Snails, Spirits, and Superstitions

Today I had a weird and terrifying dream and I knew instantly I had to write about it while it’s fresh. Before I forget the details.

I was walking toward the dining table, where my sister and a few unfamiliar people were already seated. There were empty seats, and I was about to take one across from two women I didn’t know. One of them looked distressed, like something unseen was bothering her, her head was down while the woman beside her looks like she’s trying to comfort her. The air was heavy, thick with something invisible but undeniably there. A bad spirit. We all felt it.

Just as I was about to sit, my sister stopped me and said: “You have to cut your leg before sitting down.”

What?! She didn’t mean literally cutting my leg for sure, so I asked what she meant. She gestured for me to trace a line across my leg with my finger. I didn’t fully get it, but I sat down anyway. While I’m about to fully sat on the chair that’s when I felt something heavy like something like a big bird perching on my right shoulder. It’s not visible but I feel its claws on my shoulder and feel some of its feathers. In my imagination it was a grey dark bird that doesn’t really look like a bird but it has feathers like a bird but its figure doesn’t really look like a bird. It looks abstract. Then I thought it was the spirit. I’m not sure if its the one disturbing the woman or a different one.

I felt panic. My sister, told me to do it again properly this time. I followed her instructions, drawing a firm, deliberate horizontal line across my right leg before sitting down and the weight lifted.

The spirit is still around. It lingered even when there were snails scattered around us. Snails that, for some reason, we believed had the power to ward off evil in that dream.

Then someone in the table mentioned that keeping a snail as a pet was a sin. Maybe that was why it wasn’t working. I remember my nephew found a snail outside their house and decided to keep it as pet. Was that the flaw in our protection? The reason the spirit wouldn’t leave? I can’t remember what happened after that maybe I woke up.

After waking up, I started researching if the dream meant something. Some parts in the dream were also interesting like a nice concept for a book or a movie maybe.

I had never heard of snails being used for spiritual protection, but on my research it turns out they are. In some Asian cultures, they symbolize resilience and cleansing. In parts of Africa and the Caribbean, they’re used in purification rituals. European folklore links them to warding off misfortune, while Buddhism associates them with protection. Christianity, on the other hand, often depicts snails as symbols of sin rather than guardians.

Then I searched for anything about “cutting legs before sitting down” and found eerie parallels. In the Philippines, people say tabi-tabi po before sitting to eat to avoid disturbing spirits—but even if I’m from PH I’d only ever heard it used in forests or near anthills. Some traditions believe failing to follow certain rituals allows spirits to perch on you. In Japan and China, marking the ground with a foot gesture or tool can sever a spirit’s hold. In some European and Afro-Caribbean traditions, foot movements prevent spirits from attaching to a person.

As someone who likes watching horror and supernatural films it’s so interesting to me. It could all just be a strange meaningless dream but what if my brain tapped into something ancient? What if our subconscious holds memories older than we are? things we once knew but have long forgotten. That sounds cool yet scary at the same time. Either way, the next time I sit down to eat, I might pause for just a second 🤣.