This year being the one that comes after 2012, and just before 2014, there has recently been a rise in chatter about superstitions, nay, phobias regarding the number 13. I will therefore take this opportunity to present an initiated view of the matter.
People say that 13 is unlucky, but that is a popular misconception: 13 is only unlucky for Christians. For Satanists, on the other hand, 13 must be quite jolly! Seriously, though, the unpleasant associations of centuries of folklore have got in the way of the fact that in the Qabalah the number 13 is a lucky number, for completely unsinister reasons.
Ahebah (“love”). Aleph, Heh, Beth, Heh.
In Hebrew Gematria, the word for “love,” Ahebah, enumerates to 13.
Achad (“Unity”). Aleph, Cheth, Daleth.
Whilst “Unity,” Achad, enumerates to 13 as well. Moreover the ineffable Tetragrammaton, Yod Heh Vav Heh, enumerates to 26 or 2*13, hence giving rise to a Qabalistic saying that “God = Love + Unity,” i.e. 26 = 13 + 13.
It gets more interesting when one analyses the symbolism of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. In the 1=10 grade of Zelator, the candidate is admitted (in the first part of the ceremony) with the admission badge of the Fylfot Cross, which is a clockwise swastika (i.e. the reverse of the Nazi symbol) comprising seventeen squares. The squares represent the 12 signs of the Zodiac, the four Elements, and the Sun; and they are arranged so that each of the four arms corresponds to one of the elemental triplicities, with the Sun in the very centre. The arms are (clockwise from top-left): fire, water, air, earth. Moreover each arm is arranged in the same order: the Cardinal sign of a given element is closest to the centre, followed by the Fixed (Kerubic) sign, then the Mutable sign, and finally the symbol of the Element itself at the extremity of the arm.
Now this seventeen-squared fylfot cross has in effect been cutout from a square of twenty-five individual squares – five by five – the same dimensions as the Kamea of Mars. So one day I thought to myself: what would happen if I superimposed the fylfot cross on this very Kamea? I immediately noticed the following: the number of each sign of the Zodiac, when added to that of the sign which opposes it, equals 26, 2*13, the number of the Tetragrammaton. E.g.:
| Number derived from Fylfot Cross / Kamea of Mars. | |
| Aries | 25 |
| Libra | 1 |
| Total | 26 |
Moreover the central square – corresponding to the Sun – is 13, the Number of Unity / Love.Therefore, the Neophyte enters the Zelator hall with the aid of a symbol which suggests that all dualities are ultimately to be resolved in the form of Yod Heh Vav Heh, thereby leading one to Unity.
This is just one example: given the central importance of the Tetragrammaton to the Qabalah one should not be surprised that the number 13 may crop up throughout the Western Mystery Tradition, even where one would not expect it.
I described a conversation between a taxi driver and a Vampire in the Deep South of America.
Good news: the world is not going to end on December 21st 2012, as the Mayans (supposedly) predicted. Yay! 🙂
Sol Ascendans - The Website of Alex Sumner 
The End of The World Is Back On For 2036!
You have the power to make a whole lot of cash on the stock market! Simply buy shares in companies who specialise in pulping books – as there are a whole load of apocalyptic 2012 pseudo-Mayan pseudo-prophecy type titles which are now no longer hilariously out of date. And, need I remind you that my record in giving out stock market tips is currently 100% (i.e. one out of one) !
However before we rest easy and for once in human history concentrate on living in the moment for a change, we must beware: not necessarily of the End of the World itself, but because the streets and fields will henceforth be filled with vast numbers of strange people shambling aimlessly, attempting to suck the life out of all right-thinking people. I’m not talking about Zombies – I’m talking about Millenarians in search of an Apocalypse. Although I might as well be talking about Zombies, but that is by the by.
The point is, though, that as I first became aware of the Y2K phenomenon many years ago, I perceived that there was a large class of people who were actually looking forward to the end of the world, not with any appreciable joy but out of pure Masochism – and not in the nice sense either, but in the Freudian. Then of course when the Y2K phenomenon did not happen, the same people transferred their hopes of the world’s imminent cataclysmic destruction to the purported end of the Mayan long-count calendar in 2012.
I therefore deduced that there are certain people who are never happy in this world unless they think it is ending. And this was before I had ever heard of Norman Cohn’s book The Pursuit of the Millennium
which basically says hey, this has been happening since at least the middle ages.
Behold Apophis, bringer of destruction to mankind! Possibly.
Now I could hope that these Millenarians will finally get over themselves, but that would be to blatantly ignore the effects of Cognitive Dissonance. I am therefore going to predict that these people will transfer their attention to a brand new apocalyptic frenzy, and moreover I am willing to bet (if I can find an amenable bookmaker that is) that the “next big thing” will be 2036. According to a report in today’s Daily Telegraph, an asteroid named Apophis will make a near miss today … but will circle back round and might hit our planet in twenty three years time. If it does hit, it is conservatively estimated there will be an explosion with the equivalent of a least 500 megatonnes of TNT, or to put it another way, ten very large Hydrogen bombs. Nice.
Apophis was apparently so named because of the villain in Stargate. Now let us assume for one moment Apophis does come around and heads directly toward us in 2036. We can bet that there will be a space mission launched to make some sort of token effort to avert doomsday – so it will be interesting to see what it is called. If the people in charge at Mission Command know their Golden Dawn
, it will obviously be called Osiris. If they are more classical scholars it will probably be called Ra, although if they are fans of Kenneth Grant
they will probably opt for Set.
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Tagged as 2036, Apophis, Cognitive Dissonance, Millenarians, Norman Cohn, Osiris, Set