The number 13
My abstract mind conjures up images of lucky numbers, of possible signs and superstitions. It thinks up relevant bets. My birthday perhaps? My favorite number? It reaches out into the cosmos, bracing itself for an intuitive flash. It observes with all of its will… “13, 13, 13!” It wonders about systems of numbers held sacred, of world views long past, when the Universe itself could be observed and understood in terms of numbers.
Both of my minds, my rational and my abstract, finally agree on something and place a bet. “13, 13, 13”, but even as the wheel spins they battle with each other.
The number 13 is not a number I just chose at random for this example. It is actually the number that first began my interest in the esoteric side of roulette, if there is this side beyond my own creation of it.
[Now this may sound like a little stupid story, but believe me you would feel and think differently if it has happened to you]
I was only just 18 years old, and therefore only just legally old enough to gamble in the casino, and only just old enough for most respectable psychics to give me a reading. Not that I was much into psychic readings, but my mother and her friends had invited the witchy lady around to give each of them one, and I decided to join in. Among other predictions and mysterious suggestions, which I was frantically writing down on a piece of paper for records, was her suggestion that the number 13 was my lucky number. I did not pay much attention at the time, especially to the numerical aspect, which I rejected as being pointless and superstitious.
I was at a friends a few weeks later, and found two £1 casino chips on his floor. I excitedly stated, “I am going to test my psychic tonight, and bet these on number 13, my supposedly lucky number!”
Later on, in the casino, I was at the roulette table. I was too much of a wuss to put them both on 13 (I know, it’s only £2, but I wanted to split my bet, and not being much into casinos at the time I had no intention of placing any of my own money), so I first placed one of the chips on 13. The wheel spun. “13, 13, 13…” It missed. I grumbled something about my stupid psychic, as I tossed the second chip onto 13, no hope of it coming in anymore. I turned to walk away, and was drawn back by the obvious compulsion to just have a check. As I turned around, the 13 dropped, and so did my world. Was that my “lucky number”?
A strange feeling had come over me. Or had it come over me before? I didn’t know, but it then felt like some other-worldly force had been at play; some combination of freakiness had been stirred in the cauldron of my mind, and a part of me has never dropped the idea that something other than luck occurred that day. Drinks were on me either way.
The question and quest however remains: are there alternative way to predict the roulette numbers?
Pure Luck or prediction? A different/new approach to roulette
The way you interpret this story is key to understanding your own viewpoint when it comes to the esoteric methods of betting that could be employed in Roulette. Do you view this event as happening by sheer chance? A 1/18 event, that happened to occur at the same time that I had stated that I wanted to test my psychic’s foresight. Had my psychic already seen the event? Does the number 13 have some numerological significance? Did I infuse the bet with some form of willpower, creating a “coincidence” by opening up my mind to other possibilities?
Did something happen that we will never fully understand, or was this a cold, rational event, that my own mind ascribed meaning to?
Whatever had happened, I could not stop myself from further exploring the possibility that roulette could be approached this way, and my interest in the esoteric viewpoints on roulette increased. That is not to say that I would now bet my house on the number 13. If there is some God of Fate and Numbers, then I would hope that he would strike me down for my greed and selfishness, before he granted me the right to use a lucky number as a means to become stinking rich.
In fact, I would not bet any more than I intended to bet with my rational mind, even if I thought that I could have esoteric influence of some sort. Let’s be sensible about this. But if I am to place my bet anyway, and choose any old number, then I may as well explore the possibility that my mind, and my own observation of the roulette wheel, could have some impact on the outcome, or even the possibility that each number could have a symbolic and numerological meaning.
In roulette, as in life, I am forever curious, and forever open to the unknown.