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Episode 13: Spooky 13
942 Plays2 years ago
Welcome back Witches! We wanted to do something a little different for our 13th episode, so for this week we will focus on the number 13 and the history and superstitions surrounding this spooky number! We had a lot of fun researching this one and we hope that you all enjoy it as much as we do! So get in losers, and lets discuss Spooky 13 and all its lore.
We would be forever thankful if you left our podcast a 5-Star review. If you really loved the show and want more Get in Loser content, check out our Supercast & Buy Me a Coffee links below. You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @GetinWitches, on TikTok @weredoingwitchcraft or email us at weredoingwitchcraft@gmail.com. You can support our show through our
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Music by Darren Curtis- My Dark Passenger
- Maranzani, Barbara. What’s So Unlucky About the Number 13?. (2013, updated 2021). History. https://www.history.com/news/whats-so-unlucky-about-the-number-13
- Kelly, Aliza. Why Do People Think the Number 13 Is Unlucky?: Let’s Talk About Triskaidekaphobia. (2018). Allure. https://www.allure.com/story/why-is-number-13-unlucky
- Bobic, Chrissy. Why is the Number 13 Unlucky? The Superstition Has a Long History. (2021). Distractify. https://www.distractify.com/p/why-is-the-number-13-unlucky
- Conradt, Stacy. 13 Reasons People Think the Number 13 is Unlucky. (2017). Mental Floss. https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/23266/13-reasons-people-think-number-13-unlucky
- Ferre, Lux. Number Thirteen (13). (2018). Occult World. https://occult-world.com/number-thirteen-13/
- Mulvania, Andrew. 18 Superstitions from Around the World. Google Arts & Culture. https://artsandculture.google.com/story/18-superstitions-from-around-the-world/QQIyTWmzJ9QvLg
- Melina, Remy, 2011. Live Science. https://www.livescience.com/14147-number-13-bad-luck.html
- https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/16543009
- Skaftun, Emily 13 June 2014. https://www.norwegianamerican.com/blame-loki-for-your-bad-luck/
- Chesters, Crystal August 13, 2021. https://inews.co.uk/light-relief/friday-13th-unlucky-why-meaning-beliefs-explained-338205
- https://lifestyle.allwomenstalk.com/of-the-most-interesting-and-common-superstitions/
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Transcript
Introduction to Witchcraft and Superstitions
00:00:00
Speaker
Do you feel drawn to learn more about witchcraft in the occult, but feel lost somewhere to start? Then welcome to Get In Witch Over Doing Witchcraft, a podcast all about what it means to be a witch and where to get started on your journey. Join us as we navigate through various witchy topics and share what we have learned about the craft. So get in witches and let's learn more about the number 13. So for episode 13, we wanted to do
00:00:30
Speaker
Something that wasn't strictly just witchcraft, but we wanted to go with the superstition surrounding the number 13. Oftentimes with magic comes superstition. The difference between magic and superstition is that magical practices enhance one's innate energetic abilities while superstitions suppress an individual's power. Superstitions bring about a one size fits all philosophy that is based in over generalization and simple blanket statements.
00:00:58
Speaker
they focus solely on external variables, something like black cats representing bad luck, or that the number 13 is an omen. A quote from Eliza Kelly says, superstitions prey on fear by stripping us of our individual connection to
Magic vs. Superstition: Eliza Kelly's Insight
00:01:15
Speaker
the world. And they take away the critical notion that we have the power to manifest change. Well, I love that quote. Because like, this is something that we'll see like, throughout this episode is just like a theme of
00:01:28
Speaker
the superstition itself or your belief in the superstition is something that gives it power instead of you knowing that you have the power to manifest things. So when it comes to this topic, I thought it was important to start with the history, go into a little bit of the lore.
00:01:45
Speaker
how it ties into witchcraft and then give some other examples. So with the history, there's a lot of really funny interesting things that both Sam and I found and we wanted to include because some of it's really cool, some of it's just like completely outlandish and crazy.
00:02:02
Speaker
So in 1307 the Knights Templar who were believed to protect the Holy Grail and other holy objects as well as act of like a type of bank to European kings were said to have started to be arrested on Friday October 13th after the French King Philip IV lost the war to England. He became heavily indebted to the Knights
00:02:26
Speaker
and then conspired with Pope Clement V to have the knights arrested and charged with Satanism and other crimes and then massacred. So first of all, rude. Right. He's like the worst day ever. I owe you guys a lot of money so I'm just gonna murder you all. Right, you're Satan because you're expecting me to pay
Knights Templar and Friday the 13th
00:02:48
Speaker
you back. How dare you.
00:02:50
Speaker
Could you imagine if that was my excuse for not paying back my student loans? No. Sorry, Sallie Mae, you're Satan. I can't deal with this right now. Or your mortgage or your rent and you're like, I'm sorry, you're Satan because I don't want to pay my mortgage. Right.
00:03:06
Speaker
Sex to be you. Yeah. So the grand master of the the Knights Templar, he was sentenced to die by burning. But before he succumbed to the flames, he took vengeance by placing a curse on those responsible for the actions against the Knights Templar by saying God knows who is wrong and has send. Soon a calamity will occur to those that have condemned us to death. What a badass. Right.
00:03:33
Speaker
for burning me, you're going to pay. Exactly. Because you know, like most anybody who's like burned alive for any sort of thing would be like, Oh my God.
00:03:43
Speaker
like just I would be like hysterical yeah hysterical crying like freaking out this guy's like you know what fuck everyone yeah fuck everyone dishonor on you dishonor on your cow yes so uh because the arrests happen on friday the 13th
00:04:07
Speaker
It's believed that Fridays and the 13th became feared as the days when God would wreak his vengeance for the killing of the Templars. So like everyone that was there when he was like, F all of you, everyone that had part in this, you're going to have this calamity, which I thought was such a funny word to use in like a vengeance moment. But every time it was like a Friday or the 13th, everybody would be like, Oh my God.
Challenging Superstition: The 13 Club
00:04:33
Speaker
Something's gonna happen. Also, historians believe the superstition surrounding the number 13 began in the 17th century, though there was no single event that jump-started this negative outlook. They just, for some reason, they were like, this is when it started, but they don't have any like root cause for why.
00:04:52
Speaker
If somebody just was like, it must have started up then. Yeah. So and that, I feel like that one came from like the history network or whatever. And I was like, that's a weird statement to make when you have nothing to back it up. But okay, if that's what you say. Yeah, it must be true.
00:05:10
Speaker
And then my favorite thing that I found was in 1882, there was a group of 13 men that formed the 13 Club in New York City. And their whole reasoning behind this was that they kind of want to just like flout, bad luck, lore of the number. They wanted to be like, look, all these things tied to 13 and nothing's happening. They held their original dinner meeting.
00:05:35
Speaker
on Friday the 13th in January 1882 in room 13 of the Knickerbocker Cottage from 13 minutes past 8 until the 13th hour which was 1am.
00:05:48
Speaker
They dined on the 13th of every month and a lifetime membership of the club cost $13. The initiation fee was $1.13 and monthly dues to the club were 13 cents. And at their meetings, they would make fun of superstitions by doing things like spilling salt or breaking mirrors. And it got so popular that a sister club was also formed in London.
Media Influence on Friday the 13th Superstition
00:06:13
Speaker
This is something that I feel like I would see somebody who's like super petty. You know, someone's just like, oh, you know what? You're going to have bad luck for this. Oh, really? Watch me punch this near. Yeah. I'm creating an entire club. You just watch. Watch me spill this salt. Oops.
00:06:38
Speaker
Oh wow. I laughed so hard reading this and I kept like, I was like looking up so much stuff about it because I was like, this is just freaking hilarious. In the 20th century, the number 13's infamy was fueled by a work of fiction. So in 1907, Thomas Lawson, who was a businessman and an author, published a novel entitled Friday the 13th.
00:07:04
Speaker
It was about a rogue broker who chose that particular date to destroy the stock market. Because of this novel, the concept of unlucky number 13 was entered into the zeitgeist. And by 1910, the term triscadecaphobia was coined by psychology and further perpetuated the superstition. The myth about the number 13 being unlucky continued to grow throughout the 20th century. And this myth was later solidified in 1980 by the horror film Friday the 13th.
00:07:32
Speaker
Whenever I was researching this topic, something that came up time and again was this spoof article that was put in a British medical journal in 1993. People believed it. Oh no, it's like an onion type article. Yeah, I guess every Christmas, their Christmas edition of this
00:07:55
Speaker
journal would be like spoof stories, but for whatever reason, like this one people latched onto and on other websites, they would link this article as fact. Apparently it wasn't. Basically what the spoof was, was that supposedly this British medical journal looked into documented accidents on the London M25 motorway between
00:08:19
Speaker
1990 and 1992. And what they put in the report was, while it was documented that there was less people driving on the road each month on Friday the 13th, the risk of hospital admissions due to car accidents was increased by 52%. Basically, um, scientifically proving that Friday the 13th was super unlucky. And if you drove on this day,
00:08:45
Speaker
you were most likely to end up in a hospital because of an accident. And this is completely false information. But for whatever reason, like people still are citing this fucking journal as fact, and it's not. So I thought that was pretty funny. And that only leads to people being more superstitious about Friday the 13th because of stuff like this. That's hilarious. It really is. I just love that they were like, here's a fake article. And everyone was like, see? Yeah, it's totally true.
00:09:15
Speaker
And then like, um, there was also like an article that came out after this too. It was another spoof article where they were like, well, actually know what the article meant to say was that it's mostly women drivers who get into ads. So of course, of course it is.
00:09:36
Speaker
But since then there've been other studies looking at the possible links between Friday the 13th and bad luck, but there really isn't any scientific link obviously between the two.
Behavioral Impact of Friday the 13th
00:09:46
Speaker
What is most likely to blame for any increase in bad luck on these days, as we've mentioned earlier in the episode is that people's superstitious beliefs are influencing their behavior. So if you wake up and you think I'm going to have the worst day ever, because it's Friday the 13th.
00:10:03
Speaker
You probably are. You probably just wished it into existence and then you're going to have a shit day. Literally saying it, you're just already setting your mood. Like, I'm going to have a bad day. And then saying that, you're like, well, I'm going to have a bad day. So now I'm in a bad mood. So researchers estimate that as many as 10% of the US population has a fear of the number 13 and an even more specific fear of Friday the 13th, which is also known as parescevadeca triophobia.
00:10:30
Speaker
Now say that 10 times fast. Absolutely not. It literally took me 10 minutes just to get it once last night. I was like, why is this word necessary? This word literally has like every letter of the alphabet. So you're only getting me to say that word one time. So that is the fear of Friday the 13th. And I will never say it again. You're welcome.
00:10:55
Speaker
This phobia accounts for an excess of, so okay, this part, there was conflicting information. So I'm including a range of numbers here. So the phobia accounts for an excess of hundreds of millions of dollars, up to 1 billion. I've read like four different articles and two of them said that it was like the losses were in the hundreds of millions. And then two of the articles said that the losses were a billion dollars. So I'm not really sure what the actual number is, but it's somewhere in that range.
00:11:25
Speaker
And those are in financial losses annually just because of Friday the 13th. People avoid marrying, they avoid going shopping that day, they don't travel, they'll cancel flights if they get booked on Friday the 13th. And some people will even not go to work on those days. Like they're scared to even just leave the house. You're boring. That is you.
00:11:48
Speaker
I'm sorry, but what the hell? Anthony and I got married on the 13th, so.
Number 13 and Feminine Energy
00:11:53
Speaker
I think it's beautiful. Every now and then we have a Friday the 13th anniversary. I love it. Another interesting little tidbit that I found on the superstition behind the 13th or Friday the 13th is just the patriarchy in general, which it was kind of funny. So basically throughout history, the number 13 was connected to female energy,
00:12:18
Speaker
Um, women have 13 menses annually based on a 28 day cycle and 13, there are 13 lunar cycles. The moon is associated with women cross culturally. Um, there's negative connotations of the number 13 that reflect women's oppression. Of course, I never like put those two things together and I've never heard anything.
00:12:45
Speaker
that would project that, but it was something that I found in the research that I found interesting. That is really interesting. I would never have thought about that. So basically, when society became more patriarchal, women were made to feel ashamed about their periods and were made to ignore the potential to create and to hold space for new life. This doesn't mean that people who believe in the superstition surrounding the number 13 are anti-feminist.
00:13:13
Speaker
It was just something that someone tied to it, so. Yeah, they were able to link because, oh, actually, if you think about it, this and this, it doesn't actually mean that this is a thing. Yeah, yeah. It was just an interesting tidbit that I thought I would include.
Persian and Global Myths About 13
00:13:31
Speaker
But I don't know how much weight it actually carries. Could be a subconscious thing. Could be. Who knows? Could very much well be.
00:13:39
Speaker
We'll never know. The ancient Persians divided history into four sectors of 3,000 years. The exact time frames vary, but some scholars feel that at the beginning of the 13,000th year, there will be chaos as evil mounts a great battle against good, though the belief is that good will eventually try.
00:13:59
Speaker
It's not in like every mythology of everything. Yeah, pretty much. But I guess like the Persians, like, it was like the way that they divided up the time these scholars, it was like a group of scholars too. It wasn't like every scholar kind of thing. It was like this group of scholars that were studying like the Persian timeframes were like, oh my gosh, it's going to be chaos. That was the historical portion of it. The lore I also feel like was
00:14:28
Speaker
hilarious and sometimes super outlandish. So early myths surrounding the world's oldest legal document out of Babylon called the Code of Hammurabi. Right? Am I saying that right? Hammurabi. I have never heard that word before. Said. I've seen it written but never said. So it sounds great. Okay. I mean, why not? I think that's how it's done. That's how we're going to go with it.
00:14:54
Speaker
Early myths surrounding the world's oldest legal document out of Babylon called the Code of Hammurabi reportedly admitted the 13th law from its list of legal rules. This was likely just a clerical error by a translator as the original codes in, like the original document of codes, didn't list the laws numerically. Then there's the superstition of the 13th guest. So in north floor,
00:15:20
Speaker
Evil and turmoil were introduced into the world by the appearance of the mischievous god Loki at a dinner in Valhalla. He was the 13th guest and he upset the balance of the 12 gods in attendance.
00:15:33
Speaker
So he was basically the original dinner party crasher. Yeah. So, you know, go, Loki. Yeah. And what I was reading about this too, I saw that the legends state that while he was at this dinner party, he also caused one of the other gods in attendance to die during the meal. So I mean, this is pretty normal. Loki is coming to dinner. You may die. You may die. Yeah.
00:16:04
Speaker
His lore is wild. And then in biblical Christianity, 13 was said to be associated with Jesus and his 12 disciples. Judas Iscariot was being received as the 13th guest at the Last Supper and as Jesus's betrayer. So Jesus was said to be crucified on a Friday and some believe in the superstition around Friday the 13th stems from that. A quick aside, I was thinking about this while, you know,
00:16:33
Speaker
researching and compiling our notes and stuff. Considering the similarities between the Norse mythology and the biblical Christianity surrounding the 13th guess, it makes me wonder if Judas is a Christian representation of Loki. It wouldn't surprise me if there's so many ties. Yeah, considering there's like every pagan religion, there's a Christian
00:16:58
Speaker
religion that tries to step on the toes of a pagan religion, it wouldn't surprise me if this was the situation, so. Yeah. Many believed that either the Last Supper or Jesus's crucifixion actually occurred on the 13th of, and again, I don't know if I'm saying this right, and I apologize if I'm not, but the 13th of Nisan, which is a month on the Jewish calendar.
00:17:24
Speaker
The fatalistic notion that if 13 people sat at a table together stems from this, the idea would be that one of them would die within a year.
00:17:35
Speaker
And what if like you were just in the room, but you didn't set up the table? Or if I walk into a room and like, there's 13 seats. What if you sat on a different table? Exactly. Like, can I just stay by the bar? Is that okay? Yeah. And I sit on the floor. I'll sit over here. Yeah. I'll sit. Yeah. I'll just.
00:17:56
Speaker
I'll be in the other room, it's fine. Yeah. So based off of this notion, a New England based Mythbusters group created the 13 Club to debunk the superstition. The group was prestigious and it included multiple US presidents, but they had problems recruiting members due to no one wanting to be the 13th person.
00:18:18
Speaker
Wow. So they're trying to like debunk the the superstition, but they're still like the superstition.
Historical Beliefs and 13's Cultural Ties
00:18:25
Speaker
They're stuck at 12 because no one wants to be the 15th. This research was so fun because it's just hilarious, outlandish and ridiculous. It really is. And there's even like, according to a recent article on the BBC, today, like in the UK, 13 is considered unlucky at a dinner table. And
00:18:48
Speaker
If there are 13 guests, the host sometimes will pop a teddy bear into a 14th spot. There's not 13 people. We've got Teddy Ruxpin over here. Exactly. That's our 14th. His name's Ted. He has to go and play in everything. Let's pour him a glass of wine. It's fine. Oh my goodness. It makes me sit here and wonder too, because I never knew about this lore surrounding 13 dinner guests. Yeah. And so.
00:19:15
Speaker
It makes me wonder like how many times I've been sat at a table with like 12 other people and not even cared or, I mean, not that I wouldn't know anyway, but now like anytime I go to a dinner party or anything and be like, is there 13 people here? One of us is about to die. No, I'm just kidding.
00:19:34
Speaker
According to historian Vincent Foster Hopper, a 16th century numerologist named Petrus, first of all this name, named Petrus Bungus.
00:19:48
Speaker
His parents hated him. A 16th century numerologist named Petrus Bungus pushed 13 as an unlucky number due to his belief that there were, in quotes, records that the Jews murmured 13 times against God
00:20:05
Speaker
in the Exodus from Egypt, that the 13 Psalms concerns wickedness and corruption, that the circumcision of Israel occurred in the 13th year. That was a mouthful. Peter Spungus. Okay, not only did his parents not like him, but he also had a very boring life. Right? What the hell does that even mean? According to him, this is why this number is unlucky.
00:20:30
Speaker
Also like, why did he have to say the circumcision of Israel? Like, it's probably gonna be edited out, but I stumbled over that one because it's such a weird word to use there. Yeah, why could you not say like, cut off Israel? Like, I don't know, another word for that. The circumcision of Israel. Also in Christianity, some within the church fear the number 13 because it is believed to have been the date
00:21:00
Speaker
that Eve ate the apple from the tree of knowledge and angering God and costing humans their immortality. Wow, Christian. It's always a woman's fault.
00:21:10
Speaker
Why is it always always others believe that it was the date of the great flood that forced Noah to build an arc and save his family and two of every animal or creature from drowning, which first of all that arc would have to be the size of an entire country, especially since animals have gone extinct since then. Have you ever been to a zoo.
00:21:36
Speaker
This story kills me. Yeah, that's like the most unbelievable story in the Bible. And then people are still like, it totally happened. We found the Ark. It didn't happen. We just had a bow.
00:21:50
Speaker
Yeah. Well, and we're supposed to believe that Noah and his, how many sons do he have? I don't even remember. Noah and his sons built this giant ass boat and it floated and it had all of that weight on it. And the lions didn't eat the zebras and the tigers didn't eat.
00:22:10
Speaker
whatever else didn't like create chaos. Exactly. Like you had Tasmanian devils and polar bears on there. Where did you get some way? And then also to like, what did you feed the lions? Because like you only had two of each animal. Yeah. So did they just starve the whole time they were on that boat? All the time. And nobody ate anyone. Nobody ate anyone or anything.
00:22:39
Speaker
Everybody was a vegetarian. In Norse mythology, it was believed that when Norse and Germanic tribes who worshipped Frigga converted to Christianity, she was supposedly banished to a mountaintop and labeled as a witch. It was believed that every Friday she would meet with 11 other witches and the devil himself totaling 13 and plot terrible things that they can make happen within the upcoming week.
00:23:04
Speaker
It sounds like a very fun. It sounds like a party though. Like I would be down to attend as long as the bad shit didn't happen to me. Yeah. It sounds like more fun than the meetings I attend for work.
00:23:17
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. So when I was researching this too, I saw, I don't know how true this is, but I saw that Freya is also where we get the word Friday. I've heard that before. And I'm just like, okay, that's pretty cool. But I've also heard that Freya, like Freya is where we got Friday. Cause there's a whole thing. It's like Thursday comes from Thor. I forget them all, but there's like every day of the week supposedly stems from a god or goddess.
00:23:42
Speaker
We'll have to look more into that. In Greek mythology, Zeus was the 13th god. And he was a dick. What are you talking about? He was an angel. He never did any wrong. Right. No. He definitely didn't cheat on everybody with everybody.
13 in Witchcraft and Tarot
00:24:03
Speaker
Absolutely not.
00:24:06
Speaker
Traditionally, there were 13 steps that led up to the gallows. I also read that while there were 12 steps up and down, there were 13 steps from the steps to the gallows, like across the platform or whatever it was. I don't know which one is true if either of them are, but this one, okay, you're screwed.
00:24:31
Speaker
So if a person's name, it was believed that if a person's name contained 13 letters, that they were bound to be cursed. So while this is a wild superstition, I know that a mind doesn't have 13, so I'm safe. But yours does.
00:24:52
Speaker
So there are actually a number of notorious murderers names with 13 letters. Some of these are Charles Manson, Jack the Ripper, Jeffrey Dahmer, Theodore Bundy, and Albert de Salvo, as well as Hitler, whose baptismal name was Adolphus Hitler.
00:25:12
Speaker
So here's just a warning. Do not piss me off. Next notorious murderer Samantha Risky. I may cut you.
00:25:27
Speaker
Yeah, I read it before. Yeah, I read it last night and I laughed and Anthony was in his office next door and he was like, what are you laughing at? That was a hearty laugh. And I told him, and then he started like counting and he's like, I'm good. You're good. My sister screwed. And I was like, Sam screwed. And he was like. Yeah. So please don't murder me. Okay. I'll try my hardest. Can't make any promises.
00:25:58
Speaker
But also, like, what a dumb thing. I wonder what brought that on. I bet it was like someone was dating someone and they broke up with them and they were like, they have 13 letters in their name. Or they thought, I have 13 letters in my name and I'm cursed to be alone forever. That's probably exactly where it came from. Probably. It always stems from something dumb like that.
00:26:22
Speaker
So outside of history and lore, obviously we're interested in the number 13 in witchcraft. So historically a witch's coven had 13 members. Today a coven is considered any group of witches, but old lore states that covens had only 13 members, 12 members plus a leader. And there's even trial records of 18 different covens with 13 members between 1576
00:26:48
Speaker
and 1673. Five of these were in England, nine in Scotland, and one each in France, Germany, Ireland, and America. It was believed that covens conducted their meetings at the full moon, which occurs 13 times within a year. With tarot, the major arcana of the tarot deck's 13th card is death.
00:27:09
Speaker
Right side up, it signifies transformation, but reversed or upside down. It signifies upheaval, inertia, and anarchy, and is sometimes superstitiously considered to be unlucky. Reminds me of what, like, Loki is. You know what I mean? The reversal there. Yeah. Yeah. If you didn't know what they were talking about, you could be like, oh, that's Loki.
00:27:34
Speaker
The number 13 is believed to be the number of mystical manifestation. 13 is the all or nothing cosmic law of destiny, so death through failure and degeneration or rebirth through regeneration.
00:27:50
Speaker
13 is the number of the great goddess represented by the 13 lunar cycles in a year and contemporary which is considered the number 13 to be lucky not unlucky. Exactly my dad used to love Friday the 13th and so him and my stepmom they were they were made on the 13th as well and then whenever he passed away he passed away on the 9th
00:28:13
Speaker
And for whatever reason, his funeral was on the 13th on Friday, the 13th. Oh, wow. So we're just like, okay, yeah, this is, this is dad. You know what I mean? Like this fits. Yeah.
00:28:24
Speaker
We've always, Anthony, I have never felt superstition over Friday the 13th. If anything, we're like, oh, it's Friday the 13th. Let's go do something. Right. Where everyone else is like, don't leave the house. Right. Yep. Or you could just use it as time to watch scary movies or do something. Yeah. I've never looked at it as like,
00:28:45
Speaker
Oh, bad luck can happen today. I've always looked at it as like, this is a cool day, Friday the 13th. I love it. Yeah. I read something too that said that like people that were drawn to the number 13 were more likely to have like open minds about like different situations, like be more willing to have open conversations and stuff like that. Oh, yeah. I was like, I must explain it because open and wonderful.
Cultural Perceptions of Numbers 12 and 13
00:29:11
Speaker
So we chat.
00:29:15
Speaker
So some fun facts surrounding the number 13 and just numbers in general, there's some extra ones that I threw in my part of the research. The number 12 is considered the perfect number in some schools of numerology being that it is the only positive integer considered to be a sublime number. Seeing that 13 precedes it, the number was destined to have bad fortune. This can be seen in the following. There's 12 months of the year, 12 zodiac signs, 12 apostles, 12 tribes of ancient Israel,
00:29:44
Speaker
you give a dozen roses, 12 days of Christmas, the 360 degree circle is divided neatly into 12 segments, a single day is composed of two 12 hour halves. And many systems of measurement conclude at 12. And I read a thing that said that like, when things go past 12 and measurement, a lot of people will just ignore it. Like, they're just like, no, this is it.
00:30:08
Speaker
So like, you know, like a foot is 12 inches. So instead of being like, it's 15 inches, they'll be like, it's a foot in three inches. Wow. Yeah, you're right. Yeah. Damn. Yeah. I haven't even thought of that before.
00:30:22
Speaker
And then ancient Sumerians number system focused on 12, making the number 13 untrustworthy to some. And the number 12 is considered the divine number of grace and perfection. That is weird. I read that and I was like, this is so weird that like, it's something like this that leads people to be like, no, 12 is the perfect number.
13 in Global Cultures
00:30:42
Speaker
Also 13, yikes.
00:30:45
Speaker
Just adding one. Those who feel drawn to the number 13 are typically those who also don't fear thinking differently. This is what I was talking about earlier. Today, the number 13 is synonymous with misfortune and the macabre. More than 80% of high rise buildings in the US don't have a 13th floor, or they have a 13th floor, but they just rename it.
00:31:08
Speaker
The vast majority of hotels, hospitals, and airports avoid using the number 13 for rooms and gates as well. Friday the 13th is considered the most unluckiest day of the year and then athletes with the number 13 jersey often fall short
00:31:26
Speaker
And some examples I found on this were like Dan Marino is considered a great quarterback, but he's never won a Super Bowl, which I don't know if that's actually true. Like, I don't know a lot about sports. So yeah, I don't pay attention. So that's what this article told me. Sorry guys. And then Steve Nash was a two-time NBA MVP, but he also never won a championship.
00:31:49
Speaker
And then piggybacking on athletes, in 1979, Super Bowl 13 is known as Black Sunday, apparently, due to a major financial setback that occurred for sports bookies, all because it was the 13th Super Bowl. I mean, I just don't know how many words, like, stop it. Don't be dumb. Don't be dumb. Don't let numbers influence you like that. Yeah.
00:32:15
Speaker
and then some opposing views with numbers.
00:32:20
Speaker
Ancient Egyptians as well as Thailand consider the number 13 to be lucky. The Thai calendar celebrates the new year on April 13th when it's believed that bad luck is washed away. Much of Asia avoids the number four instead. This stems from the Chinese language similarities in the linguistic subgroups for the words for and death. I also saw that wall in Greece
00:32:47
Speaker
The number 13 is considered usually to be unlucky. It is not Friday the 13th that is considered unlucky. It's Tuesday the 13th that are considered to be the most unlucky days. And in ancient Greece, the god Aries was associated with the number 13. And in Greek history, many unfortunate events happened on Tuesday the 13th to include the fall of Constantinople to the Fourth Crusade.
00:33:14
Speaker
which occurred on Tuesday, the 13th of April in 1204.
Modern Superstitions and 13
00:33:18
Speaker
Um, in Spanish speaking countries, Tuesday, the 13th is equivalent to Friday, the 13th, like in Greece and in Italy, 13 is considered to be lucky while Friday, the 17th is considered to be unlucky. So it was like a really random number and it's odd numbers too. So it has to be something with that. Yeah.
00:33:39
Speaker
Um, in some countries, Friday the 13th is known as national accident day. And it serves as a day of awareness for car accidents and the importance of driving safely, which I thought was really cute. That is cute. But also like national accident. So like dark. Yeah, it does. Like they couldn't just like call it something else. Like maybe accident awareness day. Yeah. Right. Oh my God.
00:34:08
Speaker
Yeah. National accident day. This is national accident day where all the accidents happen. Yeah. Outside of the Greek belief that unfortunate events have happened on Tuesday, the 13th, there was also documented events that have happened on Friday, the 13th that are pretty unfortunate. Um, like the Costa Concordia cruise liner disaster, which killed 32 people. And this happened on Friday, the 13th in 2012.
00:34:35
Speaker
Buckingham Palace was bombed during World War II on Friday, September 13th, 1940. On Friday the 13th, October 1972, a Uruguayan air force flight number 571 crashed into a glacier in a remote part of the Andes Mountains, which is just absolutely terrible. And then on Friday, September 13th, 1996, Tupac Shakur
00:35:01
Speaker
passed away from a gunshot wound that he sustained on September 7th. So some pretty shitty things that happened. According to Casparis Ethereus, he is still well alive on an island. Oh yeah. Totally seeing like his pictures. So he's totally alive. Totally alive. Yeah.
00:35:21
Speaker
Living his best life, he looks exactly the same because he doesn't age. Ancient cultures connected the number 13 to a goddess archetype, the divine feminine, along with physical regeneration. In the Kabbalistic system of Gematria, where numerical values are assigned to letters, 13 is equated with love of unity because of the Hebrew letters for love and unity both totaling 13.
00:35:50
Speaker
And then of course, my personal favorite of baker's dozen is 13 items instead of 12. So you get an extra cookie or an extra muffin, which makes me happy. Now, what I do need is I need Dunkin' Donuts to go with this baker's dozen and get a dozen donuts because they only give you 12. It's unacceptable. It's unacceptable.
00:36:18
Speaker
right to jail. Right to jail.
Common Superstitions Explained
00:36:22
Speaker
So some other examples of other superstitions out there. There's Knocking on Wood. This came from a 19th century British children's game called Takey Touch Wood. Okay, it was like a basically what I read is that it was like tag. So if you were it, you had to run around and try to like tag the kids. But if they touched a
00:36:48
Speaker
tree and said to be touch wood. They were safe. Um, that sounds very like pedophile ish. They should have named it something else. I will say different, something different. So some people in the UK will still say touch wood instead of like knock on wood.
00:37:11
Speaker
And then there's an old lore that also states that spirits lived within the trees and you could gain their protection by knocking on their tree. And then throwing salt over your shoulder, this involves the idea that you're warding off evil or you're warding off the devil himself. In Da Vinci's painting, The Last Supper, Judas is depicted as having spilled the salt on the dinner table, which I thought was kind of funny. That is funny, I've never noticed that. Me either, I had to go back and look and I was like, oh yeah, there's the salt.
00:37:41
Speaker
And then it was believed that throwing the salt over your shoulder would blind the devil who was like standing behind you waiting there. So you like from the salt that goes in his eyes. A terrible visualization just like and then he's there but all these things like must be short because. I know I'm tiny so if I'm blinding with salt I'm I mean they're throwing it really high.
00:38:10
Speaker
And you have perfect aim too. Yeah, every time, every time. As long as I'm throwing it, perfect aim. And then walking under ladders is also believed to be rooted in Christian symbolism. So the Holy Trinity or the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit symbolized the number three and it was akin to a ladder forming a triangle. So they believed that walking under the ladder would destroy the sanctity of the Trinity and would incur punishment.
00:38:36
Speaker
I never knew that that's where that came from. And after reading it, I was like, this is so dumb. It is dumb. I'm gonna walk under all the ladders. Every ladder. I'm not supposed to walk under a ladder because if some shit happened, you could die. Like if the ladder falls on you or something. Or you could knock the person off the ladder if you both did. Apparently it's because you're destroying the Holy Trinity. Gross. Yeah. Also, I
00:39:03
Speaker
something that I do all the time and I never realized, I mean, I couldn't find the lore behind it, but splitting a pole is supposed to be bad luck. And to reverse it, you say bread and butter, or you walk around the pole again. Like, so if like you're walking with a group of three people and one person is supposed to pull, they need to go back around the pole to not get the bad luck. So this drives the Alexis crazy because I don't pay attention to it. Like,
00:39:30
Speaker
I'm not superstitious when it comes to that. And she always will either A, grab me by the back of the shirt and make me walk on the same side of the pole as her, or she'll go back around the pole. So I'm just going to tell her from now on, she has to say bread and butter. Exactly. It works. And that was something, the bread and butter thing was something I grew up saying. Okay. And at first I thought it was just like something that my family had made up, but no, it was on the internet. A lot of people love it. So I never heard that one.
00:40:00
Speaker
A very common one that most people know is that breaking a mirror will bring on seven years of bad luck. According to ancient Rome, apparently, like this is where this started. Some lore believes that breaking a mirror would break its charm or trap one's soul within the broken mirror, which both of those seem kind of opposite to. Yeah, and also terrible. Yeah. I was like, okay.
00:40:29
Speaker
One that I grew up with was that itchy palms. Another one like this is, yeah, I always come. I always heard growing up was that money will come to you if your palms itch. Um, and so online it says like, if it doesn't matter which palm, it means money's coming to you. But growing up, I was always told that if your left hand itches money comes your way, but if your right hand itches, you'll be giving money out.
00:40:56
Speaker
I actually run that in something. I don't know why I didn't include it in these, but I did read that it like one hand meant you'd be receiving money and the other hand meant you would be losing money. Yeah. So just FYI, it also could mean that you're dehydrated. So that's how, or maybe like it's allergy season. I'm itchy basically from now all through fall.
00:41:24
Speaker
You're just going to be rich. Yeah. I'm going to be so rich because I'm itchy.
00:41:32
Speaker
In Turkey, it's believed that chewing gum, okay, this one's really gross. So in Turkey, they believe that chewing gum transforms into the flesh of the dead at night and that to chew gum at night would mean that you're chewing on dead flesh. Oh my, that usually chills, that is disgusting. I feel like this was just a way for parents to get kids not to chew gum at night and then potentially like fall asleep with gum in their mouth and then end up with gum in their hair or like
00:41:58
Speaker
in their bed. Had to. It had to. Why would anyone ever say that outside of that? So gross. So disgusting. And then in Russia, yellow flowers are believed to symbolize infidelity, separation, and death. So if someone cheated on you and you found out, you would give them yellow flowers to let them know you know.
00:42:26
Speaker
I wonder if people use this too, is like, if they're going on a walk and they see yellow flowers everywhere, if they're like, something terrible is like my husband's cheating on me or I'm going to die. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Yeah. One that I saw online too was eye twitching, which, you know, it could be lack of sleep.
00:42:45
Speaker
Or maybe according to superstitions, if your right eye twitches, that means something good will happen. If your left eye twitches, it's supposed to be a bad omen that someone will die in your family, which is super unfortunate because my left eye has been twitching like all day. My right eye twitches all the time and my left eye waters. I wonder if there's a superstition about watery eyes. Probably. We call it my leaky faucet.
00:43:14
Speaker
Thanks to allergies, I don't know why it's only my left eye, but it's always my left eye and it just waters and waters and waters. I'm sure there's a superstition out there about your left eye watering. But my right eye, I'm waiting for these good things. Exactly. Hopefully, I'm just hoping that's not true because like I said, but also I could be a murderer as well. So who knows? Opening an umbrella inside your home,
00:43:44
Speaker
Um, or just inside in general is supposed to be bad luck. And this is something I always grew up with being like, I don't open the umbrella in the house, but there really isn't any like lore associated with it. It was just, it could be because like the early umbrellas were made out of like steel rods. And if that opened in your home and a closed space.
00:44:05
Speaker
are like in an enclosed space where there's not a lot of room, you could hurt somebody if you were opening up your umbrella inside. So maybe that's why. And then this one I thought was pretty funny. Never buy a man's a pair of shoes or they'll walk out of your life. Thanks for the shoes. See you later. I just thought it was so funny, but if you're wanting to get rid of somebody, I guess by a great way to do that.
00:44:31
Speaker
Another really common one that's like pretty well known is that black cats crossing your path is said to be unlucky. And this has a horrible history. So apparently Pope Gregory the ninth declared black cats the incarnation of Satan in 1232. And they would have bonfires on holy days, like the first Sunday of Lent or on Easter.
00:44:58
Speaker
and they would burn black cats in these bonfires. Yeah. Black cats. That's so sad. Yeah. And the church later connected black cats to witchcraft. This was done by the Puritans in America. So yay, church. And then the- Hope Gregory IX, I think, is satisfied with yourself. I hope you have no peace. Right.
00:45:21
Speaker
Like straight up, just let's burn these black cats in a bonfire. These sweet, innocent kittens. Come on now. Terrible. The color black has long been associated with evil and death and witchcraft throughout history. So, but this was like a children's rhyme. Stuff on a crack and break your mother's back. Yeah, I remember that. I couldn't find any like major information on it other than it was like,
00:45:49
Speaker
kids do this, but that and then crossing your fingers for good luck, or crossing your fingers behind your back. Like, so it was basically like you were lying by saying you were going to do something or promising. Yes. But because you cross your fingers behind your back, it's okay. So it was like a way to say it was okay to lie. There's so many there are conditions out there that if we were to sit here and go through all of the ones, we'd be here all night.
00:46:16
Speaker
Like literally everything that we've talked about today took me maybe an hour and a half to research.
Conclusion and Embracing Luck
00:46:22
Speaker
Like there's just copious amounts of information on the ridiculousness of these types of beliefs. But you know, moral of the episode, don't buy into anything that's supposed to be unlucky. What is it? I'm only a little stitches. Right. I'm not superstitious. I'm only a little stitches. I'm only a little stitches. So just be a little stitches.
00:46:46
Speaker
In your own life. Be Michael Scott. Yes. No. Don't be Michael Scott. And you know what? Try embracing the luckiness that you could find on the 13th.
00:47:07
Speaker
That's it for this episode of Get In Loser, We're Doing Witchcraft. You can find our source material for this episode linked in the show notes. If you love this episode, we would be forever thankful if you live as a five-star review on wherever you listen to your podcasts. If you really love the show and want more Get In Loser content, check out our Supercast link provided in the show notes or search the Supercast website for Get In Loser, We're Doing Witchcraft.
00:47:31
Speaker
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