Friday, February 13, 2009

the 13th

Friday, the 13th of February is almost done and gone with the weekend upon us. So, was it a lucky or unlucky day for you? There are people with all sorts of phobias about the number and the day. One building I worked at in Winnipeg, Manitoba didn't have a 13th floor. The floors went up to 11th and continued on from the 14th skipping the number 13 entirely. Then there's the Friday, the 13th phobia. Here are a couple of theories from Wikipedia on how this all got started but its not complete. There are many more theories as well.

The actual origin of the superstition, though, appears also to be a tale in Norse mythology. Friday is named for Frigga, the free-spirited goddess of love and fertility. When Norse and Germanic tribes converted to Christianity, Frigga was banished in shame to a mountaintop and labeled a witch. It was believed that every Friday, the spiteful goddess convened a meeting with eleven other witches, plus the devil - a gathering of thirteen - and plotted ill turns of fate for the coming week. For many centuries in Scandinavia, Friday was known as "Witches' Sabbath."[11]

The Knights Templar were a monastic military order founded in Jerusalem in 1118 C.E., whose mission was to protect Christian pilgrims during the Crusades. Over the next two centuries, the Knights Templar became extraordinarily powerful and wealthy. Threatened by that power and eager to acquire their wealth, King Philip secretly ordered the mass arrest of all the Knights Templar in France on Friday, October 13, 1307 - Friday the 13th.[4]

Our luck, or lot in life, is of our own choosing. Our own thoughts preceed actions. What we think and the way we think determines what we attract in life. Dwelling on negativity will attract the same into our lives as sure as iron filings are attracted to a magnet ("As a man thinketh, so shall he dwell"), and by the same process, positive thoughts in our own minds as well as what we project out to others attracts the same in kind. That's what I've observed in my life to date but that's only my opinion. You can draw your own! So, is a date, number or anything else really lucky or unlucky?

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