Allow me a moment to play with this, if you will.
“Twelve being the number of metaphoric elements in all sorts of apparently unrelated systems (I don't know why that is), thirteen is the number of what can't be represented by the system”
If we look at to the Tarot archetypes for a possible decoding, then here we have 12 as the Hanged Man. What is the significance of this archetype? Well, in part, it is the spirit in the flesh. It is the will of the life to be bound in a material form. Hence, we do have a “metaphoric element” in that the spirit, soul, or whatever, isn’t something that can be verified to exist or not. In a sense, we can see that the old dichotomy of {mind, matter} arises immediately in this light: in the Hanged Man we have two unrelated systems: the world of the material, the flesh, in composition or union, with the world of the spirit, the divine. Moreover, in a modernist sense, the self is seen as standing in opposition to the world—as outside it. We have the system of self seen as opposed or unrelated to the system of the world: the fallacy of thinking there is an objective stance from which we can evaluate and analyze the world. The Hanged Man appears to be associated with these sorts of division being reconciled. In arcanum 12 we see the willing sacrifice of the spirit to be conjoined with the material world. This sacrifice is to serve the purpose of the higher Self, which is bound in experience through forgetful self-referencing.
Thirteen, in the Tarot, is Death. Certainly unlucky, but only because Death is misunderstood and, more importantly, leads to the unknown and the unknowable (from the perspective of this life). But Death is more akin with a transformation—a movement from one state to another, and not so much with a finality. In this sense, 13 becomes the harvest of the sacrifice in 12: the recognition of the willful transformation from mere potential experience or possible existence to that of an actual existence. Thus, if the system is the spirit in the flesh, the self in conjunction with the world, “the metaphoric element in…unrelated systems,” then Death—transformation—can’t be represented by the system because it moves into a new system, a system that cannot be foreseen, fathomed, or predicted from the previous structure.
There is an importance here in seeing how this 13 would keep its ties to 12. In other words, the arising system, the system that is derived from transformation, is not a destruction of the old system, but an expansion of it. What was there in 12 is present in 13, but in 13 we have a larger system, a greater expanse. Why this might be seen as unlucky is that the transit from 12 to 13 requires will, courage—the things that are hardest to muster in light of inertia and status quo. We have to want to be sacrificed, we have to want to be transformed, we have to accept that we can become something greater than that which we are: no easy task for most people. Much easier to stay in a settled world of complacency than to shake the word, restructure the Self, and step into the unknown. Interesting to note how the myths and stories referred to in above posts might reflect the importance of Death: Jesus, in his betrayal by the thirteenth apostle is transformed from The Son of God into the Holy Spirit. He moves from one world into the next and this hinges on the significance of 13.
The taboo of 13 might arise as a result of power and authority; that is, if 13 is transformation which moves outside of the status quo, then it is likely outside the boundaries of the authoritative structure in which the transformation occurs. Thus, we have the double whammy of transformation as taking the being transformed from a knowable state into the unknown, and as taking the being from within an accepted way of living into a way of life that might be outside accepted cultural/societal values.
A further thing to note is that 12, the Hanged Man, has as its corresponding Hebrew letter Mem--water. In the binding of spirit in flesh the personal self is created—the ego. The water is that which washes away the smaller conception of self, which dissolves the ego, and thus, allows for the transformation from one state of being into the next state of being. What is important to note, perhaps, is that this is something that we can do over and over and over: the process of an expanded self never ends because self referencing leads to an infinite regress. This, like the unknown is not to be feared or scoffed at as absurd; rather, the infinite regress of self allows for an ever expanding sense of novelty as ego dissolves, is remade, dissolves, is remade,…and on. This seems to be one of the important elements of (M)magic/kal work and is seen most clearly in Alchemic pursuits and shamanic vision quests: the ability of the practitioner to tear him or her self apart and remake him or her self in a better way.
12 + 13 = 1 (mod 3) |
