'O sanghe

'O sanghe. Eighteen is blood, and in the Smorfia it isn’t an image of violence: it’s life flowing and, above all, the bond. In Naples, “sangue mio” — my blood — is what you say to a child, a grandchild, anyone who’s family, and it’s worth more than any document. It’s the number of the things you don’t choose: where you come from, what was handed down to you, who you’re tied to even when you’re not speaking. In dreams, eighteen arrives when inheritance is involved, in every sense of the word. A resemblance you discover looking in the mirror, a trait you recognize in your child, an old family story that resurfaces. But it also speaks of pure vitality: energy, health, the physical feeling of being alive. Three of the images that lead here go in different directions. Blood. The artery, which sends life to every corner of the body. And the fish, which doesn’t choose the current it finds itself in — just as nobody chooses where they come from. Three faces of the same theme: what passes through you. If eighteen has shown up in your dream, the Smorfia is talking about a bond. It doesn’t say whether to hold it tight or loosen it, and it isn’t our job to suggest either. It only says that in your dream there was something that belonged to you before you were able to choose it.