It's interesting to note that the number '13', which in the occult is said to be the number of rebellion and death, and therefore, of the Devil, also seems to be tied in with the hexagram, as the image to the right attests. Thirteen is the traditional number of people in a witch coven, and it's also the number of the Death card in the Tarot Deck designed by A.E. Waite, an infamous Freemason, in 1910. Superstitiosly known as an unlucky number, 13's ill-repute goes back to the Papal crackdown on the Knight's Templar on October 13th, thus giving the number a Masonic association as well, sinced the Templars were the precursors or intellectual ancestors of Freemasonry.

This form of the hexagram, as a cluster of 13, also appears on the U.S. one dollar bill. Kabbalists say 13 is man's ability to go beyond the Zodiac, to ascend above the stars of heaven, which may help expalain why, in the Library of Congress, it's inscribed: "Too low they build who build beneath the stars" and "The True Shekinah Is Man." Christians often associate the number 13 with rebellion due to Genesis 14:4, where the number thirteen first occurs in the Bible: "14:4. For they had served Chodorlahomor twelve years, and in the thirteenth year they revolted from him." (Catholic DR Bible)

In card 13 of the Waite Tarot deck, which was designed by Freemason and Qabbalist A.E. Waite, the death rider bears the banner of the "mystic rose", which is not only associated with Kabbalistic Rosicruciansim but also with the Bohemian Protestant rebellion against the Catholic Church, since Martin Luther, leader of the revolt, used the rosy-cross sigal on his signet ring, and Lutheranism still uses the logo to this day. Here portrayed is the occult view that from death comes life. The Pope begs for his life; this is indicative of the intended demise of Catholicism and the death of the old order to bring about the New World Order. The same principle is expressed in the Skull and Bones Masonic-Kabbalistic ideograph of flowers blooming from the skull's cranium.

Note how, in the background, the sun rises from the middle of twin pillars. In Kabbalistic numerology, the number of the sun is 666, which Christians take to be the number of the Beast, or anti-Christ, as depicted in the Revelation of Saint John, but in the Qabalistic or Masonic meaning, it signifies the true messiah of Israel, the long-awaited Mashiach, who will rule the world with a rod of iron, say the Rabbis.