The Thirteenth Generation: A Pagan Proposal

Thirteen is the number that incites superstition among those who place their faith in chance.  Thirteen is friends with black cats and enjoys the sound of wood knocking.  It has been deleted as a title floor that comes after twelve in many hotels, high-rise apartment and office buildings.  I often wonder why anyone who really “believed” would then risk their chances with the fourteenth floor–isn’t it really the thirteenth with a misleading label?  In my fantasy world, the thirteenth generation, “Generation X,” sees beyond fear and superficial labels.

Thirteen years is the time it takes for girls and boys to reach puberty and adolescence.  It is a time when the mind and body are hungry for knowledge. During this time we begin to prepare to battle boundaries and dogma with what we “know” as truth.  We prepare our minds  for the challenge with unceasing examination, questions and doubts.  We prepare our bodies with sexual
experimentation, exploration of the natural world and martial arts.  All of this comes easily to those this age because limits are not yet fixed.

There is no physical description of a person who may belong to the generation of “bad luck” because we have begun to see the superficial as a constriction forced upon us by the older, more desperate, generations.  We’ve discovered the secrets that fascists have tried to hold from humanity for thousands of years. We have discovered the wonders of perception as more than what our usual senses allow.  When we are again in touch with our hidden senses we will love and recelebrate Nature.  This generation IS bad luck for those who cling on to love of the material world and overindulgent ego.

This will be the first Western inherited generation to recycle and manage resources appropriately.  We will finally realize that not only is space and time relative but so too is consciousness.  Animals, plants, spores and minerals will no longer be treated as if they were here for the purpose of
exploitation.

Monotheism will finally be forced to admit that there can be no monopoly on spiritual belief or worship.  We’ve taken the matter of spirit into our own souls; we will connect with one another as we never have–while at the same time accomplishing such a novel aim on our own.  We take full advantage of our lives and dreams.  Our greatest transformation though, is we do not fear
uncertainty but embrace it and use it as an opportunity to self-examine as opposed to self-indulge.

Source:

Author

Elizabeth Nanas.