Why Friday 13th is A Day of Feminine Power
For generations, Friday the 13th has been feared as an unlucky day, a notion reinforced by horror films and ominous myths. The dread surrounding this date is so ingrained that many of us brace for misfortune when it arrives. But what if there’s more to this story than superstition?
The notion of Friday and the number 13 as symbols of bad luck is a relatively modern invention, dating back only about a century. Yet, this superstition has deep roots in ancient myths and cultural shifts. The fear of Friday the 13th even has its own term—paraskevidekatriaphobia. But where did this fear originate, and what does it obscure?
Myths & Legends
The most famous myth involving the number 13 relates to the Last Supper, where Jesus dined with his 12 Apostles, making a total of 13 people. Judas, the betrayer, became associated with the unlucky 13th seat. Norse mythology also contributes to this narrative; Loki, the trickster god, was the 13th guest at a divine feast, causing chaos and darkness.
Friday itself carried negative connotations in certain historical contexts. In Britain, it was known as Hangman’s Day, associated with public executions. These associations with death and betrayal fused to form the modern fear of Friday the 13th.
The Divine Feminine
Let’s shift perspective: Friday the 13th wasn’t always viewed with fear. Before patriarchal shifts, it was celebrated as the Day of the Goddess, a time to honour the divine feminine within us all. It was a day to acknowledge and celebrate the cycles of creation, death, and rebirth—intrinsically connected to the feminine.
Each day of the week is linked to a planet, and Friday is associated with Venus (Friday in French is vendredi). Venus, the Roman goddess of art, love, and fertility, epitomizes feminine energy. She represents values like harmony and beauty in our lives. Friday is also named after Freya, the Norse goddess of love and fertility, embodying similar divine feminine attributes, but also the power of creation and the nurturing of life.
The number 13 also carries potent feminine symbolism. There are 13 moon cycles in a year, and on average, women experience 13 menstrual cycles annually, just like the moon. This is why women are said to be ruled by the moon (our cycles follow the lunar cycle). We are a mirror of these natural celestial cycles, embodying the cycles of life, death, and rebirth.
In ancient times, when a woman’s menstrual cycle aligned with the moon—bleeding with the new moon and ovulating with the full moon—she was considered to be in tune with the natural world, embodying powerful, mystical energy.
In those days, when a woman was menstruating it was known that this was her most powerful, intuitive time of the month. She was seen as a wise, intuitive figure, often sought after for her guidance and insight. When she was ovulating, she was celebrated for her life-giving potential, revered as a symbol of creation and fertility.
Mary Magdalene
Maybe you have never heard of Mary Magdalene, or your awareness might be limited to her as a prostitute who lived around the time of Jesus and was saved by his teachings. This is the patriarchal story which has been banded about through history. It is becoming more and more obvious that this was a story told to dismiss Mary Magdalene, when most scholars now believe she was an Isis initiate - trained in mystery school to be a powerful healer and high priestess. She learned sex magic (which is perhaps where the prostitute label is thrown around), but this meant something far different than the derogatory connotations assigned to it later. In ancient spiritual traditions, sex magic was a sacred practice, a way of channelling energy, healing, and connecting deeply with the divine. Mary Magdalene was far from being a fallen woman; she was a spiritual badass, a high priestess who played a crucial role in the spiritual teachings of her time, and her story is being reclaimed as a symbol of feminine power and wisdom.
She wrote her own gospel (which is not widely known), she was a disciple of Jesus, his soul mate & his spiritual equal.
She was the 13th apostle or disciple. She was not painted in the famous Da Vinci painting of the Last Supper, but there is an empty space at Jesus’s right and there is much speculation that this was her space.
Mary Magdalene was known to be the one who witnessed Jesus’ re-ssurrection - she was the most heart broken, and id deep devotion and grief she would not leave his final resting place. So of course she was the one to report this back to the other apostles.
The Patriarchy
Christianity is the biggest purveyor of early patriarchy, seeking to control the masses and diminish the power of intuition and inner wisdom (can’t have anyone feeling or sensing that there is anything but truth in religion). Women in any sense of having power or important roles were written out of The Bible (and The Bible was taken and promoted as absolute truth by The Church) and also out of HIStory generally.
My belief is that this was because the divine feminine is incredibly powerful & patriarchy sought to seize control. To diminish women, to control women whose inner wisdom was the biggest threat to the control being sought at that time..
The Day of the Goddess became instead recoded as the most unlucky day of the year.
Collective intention is one of the most powerful forces on the planet and so by making much of the world believe Friday 13th was something to fear, instead of something to celebrate we have created an inverse ritual. Where the original intention becomes lost, and a darker intention takes its place.
As patriarchal structures began to dominate, this reverence for the feminine was suppressed, and natural processes like menstruation were also stigmatised and made to be seen as dirty, or in more recent years something we should ignore and carry on living our lives like it isn’t happening - ignoring our physical needs to slow down, rest and honour our bodies.
By doing this we have disconnected women from the power of their 13 cycles, of using the energy of the whole month to thrive, to trust our intuition (heck most women can’t even hear their intuition, let alone trust it).
We have truly lost our way.
And it’s why the world is in chaos. We are living through a time where we are measured and held to toxic masculine values. To believe that success is about money, wealth, power of others. We have famine, war and hatred.
To bring back balance we need now more than ever for women to be stepping into their divine feminine, to show the world that nurture, peace and compassion are what is missing in the world right now.
Friday 13th HERstory
What if on Friday 13th we all honoured the divine feminine energy that resides in all of us. It’s a time to celebrate creativity, to connect with our emotions, intuition and inner wise woman and to recognize the cycles of life that govern not just our bodies, but the world around us.
This day offers a unique opportunity to tap into the powerful energy of the feminine, to engage in rituals that honour the cycles of nature, or simply to reflect on the beauty and wisdom that the divine feminine brings into our lives. Whether through meditation, creative expression, or quiet introspection, Friday the 13th can be a day of deep personal and spiritual significance.
Women and members of the pagan community have long held Friday the 13th in high regard, recognising it as a day of potent energy and transformation.
But the truth is, Friday the 13th is a beautiful day, a day to celebrate life and the divine feminine within us all. It’s a reminder that we all possess the ability to create, to nurture, and to bring beauty into the world. So, let’s embrace Friday the 13th for what it truly is—a day of the Goddess, a day to honour our connection to the cycles of life, and a day to celebrate the incredible power and wisdom that resides within each of us.
So this Friday 13th, light a candle and thank all of the goddesses that have gone before you, all the female ancestors who have trodden this Earth to give you life and pray for a world which honours the divine feminine in a way it hasn’t considered necessary for thousands of years.
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