Southpaw Magic: Celebrating Left-handed Life on the 13th

The Sigil of 13

Hello my Freaky Darlings!

Today is Wednesday, the 13th of August, and the calendar hands us a double delight - it's not only the monthly arrival of my favourite number, but also International Left-handers Day!

As someone who's lived their whole life leading with their left, this feels like a cosmic nod from the Universe.

For centuries, the left side has been whispered about in fearful tones. Sinister - Latin for “left side” - slipped into the language of curses, and right hands (dexter, from which we get “dexterous”) were praised as the “correct” way to be. Children were rapped across the knuckles for favouring their left, as if the Devil lived in those fingers. Well, if he does - he’s had excellent taste in company.

We, the Left-Handed, stand shoulder to shoulder with the sacred Thirteen: misunderstood, maligned, mistrusted… and utterly magnificent. We write backwards in spiral notebooks, we smear ink like abstract painters, we make scissors cry, and we do it all with style.

Creativity has always felt different coming from my left hand. It’s the hand I paint with, the hand that spills ink into strange shapes, the hand that holds my brush just slightly wrong in a way that feels entirely right. Maybe that’s why lefties have a bit of a reputation for being dreamers, inventors, and mischief-makers.

We’re in excellent company, too. Famous left-handers include:

• Leonardo da Vinci - painter, inventor, professional boundary-pusher.

• Joan of Arc - left-handed sword-wielder, saint, and scourge of armies.

• David Bowie - a genius, shape-shifting alien sorcerer.

• Kurt Cobain - proof that sometimes the world changes when you play the guitar “the wrong way.”

• Marie Curie - Nobel Prize-winning scientist and absolute powerhouse.

• Jimi Hendrix - played the guitar upside-down and set it on fire for good measure.

So here’s to the lefties - the smudge-makers, the notebook-flippers, the ones who write their own way through the world. Today, I’ll be raising my paintbrush in my left hand, dipping it into something bold, and celebrating not just the rarity of the left-handed life, but the creativity and courage it seems to carry with it. Raise your ink-stained hand in defiance today, my fellow southpaws. Trace the sigil of 13 on the page and sign it backwards if you wish.

Blessed be the crooked, the contrary, the counterclockwise. May our mirrors never lie, our knives always be sharp, and our cats always choose the left-hand path.

Go forth, you sinister saints. Because whether it’s the 13th or not, we’re always in our own lane - and loving it.

Much Love and Blessed Be

Emily xxx

P.S. There's a speed art video of me creating the picture of this post; Click Here to go watch it x

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