Paraskavedekatriaphobia

WHAT an absolutely delightful word, meaning a fear of Friday 13th, which I am learning how to pronounce. Happy Birthday to anyone born today, it's supposed to be 'lucky' ( whatever that means.) The Knights Templar weren't so fortunate on Friday October 13th, 1307, when the King of France rounded them all up and over the next seven years, systematically exterminated them. The Pope excommunicated him, so serve him right.

The Christian philosopher and Biblical apologist Immanuel Swedenborg once wrote..

Number 13 consists of the number 10 and number 3. Number 3 is a holy number and as it is part of number 13, the holiness of number 13 remains.

Which, I suppose, only goes to show what a little fuzzy logic can do for an argument.

Numbers have always fascinated me, in particular, our attempts to ascribe specific meanings to them. I remember reading 'The Bible Code' with interest until it became clear that the weight of statistical evidence had overcome the tingling bravura of it's findings and it turned out not to be true after all.

Still, in any given year there can only be a maximum of three Fridays the Thirteenth, so I guess we can all rest easily in our beds for over 99% of the year.

The image is of Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland, a treasure house for Templar-watchers. Oh, and, yes. I have read the daVinci Code (along with about 80% of all sentient life-forms on the planet), believing about a third of it.