How could it be that Friday the 13th is bad luck? The day Friday certainly has many beliefs of misfortune associated with it, with tales and sayings dating back hundreds of years. Combining the number 13 brings us to what many believe is a day of ill effect. The year 2009 was “blessed” with three such days, with two back-to-back in February and March.
Paraskevidekatriaphobics is the excessively long term used to describe people afflicted with a morbid, irrational fear of Friday the 13th.
What beliefs have been created around the number 13 as an unlucky number?
- Dining with 13 at the table is in bad taste – one of them will die within a year.
- Many buildings do not have a 13th floor.
- Be careful in names – its not so much numerology but number counts in this case. Each of these names has 13 characters: Jack the Ripper, Theodore Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer.
- Witches covens contain 13.
- There were 13 present at the Last Supper.
- “Black Friday” and financial crisis came about on several occasions in the US: 1869, 1929,
- The origin of the misfortune of Friday the 13th is accredited to the emprisonment of the Templar Knights in 1307
Not all cultures consider the number 13 to be unlucky or cursed. The Mayan Tzolkin calendar has 13 day tones, and thought the number 13 to be magical. Today, in fact, is One Cimi in the Mayan Calendar. Cimi is the glpyh of death. Hmm.. fuel for the fearful and frightened. Cimi may be called death, but it speaks of transformation, our ability to grow and change, but hey, that too can be frightening!
The Chinese thought the number 13 to be a lucky one, and so did the Egyptians. With luck or honor comes power, and power can be corrupted or taken.
Conspiracy of Uprising Religions?
Could the turn from honor to dishonor be related to a conspiracy to break the love and worship of feminity? Surely any group seeking power would need to upset the balance, and take away the power given to the divinity of the universe, the moon, and the earth. The number 13 is also related to the number of moon cycles in a year, and the menstrual cycle of the feminine. This ties in with the 260 day Mayan Tzolkin calendar that cycles ever 260 days, roughly the gestation time for birth.
As for me, I consider each day to be a blessing, and will treat each day with this reverence. Welcome to this day by any name or number.
Superstitions – Friday the 13th and Bad Luck. Author Estee Taschereau offers individual sessions by phone for gaining alignment between what we want our life to be and the life we are currently living.
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A ~ TIME: All There Is Matters Equally: 2012, Maya Tzolkin Count-New Native Art-13 Moon Zodiac Calendar :: Amazon Dutch mystic and artist Kareline van der Burg brings us this visual look at Time, the Maya, and everything that matters. Chapters include: D |
I think that all superstitions are human invention to make sense of their world. And once a superstition became set in stone, the events become self-fulfilling prophecies… in addition to the “koan”: for you everything is the same as everything else, except that not always.
Exceptions strengthen the rule… in superstition, religion, world view, belief system… It’s all mindless drivel, and it is a conspiracy to dumb down humanity.
Yes Sophie you make a good point, and that is the reason to look at not just superstitions but the beliefs we have – geez, how much of what we do during each day is automatic and based on our own superstition, by which I mean our past experiences and how we perceive?
It’s actually pretty darn cool to see where those beliefs originated, and maybe get a glimmer of knowledge about why. My 5 year old makes some wild assumptions, but its a part of growing up. Maybe the stuff we (society, cultures, nations) did in the past helped us take leaps and bounds to where we are now.