13 Doors, No. 2: Lolita

In January, we began a series of posts about the number 13, a powerful key and one that can be used to unlock the mysteries around us.

In the tarot, thirteen is the number of Death (XIII). In English and other alphabets,  it corresponds to the letter "M"—a letter associated with mother, the moon, and the Egyptian hieroglyphic for water. Thirteen is a key to flow of energy, transformation and cycles, death and rebirth.

For this series, we're focusing on using this key to peek behind doors related to overcoming the historic, pervasive, and systemic oppression of the divine feminine and ancient gods. This story is closely interrelated with our own human archetypes and spiritual liberation. Specifically, we'll be looking across literary works, art, and other popular media.

We unlock the next door.

The 1955 novel Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov has two chapter 13s, each pivotal moments in the story. In the first, Humbert, as the novel's unreliable narrator, recounts the first time he molests Lolita. In Part 2, Chapter 13, Lolita begins rehearsing for a play that empowers her to eventually escape her captor. However, Quilty, the playwright who tells her story and provides the path for her escape is yet another older man and predator who later attempts to coerce her into pornography.

The message this key unlocks:

To break the enchantment, you have to tear through the fabric of the realities that are spun by lost hunters, caught in their own web. The layers are deep, entrenched, labyrinthine.

The image above was channeled with this message. It is a way out. Cutting the ties and illusions that have held us and generating new roots. To gain from the energies and messages this offers, meditate with the image.

The accompanying demo track is a song I channeled and wrote with the same intention as part of our forays into music as magick. I'd be honored if you listened to it and allowed its energy to aid you in your spiritual journey.

Additional thoughts related to this message, collected from recent spiritual guidance in the past six months:

• Keep your eyes open. Look for the truth of our reality, past the absences and fantasies told by the unreliable narrators of our histories.
• Be aware. The way out has been hidden and many are misdirected. Even as we seek freedom, others seek to exploit us. It is pervasive and what seem like alternatives to captivity often are not truly so.
• Question the narratives around you, at all levels—from the personal to social to the state and beyond. Imagine possibilities outside of the paths that seem apparent.

1. Center for Strategic and International Studies. 2023. Absent Memory and Transitional Justice. CSIS. Retrieved from: https://www.csis.org/programs/human-rights-initiative/legacy-works/absent-memory-and-transitional-justice.
2. Rothman, Lilly. 2015 Aug 18. Read TIME's Original Review of Lolita. [Cover image of Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov]. TIME. Retrieved from: https://time.com/3961443/review-lolita-1958/.