Friday the Thirteenth

Today is my favorite day -- Friday the 13th. This is not because I am macabre. I honor the day as the special holy day of a feminine aspect of deity. Friday is Freya's day in the old Germanic cultures, and 13 is her special number.

The ancient form of the fairy tale "Snow White" includes thirteen witches instead of four fairies. In that story twelve witches were invited to the birth celebration of the beautiful princess. There were only twelve gold plates, you see, so the king and queen put their heads together and decided simply not to invite one witch.

None of the witches was evil. Witches were healers and midwifes in the culture of the original Snow White story. The thirteenth witch was not a bad soul. She was overlooked, in fact, because she seemed to be the least powerful of all the witches, the least worthy of honor. She was a quiet, unassuming healer.

She did not act out of revenge to curse the princess, either. No, this sleep of 100 year is simply what happens when one ignores the thirteenth witch. It is very dangerous to ignore the thirteenth witch. It can cause dire consequences that last a very long time.

Twelve is a common number signifying completeness. Three sets of four, or four sets of three, it symbolizes a sort of completeness that comes from a diversified, well articulated consciousness. The number crops up cross-culturally as the total of things. Think of the twelve tribes of Israel or the twelve directions of Native American spirituality.

What, then, is symbolized by thirteen? It is one beyond the completeness. It is the symbol of newness -- new beginnings, a new paradigm, new birth, new growth. Twelve is static and complete. Thirteen is dynamic and unbalanced. Twelve is made up of all sorts of other numbers: twos, threes, fours. Thirteen is a prime number, only divisible by itself and one.

You can see why the failure to invite the thirteenth witch throws the Snow White kingdom into slumber. The kingdom had failed to invite the new dynamic, the catalyst for change. This is a very bad thing, especially at a birth. Let this be a warning to you -- don't use the gold plates if there aren't enough. Use pottery. Just make sure all the witches are invited.

Freya is the Norse goddess of life. Thirteen is her favorite number because of its catalytic properties. Life always needs the unbalance of the thing beyond completeness, the new thing, the wrench in the works. There is no life without this chaotic element. There is only stasis -- sleep.

How, then, will I honor Freya's Day of the Number 13? What I should do is find something that scares me absolutely out of my wits and then makes me laugh. What better way to honor that aspect of God that is newness and the electric force of life?

These things are hard to engineer, though. My inner ear can't take amusement park rides anymore and horror movies have never been my favorite adventure.

I think what I will do instead is perhaps even more risky. I'll light a little candle on my altar and I'll pray. I'll say to that Freya aspect of God, "surprise me."

Yikes! I'm terrified just thinking about it!