Some superstitions are just superstition. Nothing more. To a causist, any event or happening may influence the outcome if the preceding event has a direct effect on the next happening. In some Western cultures some people, whose path is crossed by a black cat, will return home if necessary to avoid the evil, which is expected to befall on him that day. When a group of smokers light up using matches, the burning match is blown out after the second smoker has lit up.

The origin of the three in a match bad luck started with the Indian wars. When the match is struck for the first smoker, the Indian will notice the light. He loads his muzzle-loading rifle with powder and ball while the second smoker will light up. By the time the third smoker lights his cigarette, the Indian had aimed and shot. The third will be unlucky if hit. Here fishermen who mostly rely upon luck in fishing trips are most superstitious. There are those who believe that bringing garlic when fishing will bring bad luck. Fishermen also believe that using bamboo sticks, which had been part of those used in making wreaths for the dead will surely bring bad luck. Unlike the three on a match, those beliefs had no origins. How it came to be practiced is anybody's guess.

There are those who believe in lucky days and unlucky days. Feng Shui if you will. Three days ago was Friday the 13th in the month of October. To the superstitious, any Friday 13th of any month is a day that will bring dire consequences to the unwary. Not only that. Friday is the day when Jesus Christ died. Thirteen is an unlucky number. Jesus was the thirteen of the group. When they fall together in the calendar, this day is considered to bring bad luck.

The superstition might have started some seven hundred years ago. October 13, 1307 was a Friday. Philippe IV of France sometimes called Philippe the Fair- there was nothing fair about him - ordered that all possessions of the Knights Templars of France be seized and all knights of the Order be imprisoned. The fates of the arrested Templars were effectively sealed. They were tried and many were subjected to torture. The Templars were accused of worshiping a devil called Baphomet. They were accused of homosexuality, infanticide, ritually denying Christ, trampling and spitting on the cross. From 1307 to 1314 Philippe hounded the so mercilessly that when Jacques de Molay the Grand Master and Geoffroi de Charnay, preceptor of Normandy were roasted top death over a slow fire in March 1314, the Templars vanished from history.

The Knights Templars is a knightly Order founded by the French knights in Jerusalem . One of the founders was a nephew of St. Bernard. The objective of those knights was to protect pilgrims on their visit to the holy places in Palestine . They furnished fighting men during the Crusades. Their contacts with Arabic and Judaic cultures enable them to acquire knowledge and business acumen not available to the European ruling class. Their Order grew and prospered. They were efficient, better organized and were able to amassed wealth. Philippe coveted their immense wealth besides he owed them money. The wealth and power of the Templars were their undoing. The soldiers of Christ who protected pilgrims and furnished a formidable fighting arm in the Crusades were accused of heresy and abominable practices. Those who were caught were tried, tortured and executed. Though he was able to eliminate the Templars from France , he never laid hand on their wealth. Neither did he survive them for long. Philippe died in the same year Jacque de Molay and Geoffroi de Charnay died.