What a Number – Day 999

Stars Through the Forest – Photo: L. Weikel

What a Number

What a number I just typed into the title line, above. Could I really be writing my last three-digit post tonight?

Numerologically speaking, this feels like an ending, even if I’ve not yet arrived at my goal of 1111 consecutive posts. Nines are completion. Three nines, no matter how you look at them, sort of hammer home the concept of completion. Beyond the simple fact of three nines comprising the number, if you add the nines, 9+9+9 = 27 and then 2+7=9. No matter which way you look at 999, it reduces to a 9, and thus it represents a wrapping up, a conclusion, an end to something.

Not My 1111 Devotion

The number 999 may signify completion of something, on some level, but it does not mean I intend to quit my Act of Power before I reach my goal. No; there remain 112 posts to write, and I intend to write them, Goddess willing.

It represents the end of three-digit posts. That’s pretty lame.

Honestly, I don’t know what – if anything – reaching this number signifies, other than I’m plugging along, doing my thing, honoring my word.

Day after day (technically night after night), I blow a quick kiss to my eldest son when I hit ‘publish’ and whisper, “I miss you so damn much. I remember you every single day. And I do this one little thing each night because I said I would. Because I love you.”

And although it’s a little thing, sometimes that’s the best I can do.

Fire Sprite Rising – Photo: L. Weikel

(T-112)

Portals – Day 995

Two of Wands – Rider, Waite, Smith deck – Photo: L. Weikel

Portals

A friend asked me the other day about the concept of portals and the number 11. After I mentioned the connection between the two in a recent post, she wondered whether the connection between 11s and portals is consistent between astrology, numerology, and shamanic work (where traveling between realms is an essential aspect of the tradition).

As an artist, she could easily see how the number 11 resembles the two sides of a doorway. But her question plumbed far deeper than the superficial observation.

In my experience, two pillars, but possibly two of almost anything depending upon context, often evoke the energetic desire of the observer to go through or between them. There’s an etheric barrier implied, an energetic tension between the two columns, that beckons to be pierced.

Maybe it’s the tendency for us humans to be fixated on duality that fosters this sense. We tend to see duality all over the place: in/out, up/down, male/female, black/white. So of course if there’s a threshold in front of us, there’s the tendency for us to think in terms of here/there.

Where?

A doorway intuitively leads us from here to there. So it’s a significator; it announces to us that we are leaving where we’ve been and entering new or different territory.

I can’t remember where or from whom I first learned that 11s are portals. I think it was probably more of a symbolic association than anything else. But as soon as I began my metaphysical studies almost 40 years ago, I realized how prevalent is the consideration of 11s as something special.

Tarot

As I’ve mentioned in other posts, it took me a long time to feel comfortable exploring the tarot. But once I realized its value as an amazing means of accessing psychological and spiritual insight, the symbolism – when I gave myself permission to free associate – seemed to just fall into place intuitively. Although when I reread that sentence, I wonder if it was the development of my confidence in my ability to intuit symbols that finally helped me appreciate the value of the tarot.

Hmm. A thought for another time.

All I can say at this moment in time is that pondering this question has made me pull out a bunch of 11s in just one tarot deck. I want to use them as examples of how they lead from one state of reality, understanding, awareness, or experience to another.

But it’s taking me down a rabbit hole and I realize I don’t have nearly enough time to explore this and have some fun with it.

11s

Suffice it to say for the moment that I have a special relationship to 11s. Not only do I have 11s showing up for myself numerologically, but of course Karl died on 11/11/11. I’ve always felt he couldn’t resist all the portals that showed up in front of him – so he went through and didn’t return.

For now, I’m just going to comment on how the Two of Wands, pictured above, shows a person on the brink of moving out into a whole new world. He just needs to go through the doorway formed by the Wands on either side of him. It’s his choice. The world is in his hands.

And there’s a lot more for us to explore.

(T-116)

Golden Opportunity – Day 266

Golden Opportunity 

Tonight I want to alert you to an absolutely golden opportunity that you should. not. miss.

Beginning Sunday, September 1st, my great friend and world-class numerologist, Alison Baughman, will be starting her comprehensive, five week Numerology Course. For five straight weeks, from 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. EST every Sunday, you will learn an amazing amount of information on numerology that will stand you in good stead, regardless of whether you use it for yourself or find that you want to dip into this field with an even greater commitment. (And you just might be surprised by how much all of this resonates with you!)

As I’ve mentioned in other posts, Alison knows her numbers. She knows her stuff and she is a great teacher. And this is a golden opportunity (and perhaps the last) to study with her first-hand.

Books, Too

It just so happens that she also wrote an excellent basic book on numerology, Speaking to Your Soul – Through Numerology.

Personally, I know she’s on a quest to write some additional books which, given her wry sense of humor and no-nonsense style, could be hilarious. (The books, not the quest – although the quest could end up being amusing in its own right.)

I’d by lying if I didn’t admit that it freaks me out a bit when I see Alison state things starkly, like, “This could be my last offering of this class.” That’s because she does not mess around. And she does not make comments like this cavalierly.

Photo: jenthejd.com

Believe Her When She Says, “This May Be it”

I didn’t believe it when she announced a few years ago that she was going to stop doing private readings for people. The reason I didn’t believe it was because her readings are a-m-a-z-i-n-g.

I’ve listened to mine over and over, probably at least a dozen times, as well as the periodic updates I was lucky enough to have with her when I needed to know ‘what was going on’ in my life ‘by the numbers.’

It just didn’t seem possible to me that someone with such an extraordinary gift could mean it when she announced she would be stepping away from it. But she did. And she has.

Which is why I feel it is incumbent upon me to highly recommend you take her course in September. It’s an opportunity that you could easily regret if you don’t take action now. I can tell you unequivocally: I intend to take the course. Heck, every time I listen to my readings with Alison, I learn a ton. (And you know I enjoy bringing into my posts at least some of what I know just by hanging around the woman.)

Yes, I’m going to take the course – and you should, too.

Lastly: Don’t Forget to Retreat…and Listen

Finally, next week at this time I will have wrapped my first Listening Retreat at Amadell. If you’re still flirting with the idea of allowing yourself the exquisite gift of disconnecting with the outside world and spending time with yourself, Mother Nature, and an amazing group of like-minded people (with whom you’ll probably remain friends for who knows how long – forever?), then jump off the cliff. Take the plunge. Come. To. Amadell.

Join us! $395 for the weekend (program plus meals), with $50/ night lodging in absolutely adorable, well-appointed rooms.  Email me (lisa@owlmedicine.com) to register, and contact events@amadell.org to reserve your room.

There’s so much to learn and experience in life. These two experiences are not to be missed and will give you skills you’ll use forever!

(T-845)

Astrology and the New Moon – Day Twenty Four

 

Esoteric Means of Understanding Ourselves Better

As you’re all discovering day-by-day and post by post (thank you for hanging with me), I’m fascinated by a wide range of esoteric means we humans have developed to help us understand our place in the Universe. I’ve been on the quest to understand myself better since my earliest memories. And of course, the admonition 28 years ago by the Taos Pueblo elder to “know” myself, as I describe in my book Owl Medicine , only clinched that early urge to soul search and gave me permission to translate it into a life-long passion.

Numerology

There’s numerology, which, as I’ve only tangentially touched upon, uses numbers based on a Pythagorean system of 9 to set forth a roadmap of our lives and the various gifts and challenges that our souls have come into this particular lifetime to experience and hopefully learn from and use to evolve.

Astrology

Another system is astrology. I’ve been fascinated for decades by this means of cultivating self-awareness, which is incredibly complicated and is far and away so much more in-depth and rich than the trite paragraph we used to read in the newspaper about our ‘sun sign’ when I was a kid.

At its most basic, astrology takes into account your ‘natal’ chart, which is the exact position of a wide range of heavenly bodies at the minute of your birth, from the perspective of where your mother was at the moment you were born. From this snapshot of the solar system, you do indeed know your ‘sun sign’ – which is the sign of the zodiac in which the sun was located at the minute of your birth.

Discovering Your Rising Sign or “Ascendant”

What many people don’t realize is that, while one’s sun sign can be a somewhat prominent indicator of traits that you carry in this lifetime, an actually more intimate and accurate indicator of who you are is what’s called your ‘rising’ sign – or the sign that was ‘on the ascendant’ at the minute of your birth. So, if you have a chance, I strongly urge you to research and discover your ascendant or rising sign.

One way to do this is to access the free website Astrodienst. (There are many others. I just happen to use this one.) You can either set up an account (again, for free) or just log on as a guest. Either way (under the ‘Free horoscopes’ tab, go to the far right and click on ‘natal chart, ascendant’ under the heading ‘Drawings and Calculations’) you can input your birth information. You’ll need the date of your birth (obviously), as well as the time (and this is important, as some important shifts can take place within minutes), but you can always input a default time until you can secure your specific birth time from your mom (wink) or on the ‘long form’ of your birth certificate. You’ll also need to know your birthplace (city, state, country). All of this information will add up to giving you a much richer, deeper picture of the heavens at the moment you arrived.

The three easiest and most basic aspects for you to discover are (a) your sun sign, which you probably know already unless you live under a rock; (b) your ascendant or ‘rising’ sign; and (c) your moon sign. Just knowing and delving into those three aspects of your personal astrological makeup can bring you an incredible amount of insight into yourself and how you ‘tick.’

What I find fascinating is how every form of roadmap that our souls have created for us to discover and work with, if we choose, matches up. In other words, when Alison Baughman gave me a comprehensive numerological reading years ago, it dovetailed in truly eerie and profound ways with every astrological reading I’ve received. (All told, I think I’ve had three or four separate astrologers read my natal chart for me, cultivating decades-long relationships with two of them, which means I would go back to them periodically to have them read my ‘transits.’)

I’ll talk about transits another day.

Roadmaps of Our Souls

My point, though, is that no matter what roadmap you look at, they all pretty obviously chart the same unique challenges and gifts. So it is as if we (as souls) leave cosmic magical breadcrumbs for our ego-selves to discover, in order to help us understand our strengths, weaknesses, and potential destinies, should we have the desire to discover them.

I started this post intending to discuss the fact that we will be experiencing a ‘new moon’ tomorrow and what that might mean for each of us. And then I got sidetracked into writing what I wrote.

But! The good news (for me) is that I just now realized that the new moon actually won’t ‘arrive’ until 2:20 a.m. EST on Friday, December 7th.

So maybe I’ll save what I was going to say tonight until tomorrow!

(T-1087)

Day Eighteen (T-1093)

 

Portals

This morning I was reminded by my favorite, most amazing, numerologist (who is also a friend), Alison Baughman, that today is yet another “11-11-11” day.

For those of you unfamiliar with the basics of numerology, you might be wondering how today, November 29, 2018, could be considered an 11-11-11 day.

Obviously, you realize that the first 11 is for November, the 11thmonth. The second 11 is the day today, the 29th, ‘reduced’ (2 + 9) to 11, and finally the year, 2018, also ‘reduced’ (2 + 0 + 1 + 8) to 11. That’s pretty much how you do anything in numerology as far as dates. Everything is added up to its lowest configuration between 1-9, unless you reach 11 or 22, which are considered “master numbers,” which do not reduce further (to 2 or 4, respectively).

There’s a ton of fascinating information you can access through numerology, and I urge you to explore it as a means to gaining yet another perspective on the quest to understanding yourself and why you are here, perhaps what lessons you are here to learn, as well as what skills and assets you bring to the table.

And yet again, I am the quintessential poster girl for the concept of  “a little bit of knowledge being a dangerous thing.” Don’t take my word for any of this. If playing with numbers is attractive to you, or you notice certain ones showing up frequently and wonder if there’s any meaning to it, take the time to learn about it. See for yourself if applying these principles bears fruit for you.

But back to the power of today.

Naturally, I am probably slightly more tuned in to the potential for transformation when it comes to 11s than a lot of people. Not only did my life change irrevocably on 11-11-11 (technically, yes, it was 11-11-2011), but it also turns out that I have 11s all over the place personally. Right down to the post office box that was assigned to me over 30 years ago adding up to an 11. It’s weird.

And despite my experience of 11-11-11, I actually love the number 11, probably because it is a number so deeply connected to me on so many levels. I see it, quite honestly, as the PORTAL, or doorway, that it is. A doorway to birth, rebirth, change, transformation, new experience, adventure, and yes, maybe even ascension.

So I felt a little bit of excitement quickening within when Alison reminded me (well, everyone following her on FB, to be honest) that today would almost certainly be a momentous day in some way because of its numerological significance. Indeed, all day I felt a sense of anticipation that we might be passing from one experience or understanding of ‘reality’ to another; that there might be revelation, or an exposition of us to light or information or profound change – either on a personal or much wider level.

And then the day started unfolding. Revelations abound. Lies are being exposed, light is illuminating the darkness, and perhaps – hopefully – truth is coming to the fore.

It is indisputable that we have passed through some major portals today as a nation, and it remains to be seen what will come of it all.

In some ways, perhaps, old beliefs and assumptions of what was true and what was not have died, making way for the birth of new understandings and perspectives. Ah, those alluring 11s. Those portals to our future…

I don’t know about you, but I am ready for some shifts in our reality. Walking through the portals may yield some really scary experiences and even feel like the death of some things (ideas, beliefs, hopes, fears), but ultimately, it is transformative. A rebirth.