On Friday 13, in the year, 1307, King Philip IV of France ordered the arrest of every Templar Knight in France along with the confiscation of all Templar lands and wealth.
Pope Pious IX aided and abetted King Philip's larceny by excommunicating The Order of Knights of the Temple in every part of Christendom. Pope and King shared the loot.
The Grand Master of the Templars, Jacques de Molay, was burned at the stake.
Ever since, Friday the 13th, has been considered an unlucky day.
Scholarly nitpickers have said, "Oh no, that's not the reason for fear of Friday the 13th. The number 13 has been considered unlucky since Hammurabi left his famous code with no rule noted between 12 and 14. And besides that, Nordic mythology, ancient texts, and a whole bunch of other sources all think 13 is an unlucky number".
I don't doubt any of the nitpicking, but very few people have ever heard these quibbles on the origin of 13 phobia. A lot of people don't know about the connection
of unlucky 13 with the destruction of the Templars either.
Nonetheless, the fall of the Templars on Friday the 13th is the most often cited reason for present-day fear of the number 13.
Many people, from far back in time, have believed numbers to be mystically significant. They don't always agree which number signifies what. They do agree that numbers account for more than just counting.
If asked their reason for such belief, believers will relate examples of correspondence between an incident or event and a certain number. Science says coincidence does not prove causality. Numerologists say otherwise; so many coincidences must be the same as proof.
Those who believe numbers have powers beyond rational explication don't care about rational explication.
4-leaf clovers are lucky, Friday the 13th isn't, and that's
the end of it.
Maybe number magic is real. Maybe one day
a mechanical explication for the believed magic power of numbers will be discovered. Maybe not. It doesn't matter.
Faith and fact are rarely on speaking terms.
We all believe things that can't be confirmed.
If we had to wait for proof little would get done.
Most theories depend on faith nearly as much as evidenced argument. Even so, theories are often useful pathways to truth. So too dreams and intuitions. Magic may be science we don't yet understand, or it might be bunk. Nothing is known for sure.
I'm suspicious of certainty. Perhaps I should cross my fingers just in case.
I write this piece on Friday the 13th.
Should I be worried?