to explain the harshness of that life stories about a curse. Perhaps when someone

failed to return from battle or a hunting trip or even travel between two villages. There was I do not have all the answers stories about attacks from local werewolves certainly did their part in explaining these disappearances, but they were just stories right. Gerald of Wales. Was a twelfth century historian, who recorded something interesting, They had been sent to Ireland by King Henry, the second to record the local history there. According to him, a local priest requested his company. While he was visiting this priest, sat down and told Gerald an amazing tale.

According to the report, he had been traveling near the western border of County Meath close to what would have been ancient artery and had camp for the night in the woods that night, with his fire burning low someone approached him from the darkness beyond the firelight and spoke not mislead. The priestess fright he thought that he had been alone, but the voice of a man called out to him with great urgency. The man spoke of his wife, who was sick at home. He was worried, and wondered if this man of God might come and at least perform last rights for her reluctantly, the priest agreed he gathered up his belongings and followed the voice into the woods. They travelled a short distance until they came to a large hollow tree there. The priest noticed two frightening things:

First, there was something or some one line inside the tree presume The sick, wife, second, though We realize that the voice was not coming from a man at all, but Wolf was taken aback how he asked the Wolf was he able to speak like a man, the wolf's answer was simple centuries. Before he said, is people had been cursed by traveling priest forever doomed to become Since the priest prayed over the man's wife did her illness and the couple

gone by morning, never to be seen again, this episode of Lore was researched, written and produced by me. Aaron, Maggie Lore is much more than upon guess. There's a book series in bookstores around the country and on line and the second season of the Amazon Prime Television show was recently released, check them both out. If you want more lore in your life, I also make two other upon guests.

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