TRUE MEANING OF THE NUMBER 13
Why does the number 13 give people such a bad case of the creeps? Here, I offer you an extensively researched look into this sacred numerology.
“The number 13 has a number of very old references that tend to be associated with groups of 13 people,” explained author and psychology professor Stuart Vyse.
“At the Last Supper in Christian theology, there were 13 dinner guests, so that number is unlucky because Christ was betrayed. And in Norse mythology, 12 benevolent gods were gathering in a hall and the evil god Loki attacked the group. Loki was the 13th guest, and the god Balder was killed in the melee.”
Vyse noted that President Franklin D. Roosevelt was quite fearful of the number 13, and he took great pains to avoid hosting a meal for a group of that size. “If he had a cancellation and it looked as if there might be 13 people to lunch, he invited his secretary to join them so there wouldn't be 13,” said Vyse.
The fear of the number 13 is so pervasive that it even has a phobia named after it “triskaidekaphobia.” Based on this phobia, airlines typically do not have a 13th row, and most tall buildings do not have a 13th floor.
Historically, On October 13, 1307, a day so infamous that Friday the 13th would become a synonym for ill fortune, officers of King Philip IV of France (by order of the Pope) carried out mass arrests and killings in a well-coordinated dawn raid that left several thousand Templars - knights, sergeants, priests, and serving brethren - in chains, charged with heresy, blasphemy, and various obscenities. None of these charges were ever proven, even in France - and the Templars were found innocent elsewhere - but in the seven years following the arrests, hundreds of Templars suffered excruciating tortures intended to force “confessions,” and many died under torture or were executed by burning at the stake.
And now a deeper look at the true meaning of 13:
It is known to many persons who are not students of the occult, that the Tarot is a method of divination by means of 78 symbolic picture cards, to which great antiquity and high importance are attributed by several expositors. And the literary history of the Tarot is also fairly well known.
In ancient times the number 13 became a number of fear and superstition because the 13th card of the Tarot is the card of Death, and is pictured as a skeleton (the symbol of death) with a scythe reaping down men in a field of newly grown grass where young faces and heads appear cropping up on all sides. This image later became known as “The Grim Reaper,” and it was ascribed to the planet Saturn. In medieval England the standard fee of the hangman was 13 pence - a shilling and a penny ... But 13 is not an unfortunate number, as is generally believed.
It has become so firmly associated in the popular mind with the notion of “bad luck” that it is easy to forget the fact that in the ancient mystic religions, 13 was the characteristic number of participants in many orders and occult groups, including sacred meals - a fact reflected in the size of the original Nazarene Last Supper.
It can be clearly shown that 13 is the most cherished number of the United States. Starting with the 13 colonies, the first national flag had 13 stars, and even today it still has 13 stripes. On the green side of the dollar bill there are 13 steps in the pyramid of the Great Seal. The motto above the pyramid, which reads “Annuit Coeptis,” has 13 letters; the eagle on the right side has a ribbon in its beak that bears the motto “E pluribus unum,” which contains 13 letters. The eagle has 13 tail feathers, and on its breast there is a shield of 13 stripes. In one talon the eagle holds 13 arrows, and in the other an olive branch with 13 leaves and 13 berries. Over the eagle’s head are 13 stars that form the six-pointed “Star of David.”
The phrase “July the Fourth” contains 13 letters and the number 4 (1+3), the birth number of the U.S. (July 4, 1776), which leads us to the real reason why the “founding fathers” chose this date as the official birth date of the United States:
In the occult science of numerology it is said that, “He who understands the number 13 will be given power and dominion. It is a number of upheaval and destruction; a symbol of power which, if wrongly used, will wreak havoc and destruction upon itself.”
Astronomically, on July 4th the longitude of the Sun is 12° Cancer in the Heavens, and on this date the Sun conjoins the great star Sirius, whose longitude is 13° Cancer. Sirius is a first-magnitude star that is 40 times brighter than the Sun. It was venerated in ancient Egypt from time immemorial, and was held in great reverence by the ancient Egyptians because it rose heliacally with the Sun at dawn during the inundation of the Nile River, the lifeline of ancient Egypt.
In astrological speak, it is said: “If the great star Sirius is well-placed in a horoscope, it will contribute to the amassing of wealth and the acquisition of fame and honour.” Sirius conjuncts the Sun in the horoscope of the United States, in the 2nd house of money and material possessions. The Part of Fortune is 13° Capricorn - opposing the Sun and Sirius - in the 8th house of other people’s resources. These powerful cosmic patterns explain, astrologically, the great wealth of this country.
Cancer is the fourth (1+3) sign of the zodiac and the Moon rules Cancer. The average celestial motion of the Moon is 13° per day, and 13 weeks is the time it takes the Earth to travel from the equinoxes, to the solstices.
For example, it takes the Earth 13 weeks to travel from the first day of spring (March 20th) to the first day of summer (June 21st); 13 weeks from the first day of summer to the first day of fall (Sept. 23rd); 13 weeks from the first day of fall to the first day of winter (Dec. 21st); and it takes the Earth 13 weeks to travel from the first day of winter to the first day of spring.
13x4=52, which is the time it takes (in weeks) the Earth to make one complete revolution around the Sun, and in most years lunations (i.e., conjunctions between the Sun and Moon) occur 13 times.
The fear of the number 13 is unfounded internationally as well. It is an honoured number in many countries throughout the world. There are 13 occurrences of the quantity 13 in the design of the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt, the largest stone edifice ever built. In the Indian Pantheon there are 13 Buddhas. The mystical discs that surmount Indian and Chinese pagodas are 13 in number. Enshrined in the Temple of Atsuta in Japan is a sacred sword with 13 objects of mystery forming its hilt. And 13 was the sacred number of the ancient Mexicans – they had 13 snake gods.
The 13th letter of the English alphabet is M, which finds its roots in the 13th letter of the Hebrew alphabet, “mem” (meaning mother), which was the ancient Phoenician word for water. The ancient Egyptian word for water was “moo.” M is the most sacred of all the letters, for it symbolizes water, where all life began. It is the root of the word “mother,” and relates to the evolutionary destiny of civilization ruled by the number 13. The African continent is the Cradle of Civilization, where the first forms of modern human societies existence were discovered. Thus, mankind truly is ... “The Chosen Caretakers of the Universe.” And now, you know.
Just a thought ...
Justin Taylor, ORDM.
