Shakun and apshakun are the old Indian beliefs that read small everyday events, an eye twitching, a sneeze, a cat crossing the road, a crow cawing, as signs of what is coming. On these pages we tell each belief as a belief, with its history and its everyday explanation, not as a prediction and not as a fright.
What shakun shastra is
The old meaning of shakuna is "bird", and the tradition began with reading the calls and flight of birds. Around the 6th century, Varahamihira devoted several chapters of the Brihat Samhita to omens: which bird called from which direction as you set out on a journey, which animal crossed your way. Twitching of body parts is discussed separately in the samudrika tradition. Villages and households later added beliefs of their own, which is why the same sign can mean different things in Uttar Pradesh, Bengal and Tamil Nadu.
Why these beliefs arose
Before clocks, weather forecasts and phones, people read nature closely. A crow's racket could mean someone approaching; birds taking off suddenly could mean an animal nearby. Many omens were really excuses to pause and think: eating curd and sugar before a journey, stopping for a moment after a sneeze. Others were about hygiene and caution, such as keeping away from a broken mirror or not sweeping at night.
India is not alone in this. Europe has its black cats, broken mirrors and spilt salt; English folklore says an itchy palm means money and burning ears mean someone is talking about you. Many of these beliefs travelled, or grew up independently, because people everywhere face the same uncertainty and look for the same small reassurances.
Today's understanding
Psychology notes that the brain looks for patterns. If something good happened after your eye twitched, you remember it; the hundreds of times nothing happened are forgotten. This is called confirmation bias. Behind the bodily omens, twitching, itching, hiccups, ringing ears, there are usually tiredness, stress, dry skin or small physical causes, which we explain plainly on each page.
What these pages do
Pick an omen above. Each page gives what tradition says (with a table where tradition distinguishes men and women, right and left, or the time of day), where the belief came from, the everyday explanation, and a calm word at the end. No omen needs a puja, a charm or an expensive remedy, and if a bodily sign goes on for a long time, that is a matter for a doctor, not for omens.
Beliefs about dreams are under dream meanings, and hand lines under the palm lines guide.