…”One often hears it said that the number thirteen brings bad luck, and especially, that there should never be thirteen people at table together. A lot of people are impressed by some of the things they have heard about this and wonder what to think about it. In order to understand why thirteen has always been considered an unlucky number, we must begin by talking about the number twelve. 

A day is divided into two halves of twelve hours each; a year is divided into twelve months and there are twelve signs of the Zodiac.
The number twelve crops up several times in the Bible, also: Jacob had twelve sons who founded the twelve tribes of Israel; these twelve tribes were represented by twelve precious stones on the breastplate of Aaron, the High Priest, Moses’ brother. The foundations of the heavenly Jerusalem, described by St John in the Apocalypse, consist of twelve precious stones, and its walls are pierced by twelve gates which are twelve pearls.
Twelve, therefore, is the number of completion, of wholeness: a day, a year, a people, a city. Thirteen is twelve plus one, and this one that is added on is extraneous to the whole; it is, as it were, a foreign body, and if it is not pure, if its vibrations are not attuned to those of the whole, it poses a threat to the whole. This is why thirteen is considered a difficult number which can bring trials and even death in its train. The thirteenth trump of the Tarot is death. However, one can also say that the one that is added on to the twelve, represents the beginning of a new cycle, a new whole.

In initiatic science, death is never seen as an absolute conclusion but as the beginning of a new life. Thirteen, therefore, is not an unlucky or malefic number, but it rejects all impurity and disharmony, and as it is also an extremely active, dynamic number, it can be very disturbing for those who do not possess the feminine qualities of kindness, love and gentleness necessary to counteract it.
On the physical plane, thirteen is associated with the cross (1+3= 4), and consequently, with suffering. The cross is the two-dimensional development of a cube, and the geometrical representation of a cube symbolizes a prison. And yet, if the number thirteen has an adverse effect on people, this is not due to the number itself, but to the way in which each one receives its influence and the influences that surround it.

And this is just as true of water, air and light, and even, of food: each individual receives them in his own way, depending on his health, his basic structure, his degree of evolution and his spiritual elevation. Some are stimulated, others fall ill, others, again, are led to reflect.”

Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov – The Book of Divine Magic Life, Izvor Book 226
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