From horror films to spiritualists, this date has been a hotshot matter of discussion since forever.
It was the date on which a number of Templar Knights were burned on the stake by the Vatican Church in the medieval era. It also has associations with witchcraft and the art of warlocks.
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. For example, in Hindi, Friday is known as “Shukra-vaar,” with Shukra representing 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, sacred to Venus, hold?
Well, the date is 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. As a result, the number is associated with rebirth, resurrection, death, and mortality.
It has other feminine associations too. With the moon come tides, and with tides come menses.
All cultures have established a correlation between the moon and women’s menses. 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.
Furthermore, 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, the goddess of wealth, on a Full Moon.
Even in the West, goddesses such as Luna, Celina, or Phoebe depicted the moon. People believed that the moon’s movement across the sky symbolized female growth and maturity, and it also fostered 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 sensitive to the spiritual realm.
The lunar month, too, lasts 13 months.
Now, let’s examine the reasons behind this shift towards negative associations.
Well, like many other things, such as 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!
Right now, the world can surely make some use of all of those.
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