Since ancient times, people have felt that coincidental circumstances bring about life's events from the mundane to the extraordinary.
Good fortune, blessings, God's will, godsend, karma.
Religion has played a major part in the perception of events'occurrence. Similarly, gambling has produced its own following of bystanders willing take a risk on the turn of the wheel, a streak of luck, or a gut feeling.
Whatever inclines a person to believe that the luck of the draw is involved in his life, the historical component in fortune is an overlooked portion of Western culture. The Greeks' Fates evolved into the Roman goddess, Tyche, who was often depicted blindfolded because of the random nature fortune seems to be dispersed through life. She became a prevalent goddess in many occult practices. It was with Tyche's power that love potions, astrological predictions, and other fortune tellings were performed. Interestingly, this perception was not overruled by Christianity in the fourth or fifth century. "God's will" replaced Tyche's predictions, but the belief that a deity controls the random oddities of life persisted.
Fate, the unchangeable outcome of an event or life, differs from fortune. Fate was seen as set in stone in the early Greek culture exemplified in The Odyssey and The Iliad. However, the Hellenistic world, Rome, and early Christians had a more fluid notion of altering fate with prayers. The medieval world believed that fate could be changed by our actions. Shakespeare's MacBeth, fated to become king, could choose his path to kingship with patience or murder.
Thus, fortune persevered over cultural and religious changes for millenia. Even today luck is regularly called upon in both religious and secular settings. Regardless of use and context, why is believing in chance, karma, or luck beneficial? What can we learn or hope to understand by placing our understanding in the idea of odds? Why? Taking an analytical look on human perception . . .
Bad things happen in life. Inconveniences occur all the time. To prove this fact, go into any room in your house or office and bounce a ball. Soon, the ball will bounce the wrong way and end up hitting something it shouldn't hit or rolling under the one item that is bolted to the floor. The odds of that ball only hitting things that can't be damaged dramatically increases with the cost of that item. Think I'm making this up? Perform the experiment keeping track of where the ball goes in relation to its difficulty to retrieve.
Belief that luck can interact with our lives teaches people perseverance. "It didn't work out this time. I'm just going to have to buckle down and grind this out again." This is the cause of many people's anger and irritability about life. If you try enough times, eventually, you'll succeed.
In a religious sense, placing fortune in a deity's hands puts a perspective on man. We learn to respect the limitations of man's control on his own life and the power of man as a species. Thus, we place our desired powers in the hands of a deity to fulfill our ambitions.
The last lesson we can learn from man's dependence on luck is hope. Hope constantly drives men forward. Why would any person buy a love potion? In hope that is would achieve the desired affect. Superstitions generally play upon the hope of a believer. American sports' superstitions take on absurdity with dirty clothes and odd rituals. Hope pushes a man farther than he thought he could go to achieve the impossible, or if you will, the improbable as his fortunes are played out.
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Agatha Tyche
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