Yes, it’s Friday 13th. So what?
At the Sanctuary of Joy we do like the number 13.
You know we post a lot of information about the moon phases, and 13 is the number of moon cycles in a year.
In the ancient times, those ‘moons’ were used to track time, and in Latin the word used for ‘month’ (mensis) still remains in the root of the modern word ‘menstruation’ – moon cycles were in fact first observed in relation to women’s menstrual cycle, which has all to do with life and creation.
It’s not only women to be influenced by the moon, anyhow – also men are affected, just in less obvious ways, but they don’t have a constant reminder about it, unless they choose to track it in other ways. When the 12-months calendar was instituted (by men), this made for an even stronger disconnect from the cycles of nature.
It’s interesting that Easter, even today, doesn’t have a fixed date but has always been following the full moon.
Mary Magdalene was also ‘upgraded’ in more recent times to be considered the 13th apostle, after centuries of only keeping the first 12 (all men) in that rank.
Isn’t it time that we stop believing 13 is a supposedly ‘bad’ number and we bring it back to its positive association with femininity and life cycles?
PS – An additional curiosity: in Italy, every week, there is a lottery (‘TotoCalcio’) where the players have to guess the results of the main football matches happening on Sunday. You can win small amounts even if you just guess a few, but the biggest amount goes to the few who guess a total of 13 results! In Italy, 13 is not considered as unlucky as in the rest of the world – its equivalent in the local folklore is, instead, number 17.
