From horror films to spiritualists, today’s date has been a hotshot matter of discussion since forever.
It was the date on which a number of Templar Knights were burnt on the stake by the Vatican Church in the mediaeval era. Witchcraft and the art of warlocks too has associations with it.
More or less, the associations have been dark, Satanic, demonic and more often than not evil.
But it’s also true that since forever mankind has branded things it didn’t understand as evil and demonic.
Friday the 13th didn’t have such a terrible reputation to begin with. It was actually associated with the Divine Feminine, the Mother Goddess who nurtures all. Friday, for example, in Hindi is known as “Shukra-vaar”, Shukra being the planet Venus. Even in Roman times, the day was associated with the holy mother Venus, who bestowed feminine qualities like imagination, creativity and kindness on the worshippers.
So when the Church started its crusade against all things feminine and branding all free thinking women as witches, the date too was branded as one of terrible evil.
But read on and you’ll see better sense.
So what else does this day holy to Venus hold?
Well the date, 13th. 13 is a number that many oriental religions hold holy. It stands for the number of cycles the Moon, the brightest and most beautiful object in the sky, has in a year. The number hence has associations with rebirth, resurrection, death and mortality.
It has, other feminine associations too. With the moon comes tides and with tides come menses.
The moon and women’s menses have been correlated by all cultures. And guess how many cycles a woman has in a year: 13. That’s right.
Also it is around the 13th day in her cycle that she ovulates. That’s the time when she is at her fertile best. The date is kind of a celebration of feminine potential and fertility.
Besides let’s look at some of the associations with the moon. The moon is always feminine, in most languages and has deep associations with feminine energy. Hindus worship Kali, the warrior goddess on a New Moon and Lakshmi, goddess of wealth on a Full Moon.
Even in the West, the moon was depicted as goddesses like Luna or Celina or Phoebe. The moon’s movement across the sky was thought to be similar to female growth and maturity and the moon is said to impart imagination and creativity.
In astrology, it is the moon that nurtures our emotions and hones our instincts, making us wiser and more world-weary. It also makes us more receptive to energy changes and more sensitive to the spiritual realm.
The lunar month too is 13 months long.
Now so, let’s see why all this changed to such bad associations?
Well like many other things, like using the word “mankind” to denote humanity, this too was part of a medieval whitewashing of the Vatican Church. All feminine things that didn’t adhere to the patriarchal model of rule were totally ousted and branded as witchcraft.
This included the date Friday the 13th.
The Malleus Maleficarum was the consequence of this. It was a systematic guidebook on how to identify and torture all free thinking women as witches. As a matter of fact, before this branding, the word “witch” in fact came from the Germanic word for healer.
And people still ask why we need feminism.
Anyway, now that you know, maybe today’s date won’t be as scary and sinister for you after all. May you find imagination, creativity and kindness in your heart this Venus Day:
The world right now can surely make some use of all those.
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