Once upon a time in Germany in 1487 there lived a violent misogynist named Heinrich Kramer. Under the red cloak of the Catholic Church and in their paranoid attempts to wipe out paganism (which they had renamed heresy) Heiny was given the sanctioned power to interrogate, torture and kill. In God's name.

The very first doms were an army of roving priests of the Dominican order, whose aim was conversion and whose means was murder. And their chief enemy and target was women. Herbalists and midwives connected to seasons and cycles, the earth and its deities, whom they labelled witches and placed in league with a devil they more closely resembled.

Heiny documented the spurious findings of his inquisitions in a book he called Malleus Maleficarum in which he described witchcraft and endorsed detailed and brutal processes for the extermination of witches.

He demonised the 13 cycles of the moon and the 13 cycles of a woman's body and covens comprised of 13 worshipping women. He set about systematically destroying female freedom and power. In God's name.

And it stuck. Some 500 years later 80% of buildings don't have a 13th floor, planes don't have 13th row and airports skip gate 13. Socials today prove how this ridiculous crap is still part of our culture. Horror is associated with Friday 13th and well it should be because too many of us still live with the terror of misogyny.

Superstitions, much like curses, draw their power from fear. If you do not believe them, they have no hold over you. In much the same way so many women are reclaiming their wyse ways and wyrd, tis time for us to reclaim 13 as the sacred number it is to us.

The Heinys and Doms of the world can choke on their fearful venom but no longer can they claim 13. It is ours, always was and always will be. This is a day to honour the cycles that live within you and to bear witness to how much we have still to claw back.

Keep at it witches or start today. Tell the true tale. And if you need me, I'll be out howling it under the full moon.

Words c. Kerrie Basha 2019