13 Facts About Friday the 13th

Hey there, is the original dread of Friday the 13th from the day the Templars were branded as heretics and executed?

I never knew the whole story other then they were branded as heretics, but do know that this order was known as the first 'multinational corporation/bankers', perhaps in western civ. It seems that royalty and vatican conspired to wipe them out. My guess is they were the first customers of their banking system perhaps, and realized they were maybe getting screwed. It seems after the burnings though, they moved operations to London.

Any info towards this idea?

The Knights Templar

One theory, recently offered up as historical fact in the novel The Da Vinci Code, holds that it came about not as the result of a convergence, but a catastrophe, a single historical event that happened nearly 700 years ago. The catastrophe was the decimation of the Knights Templar, the legendary order of "warrior monks" formed during the Christian Crusades to combat Islam. Renowned as a fighting force for 200 years, by the 1300s the order had grown so pervasive and powerful it was perceived as a political threat by kings and popes alike and brought down by a church-state conspiracy, as recounted by Katharine Kurtz in Tales of the Knights Templar (Warner Books, 1995):

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 carried out mass arrests in a well-coordinated dawn raid that left several thousand Templars — knights, sergeants, priests, and serving brethren — in chains, charged with heresy, blasphemy, various obscenities, and homosexual practices. None of these charges was ever proven, even in France — and the Order was found innocent elsewhere — but in the seven years following the arrests, hundreds of Templars suffered excruciating tortures intended to force "confessions," and more than a hundred died under torture or were executed by burning at the stake.

A thoroughly modern phenomenon

There are drawbacks to the "day so infamous" thesis, not the least of which is that it attributes enormous cultural significance to a relatively obscure historical event. Even more problematic, for this or any other theory positing premodern origins for Friday the 13th superstitions, is the fact that no one has been able to document the existence of such beliefs prior to the late 19th century. If folks who lived in earlier ages perceived Friday the 13th as a day of special misfortune, no evidence has been found to document it. As a result, some scholars are now convinced the stigma is a thoroughly modern phenomenon exacerbated by 20th-century media hype.

Going back more than a hundred years, Friday the 13th doesn't even merit a mention in the 1898 edition of E. Cobham Brewer's voluminous Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, though one does find entries for "Friday, an Unlucky Day" and "Thirteen Unlucky." When the date of ill fate finally does make an appearance in later editions of the text, it is without extravagant claims as to the superstition's historicity or longevity. The very brevity of the entry is instructive: "Friday the Thirteenth: A particularly unlucky Friday. See Thirteen" — implying that the extra dollop of misfortune might be accounted for in terms of a simple accrual, as it were, of bad omens:

UNLUCKY FRIDAY + UNLUCKY 13 = UNLUCKIER FRIDAY

If that's the case, we are guilty of perpetuating a misnomer by labeling Friday the 13th "the unluckiest day of all," a designation perhaps better reserved for, say, a Friday the 13th on which one breaks a mirror, walks under a ladder, spills the salt, and spies a black cat crossing one's path — a day, if there ever was one, best spent in the safety of one's own home with doors locked, shutters closed, and fingers crossed.

Ah interesting. Thanks for that.

Also it seems that there are big differences between 12+1 and 13 in occult/esoteric circles. Is there any basis to this?

Not sure on this one.....

Number 13 – Divergence, Deviation, Distortion, Cleansing, Nihilism, Lucifer, Ahriman, “black” teacher



As we saw previously, the number 12 could not establish a genuine harmony in the material world. Partially, the reason why this happens is because it is an even number and as such can be divided by 2. This implies contradictions and confrontations, which are inherent for this number (and for any even number for that matter). The next one – the number 13 places emphasis on these inner contradictions and accentuates them. By amplifying the “dark” side of the number 12, all the inner conflicts of this number become awfully visible and painfully obvious. The process of bringing the dark elements of a structure to light and accentuating them is called “black teaching” and the people performing it are called “black” teachers. This perfectly explains the name Lucifer, which literally means “The Light Bringer.” However, we must not forget that what actually is brought to light by Lucifer are the dark elements of the structure.



Every coin has two sides and depends on who is looking and what the purpose of observation is, the same phenomenon can be described in two totally different and opposing ways. For example, every man has some positive and some negative traits. A certain person can be described as a very positive one (family man, good-hearted, good father and so on) but this very person can be also described as a very bad one (for example he smokes, watches too much football, is impractical and so on). The reality is that everybody has some good and some bad character traits. The “white” teachers concentrate on what is positive about people and try to help them to increase their potential in those areas. The “black” teachers concentrate on the negative side of people, trying to put them down on every possible occasion. Ultimately, both “white” and “black” teachers have a very important role; the first ones, because they give us compassion and support when we most need it; the second ones, because they make our faults so painfully obvious, that in despair we are forced to do something about them and improve.



We can see that the final result that both teachers achieve is the same, but the methods differ greatly. The “white” teachers express love towards other people, the “black” teachers express hate (which is essentially love again, but with a negative sign, i.e. the “black” teacher loves himself immensely, thus trying to eliminate everybody else around). The “white” teacher concentrates only on what is positive about a person, the “black” teacher concentrates only on what is negative about the same person. We love the “white” teachers and we are afraid of the “black” ones, but from a higher point of view, ultimately both of them guide us in the same direction where we are supposed to go.



One of the main methods of operation of the “black” teacher is the deviation and distortion of the energy, which otherwise would be regarded as ideal and perfect. For example since 13 = 12 + 1, one of the favourite approaches of the number 13 is to take the spiritual and harmonious purity of the number 12 and to distort it in such a way that some other qualities come up to light, which were not noticeable before. In such a way, one can see the hidden antagonism, scepticism, and even nihilism in something, where before one could see harmony, beauty, and perfect order only. The aim of this “enlightenment” of the dark side of things is to prove, for example, that there is no such thing as a spiritual world. According to the “black” teacher, all processes in life can be explained according to the physical, chemical and other laws that are inherent to the material (and not to the spiritual) reality. The “black” teacher (the number 13) will make everything possible to make us believe that everything of a spiritual nature is just an illusion, a fantasy, a deception and that absolutely everything in the real world can be explained with logistic arguments, based on the laws of physics, chemistry, biology and other official sciences.



To a certain degree, this theory holds true and this is why so many people around the world are blinded by it. By applying some logical gimmicks, everything that happens in the material reality can be explained with a series of events happening in the same material reality. On one hand, this is true, but this theory does not explain where the driving force for such events originates. This has to do with the so called level of abstraction. If we place our level of abstraction very low, then everything seems material, but if we raise it, we see the spiritual world guiding the material. Let us take for example, somebody who runs. On a low level of abstraction, we can say that this man runs, because certain groups of muscles in his legs are contracting and expanding, which brings the whole body into motion. We can go one step further and say that there are certain impulses that originate in his brain. Then they are being transmitted via the nerve cells towards his muscles, thus controlling the body movement in the desired fashion. While this is all true, it indicates a very low level of abstraction, because it does not reveal to us the real reasons why the man is actually running. In order to explain that, we have to raise our level of abstraction, and look at the man’s thoughts.



Then, we may find, for example, that this person thinks that he is a bit overweight and wants to loose some weight. This is the reason why he has decided to run every day for 10 minutes, for example. From this new level of abstraction, we can see that his thoughts (and not just the muscles by themselves) are actually controlling his actions. But we can go even one level up in our abstraction and discover that this person has decided to run every day after being inspired by accidentally watching a documentary on TV about the benefits of fitness. Inspiration is another level of abstraction. We can go even further up and see that on an even higher (spiritual) level, this person must lose weight, because his physical body is not in a proper condition to accept correctly the spiritual vibrations that are shaping his spiritual development. Thus, he has been guided to watch the above mentioned TV program in order to get inspiration and so on.



You can see that essentially the spiritual world is controlling everything. The process starts at the Higher self (see my article “The Sevenfold Human Structure”), and it is going down through the Buddhi body, causal body, mental body, astral body, etheric body and then finally to the physical body. But the level of abstraction of the number 13 is the physical body itself, and from its perspective, the other (spiritual) levels do not exist. For this reason, all actions in the material reality are explained by a mere movement of muscles and signals produced in the physical brain. In such a way, the number 13 is very devious in proclaiming that anything of a spiritual nature is illusionary and imaginary. At the same time, the number 13 is perfectly aware of the existence of the spiritual world, but it is being extremely deceitful by forcing people to lower their level of abstraction and believe that the material reality is the only reality. Why is this theory so dangerous? Because by denying the spirit, the number 13 is denying the evolution, and the whole purpose of the existence of humanity, which is the evolvement towards a greater and greater spirituality. By lowering our level of abstraction to the material reality only, we can observe everything around us as a movement of molecules and atoms, chemical processes and a variety of physical phenomena, but this will never explain to us what the real purpose of all these processes are.



Although he teaches otherwise, the “black” teacher is perfectly aware of the spiritual world. Both Lucifer and Ahriman are in fact spiritual beings and as habitants of the spiritual world, they are without a glitch aware of its existence. However, by inspiring the “black” teachers that work under their supervision to lower their level of abstraction to the material reality only, they make them see the things from one side only. This is very dangerous for the “black” teachers themselves and for their students too. In some extreme cases the nihilism of the “black” teacher can become disproportional and when that happens a rather different theory is being proposed: that the whole purpose of the existence is not actually evolution, but regression and involution, i.e. regressing back to what we were originally. It is easy to see that the number 13 does not have its own directions and methods; all it does is simply invert and distort the existent directions and methods coming from the spiritual world, for which existence the number 13 is perfectly aware.



The aim of the number 13 is the destruction of the illusion about a cosmic harmony. And as such, the number 13 has a very important role – to separate the grain from the chaff. By attacking and eliminating the structures on the material plane that have a weak connection with the spiritual world, the number 13 is assisting in sustaining those structures only that are strong enough spiritually and possess a true, live and working connection with it. Here we can make the remark that the spiritual world is vast and has many levels, therefore from the point of view of the number 13 those structures that maintain workable relationships with the spiritual worlds close to Ahriman and Lucifer will be definitely given preference. Only such workable structures, that maintain and support the life in the material reality will be allowed to continue their existence on earth and the important role of the number 13 is exactly this: to eliminate all the others.



The person of the number 13 can encounter three types of situations where the energy of this number can be manifested: either he can find himself in situations where his faults and shortcomings become painfully obvious, or he can meet a “black” teacher in person, or he can become one himself. Besides, the levels of manifestations of the energy of number 13 can vary widely from very subtle and refined temptation up to a brutal and crude compulsion. In the best case scenario, the person may be tempted to examine and analyse almost unnoticeable weak spots in persons or situations. In the worst case scenario, the person of the number 13 will have the compulsion to expose brutally and sentence without mercy the weaknesses and blunders in other people and situations.



The “black” teachers are as necessary from the evolutionary point of view as the “white” teachers are. The missions of both types of teachers are crucial, as everything in the Universe must remain in balance. The important thing to bear in mind here is that the people of the number 13 have to work out the situations that are presented to them in life without sliding down in their spiritual level in the process. Often this is a very difficult task. Another peculiarity of the number 13 is that although it is “locked up” in the material reality, it is in fact directly controlled by the spiritual world. This happens because the number 13 belongs to the 4th level of spirit manifestation and as such, it is in a direct connection with the spiritual world. From there it draws a lot of its strength. Metaphorically, if we accept that Purgatory is a place of pain and suffering, where the soul achieves its ultimate purification, then this place can be regarded as an integral part of the Paradise. It may sound weird, but as the unconditional purity of the soul is an absolute pre-requisite of entering the heaven, then the Purgatory should be regarded as nothing else, but as the reception area of the very Paradise.



The number 13 can manifest itself in variety of different forms. The two extremes of its manifestation are the elegant and the unscrupulous forms, and all the subtleties in between. It is by all means a very strong number and its main aim is to slide people down in their spiritual development by burying them in everything that we call “materialistic”. The main temptation that the number 13 presents to people is to live their lives in the pleasures and happiness of the physical body, thus delaying (or in some cases even reversing) their spiritual development. This is very serious danger, because it undermines the main purpose of living a life on earth. Since the things in the spiritual and the material worlds are often reversed, what may be regarded as a “very good life” on earth may be in fact catastrophic from a spiritual perspective and vice versa. The number 13 is however very clever, cunning, and treacherous in presenting the things as “good” while in fact they are quite bad and vice versa. For this reason, fighting this number on a horizontal level (i.e. by simply applying the earth logical thinking and reason, without seeking the help of the angelic hierarchies) is extremely difficult and often unsuccessful.



The number 13 possesses the energy of the spiritual world, since it is directly connected with it, but it is insidiously hiding this fact and tries to entice people to live a “common-sense”, materialistic type of life. By so doing, people are led to believe that they possess the “true” and “scientific” knowledge of the Universe, which according to this number consists from molecules, atoms and particles only and nothing else. And while people continue to live with this belief, the number 13 sinisterly taps into their souls, auras and minds (the spiritual parts of people) in order to find their weak spots and control them even better. The best way to fight this number is to acknowledge and truly believe that besides the matter, the spiritual world exists. Then through humility and prayer, we can seek the help of the angelic hierarchy and as a result, we can reach the vibration level of the number 14, where this problem is solved.



13 = 10 + 2 + 1 Metaphorically, the devil (13) is a human (10) with horns (2) and a tail (1). The horns symbolise the antagonism and polarisation and the tail symbolises the channel (the connection) with the spiritual world

13 = 10 + 3 The road to hell (13) for humanity (10) is paved with good /harmonious/ (3) intentions

13 = 6 + 7 The “black” teacher (13) makes us believe that the world comprises matter only (6) but by so doing, he makes us more spiritual (7).

Very interesting Krysalis.

The above jumped out for me. It seems it is sort of like an ultimate testing for one to become 'strong in one's own (inner) truth' doesn't it?

It feels we all on some levels have come to start 'missing what has been missing'.

Reminds me of the following quote:

""We could never learn to be brave and patient, if there were only joy in the world." - Helen Keller

Do you feel this applies? Our choice to stay with the 'illusion' or seeing things for what they truly are.

Of course the continued path though, siding with the illusion, seems to be siding with Ahriman (Moloch), but this seem to point to the end of the road (black hole) consumption.

Thanks for sharing. I hope you got off your chest what you wanted to share. :) Anything to add?

What I find the most interesting is that I posted the Friday the 13th facts... just as a casual information type thing and it turned out to be quite an enlightening little journey through our conversation.

The part you quoted, the part that jumped out at you was actually MORE enlightening.... or should I say "re-affirming than anything else.

It seems to me, that so very much of what is happening in our world today is exactly that.... "the number 13 has a very important role – to separate the grain from the chaff. By attacking and eliminating the structures on the material plane that have a weak connection with the spiritual world"

Organized religions do not teach true Light and have served to only lead the sheep in the wrong direction... Maybe the time has come for true Light to be revealed unto the world?

I read somewhere that this year there is going to be THREE "Friday the 13's"..... I wonder if this is an unusual occurence... I will have to check that out.

Interesting stuff Krysalis. Thanks for the research.

This was Interesting for me too, did not know the significance of 13 before as well, but it seems no matter how dark or terrifying, it all depends on oneself the outcome, doesn't it?

That bit was 're-affirming' for me as well.

I suspect you also had a taste of 'religions', realize that even in such an environment, it may have been your own observations and feelings from inside it, that helped you to 'seek things out' outside from it (or for others that experience, they totally go agnostic (UN-KNOWable)).

Realize, that such a setting, that is on seeing everything as physical, or 'meat-scape' is present in 'science' as well.

So there is a sort of mutual commonality between the religionists and the scienticians. ;)

It seems staying in those belief systems though, is still entirely up to oneself right? Do we affirm what is 'told to us' out of convenience, or dare to seek truth for oneself?

Lot's of 13s this year you say? How auspicious. Do you think it implies, many chances for one to break free from the 'Maya - illusions'?

Krysalis.. Is that like Chrysalis? A like in metamorphosis - between caterpillar to butterfly? It does seem that one will change to 'get through the eye of the needle'.

Realize, it is hard to even speak about ideas counter to firm belief systems though, and does take courageous Self honesty.

Thanks for sharing.

I do agree, that it seems no matter how dark or terrifying, it all depends on oneself the outcome. So much depends upon our heart, mind, and soul's way of processing and utilizing the outside stimuli around us. Whatsoever we seek, we shall find... Hence the true struggle between the physical realms and the spiritual.

I have had a belly-full of religion, and you are correct to say that it was the driving force to seek out and beyond that which was being "taught" by the organized religious systems of the world. So many contradictions, so many untruths, so many "parts and pieces" left out in order to manipulate mankind... It is true what they say.... "when push comes to shove, it is truly only between the soul and God". Ahhh, maybe "the organized systems" merely represent a baby food to the heart and soul... propelling an APPETITE to truth and light... but as one matures, baby food can not sustain life... unless of course, it is being spoonfed to us from another, who then becomes THE GOD and controlling factor in spiritual life... (eh, I find myself flowing thought here.......... )


Krysalis.. Is that like Chrysalis? Yes, indeed it is. The name was given to me many many years ago by and old friend who co-authored a poem with me back in 1993. The following poem took over a year to complete as I would write a stanza and my co-author would "respond" with a stanza... it turned into quite a lengthy piece of work (to say the least) but ever since then, the name just kind of "stuck to me"... following is the stanza of the piece which gave me the name.


The Abyss
Michelle Bartley

Part I: Michelle's Ballad

The chrysalis cleaved onto the wall, safe within its womb,
Laughing, smiling, feeling, crying, untouched in its tomb.
With life vibrantly growing, striving to be whole,
Restlessly awaiting to become a living soul.

I sensed no other presence, just desired to be free,
I did not want to be alone, as seemed destiny.
When the sheath that wrapped about me, had finally fell away,
My essence soon discovered, there was a price to pay.

From within the vast abyss, from whence I took my flight,
shackled ankles with a golden cord, dangled me from the light,
A voice which cried out from within, was giving clear instruction,
"You must stay in this darkness, or meet your own destruction!"

With anguish swelling in my heart, and so much love to give,
Silently I contemplated, the life I had to live.
Others in the distance, all appeared to soar so high,
Like tiny grains of star dust, in the diamond studded sky,

Touching the golden confines, chained firmly to my feet,
I stared up at a pinpoint star, where the other end seemed to meet.
Sometimes I would climb the cord, to view what I could see,
But in that world of other souls, there was no place for me.

At times other beings would fall, and near me they would hedge,
Always I would caution them, "Do not go near the edge!"
But the deadly abyss was starving, for the lives of men,
Enticing them invariably, it would always lure them in.

"How many will it take" I scream, "before you're satisfied,
"Do you realize how many, lonely tears I've cried?"
Then I sensed another presence, suspended by the pit,
Although, I had the urge to hide, I wanted to rush to it.

Emerging out of no where, like a magnet I was drawn,
Another chained, abandoned heart, so much like my own!
As if searching in a mirror, I observe a cognate being,
A lifetime running parallel, filled with ravaged feeling.

"How long have you been here?" I need not speak to be heard,
Like some universal union, your heart hears every word.
"What is our connection, why did our souls traverse?"
Two guardians of this vast abyss, that share this dreaded curse!

I move cautiously near you, I feel the things you feel,
No longer truly certain if this is fantasy or real,
I can not in this darkness, discern your face or eyes,
I nervously, intensely wait, for your heart felt replies.

Awaiting in patient silence...