Our Love For Each Other- February 13, 2026
Friday the 13th: A day of remembrance
Do you have paraskevidekatriaphobia? Does Friday the 13th frighten you? Some people are cautious about this day, others superstitious, and still others experience abject terror.
There are many legends about how superstitions about Friday the 13th came to be. Based on both legend and historical fact, the following explanation is rooted in the story of Mary Magdalene and the Holy Grail.
This story of the origins of the Friday the 13th superstition is the one I find to be the most credible:
Christianity, under the leadership of Pope Peter the Hermit (c.1050 – 8 July 1115 or 1131) and with the efforts of the first Crusading knights, worked toward rebuilding the Temple of Jerusalem and putting a descendant of King David on the throne. In 1099, Godfroi of Lorraine, purportedly of the lineage of Mary Magdalene and Jesus’s descendants, was named Baron of Jerusalem. Honoring “Our Lady,” whom many believe referred to Mary Magdalene and not Jesus’s mother, became part of the mystery of the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem.
Perhaps honoring Mary Magdalene was the ultimate mission of those crusaders known as the Knights Templar, who escorted pilgrims to the Holy Land. By 1307, the Knights Templar had become so powerful, wealthy, and perhaps Mary Magdalene’s most ardent followers, that Pope Clement V and King Philip IV of France conspired to have the Knights Templar arrested and their wealth seized.
In a highly orchestrated move by the Pope and King Philip, at dawn on Friday, October 13, 1307, scores of Knights Templars were rounded up and arrested. Most were tortured and burned at the stake. The few who survived continued to carry the legend of the Grail forward, despite the Church naming them heretics, perhaps partly because of their adoration of Mary-Magdalene-as-Holy-Grail, the vessel through which some believe the lineage of Jesus was born.
By the Middle Ages, popes and kings were even more threatened by the possibility that the Grail was in fact a powerful woman, loved by Jesus, who could sway the course of history. The Grail legend went underground, disappearing in plain sight, as it were.
The telling of the Grail story moved into the hands of the troubadours, court jesters, and Romani people, who probably used Tarot cards as the medium for carrying the Grail message to the common people. The Inquisition orchestrated horrific witch hunts to ferret out any women who were medical practitioners, and most importantly, wealthy landowners.
As the witch hunts grew, along with plagues and wars across Europe, almost anything connected to women was viewed as suspect. Cats, black cats in particular, became the object of superstitions, mostly because women living alone with cats were suspected. Even household tools – ladders, brooms, cooking cauldrons – became objects of superstition.
Today, some of us don’t walk under ladders on this day (or any other), make an X on our car windshield when a black cat crosses in front of us, never hang a broom upside down, throw salt over our shoulders if we spill any from the shaker, and have other tried-and-true? time-tested? wards against unpleasantries on this day.
However, I invite you to do something different on this day. Spend time in meditation about the Knights who lost their lives on this day in 1307. Think about the dangers they faced as they escorted and protected travelers on pilgrimages to lands and places they considered holy. Think about those who were killed throughout the Middle Ages because the wealthy and powerful were threatened by their knowledge and skill, and whose money and land they coveted.
I’ve been compulsively listening to reels from houses of worship in Minneapolis. Thousands are learning chants, then taking them to the streets. Below is the chant that makes me sob every time I hear it.
Perhaps together, we can make this day, Friday the 13th, a day of remembrance, a day of honoring those who were tortured and killed, and a day of commitment going forward.
I’m so happy to connect with you, and I’m grateful that you subscribe to this newsletter! If you missed my last newsletter, you can read it here.
May You Be Empty- January 23, 2026
Valentine’s Day: A day of love
While we speak of Friday the 13th as possibly a day of bad luck, we think of February 14th as a day to be “lucky in love.” I don’t think we can count all the legends associated with the history of this day. One of the most common is that it is observed as a feast day honoring Saint Valentine of Rome for his ministering to Christians who were persecuted in the third century. Legend says he healed the blind daughter of a jailer and performed marriage ceremonies for soldiers who had been forbidden to marry. At least two other saints named Valentine are connected with this holiday in the Christian tradition.
Shakespeare, Chaucer, and other writers gave us the notion of writing love poetry on this holiday, some of which originated as poetry to the coming of spring and the mating of birds. In Hamlet, Ophelia says:
“To-morrow is Saint Valentine’s day,
All in the morning betime,
And I a maid at your window,
To be your Valentine.
Then up he rose, and donn’d his clothes,
And dupp’d the chamber-door;
Let in the maid, that out a maid
Never departed more.”
— William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act IV, Scene 5
While I certainly am a proponent of romantic love associated with Valentine’s Day, I also honor the idea of universal love on this day. One of my Valentine’s Day rituals is to play If We Only Have Love by Belgian playwright Jacques Brel:
Writing and Course Updates:
My newest work is published this week in Encore Magazine’s online edition! I recently was included on a WilmingtoNColor bus tour of a historic, integrated neighborhood - one in which my father grew up and now is an up-and-coming cultural arts area. I thought I knew lots about the history of this area. I was wrong.
Click here to read my article:
https://www.encorepub.org/post/a-ride-in-history-wilmingtonians-take-the-wilmingtonncolor-bus-tour
I’m still writing a poem every day, working on creative nonfiction pieces, revisiting a novel in progress, and more. Stay tuned.
Plans for scheduling both a new course and my advanced Tarot course are coming along. Stay tuned.
I’m learning to be empty, as my word of the year suggests. I’m learning to trust this fallow time, this time of no-time. I hope you’ll trust it with me.
Crafting the Wheel of the Year is available from my website, your local bookstore, or online retailers, including
Here’s the link on my website:
https://debbowen.com/crafting-the-wheel-of-the-year/
People are sending us pictures of what they’re making from Claire’s patterns in the book! We’re so excited. Below are two. The photo of the wands was sent to me by a teacher whose students made them. The photo of the cape (in her very own color scheme) was sent to me by an artist/writer friend who was so excited to make the cape.
New Course! Watch for info soon. If you’re interested in joining an ongoing Zoom group that discusses all things metaphysical, know I’m working on this idea now! Details coming soon!
My Published Works
Click on the link below to read one of my works in Salvation South:
“The Coyote’s Journey”
https://www.salvationsouth.com/the-coyotes-journey-nature-essay-deb-bowen/
Podcast
Psychic Teachers
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Deb Bowen, Author
PsychicTeachers
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Just One More Thing Before You Go
Every newsletter edition going forward will have this at the end of the newsletter. It is my promise to you.
Thank you!
Oh Deb, I have just now circled back around to tell you how much I enjoyed your Feb. Substack essays. Your two articles bring out a dichotomy in religion; how it has committed atrocities and yet how it has done great good. Congratulations on your published work, and I am so happy to hear about a novel in the works! Blessings to you!
I appreciate all that you offer us.