Did you know that for a Friday the 13^th to occur, the month must begin on a Sunday, and that every year has one Friday the 13^th? It can also occur up to three times. There will be three Friday the 13^th’s in 2026, this is the second in 2023, and there will be two in 2024 and 2029.

I thought I’d share some ways to celebrate a most potent day of magic in the witch’s calendar, Friday the 13^th, and dive a little into the 13 expressions/archetypes of the Great Goddess.

Friday is Freya’s Day, the Norse Goddess of love, lust, beauty, fertility, abundance and war.

Freya wages battle on behalf of the oppressed, a warrior in service to others, standing up to injustice. She assists women in labor and those seeking love.  She is a death doula, comforting the dying on their transition and transformation. Freya rides a chariot pulled by two black cats – a gift from the God of Thunder, Thor.  After serving Freya for seven years, the cats are transformed into witches… disguised as cats; and so, the association between witches and black cats.

Work with Freya on your altar with tiger’s eye, honey or mead, precious metals and in meditation as your guide through personal obstacles or grief, collective conflict, and on the search for community and love.

Friday the 13^th is the Day of the Goddess – the Divine Feminine in her many embodiments. But more on that part later.

The number 13 has always been sacred to the Divine Feminine, and those who followed the Lunar calendar and the cycles of Great Cosmic Mother, observed 13 lunar cycles in a year. The solar calendar observes 12 lunar cycles, with a 13^th cycle roughly every two and a half years.

Women traditionally pass through thirteen menstrual cycles yearly, and ovulate on the 13^th day. As you can see, women’s cycles follow the Feminine lunar year – although variances occur due to many factors.

In 1487, Heinrich Kramer began a campaign to suppress the Divine Feminine, and set in motion the torture and savage murders of many healers, midwives and influential leaders in their communities, who were largely elderly women.

Friday the 13^th is a day to honor the 13 lunar cycles, the sacred cycles of the womb, and 13 embodiments of the Goddess. It is a day on which I like to honor the lives lost during the witch hunts, to stand up as a witch and a daughter of the great cosmic mother.

My interest in archetypes has led me down many interesting paths, but none as interesting as the 13 expressions of the Goddess, as it correlates to the wheel of the year and the lunar calendar.

Seasons and Archetypes help us to understand ourselves better, to feel our connection to something that is tangible and real – that we are part of the Great Mother and She of us. When difficult times arise, when sadness overtakes us, when things fall apart, we can always return home to the Great Mother.

13 Archetypes of the Divine Feminine

The Wisdom Season – pertaining to Winter Solstice and the winter of each day, month, year – correlates with the Sorceress, the Crone and the Dark Mother, also called the Hag (holy one), Wise Woman, these are the archetypes of transformation, of death, transition, chaos and the sacred pause – the dark moon.

The Season of Sovereignty and Dreams– pertaining Spring and the Vernal Equinox, the Daughter, the Maiden, the Creatrix – a young woman in menarche, these are the goddesses of hope, intention, sovereignty, dreams, and the new, waxing moon.

The Season of Nurturing – pertaining to months around Summer Equinox and the light in each of us, the Lover, the Mother, the Midwife. These are the archetypes of birthing, gratitude, service and the full moon.

The Season of Power – pertaining to the months around Autumnal Equinox, the Warrior, the Wild Woman, the Priestess, (sometimes called the Visionary) who in their freedom tend to what’s left to do in this world and their lives, giving back to community, living in gratitude, self-expression and the waning moon.

The thirteenth and unifying archetype is that of the Great Cosmic Mother, who is everything and nothing, the Consciousness of One, Mother to her cosmic daughter Luna – the moon – the Triple Goddess, whose waters guide our inner waters, our mind, our body, our spirit.  

Blessed be, Wise Ones. May this serve as food for contemplation.

Blessed Friday the 13^th.