Lucky 13 or Unlucky 13

Lucky 13 or Unlucky 13 –Take Your Pick But be Careful if You Live in the USA

By Charles L Harmon

Many people have a fear of the number 13. Lucky 13 or Unlucky 13 –Take Your Pick. There is even a term for the fear of the number thirteen and that’s triskaidekaphobia. It’s a Greek word and it means three-and-ten-fear. In English it means fear or a phobia concerning the number 13.

To almost everyone, at least in this country, the United States, the number 13 has always been an outcast among numbers. It seems it had a bad reputation early on, since the beginning when ancient man learned to count; at least it appears that way.

However, there seems to be many possible explanations for the fear of this simple number, but why is thirteen unlucky? That will always spark different opinions. 13 unlucky number origin is lost in antiquity.

One explanation of why is 13 unlucky concerns the Last Supper of Christ. That’s when Jesus was betrayed by one of his twelve apostles. Those times when there is a Friday the 13^th in the month is considered unlucky because tradition says that Christ was crucified on a Friday. I haven’t seen it written anywhere, but I am guessing that Christ and his twelve apostles make 13 and that’s where the significance of 13 comes from. Or maybe in that year the Friday Christ was crucified actually was on Friday the 13th.

Sometime after the Crucifixion, after Christianity was established, satanic cults instituted the Black Mass which was a mockery of the Last Supper. Their secret covens purposely included twelve witches and a leader which was known as a warlock. Church leaders saw the symbolism in unlucky 13 and began teaching that thirteen was an unlucky number.

As with other two-digit numbers, when adding the two digits together the result of adding the two digits indicated its power. In this case 1 plus 3 is four and that’s considered a lucky number. This is what’s done in what we call nowadays numerology. Of course this did not sit well with the holy fathers and they interpreted this as a heathenish sign. They warned their followers that thirteen was anti-Christian.

There is a more scientific theory that holds that in prehistoric times, when the concept of numbers first started, twelve was as far as anyone could count. The number that followed was mysterious. It instilled fear. Later, as mathematics developed thirteen was a number that seemed to be different; it seemed to stand alone as an indivisible number. It didn’t follow the rules that applied to all the numbers before it. This was a mysterious number. It was a number to beware of.

Part II

There are many more theories of how 13 became a number that signifies bad luck or unlucky circumstances but they will have their place in another article.

There are those who scoff at the idea of triskaidekaphobia. It almost seems like the term was made up just to justify the uneasiness with the number 13. Well it certainly was!

If you live in the United States It might be wise to rethink the traditional bad luck of the number thirteen. Some older folks might know about the thirteen in American history, and all of us that went to school here know of the original thirteen colonies, and of the 13 stripes on the American Flag.

You can consider thirteen as unlucky, but if you live in the USA you have been carrying that “unlucky” thirteen around with you unwittingly since you were a kid. Since at least the mid 1930s the design on the back of the one dollar bill really embraces the number thirteen. It’s part of the Great Seal of the United States. Its design bridges the ancient Egyptian allegorical motifs to our own times many decades ago. The symbolic use of the number thirteen is arranged on each of the two sides of the seal.

Looking very closely you can see the left side of the rear of the dollar bill is an incomplete pyramid. It has thirteen steps to it. On the other side across from it the part of the Great Seal with the eagle on it, you will find the eagle holding thirteen arrows in the right talons. There are thirteen leaves and berries in the left talons of the eagle. Above the eagles head are thirteen stars and it bears a shield with thirteen stripes.

In case you didn’t know, that Native American eagle is symbolic of invincibility, whereas in ancient Egypt, the Egyptian golden eagle was the bird of regeneration. That sounds pretty similar. Finally, on the left side above the pyramid is the motto, Annuit Coeptis which means God Has Favored Our Undertakings. That Latin phrase just happens to have thirteen letters.

That’s a lot of 13’s so obviously it is no mere coincidence. Could it be the sheer number of thirteen’s is to counter the unlucky nature of thirteen, or maybe a show of force that thirteen is not an unlucky number? I certainly don’t know, but maybe some of you reading this can answer why there are so many 13’s if it supposed to be an unlucky number.

The design on the dollar bill was ordered by the then Secretary of the Treasury at the time. All Americans should know that the many uses of the number thirteen on the bill refer to the original thirteen colonies. That’s indeed a lucky number for the millions of Americans today.

There is more to say about 13 lucky or 13 unlucky, or 13 unlucky number origin, but we will cover it in another article. Just be aware that even if you question why is thirteen unlucky, were it not for the original thirteen colonies in the U.S. you just might not be reading this essay which was written here in the U.S., in California.

Copyright © Charles L Harmon

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