You are listening to An Ounce. Season 6, Episode 13, Saturn, Jupiter and Mars; and the Black Death
On March 20th, 1345 a great calamity befell the human race. It began in the heavens, and crept forward across the earth with tragic and lethal consequences. In Asia, the Middle east, and Europe - the lives of 25 million or more were lost.
What happened?
Why?
How could such a thing occur?
Black and Purple Spots
Over the remainder of the 14th century, as soon as someone complained of a headache, they became suspect. This might be accompanied by fever and chills. Then the tongue might begin to swell, and turn a white-ish color. The lymph nodes would swell. Finally, black and purple spots began to appear on the skin. And when they did, the outcome was all but certain – death would follow in a week or less.
This was a very real and agonizing reality for those who contracted the Black Death, and those who lost loved ones to it.
The reason, according to scholars at the university of Paris at the time, was because of what happened in the sky on March 20th, 1945. That was the night that Saturn, Jupiter and Mars came together in an alignment. This triple conjunction within the 40th degree of Aquarius was the event that created a horrible plague.
But perhaps… that planets in alignment thing might not have had a thing to with it.
Because it might also have been a curse from an angry God.
Or those foreigners
or jews
or pagans
or it coulda’ been the gypsies, who traveled through last week.
Or maybe - those people poisoned our wells.
People in such bewildering and desperate circumstances need to find the why – and figure what to do about it. But, just as in our own society today – people were not always right.
In one case, in 1348, Twenty Thousand Jews were burned to death in Strasbourg - stop the plague - or to appease God - or exact revenge - or something.
Something Bad was in the Air.
Or, maybe it was just bad air?
But there was hope to avoid this horrible curse –
One could simply – avoid the bad air, by becoming a hermit and abandon civilization and people.
One might choose to sit next to a blazing hot fire.
Or you might attack any strangers or foreigners who traveled through.
And, there was the practice of carrying flowers all the time, or constantly inhaling the scents of spices and herbs.
And if you were a physician, you could scare the evil and angry spirits away by wearing a frightening bird beak mask, heavy robes with a hood, and heavy boots… and don’t forget to stuff the beak of the mask with spices and herbs. Then you could get close enough to the ill to drain them of their blood with leaches, or cut the lesions off, or even cauterize the black and purple sores with a red-hot iron – because that worked great.
As ridiculous as bizarre as some of this may seem, it was a time of fear, all thy had was superstition, guesses, and some (as we see it now) odd logic. In desperation, folks were left to grasp at anything they could find, anything that made some kind of sense to them. People were dying.
As sure as some at the time might have been about why, and what to do about it…. People kept dying – and nobody really had it figured out.
People were/Are kinda Simple
Now – before we judge the ignorance of the past too harshly, let’s take a look at the now – just to prove to ourselves that ridiculous superstations have no place in our lives today –
Well, except for Friday the 13th…
Or the lucky shirt that helps my sports team win.
And the lucky socks – well, they always work.
Or the fact that every time I wash the car, it rains.
And black cats, walking under ladders, and pitching a salt over my shoulder are just … well… stuff we need to pay attention to. Don’t be laughing at me – and give me back my lucky penny.
And, everybody knows, bad stuff always happens in threes!
So … Here’s An Ounce - from our brief look at superstition and the human need to make sense of things.
And, just as with any story, there are many little “ounce sized nuggets of wisdom” to be uncovered. For now, might I suggest just this one -
When humans can’t make sense of something, when something seems to come out of the blue, and when there is no direct link in our mind from cause to effect – our brains will try to find one. And, thus we become the victims of Cause-and-Effect Fallacy, or Faulty Logic.
Even the most logical among us are vulnerable to this. That’s why scientists invented the whole hypothesis thing – they are trying to find a reason, a cause, some logic, or an answer – because that the way our brains work.
On some level or another - Everyone wants to know why.
And, that’s it. An Ounce, submitted for your consideration.