13
Superstition Advent Calendar, Day 13
Up in Seattle, where they have 200 different words for dreary and even the moss has moss growing on it, I have some friends who live in a swank little apartment near the tippy-top of a building right by Elliot bay. On those glorious days, rare as hen’s teeth or rocking-horse manure, when the sun’s out, the water shines like polished glass, and you sidle up to that wall-sized window, and all is momentarily right with the world.
This building is fairly new. It was erected in 2002, meaning if it was a person, it wouldn’t have crows feet yet, and might still get the occasional zit. My point: It’s not old. Seattle has some nice old buildings, but this isn’t one of them.
Since they live up in the sky, you ascend via elevator. And here begins our tale.
The floors follow in a predictable pattern: Lobby, 2, 3, 4, and so on. Eventually you get to 12. The floor on top of the twelfth floor is...the fourteenth floor.
In 2002, contractors were still skipping the 13th floor when laying out their buildings. Numerous airlines1 skip row 13 in some or all of their aircraft. Until 2013, there were no Formula One cars labeled with that number. And there is of course this:2
So what is it about the number 13 that gets so many superstitious knickers in a twist? Let’s dig in.
First of all, let’s consider the number 12. Mathematically, it’s elegant, dividing evenly into 6’s, 4’s, 3’s and 2’s. Perhaps because of this, there are a lot of things that come in 12s. Apostles, tribes of Israel, days of Christmas, houses of the zodiac, months, Greco-Roman Olympians, the 12-tone musical scale. Eggs, inches, and jurors all come in 12s3.
Now let’s look at 13. It’s a prime number, unlike twelve which you can divide every which way. Its pushing a natural cycle beyond completion…into imbalance. It’s like the amp volume knobs in Spinal Tap, which arbitrarily go to eleven rather than the customary ten. It is Satan, trespassing God’s proscribed limits out of hubris. This ‘surplus number’ was associated with disorder, transgression, and incursions from outside realms. There were thirteen at the Last Supper, and Christ was betrayed. Loki was the thirteenth uninvited guest at Odin’s board, and he contrived the death of Baldur.
I had always sort of thought that witches travelled in covens of 13. No, apparently. Instead, thirteen knots in a rope enables it to bind a witch, thirteen herbs in a bag makes a sovereign charm against witchcraft, thirteen strands in the hangman’s rope, thirteen coals extinguished in water is proof against our old friend the evil eye. Back then, it was still a number carrying much occult freight, but it was not wholly malevolent.
Comes the modern era, and Margaret Murray, the author of ‘Witch Cults in Western Europe’ who was so interestingly wrong about so much, pulled evidence from some confused 19th century folklorists and pulled the ‘coven of thirteen‘ more or less out of her bottom. That was good enough for Gerald Gardner, the guy who invented modern Wicca, and the coven of thirteen was formalized with them. So ladies who signed their name in the black book and got burned at the stake? No coven of thirteen. Women who carry tarot cards in their NPR tote bag and are convinced their cat is a familiar? Thirteen!
This superstition is pretty narrow, never really making it past western Europe and the British diaspora. The Japanese and the Koreans don’t like four.
Seventeen is bad luck in Italy (blame the Romans, obviously). India? The number eight is not your friend. The Spanish speaking world thinks thirteen mildly unlucky, unless it’s Tuesday the thirteenth, then look out!
Well it looks like I somehow got through this hazardous thirteenth outing. Well be on a firmer footing tomorrow, even if we get a little moist along the way. Until then!
t
Ryanair, Lufthansa, Virgin Atlantic and some United and Alaska airframes skip that perilous row.
In fairness, there probably is not a lucky day to visit Crystal Lake…
***Also: Drunken, lecherous commandos. These days, it’s more train and arm, somewhere we got out of the excite racket..
Apparently I also live in one of those new high rise apartments w/ a view of Elliot Bay (at an angle, not straight on), so you made me check. Our elevators have key pads instead of numbered buttons, so I took the chance and punched in 13. Sure enough, we have a 13th floor. No superstitions here, alas.