The Year of Strength

Strength, from the Lovers Tarot by Jane Lyle and Oliver Burston.

In my work helping clients crack their “career code,” I use the numbers in their dates of birth to uncover the great work their souls have come to accomplish in this lifetime. As a result of that work, I have posted both here and over at my business blog my explorations into the science of numbers we call numerology. Most of those explorations have focused on particular individuals and their numbers.

We all go through personal year cycles when the calendar year changes, but did you also know that we collectively share a similar experience? We do, and that is called the Universal Year. This is derived when we take the numbers in the current calendar year and add them together, reducing them to a single digit.

Since we’re a few weeks into a new year, I thought it would be fun to share the vibration of this year, an experience we will all have as a whole, since, on a spiritual level, we are all one, and what one experiences, we all experience.

Taking this year, 2015, we calculate the Universal Year Number as follows: 2+0+1+5=8. So, our Universal Year Number for 2015 is 8.

The 8 highlights material accomplishment. It is a number related to wealth and power. It encourages generosity. As a year cycle, physical accomplishment and material success are the focus. Seeds that have been planted in earlier years reap harvests during an 8 year. This is the year to claim recognition and take command in order to get concrete results. However, this is also a year to become aware of possibly abusing your power or becoming greedy. In an 8 year, we are encouraged to be patient and generous to others, especially during those times when it might feel tedious.

As a student and practitioner of the Tarot, I like to bring in aspects of the card from the Major Arcana that corresponds to the Universal Year Cycle, and call it “The Year of….” In this particular case, our card is Strength, the eighth in the Major Arcana (this Arcana represents our life lessons and spiritual and psychological influences at work in our daily life experiences). So, 2015 is “The Year of Strength.”

When Strength appears, we are being encouraged to consider our self-esteem and self-confidence.

• How can we be more self-disciplined?
• What behaviors tempt us—and how can we show more restraint?
• What habitual instincts do we continue to struggle with?

Strength urges us to be bold and stand in our personal power.

As we see in the image of the card, our maiden touches the lion resting beside her. She has tamed the beast, which is a demonstration of how we, at times, need to curb our own natural, instinctual tendencies.

In order to do this, our maiden is indeed using strength, but not the brute force typically associated with physical strength; instead, she is using the gentle—yet extremely powerful—ability to love unconditionally. In most (if not all) spiritual teachings (the infinity symbol above our maiden’s head represents our connection to the Infinite), unconditional love is said to be the most powerful force there is. And, just as those teachings encourage us to love others unconditionally, we must also love ourselves in the same manner—especially in those moments when we let our wild and untamed side come and roar its head.

So, for this year, there may be experiences where our individual—and collective—self-control will be tested. We are being encouraged to identify our problematic habits and unhealthy tendencies (Strength is also a health card) and to weigh their overall impact on our lives.

It will be in those moments that we will choose to be confident in our power to be strong and capable—and show ourselves that we are up to the test.

 

 

 

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