226: Friday the 13th isn't unlucky... it's POWERFUL!

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Acast helps creators launch, grow, and monetize their podcasts everywhere. Acast.com. Hello everyone, welcome back to Canny Crystals the podcast. I hope that you're all well. My name is Mart Tweedy, I'm your host, and today's episode is actually landing on Friday the 13th. I'm very excited about this one though, because I find it quite fascinating that an entire date can make grown adults nervous. It was only like yesterday, my mom texts and said, "Don't forget, it's Friday the 13th, make sure that you don't do anything weird." And I was like, why? Like, people won't book things, they'll avoid signing contracts, they'll say, "Oh no, typical, it's Friday the 13th." If something mildly inconvenient happens, it's almost like the day becomes preloaded with suspicion, doesn't it? So I want to actually break down where that fear comes from, because most of the Western superstition around Friday the 13th is actually rooted in Christianity, believe it or not. Because obviously at the Last Supper there were 13 people at the table. Judas is often referred to as the 13th guest. So Friday is associated with the crucifixion of Jesus as well. So Friday the 13th is like crucifying Jesus and Judas all rolled into one. Now over time, these elements have merged into this idea that 13 is a bit of an ominous number, and Friday is quite a sorrowful day. Blend them together and you get a double dose of bad luck. But this is the key thing: that isn't universal truth, is it? It's just religious storytelling. And I say that respectfully, but honestly, it's a narrative that's been repeated for centuries and passed down through generations and embedded in a culture until it feels factual. It's a bit like limiting beliefs, isn't it? But superstition isn't the same as energetic law. It is just repetition plus fear. So there's no, like, universal rulebook that says the 13th day of a month landing on a Friday carries dark energy. That's just something that we've collectively agreed upon as human beings. And then modern media really sealed the deal, don't they? They have the horror franchise Friday the 13th. It didn't create the superstition, but it absolutely amplified it. You know, masks, blood, jump scares, ominous music. It really cemented the idea that Friday the 13th equals danger. Now, pop culture is powerful, isn't it? When you repeatedly see a date associated with violence and chaos, your brain links the two automatically. But that's just conditioning and association, and like I said earlier, storytelling. And I think once you realize that, you start to question something deeper. If the fear of the number 13 is learned, what was it before it became feared? Now, this is where it gets juicy, right? Because when I was doing the research for this episode, lots came up about Friday the 13th. The vast majority of it, I'm going to say like 95% of it, was about how it's like an evil day or a dark day or an unlucky day, should I say. But long before 13 was labelled unlucky, it was quite sacred. Now, there are 13 lunar cycles every single year. There are roughly 13 menstrual cycles in a year as well, what women go through. For thousands of years, ancient cultures actually tracked time by the moon. Not by rigid solar calendars. They did it by the lunar calendar. And the number 13 wasn't dark back then. It represented rhythm and creation, and it also represented the feminine body moving in harmony with nature. So 13 symbolized fertility, intuition, the unseen, and the cyclical nature of the earth. So it was powerful. So how does a number that mirrors the moon and the female body become something that we start flinching at? Because obviously that shift didn't just happen overnight, did it? It didn't happen randomly, and that's what I want to talk about. So if 13 was once sacred and cyclical and deeply connected to the moon and the feminine body, then the obvious question is, what's changed? So before patriarchal religions became dominant across Europe and much of the Western world, many cultures actually worshipped goddesses. Like, look at the Greeks, look at the Egyptians, for example. They honored lunar cycles. They understood life as something that moved in phases rather than in straight lines and being linear. The divine wasn't always imagined as male, was it? You had powerful feminine archetypes like Hecate, associated with magic and crossroads and the unseen realms. You had Isis in Egyptian culture, connected to motherhood, healing, resurrection, sacred knowledge. I know a lot about this shit because I used to be obsessed with the Greek goddesses and the Greek gods and the Egyptians as well. Oh my God, these weren't side characters, okay? These were central goddesses, and they were revered. Seriously, the moon wasn't something weird, it was guidance. Women's cycles weren't shameful, they were synchronized with the natural world. So the number 13 wasn't unlucky back then, it was embedded in how life was measured. And then as patriarchal systems expanded and, you know, male-centered religions took hold, the imagery of power shifted. So the divine became singular and kind of male, if you want to put it that way. And anything that didn't fit into that structure, especially feminine mysticism, it became suspect. So the intuitive became irrational, the cyclical became unstable, and the mystical became dangerous. And you can see how that narrative slowly builds, can't you? So if you want a society that values order or hierarchy or control or predictability, You don't center lunar cycles and emotional intelligence, do you? You wouldn't elevate archetypes that are tied to magic and the unseen. You would redefine them. So femininity and female power got reframed as chaotic, and then sensuality became sinful, didn't it? Independent spirituality became witchcraft. Like, even still to this day, I'll open my Instagram and someone will be calling me a witch, or someone will basically say that dealing with crystals is the devil's work. Even to this day, I get things in the post to my office address, and it it will be a letter from a church or a card from a church, and when you flip it over on the back, there's a Bible verse, and it'll say like, "Please cease what you're doing." And I'm like, I just don't get it, because when feminine energy is reframed as something to fear, anything symbolically tied to it becomes easier to cast in shadow, doesn't it? And that brings us back to the number 13, because like I said, 13 reflects lunar rhythm. It mirrors the female body, and it represents change and phases. So when society becomes uncomfortable with that autonomy— and the feminine autonomy, should I say— the symbolism connected to it doesn't stay neutral. So Friday the 13th doesn't become unlucky by accident. It becomes suspicious at the same time that women's cyclical power becomes suspicious. And this isn't about blaming one religion or one era of humanity or whatever. It's about observing patterns. So cultural shifts always affect symbolism. When a culture moves from goddess-centered traditions to male dominated hierarchies, the sacred feminine doesn't just quietly step aside. It often gets distorted in the process, and that sets the stage for something even more confronting. Because once feminine wisdom is labeled as dangerous, what happens to the women who embody that femininity? Let's think back to Salem. That's where the witch hunts came in, yeah? Because once feminine intuition and healing and autonomy were reframed as threatening, It didn't just stay theoretical, did it? It became lethal. So between the 15th and the 18th centuries, there were tens of thousands of people, the majority of them women, they were executed across Europe and America during the witch hunts. And when you actually look at who was accused, a pattern emerges there. It was women who owned land, women who inherited property, or women who didn't marry and they were happy being single, or women who were widowed and were financially independent because of that. Women who worked with herbs, who acted as midwives, who lived on the edges of society rather than neatly inside of that little box that everyone else was trying to put them in. So they weren't them cartoon villains, you know, sitting around a cauldron with a big pointy nose. They were often just knowledgeable, autonomous women. Women that believed in themselves. And autonomy, particularly female autonomy, has historically made systems uncomfortable. A strong independent female makes everyone uncomfortable. Not other women. Well, I say not other women, it makes some women uncomfortable, but the majority of men. Men in power. That's what I'm talking about. So, if you are a woman who doesn't rely on a husband, who has influence in her community, who understands the body and nature and healing, you're powerful in a way that can't easily be controlled. So then the narrative shifts again, doesn't it? Independent becomes unnatural, knowledgeable becomes dangerous, and then different becomes, in inverted commas, witch. So fear is a very effective way of discouraging people from stepping outside of their comfort zones. Like, if women see what happens to those people that are labeled as witches and they're burned at the stake and killed, they'll learn quickly where the invisible boundaries are. So men just wanted women to stay agreeable, or stay dependent and stay small. But when you zoom out, that unlucky narrative starts to look familiar, doesn't it? Anything that symbolizes feminine rhythm or power or magic or independence, it gets subtly shaded with suspicion. So Friday the 13th sits right in that overlap. Sorry, that was a huge way— that was a huge history lesson, wasn't it? But Friday the 13th sits right in that overlap. It's a day tied to a goddess.. It's a number tied to lunar cycles. It's a cultural memory tied to female power. But somehow we're told it's dangerous. It's not. It's absolutely not. It is such a fucking powerful day, and I can't say this enough. Like, it's worth asking honestly, who benefits from women being slightly afraid of their own symbolism? Who benefits if feminine energy is seen as chaotic rather than wise? Because I think once you start to internalize that fear, you soften your edges a bit, don't you? You second-guess your instincts, or you disconnect from part of yourself that don't fit neatly into productivity-driven linear systems. So this is the thing, like, this isn't ancient history without relevance. I'm telling you all this for a reason, because the echoes are still here right now in 2026. Women are still labeled too emotional or too intense or too much. They're still taught subtly to tone it down. So when we talk about Friday the 13th being unlucky, we're not just talking about walking under ladders or smashing a mirror or black cats walking in front of us. We're talking about centuries of storytelling around feminine power. And then it gets even more symbolic when you realize something about the day itself, because like I said, Friday isn't just a random day of the week, it's named after a goddess. Has anyone ever read The Goddess Path by Kirstie Gallagher? She actually talks about this in that exact book, and it's an incredible book. I'll leave the link in the show notes if anyone wants to purchase it. It's an amazing book, and Kirstie came to manifest last year as well and spoke all about this. But that book changed everything for me, like the whole way I saw it all, because the word Friday actually comes from Old English. It's linked to the Norse goddess Frigg, and in some traditions Freya as well. Now both are powerful feminine deities associated with love and fertility and beauty and magic and wisdom and all that. So Frigg was connected to foresight and motherhood, and Freya was associated with sensuality, abundance, desire, and even aspects of sorcery as well. So Friday is literally named after a goddess. Let that land for a second. It's a goddess day. Now, when you combine that with the number 13, which is a number tied to lunar cycles and the feminine body, Friday the 13th is symbolically a goddess day aligned with the moon. That isn't unlucky, is it? That isn't unlucky. It is portent. But when Christianity spread through Northern Europe, These pagan traditions were pushed aside, weren't they? The goddesses didn't just quietly retire, their symbolism was often just reframed. So stories were rewritten, deities once revered were cast into darker tones. And I think you can often trace how mythology shifts when power structures shift. So a day once associated with feminine divinity, it slowly becomes loaded with suspicion. The symbolism doesn't disappear, it just changes flavor, so to speak. And this is the part that I find fascinating, because most people who feel uneasy about Friday 13th actually have no idea that it's a goddess day. They've inherited the fear but not the context of why. They know it's bad luck, but they don't exactly know why it's bad luck. And that's how narratives survive. The origin gets forgotten, but the emotional reaction stays. And that's why I want to talk all about superstition, because when we think about superstition, right, it doesn't need evidence to survive. It just needs a bit of reinforcement. Your brain is wired to look for patterns. So, it just wants coherence. That's all your brain wants. It wants to predict outcomes. So, if you've been told that a day is unlucky, you subconsciously scan for proof. Can you remember when we did that activity where I asked everyone to look for a green car and straight away everyone messages and says, "Guess what, Mart? I've just been out for a walk and I've seen 3 green cars." That's because of your reticular activating system. Your brain constantly looks for items, ideas, opportunities, whatever it is, to prove that it is right. That's exactly what's happening here. You know, we've been told that this day is unlucky, so we are subconsciously scanning for proof 24/7 about it. It's confirmation bias. So if something mildly inconvenient happens, you'll clock it straight away. But if nothing happens, you don't. The memory that sticks is the one that matches the story. Now, selective memory strengthens that belief, doesn't it? And then we've also got fear conditioning, because if you associate a symbol with danger often enough, your body then reacts before your logic catches up. It's just automatic. And this is where it ties directly into manifestation and mindset, because energy follows belief. So if you approach a day expecting chaos, your nervous system is going to tighten up, isn't it? Your shoulders are going to be up, your jaw is going to be clenched, your eyebrows are going to be up, your decisions become cautious, and you'll start to hesitate, and you'll read neutral situations as threatening. So you're going to participate in your day-to-day life very differently on that day. And that participation can create outcomes that then reinforce the original fear. So is Friday the 13th actually unlucky? Or are we interacting with it through a lens that we didn't consciously choose to do so? Because if you collectively fear something, you can collectively create the experience of it feeling heavy. But that said, the opposite is also true. If you collectively reclaim something, you can shift the energy around it. Which means Friday the 13th can become intentional and chosen. And that's where this stops being historical and starts becoming more practical, because this is the part that actually matters now. It's one thing to understand the history, and it's one thing to unpack the psychology behind it, but awareness without action doesn't change anything. So what does reclaiming Friday the 13th actually look like? For me, it's intention, right? Instead of waking up bracing for something to go wrong, I want you to wake up and decide what the day stands for for you. You don't have to burn sage. You don't have to dance under the moon naked unless you want to. I'm not going to judge. This isn't about aesthetics. It's about ownership and owning the day. So you could sit down this morning, you could write one belief that you've been carrying that feels inherited rather than chosen. Maybe it's, "I'm not good with money." Maybe it's, "I'm too much." Maybe it's, "Success isn't for people like me." And then ask yourself honestly, where did that belief come from? Was that your voice originally, or was it something that you've absorbed over the years? And then just consciously decide that you are no longer carrying this shit forward, because that alone is powerful. You could also use today to set an intention that feels slightly bold. Not reckless, just a bit more expanded. So you could send an email, you could pitch yourself, you could say no without cushioning it in apology, like, "Oh no, sorry, I can't do that." No is a full sentence. I've said that once, I've said it a million times. No is a full sentence. You could wear something that feels powerful rather than something that just feels safe. Yeah, choose one action that signals to your subconscious that you're not operating from superstition or fear on Friday the 13th. Just try and work with your rhythm rather than against it. Because that reclamation is you deciding that this day doesn't get to dictate your energy. And once you do that, I think something quite interesting happens, doesn't it? You'll start noticing how many other things that you've actually accepted without questioning. So Friday the 13th is just a symbol. The real question is, what else have we been taught to fear? We're told ambition is intimidating, aren't we? We're told sexuality is shameful. You know, if someone's on OnlyFans or something, oh my God, disgusting. We're told visibility invites criticism, or we're told wanting wealth is greedy. We're told that rest is laziness. Those stories get repeated so often they feel neutral to us and they start to feel factual, but they're just narratives. And if a number can be reframed from sacred to unlucky through repetition, then beliefs about identity can be shaped in the exact same way. So today isn't really about a date on the calendar. It's more about reclaiming authorship over your belief systems and your life. It's about noticing where you've been playing, you know, slightly smaller than usual or slightly more cautious because of something that you were told. So it's about asking, "Who decided that?" and "Do I agree?" So maybe Friday the 13th today becomes your reminder that you don't have to inherit fear. Maybe it becomes the day that you consciously choose expansion instead. Yeah, and I think once you see that, you can stop participating in it. Not angrily, just calmly. You can choose differently. Now that's real power. That's far more potent than any superstition could ever be. Because when we talk about reclaiming a date, what we're actually talking about is reclaiming narrative, aren't we? And when we think about narrative, narrative is everything. If you're told from childhood that something is unlucky, you start to build microbehaviors around it. So you interpret neutral events through a dark filter. It's like, you know, when we always say about rose-colored glasses when someone's in love. This is like the opposite of that. It's like dark-colored glasses, isn't it? So if you're told from childhood that being loud is unattractive, you'll start to soften your voice. If you're told that wanting more money is greedy, you'll cap your income and put an unintentional income ceiling above your head. If you're told confidence is arrogance, you'll shrink your achievements. It's this exact same mechanism. But you know what? You get to say, actually, this is a goddess day. This is a lunar number. This is cyclical, intuitive, magnetic energy. This isn't something that I fear. This is something that I'm going to work with. And once you practice that with something small like a date, you build the muscle to do it with something even bigger like visibility or wealth or leadership or desire. Because those are the things that women have historically been told to approach cautiously, isn't it? Be successful but not intimidating. Be attractive but not provocative. Be spiritual but don't be witchy. Be ambitious but don't be obsessed. There's always a boundary, there's always a warning, and it's like if you cross that invisible line, something bad's going to happen. That's the same emotional structure as superstition. If you do this, you're going to regret it. But what if the regret isn't from doing too much? What if it's from holding back? What if the real bad luck is living inside narratives that you never actually consciously chose yourself? So Friday the 13th becomes symbolic of that choice point. You can wake up and you can carry your inherited fear for the rest of your life, or you can wake up and say, I'm not participating in that story today. And I want to be clear, this isn't about denying reality. Obviously, bad things can happen on any day of the year. Life is unpredictable, I get it. But unpredictability isn't punishment, and power isn't something that disappears because of a number on a calendar. So instead of asking, "What might go wrong today?" maybe the better question to reframe that as is, "Where have I been underestimating meself?" So instead of scanning for danger, scan for opportunity instead. Instead of tightening your nervous system, just soften it. The body responds to expectation. So if you approach the day grounded and aware and intentional, your energy is going to be so much more different. Okay, so today, if you notice a flicker of superstition, don't judge it. Just observe it and ask yourself, is this mine? If it isn't, you're allowed to put it down. That's the quiet rebellion, isn't it? That's the empowerment. And that's why I actually love that this episode is landing on Friday the 13th. I've wanted to talk about this since last year, and Friday the 13th last year was the weekend of Manifest, and that was originally the date that I chose for Manifest, but it got double booked and we had to move it to the Monday. So it was originally Friday the 13th of June last year, and I was really excited about it, like, oh my God, what an empowering day to have an event such as Manifest. And then the amount of people that messaged me and said, 'Friday the 13th, you've got to be kidding, haven't you? The first time you run an event, you run it on Friday the 13th.' And I was like, 'Actually, Friday the 13th is a hugely empowered date.' So yeah, I never actually got to release this episode last year. So I just want you to remember, like, you don't have to inherit every single story that you were handed. You get to write your own, okay? So if you take nothing else from this episode, Just remember that Friday the 13th is not unlucky. It might be layered, you know, there's obviously loads of layers to it like an onion, but it's not unlucky. It's a number once tied to the moon and the feminine body. It's a day named after a goddess, and it's a symbol that over centuries was reshaped through religion, politics, fear, storytelling, and somewhere along the way we stopped questioning it. But this is the empowering thing. You don't have to accept inherited meaning. You don't have to carry superstitions that don't resonate with you. You don't have to shrink yourself. You get to decide what something means for you, and that goes far beyond Friday the 13th. This is in terms of everything to do with your life. If a whole society can agree that 13 is unlucky just because it was repeated enough times, then imagine what you could do to rewrite your own life and your own narrative. So today, on Friday the 13th, instead of looking for bad luck, look for alignment. Instead of asking what might go wrong, ask where have I been holding myself back? Because maybe the real superstition isn't about a number. Maybe it's the quiet belief that you're safer just playing small. That is worth challenging, isn't it? So walk into today grounded and aware and intentional, not because it's a risky day and something's going to fall out of the sky and hit you in the head, but because it's yours. This is your day, and that's far more powerful than any single story that you were ever handed. So just before I go, a couple of quick things to mention. I thought this episode was pretty apt to mention it as well, but remember my Halloween episode with the girls from Bloom and Witches? Well, their website is now live at bloomandwitches.co.uk. That's the letter N, so bloomandwitches.co.uk. They gifted me a little abundance poppet set, and I did it when I went to visit my friend Fran a couple of weeks ago. Let me tell you, it has friggin worked in every sense possible. This poppet— I don't even know what this is— this poppet thing was supposed to attract abundance and magnetize me to abundance. I have been so fucking abundant, okay, every sense possible. So head to bloomandwitches.co.uk, check them out if you want to grab your own. Don't forget as well to head on over to cannycrystals.co.uk and cannycrystalsacademy.co.uk. You can use the discount code, which is the word 'podcast,' to get a discount on your next purchase. If you've enjoyed this episode, please don't forget to share it with a friend. Share it in a Facebook group of women that you're in, or a WhatsApp group of women that you're in. You just never know who needs to hear this message today. And I really love all the support on every single episode, so thank you so much for being my little angels doing that. Have an amazing Friday 13th, and I will see you all next Friday for another episode. Speak soon, everyone.

Bye!

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