Legend: Shoes

 Please see the Introduction To Rabbit Hole Legend A-Z post for information about sources and purpose

 (Please note that this video is not an actual Paul McCartney video, I believe it is from the Iamaphoney studios. However, below I have the origins of this song)

Shoes (or the lack thereof): Shoes are where it all began, to some degree. According to "basic mythology" around the Paul is Dead hypothesis, and how it came to be is that fans noticed it, was that on the Abbey Road album Paul was dressed nicely, but was not wearing shoes. All the others were. This struck up a fervor because supposedly people were buried without shoes and barefoot is a sign of death for the mafia. By then people notice Paul isn't wearing his shoes during I Am The Walrus, in Magical Mystery Tour- they are laid by the drums, and on the album booklet, they look bloody.

Paul also later recorded a very strange song called Shoes. Shoes are kind of a big part of the PID story, and we'll examine the story behind the Abbey Road shoes more in a later post. 

I'll also note here the line in George Harrison's song, Beware of Darkness, "beware the soft shoe shuffler". There is also the line from John Lennon's Serve Yourself, "You're lucky to have a damned pair of shoes!" and the line from his song Crippled inside, "you can shine you're shoes/and wear a suit/you can comb your hair/and look/quite cute/you can hide your face/behind a smile/one thing you can't hide/is when you're crippled inside". John does a cover of Blue Suede Shoes, George does a cover of Old Brown Shoe.

I was unable to find any link between mafia meanings of barefoot, and I determined that people in Europe were sometimes buried without shoes, but this wasn't always the case, and you can find examples of antique burial slippers. 

 {I'd like to note here that the Abbey Road album cover used to make me think of a pilgrimage when I'd idly see the image somewhere, not knowing any of the mythology around it.}

"Never wear anything new to a funeral, especially shoes." <Source: Victorian funeral customs, fears and superstitions>

"At their most basic level, shoes represent human frailty.[...] In the western world, shoes were often associated with good luck and safe travel. The tradition of throwing old shoes at ships insured a sailor’s safe return and continues in the form of tying shoes to the Newlywed getaway car." <Source>

"Shoes in symbolism have a contradictory significance. They represent authority and power, but they can also represent humility, servitude. It all depends on the context we find them in. [...] In older times, not all people could afford buying shoes (slaves often didn't wear shoes), that is why they are associated with wealth, freedom and comfort, but also with the other side of the coin: vanity and arrogance.[...] Shoes keep our feet warm and protected,so obviously, for some individuals shoes symbolize protection or an environment where one can feel safe.[...] 

In gravestone symbolism, empty shoes symbolize the loss of a child. Usually one shoe is overturned. Thus shoes represent human frailty." <Source>

"In the Holy Bible's Old Testament, the shoe is used to symbolize something that is worthless or of little value. In the New Testament, the act of removing one's shoes symbolizes servitude. The Semites regarded the act of removing their shoes as a mark of reverence when approaching a sacred person or place. In the Book of Exodus, Moses was instructed to remove his shoes before approaching the burning bush:

“ Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest [is] holy ground (Exodus 3:5). ”

The removal of the shoe also symbolizes the act of giving up a legal right. In Hebrew custom, the widow removed the shoe of her late husband's brother to symbolize that he had abandoned his duty. In Arab custom, the removal of one's shoe also symbolized the dissolution of marriage.[...]

Empty shoes may also symbolize death. In Greek culture, empty shoes are the equivalent of the American funeral wreath. For example, empty shoes placed outside of a Greek home would tell others that the family's son has died in battle." <Source>

Barefoot: "[From Masonic Knowledge site, see source] From In the first three degrees, the candidate is asked to become barefoot. Why is this?

Barefoot have several meanings. For example, nakedness of feet is a sign of mourning. God says to Ezekiel, the priest (Ezekiel 24:17) “Make no mourning for the dead......and put on thy shoes upon thy feet.” David is said to have gone from Jerusalem barefoot, when he fled from Absalom. It is also a mark of respect. In the Koran we find the passage “Surely I am your Lord, therefore put off your shoes......." (Ta Ha 20:12). Muslims do indeed leave their shoes at the door of a mosque before entering. In Christianity we find that Moses took off his shoes to approach the burning bush where the angel of the Lord called to Moses (Exodus 3:5); priests serving in the Tabernacle (a tent sanctuary used by the Israelites during the Exodus) did so with their feet naked, as they did afterwards in the Temple. This is likely what is referred to in our rituals.

The foot is said to represent the soul, as it serves to support the entire body and keep it upright. Demonic beings, for this reason, were often depicted with feet that differed to those of man, or were turned the wrong way. [...]

One direction Pythagoras gave to his disciples was "Offer sacrifice and worship with thy shoes off." Maimonides, the great expounder of the Jewish Law, asserts that "it was not lawful for a man to come into the mountain of God's house with his shoes on his feet, or with his staff, or in his working garments, or with dust on his feet." The Druids also practiced this by performing their rites barefooted, as did the Peruvians before they entered the temple to worship the Sun." <Source>
 

" There are times in Jewish life when the wearing of shoes is forbidden.[...] There is also a custom amongst certain chassidic groups to remove their (leather) shoes before approaching the gravesite of a holy person. This tradition goes back to the command to Moses when he approached the Burning Bush (Exodus 3:5), "Remove your shoes from your feet, for the place on which you stand is holy ground. On the historic day of mourning, Tisha b'Av, Jews are prohibited from wearing leather shoes. The same prohibition applies on Yom Kippur to show remorse and penance.

In the Book of Isaiah (20:2), Isaiah is commanded to remove his sandals as a sign of mourning. Shoes also play a part in the mourning period after a death. During the period of shiva, the seven days of mourning, leather shoes may not be worn. In Talmudic times, both the pall bearers and the mourners went barefoot." <Source>

"To go barefoot was a sign of great distress (Isa. 20:2, 3, 4), or of some great calamity having fallen on a person (2 Sam. 15:30). [...] 

The word [barefoot] is found in the following passages: English Versions of the Bible, "He went barefoot" (2 Sam 15:30); "(Isaiah) did so, walking .... barefoot" (Isa 20:2); and like the Egyptians, "naked and barefoot" (Isa 20:3,4). It seems that David in his flight before Absalom "went barefoot," not to facilitate his flight, but to show his grief (2 Sam 15:30), and that Micah (1:8) makes "going barefoot" a sign of mourning [...]. The nakedness and bare feet of the prophet Isaiah (20:2) may have been intended to symbolize and express sympathy for the forlorn condition of captives [...].

Jastrow [...] presents a view worth considering of going barefoot as a sign of mourning and then of grief in general [...]. All these passages seem to imply the discomfort or going barefoot on long journeys, over stony roads or hot sands; but then, as now, in the Orient sandals seem to have been little worn ordinarily in and around the house." <Source>

"Many people in ancient times, such as the Egyptians, Hindus and Greeks, saw little need for footwear and, most of the time, preferred being barefoot. [...] The ancient Greeks largely viewed footwear as self-indulgent, unaesthetic and unnecessary. Shoes were primarily worn in the theater as a means of increasing stature, and many preferred to go barefoot.[...]

 Bare feet have also come to symbolize innocence or childhood, and this may be one reason why hippies often went barefoot during the counterculture movement of the 1960s.[...]

  It is also customary in Judaism and some Christian denominations to go barefoot while mourning. Some Christian churches practice barefoot pilgrimage traditions.[...]

It was an integral part of most slave laws ("slave codes") to mandate that slaves have to go barefoot as a matter of course. For example, the Cape Town slave code states that, "Slaves must go barefoot and must carry passes." This was also seen in states that abolished slavery later in history, such as Brazil, as most images from the slavery period suggest that slaves were barefoot. In Zimbabwe, prisoners must be barefoot as well. Shoes have been considered as badges of freedom since biblical time." <Source>