Friday the 13th
What is at the root of “triskadekaphobia” (the fear of the number 13)?
Well it could be because all numbers have their own cosmic vibration, & “13” is considered an unstable number. From the time when humans first used numbers to measure things, the number 12 has represented a common cosmic standard. There are 12 months of the year, 12 hours on the clock, 12 signs of the Zodiac, 12 Tribes of Israel, 12 Apostles, 12 Knights of the Round Table & so on. The number 13 represents disruption or a profound metamorphosis to the established order.
The modern basis for the aura that surrounds Friday the 13th stems from Friday October the 13th, 1307. On this date, the Pope of the church in Rome, in Conjunction with the King of France, carried out a secret death warrant against “the Knights Templar”. The Templars were terminated as heretics, never again to hold the power & riches that they had stewarded for so long. Their Grand Master, Jacques DeMolay, was arrested & tortured on that Friday the 13th.
But In pre-Christian societies, reliance on a lunar calendar meant that Friday the 13th would coincide with the Full or New Moon. And Friday is the day to honor the goddesses & planet Venus.
Friday the 13th symbolized a day for everyone to let go, celebrate & sacrifice routine. Such breaks in the usual order allowed for the restoration of balance & harmony.
The Scandinavian belief that the number 13 signified bad luck sprang from their mythological 12 demigods, who were joined by a 13th demigod, Loki, a cruel trickster who brought upon humans great misfortune.
We can see the 12 apostles as represenatives of the 12 signs of the zodiac, with The Christ as the 13th – the Cosmic Being of love radiating out to them as the Sun.
And that gets shifted at the Last Supper, when Judas becomes the traitor.
In Imitatio Christi, we see this circle of 13 again in the initiation of Christian Rosenkreutz.
Whether or not a person considers Friday the 13th as unlucky, the psychology of human nature tells us that belief in superstitions can seem to offer a sense of control in stressful situations.
Let’s remember dear friends – Today’s beliefs may very well be tomorrows superstitions. How can think for ourselves? If we look we can always find the Good.
Take a cue from our forebears. They saw the number 13 as a lucky omen, a time to make a fresh beginning, seeking new roads to success & satisfaction, as we open our heart & mind to new opportunities, luck & love!But just for fun, don’t step on a crack! 😉
~hag
Friday the 13th of January 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Venus shines in twilight this week low in the southwest. Saturn is moving more rapidly down toward it.
Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
“Study the past if you would define the future.” ~Confucius
1314 – 54 Templars tortured & eventally burnt at the stake in Paris.
“…With a mysticism such as was unfolded by the Knights Templar, something spiritual is added to the spiritual “effects” of the world. And in asmuch as this took place, humanity was actually brought a stage further in its evolution. Through this experience of the Templars, the Mystery of Golgotha was understood, and also experienced, at a higher stage than before. Something was now present in the world, in regard to this Mystery of Golgotha, which was formerly not there…
Fifty-four Templars were burned at the stake in 1314. Fifty-four souls went up into the spiritual worlds. And from that time on, supersensibly and invisibly, without its being outwardly perceptible to the facts of history, there began in European humanity a spiritual development that owed its origin to the fact that individual souls were continually being inspired from the spiritual world with what these fifty-four souls carried through the gate of death into the spiritual world…” ~Rudolf Steiner The Templars, Dornach, 2nd October 1916, GA 171
1846 – Mexican–American War: The United States declares war on Mexico.
1880 – In Menlo Park, New Jersey, Thomas Edison performs the first test of his electric railway.
1917 – Feast Day of Our Lady of Fatima. Three children report the first apparition in Fátima, Portugal.
Candlemas – a Cross-Quarter Festival Heralding Spring – with Willow Summer & Hazel Archer-Ginsberg
Wednesday 25 January 2023 – Program – 3 pm – Potluck – 5 pm, Please Bring Food & Drink to Share
Storytelling: The Alchemy of Celtic Triple Goddess Brigid,
The Year of the Water Rabbit – Tu B’Shvat – Beeswax Crafting – Singing
Rudolf Steiner’s Seed Meditation – from ‘How to Know Higher Worlds’
‘Charm the Plow’ – Bless & Consecrate the Farm tools
Three Springs Community Farm 15300 Bodega Hwy, Bodega, CA 94922
Contact Willow for more info.
Velsum Voices Presents: ‘New Nightingale, New Rose’
A Benefit Concert to support Nancy Jewel Poer and the community events at White Feather Ranch
Saturday, 28 January 2023, at 2 pm PT
In the Peace Garden at White Feather Ranch, Placerville, CA
All Ages – Love Donation – Contribute what you will
Come join us for Velsum’s West Coast Debut!
Dress in warm clothes for a hearty heart-filled afternoon of music and celebration. We will have an outdoor fire. If it is too chilly we can meet in the Ranch House. Pack your own picnic lunch or dinner.
Can’t make the concert? You can still Donate to Nancy’s web site
*RSVP to receive directions to White Feather Ranch hazel@reverseritual.com
‘Velsum‘ is a musical initiative formed through Lucien Dante Lazar and Ultra-Violet Archer. The songs are inspired to develop our human capacity for Love and Logic. Velsum is a celebration of harmony, rhythm, prayer, and the human voice. Each song is permeated with a sincere interest in the other, the self, the world, and the cosmos. ‘”Velsum’s music is a product of listening.” We hope that by listening to these songs, you feel heard. ~Velsum
Lucien and Ultra met as children at the Chicago Waldorf School, and became friends and collaborators as young adults. They now write, record and perform original music through the initiative Velsum. They debuted the show ‘New Nightingale, New Rose’ last winter at Angelic Organics Farm, and have performed it throughout the Midwest. Through weaving harmonies, poetic recitations, and movement, New Nightingale, New Rose invites the audience on a quest for love and wisdom. A joyful experience awaits young and old!
Here is a short video clip of Velsum, and here you can find their link to all links! https://linktr.ee/velsum
~Velsum: Ancient Futurism~ Lucien Dante Lazar and Ultra-Violet Archer
Here is a short video clip of Velsum find them on Instagram, Bandcamp, apple music, soundcloud, spotify, youtube
Ultra-Violet Archer – (b. Chicago, IL, 1999) is a songwriter and music producer, exploring music as a tool for healing and storytelling. After studying at Oberlin College & Conservatory and spending a year in Järna, Sweden, at the International Youth Initiative Program, she currently studies music at Columbia College Chicago. She strives to make music that invites people to honor the parts of themselves they feel but can’t yet put into words. https://linktr.ee/UltraVioletArcher
Lucien Dante Lazar (b. Chicago, IL, 1994) is an interdisciplinary artist whose praxis is founded in the intersections of art, science, and spirituality. He received his BA from Bard College (2016), his MFA from California College of the Arts (2020), and is currently working on his PhD in the Philosophy, Cosmology and Consciousness program at California Institute of Integral Studies. His dissertation will concern the pedagogy of spiritual development through the diversity of the arts.
The Mystery of Ascension with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg
This course is available on Zoom. You will be emailed a Zoom link closer to the time of the class. The course will be recorded and you will receive a link to watch it. Go to the Infinity Foundation web site to enroll
Course Number 231154 / Zoom
Date: Thursday, May 11
Time 7:00 – 8:30 PM CST
Cost $33/23 payment 10 days in advance
When we tune into the Cycle of the Seasons, we experience that as the Earth breathes out in the Springtime, the beings of nature reach upwards towards the heights. The longing of the human soul also strives to meet this mood of ascension, which attunes all life to the cosmic expanses.
Together we will gain insights in how to rise up to our Higher Self by participating in this harmonizing spring-dialogue between the worlds.
This reconnection between heaven & earth was prefigured in the story of Jacob’s ladder from the Old Testament. Through his dream of the ‘stairway to heaven’, Jacob gave us a prophecy in the picture of a golden ladder on which choirs of Angels traverse between the ‘Above & Below’. The Mystery of the Ascension of Christ, 40 days after the Resurrection at Easter, fulfilled Jacob’s Prophecy. Christ as the Being of Love became the living bridge connecting us to the eternal.
Through this workshop we will learn how humanity will also be transfigured in the fullness of time. The company of the Angelic Hierarchies wait for us, their younger siblings, to ascend, first of all in our thinking, to meet them in fellowship, as they work all the while by our sides.
I’m glad to hear that others saw the number 13 as a good omen. I’ve wondered exactly what you’ve mentioned regarding the painting of the Last Supper, with the 13. Also have wondered about Saul/Paul becoming the 13th apostle — if Jesus had been superstitious of the number, why is it so prominent?
I can’t image Jesus being Supersitious.
Matthias was chosen by the 11 after Whitsun to restore the # to 12
I don’t see Paul being the 13th that can only be the Sun
Yes, I’ve wondered about that. Perhaps Matthias was chosen by the disciples, thinking it was their duty to fill the 12th spot, but without consulting Spirit to ensure they were doing the right thing. I’ve certainly done that before — doing something thinking it was the right thing to do, but not consulting with Spirit, then finding out later I was wrong. That would then make Saul/Paul the 12th, with the risen Christ, as you say, the 13th, the Sun. I do like the sounds of that, and hope that’s correct.
Steiner speaks in his lectures on Whitsun that it was important & right for the disciples who have now become apostles after the baptism by fire to appoint & name from their own Christened “I” the 12th.
I’d say that with Paul we have a new start
While I don’t mean to discredit Paul in any way, I feel and I think it can be shown that the disciple whom the Lord loved, who is depicted in nearly all the Last Supper paintings as close to the bosom of Christ, is the one who would continue the mission of early Christianity in certain mysterious ways as John. He is the one who accompanies Peter after Matthias is named as the 12th. This John will help expand the etheric healing powers of Peter as a very silent, but effective witness. People would be healed simply by standing in the shadow of Peter. But, it was John who made this possible.
But which John is my question? There were so many who had the name John in those times. Even Mark, who wrote the Gospel of Mark, was known as “John Mark”. Then there’s Lazarus, who also took on the name of John, once the Jews were out to kill him for being resurrected (I’d take on another name too if my countrymen were out to kill me!). The one who wrote the Gospel of John is probably not the same John as the brother of James, but may have been a companion of that John. It all gets a tad confusing.
Lazarus, the rich merchant of Bethany, brother of Martha & Mary Magdalena, after receiving the 1st Christian Initiation rising from the dead at the hands of Christ, was given the name John, which is a specific tile showing a particular stage of Initiation.
In his time in the spiritual world while waiting for Christ to call him forth he received special inspiration from John the Baptist who was also in the spiritual world after his beheading.
Lazarus John is the ‘Disciple whom Jesus loved’. It was he who went on to write the Gospel of John, & with the help of the Mother of Jesus who carried the Divine Sophia, he was then inspired to write the book of Revelation.
This individuality went on to become Christian Rosenkreutz thru the initiation Steve spoke about in 1459 by 12 great initiates including Mani. CR was then in the center as the 13th.
Also interesting to note that his 1st incarnation was Cain.
Hi Hazel,
You would be surprised at how many scholars of the Bible, and painters of the Last Supper know nothing of this about Lazarus. Only Rudolf Steiner revealed this relationship between the raised Lazarus and John. Yet, you call him the rich merchant of Bethany, and there is utterly no evidence for this. Lazarus was rather “poor of spirit”, as the Gospel of Luke indicates in chapter 16. Thus, all reasonable assessments indicate that it was the father of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, who was the rich man, i.e., Simon the Pharisee, who invited Christ into his home and witnessed his daughter anointing the feet of Christ. Luke 7.
So, indeed, the disciple whom the Lord loved nestled on the breast of Christ, and became John, who accompanied Peter in the early days and years of the apostleship. This is what I wanted to draw the attention. Later, he would be designated as John of Patmos, which adds to the confusion that Maverick indicates. As such, he becomes the writer of the Apocalypse, and this is made exceedingly possible because the Mother of Jesus has been with him since the Crucifixion. Mother-Son for the new Era at hand.
It is interesting that the Last Supper of Da Vinci depicts 12 disciples, including Judas. Yet, the disciple closest to Jesus is the disciple who had just recently been identified as “the beloved disciple”. Therefore, there should be thirteen disciples, and Christ as their leader. I asked myself if there are other Last Supper paintings, and indeed, some 20 paintings from as early as the 14th century exist that depict it. They all seem to account for twelve disciples instead of thirteen. What could be the problem here?
https://www.thegeographicalcure.com/post/last-supper-paintings-in-italy
Yes, good point…Perhaps it has to do with what I spoke about in the essay: “…all numbers have their own cosmic vibration, & “13” is considered an unstable number. From the time when humans first used numbers to measure things, the number 12 has represented a common cosmic standard…”
13 must be reclaimed from the bad rep it has gotten thru superstition & association with black magic etc. To see it as the 1 + 12
BEGIN AGAIN
In the dark of winter the dove descends,
seven days of innocence, no more,
the hush extreme beyond comprehension,
the stage set, the scenery profound,
hesitation of no avail as the end beckons,
life taking charge and slowing down,
like moonbeams on new fallen snow.
It is clear what must be done,
a narrow path laid out before us,
peace present with evil on the prowl,
guardian angels sparing with fate –
if we fail then courage will be lost
and beginning again will never do,
trust and love are all we have now.
One born in a manger the other in a mansion,
mothers and fathers with the same occupation,
shepherds, magi and a wicked king looking on –
the time is at hand for one and for all.
It will not be easy to claim our power,
to be humble and persevere through the storm.
If we fail, all that has been gained will be lost.
There have never been times like these,
corruption in disguise with a pretty face,
tyranny with the victim boasting the sword,
execution performed as if it is our duty,
mercenaries paid to satisfy their needs,
manufactured as if they were real,
essential for survival and pleasure.
How can we create beauty in such a state,
slay the dragon without slaying ourselves,
touch another without desecrating innocence,
access the essence of who we are,
light the lamp and let it shine –
one step at a time, let’s begin,
and if the temple burns, begin again.
~Nicholas Morrow
1-13-2023 = 12 = 3
Some excellent insights here Nicholas; thanks.
It is, indeed, a narrow path that has been laid out before us.
Yet, it has all been prepared beforehand.
We must all become
and endure what it means to be sacrificial lambs.
The wise guiding spirit has placed Evil in our midst
for a reason
and the reason is to achieve the ultimate good.
Manes is the name of the one who has endured
the most.
We endure based on the lead of Christ,
and Michael as His secondary agent.
“Do not consider it a hard thing in the plan of creation, as something which should be altered, that humanity will be divided into those who will stand on the right and those who will stand on the left; consider it rather as something that is wise in the highest degree in the plan of creation. Consider that through the evil separating from the good, the good will receive its greatest strengthening. For after the great War of All against All, the good will have to make every possible effort to rescue the evil during the period in which this will still be possible. This will not merely be a work of education such as exists to-day, but occult forces will co-operate. For in this next great epoch men will understand how to set occult forces in motion. The good will have the task of working upon their brothers of the evil movement. Everything is prepared beforehand in the hidden occult movements, but the deepest of all occult cosmic currents is the least understood. The movement which is preparing for this, says the following to its pupils: “Men speak of good and evil, but they do not know that it is necessary in the great plan that evil, too, should come to its peals, in order that those who have to overcome it should, in the very overcoming of evil, so use their force that a still greater good results from it.” The most capable must be chosen and prepared to live beyond the period of the great War of All against All when men will confront those who bear in their countenances the sign of evil; they must be so prepared that as much good force as possible will flow into humanity. It will still be possible for those bodies, which are to a certain extent soft, to be transformed after the War of All against All by the converted souls, by the souls who will still be led to the good in this last epoch. In this way much will be accomplished. The good would not be so great a good if it were not to grow through the conquest of evil. Love would not be so intense if it had not to become love so great as to be able even to overcome the wickedness in the countenances of evil men. This is already being prepared for and the pupils are told, “You must not think that evil has no part in the plan of creation. It is there in order that through it may come the greater good.” Those who are being prepared in their souls by such teachings, so that in the future they will, be able to accomplish this great task of education, are the pupils of the Manichaean School. The Manichaean teaching is generally misunderstood. When you hear anything or read something about it, you find merely phrases. You may read that the Manichees believed that from the very beginning of the world there have been two principles: good and evil. This is not so, the teaching of the Manichees is what we have just explained. By the name “Manichaeism” should be understood the above teaching and its development in the future, and the pupils who are so led that they can accomplish such a task in future incarnations. Manes is that exalted individuality, who is repeatedly incarnated on the earth, who is the guiding spirit of those whose task it is to transform evil. When we speak of the great leaders of mankind we must also think of this individuality who has set himself this task. Although at the present day this principle of Manes has had to step very much into the background because there is little understanding for spiritual work, this wonderful and lofty Manichaean principle will win more and more pupils the nearer we approach the understanding of spiritual life”.
https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA104/English/APC1958/19080625p01.html
Once again we’re indebted to you Steve for this “leading thought” — I use that phrase because it’ll lead us into more research and discussion. Thank you.
“Within this whole stream, the initiation of Mani, who also initiated Christian Rosenkreutz in 1459, is considered to be of a `higher degree’; it consists of the true understanding of the nature of evil. This initiation and all that it entails will have to remain completely hidden from the majority for a long time to come. For where even only a tiny ray of its light has flowed into literature it has *caused harm,* as happened with the irreproachable Guyau, of whom Friedrich Nietzsche became a pupil”.
Excerpted from Rudolf Steiner’s 2nd biographical sketch written for Edouard Schure, September 1907, GA 262.