As they prepared to cross, an eagle high in the sky wheeled across their left, grasping a long blood-red snake alive and writhing. It still had fight in it, arching back to strike the eagle on its breast, and the bird in pain, letting it fall among the troops, flew swiftly down the wind with a loud cry. The Trojans were appalled by the snake writhing on the ground, an omen from aegis-bearing Zeus
Homer, The Iliad, Book XII, trans. A. S. Kline
I’ve spent decades (two) making oddly specific lists of possible glimpses into a hidden world. Over the past few weeks, I’ve curated a glimpse into my glimpses; 333 mysterious, commonplace, and bizarre signs that might be worth a closer look. If anything here points you to a wonderland of personal superstition (or if nothing ever does), I want to know more.
Abandoned shopping cart denting a car
Abnormally bitter cucumber
Abrupt chill in summer
Abrupt metallic taste
Accidental overseasoning
Alley with a view
Angry hornet holding a grudge against you
Animal crossing
Anonymous act of generosity
Ant in a bathtub
Arch of branches forming a natural tunnel
Attending a festival where the main event gets canceled
Award or certificate with a typo
Baby born during a thunderstorm
Baby laughing through the vows at a christening
Baby possum clinging to a stray cat
Baby walking early
Bad haircut
Bananas tasting spicy
Being followed by a wounded bird
Beware of dog
Big rip on a sleeve
Bird baiting fish with food
Bird digging for food with a stick
Bird flying into a window
Bird singing at your window
Birthday candle relighting after being blown out
Biting into a fishbone
Biting your cheek while chewing
Black chicken with a single white feather
Blood moon
Boulder with a face
Bouquet wilting overnight
Brand-new knife that’s dull
Breaking a coconut into perfect halves
Brightly colored bird against a dull background
Broken gravestone
Broken mirror
Broken ruler
Broken zipper
Bumblebee circling your head
Buried radio that still works
Burning food on the first day in a new home
Burning white clothes with an iron
Button sewn on and lost in the same day
Cairn in the middle of a river
Car trouble
Cat sensing a visitor
Caterpillar crawling across your shoe
Cattle blocking a busy road
Certainty something lost would return
Certainty you are exactly where you should be
Chance encounter with a butterfly that’s your favorite color
Chicken feather pattern changing after molting
Child talking to an empty chair
Church bells chiming from a church with no bells
Cloud with a perfectly round hole in the center
Coming across a rooster that can’t crow
Coming across a stray dog asleep in the middle of a dark road
Coming across a white squirrel in a city park
Coming across an ant death spiral
Contagious laughter on the subway
Crutch going missing after recovery
Cup handle breaking off
Cup of tea that won’t cool down
Customer service rep whispering over the phone
Dead animal on a doorstep
Dead end
Dead hornet in an unopened wine bottle
Dead tree with a single living branch
Dead watch ticking again when passed on as a gift
Déjà vu
Dinner reservation missing
Discounted item marked damaged working perfectly
Distant train whistle after midnight
Do not enter
Dog barking at nothing
Double rainbow
Dough refusing to rise
Downtown street empty at rush hour
Dropped knife pointing at you
Dropping chinaware
Dropping your phone while angry texting
Dust devil crossing a street and vanishing
Ear piercing closing up all at once
Echo sounding different from what you said
Egg with no yolk
Eight peas in a pod
Elderly person cycling on a tricycle
Elevator skipping your floor
Elevator stopping on a mystery floor
Employees only
Escaped zoo animal
Estate sale where nothing sells
Everyone on the bus wearing a hat
Exit only
Extremely bright crescent moon
Falling rocks
Family of birds nesting in your ceiling
Favorite song playing on a short taxi ride
Fern-shaped frost across an entire window
Finding a heart-shaped stone
Finding a mystery key in a new home
Finding artwork you forgot you made
Finding old letters in a new home
Firefly making circles around you
First aid kit missing the exact item you need
First visit to a store falling on its last day in business
Fish inside fish
Five-leaf clovers
Flower blooming out of season
Flowers covering a hillside overnight
Forgetting a promise
Forgetting to wear a second earring
Fortune cookie fortune
Frog riding a snake across a lake
Frog sitting on the doorstep in the rain
Full solar eclipse on your birthday
Futile search for a very specific snack
Garden hose bursting
Getting a hotel room with a view of a wall
Getting attacked by a white crow
Getting attacked by an owl
Getting called the wrong name several times in a day
Getting every crossword clue
Getting trapped in a revolving door
Getting waved through a checkpoint without questions
Geyser erupting on a suburban lawn
Gift from a stray animal
Goat on a roof
Goldfish swimming in circles without stopping
Good Samaritan encounter
Goosebumps on just one arm
Grocery bag ripping
Growing extra teeth
Grumpy cat instantly befriending a dog
Halo around a streetlamp in the fog
Halo around the moon
Hammer bending nails every single time
Healthy branch mysteriously breaking off a tree
Hearing thunder on a clear day
Hearing your name in an empty room
Help wanted
Heron on a lamppost
Hollow baobab sheltering antelopes
Honeybee drinking from a spoon at a café
Hopping over a broom
Hotel hallway seeming to change length
Hotel room covered in ladybugs
Howling in the distance
Huge flock of crows gathering
Hummingbird trapped indoors
Ill-timed power outage
Insomnia
Invitation arriving after the event
Item falling into the elevator shaft
Item falling through a hole in your pocket
Joke falling flat at the beginning of a speech
Judge’s gavel missing the block
Keep right
Keys in the fridge
Kite string snapping
Lake changing color overnight
Learning your certificate of authenticity is fake
Lemon with seeds sprouting inside
Live worm in a strawberry
Lobby with a single chair
Lone cow watching you
Losing an heirloom
Losing one sock
Losing your license on the day it expires
Lost luggage
Luck with parking
Lost wallet returned before you noticed it was missing
Migrating birds veering off in a different direction
Misdelivery
Moonbeam shining into a dark room
Moth on a gravestone
Motivational poster repeatedly falling off the wall
Multiple people sneezing at once
Multiple wall clocks dying at the same time
Museum exhibit under construction mistaken for a showroom
Music from a toy with no batteries
Mysteriously dead plant
Neon sign spelling a different word after one letter dies
Nestless baby bird indoors
New growth on a tree stump
New Year’s Eve crowd losing track of the countdown
Night sky clearing up suddenly
No trespassing
No turn on red
Nosebleed
Not finding a bird you can hear clearly
Off-season cicada buzz
One finger twitching on its own
One-way
Open umbrella indoors
Order canceled without explanation
Out of order
Oven mitt catching fire
Owl in a bus shelter during a storm
Palm itching
Paper plane returning to you
Pedestrian crossing
Pen running out of ink mid-signature
Perfectly circular sinkhole
Pet detecting illnesses
Pet knowing the day of a vet visit
Pet missing
Phone dying as a call gets heated
Pillar staying warm on a cold day
Pink sky reflected in every puddle on the street
Pot in a tree with a bird’s nest inside
Potluck with too many of the same dish
Praying mantis on a windowsill
Pressed flower falling out of a book
Raccoon washing its food
Radio turning itself on
Raindrops falling from a clear blue sky
Raindrops making music on an uncovered street piano
Receiving two identical gifts from two unconnected people
Recurring dream
Repeating a Freudian slip
Ring of mushrooms around a tree
Ring slipping off
Road blocked by a toppled tree
Road closed
Rose growing without thorns
Rumbling thunder on the last note of a hymn
Running into a childhood neighbor on another continent
Salesperson fervently talking you out of a purchase
Same person mentioned in three unrelated conversations
Satellite dish pointing at a wall
Scar itching throughout the day
Seeing an earthworm on a sunny day
Sharing a scar with an antique sculpture
Sheep standing in a circle
Shocking raise
Shocking rejection
Shooting star
Siblings with a shared birthmark
Sick cattle
Sleep talking
Sleeping soundly on your first night somewhere unfamiliar
Snail on a door handle
Snake in a garage
Sneezing more than three times
Sneezing three times
Sofa on the highway
Spiderweb across a doorway
Spiderweb appearing overnight inside a car
Spontaneous recollection of a nursery rhyme in full
Spoon falling from a table
Spotless guinea fowl
Spotting a duck riding a wave into the harbor
Spotting a white peacock flying
Spotting an eye-shaped knot in a branch
Spotting the moon at noon
Spreading a yawn across a room
Starling murmuration
Starting a petition no one signs
Static shock from shaking a specific person’s hand
Steamed mussel refusing to open
Stepping on a crack
Stepping on a snail
Still pond in the middle of a storm
Stone wall lifted by tree roots
Storm going around a town in its path
Stranger with a spare umbrella to give you in a storm
Strangers with matching scars from different accidents
Stream with warm and cold water flowing side by side
Stubbing your toe
Sudden flash of light from nowhere
Sudden hush in the woods
Sudden locust swarm
Sudden thick fog
Sudden urge to return home
Sudden urge to stay home
Sudden urge to take a different route
Suitcase wheel breaking
Sunrise framed perfectly in the window
Surge of tenderness for a person
Surprising achievement
Swallowing insect mid-yawn
Termite swarm
Theater curtain getting stuck halfway up
Tire marks on grass
Toaster refusing to pop
Trail of leaves leading somewhere
Tree losing all its leaves overnight
Treehouse collapsing
Triple rainbow
Tripping on nothing
Tripping over the threshold
Two snowmen holding hands
Unbroken orange peel spiral
Unexpected pay cut
Unexpected wedding invitation
Unexpectedly quick reply past midnight
Unexplainable thirst
Unforgettable melody from a dream
Unripe bananas overripening overnight
Unsuccessful crowdfunding
Unusually seedy orange
Upholstery stain never coming out
Urban coyote encounter
Very heavy dew
Video call freezing mid-laugh
Vulture on a church spire
Vuvuzela sound in the distance
Waiter getting entire order wrong
Walking under a ladder
Wearing the same outfit as a mannequin
Weeds with colorful flowers
Well-behaved dog barking uncontrollably at one person
Well-worn trail in an uninhabited place
Wet floor
Whiff of chlorine out of nowhere
Whiff of tobacco out of nowhere
Whistling at night
White horse with a single black patch
Wild animal wandering into a chapel
Wildfire smoke draining the color from the sun
Wildflower growing sideways out of a wall
Wine spill at a wedding
Winning a raffle
Winning trust from stray cats
Woodpecker creating a rhythm
Wound healing overnight
Written message in the margins of a cookbook
Wrong way
Yard sale item with your initials
Your footprints disappearing behind you