13 Lucky or 13 Unlucky /2

 

Continued from Part I

13 Lucky or 13 Unlucky –Take Your Pick But be Careful of Your Choice if You Live in the USA / part 2

By Charles L Harmon

US Dollar Bill - back side filled with 13's

 

There are many more theories of how 13 became a number that signifies bad luck or unlucky circumstances but they will have their place in another article.

There are those who scoff at the idea of triskaidekaphobia. It almost seems like the term was made up just to justify the uneasiness with the number 13. Well it certainly was!

If you live in the United States It might be wise to rethink the traditional bad luck of the number thirteen. Some older folks might know about the thirteen in American history, and all of us that went to school here know of the original thirteen colonies, and of the 13 stripes on the American Flag.

You can consider thirteen as unlucky, but if you live in the USA you have been carrying that “unlucky” thirteen around with you unwittingly since you were a kid. Since at least the mid 1930s the design on the back of the one dollar bill really embraces the number thirteen. It’s part of the Great Seal of the United States. Its design bridges the ancient Egyptian allegorical motifs to our own times many decades ago. The symbolic use of the number thirteen is arranged on each of the two sides of the seal.

Looking very closely you can see the left side of the rear of the dollar bill is an incomplete pyramid. It has thirteen steps to it. On the other side across from it the part of the Great Seal with the eagle on it, you will find the eagle holding thirteen arrows in the right talons. There are thirteen leaves and berries in the left talons of the eagle. Above the eagles head are thirteen stars and it bears a shield with thirteen stripes.

In case you didn’t know, that Native American eagle is symbolic of invincibility, whereas in ancient Egypt, the Egyptian golden eagle was the bird of regeneration. That sounds pretty similar. Finally, on the left side above the pyramid is the motto, Annuit Coeptis which means God Has Favored Our Undertakings. That Latin phrase just happens to have thirteen letters.

That’s a lot of 13′s so obviously it is no mere coincidence.  Could it be the sheer number of thirteen’s is to counter the unlucky nature of thirteen, or maybe a show of force that thirteen is not an unlucky number? I certainly don’t know, but maybe some of you reading this can answer why there are so many 13′s if it supposed to be an unlucky number.

The design on the dollar bill was ordered by the then Secretary of the Treasury at the time. All Americans should know that the many uses of the number thirteen on the bill refer to the original thirteen colonies. That’s indeed a lucky number for the millions of Americans today.

There is more to say about 13 lucky or 13 unlucky, or 13 unlucky number origin, but we will cover it in another article. Just be aware that even if you question why is thirteen unlucky, were it not for the original thirteen colonies in the U.S. you just might not be reading this essay which was written here in the U.S., in California.

Copyright © 2010 -2012 Charles L Harmon

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