Omens and Superstitions from the Ancient World to the 21st Century
In the Ancient World, omens often related to important matters relating to the king and the land, such as “[If] a white sheep mounts a she-goat—disagreement in the land.” Today we are more likely to interpret omens such as repeating digital numbers (11:11, 222), finding feathers, tech glitches (like a phone freezing), and unexpected synchronicities, in a personal sense.
Omens are often found in dreams and are surprisingly consistent across cultures, although minor details might change. For example, the famous “red sky at night or morning” changes from shepherds to sailors, depending on whether it is found on the coast or the countryside. Other omens are more localised and often depend upon a specific location or community. The one thing they all have in common is a belief that the unseen world can shape and inform our lives, predicting events and warning of future misfortunes.
Join Dr Julia Phillips on this fascinating glimpse into a supernatural world, filled with omens, dreams, and superstitions.
Speaker Bio
Julia Phillips is Hon Senior Research Associate at the University of Bristol and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. She received her PhD for her research examining how witches and witchcraft were featured in newspapers in Victorian Britain. Her primary research interests are the study of witchcraft in the nineteenth century and the development of modern Pagan Witchcraft in the twentieth century. Julia is author of The Persistence of Witchcraft in Victorian England (Routledge, 2026).
Hosted by:
Lena Schattenherz Heide-Brennand is a Norwegian lecturer with a master degree in language, culture and literature from the University of Oslo and Linnaeus University. She has been lecturing and teaching various subjects since 1998. Her field of interest and main focus has always been topics that others have considered strange, eccentric and eerie, and she has specialised in a variety of dark subjects linked to folklore, mythology and Victorian traditions and medicine. Her students often point out her thorough knowledge about the subjects she is teaching, in addition to her charismatic appearance. She refers to herself as a performance lecturer and always gives her audience an outstanding experience
Caption: CC0 Public Domain
don’t worry if you miss it – we will send you a recording valid for two weeks the next day
