been reading up on lucky rabbit’s foot lore, and it’s fascinating how the central theme was sort of trampled for commercial purposes. perusing the Hyatt material reveals that the charm is more accurately and often called the graveyard rabbit, because the specific method of acquisition of the lucky’s rabbit foot requires--well, that the rabbit be in the graveyard when you take the foot and (usually, but not always) kill the rabbit afterwards. this is obviously a much rarer occurrence than just taking the foot off any ole rabbit you bought to eat or snared in the woods and rarity is, of course, if not the same as “luck,” then at least luck adjacent. rare is a rhyme for lucky, thematically speaking.
but it’s not just the rarity, which is what a lot of what the old curios were about. it is also, presumably, about how the graveyard is inherently a magical place, spooky and filled with spirits. the rabbit is then not just some rabbit--the rabbit is the same kind of weirdo you are, mage standing in the graveyard. liminal rabbit, life and death rabbit, fluent in necromancy rabbit, rabbit that’s comfortable in strange places. there is a kinship between you, mage, and the rabbit. and there should be something a little uncomfortable about that if you think about it long enough, and that, too, is a source of power.
