Dwain Northey (Gen X)

I have talked a lot about the current calamities in our present dystopian hell scape, but I don’t want to talk about that today… back to the meandering stream of consciousness nonsense that is my brain.

As a social superstition the number 13 is a bad omen, but does anyone really know why? Many high-rise buildings omit the 13th floor instead going from 12 to 14. Everyone is trepidatious when it is Friday the 13^th, there are even series of Horror Movies with a day and date as the title. The specific fear of Friday the 13th, known as paraskevidekatriaphobia, there is a new word you can add to crap you didn’t need to know.

Everyone, well almost everyone, knows the plight of the famous Knights Templar. If you don’t here is the tale of their demise and the infamous number 13.

 Founded around 1118 as a monastic military order devoted to the protection of pilgrims traveling to the Holy Land following the Christian capture of Jerusalem during the First Crusade, the Knights Templar quickly became one of the richest and most influential groups of the Middle Ages, thanks to lavish donations from the crowned heads of Europe, eager to curry favor with the fierce Knights. By the turn of the 14th century, the Templars had established a system of castles, churches and banks throughout Western Europe. And it was this astonishing wealth that would lead to their downfall.

 For the Templars, that end began in the early morning hours of Friday, October 13, 1307.

A month earlier, secret documents had been sent by couriers throughout France. The papers included lurid details and whispers of black magic and scandalous sexual rituals. They were sent by King Philip IV of France, an avaricious monarch who in the preceding years had launched attacks on the Lombards (a powerful banking group) and France’s Jews (who he had expelled so he could confiscate their property for his depleted coffers).

In the days and weeks that followed that fateful Friday, more than 600 Templars were arrested, including Grand Master Jacques DeMolay, and the Order’s treasurer. But while some of the highest-ranking members were caught up in Philip’s net, so too were hundreds of non-warriors; middle-aged men who managed the day-to-day banking and farming activities that kept the organization humming. The men were charged with a wide array of offenses including heresy, devil worship and spitting on the cross, homosexuality, fraud and financial corruption.

This is only one harrowing reference to unlucky 13.

Mathematicians and scientists point to preeminence of the number 12, often considered a “perfect” number, in the ancient world. The ancient Sumerians developed numeral system based on the use of 12 that is still used for measuring time today. Most calendars have 12 months; a single day is comprised of two 12-hour half days, etc. Following so closely on the heels of a “perfect” number, some argue that 13 was sure to be found lacking and unusual. 

This fear of the unknown would seem to play into two other popular theories for the number’s unlucky connotation, both of which revolve around the appearance of a 13th guest at two ancient events: In the Bible, Judas Iscariot, the 13th guest to arrive at the Last Supper, is the person who betrays Jesus. Meanwhile ancient Norse lore holds that evil and turmoil were first introduced in the world by the appearance of the treacherous and mischievous god Loki at a dinner party in Valhalla. He was the 13th guest, upsetting the balance of the 12 gods already in attendance.

It also seems as if fears surrounding the number 13 are a primarily Western construct. Some cultures, including the Ancient Egyptians, actually considered the number lucky.

So since today is the 13^th even though not a Friday go out and enjoy the day or hide in your irrational belief that 13^th is somehow an unlucky number.

(Thank you, history channel for many of the references in this post.)