5

2021 as a Five/V The Heirophant Year

Numerologically, 2021 is a 5 year, which means lots of change.  Last year, we had a 4 year with a lot of limitation.  We should see some loosening of the limitations, but not all at once and not in anything like a linear way.  5 is a transition year, so it is a bridge.  Usually it’s not a very stable bridge.  It’s more like hopscotching from one partial span to another and then changing direction because the other shore isn’t where you thought it was going to be.

When 5 is being used well, the energy is of constructive freedom.  We can change what we want, explore where our curiosity takes us and then bring useful information back to what we’re transitioning.  When 5 is being over or under-used, we’re likely to scatter our energies and waste what hindsight shows to be opportunities.

Remember that yearly energies don’t clang into place at the changing of the calendar.  We’ll see the instability and, hopefully, freedom of the year crest and recede, as the energy shifts from 2021 to the responsible, stable, community-minded 6 energy of 2022. 

Waite Smith Tarot

In Tarot, we have V The Heirophant (Greek, “interpreter of the sacred”) corresponding to the energies of 2021.  It points to the central importance of our communal traditions and beliefs.  Education and the sacred figure in this year.  In the positive, V The Heirophant guards what societies or tribes – or countries or cultures or families or religions – value.  It sets up institutions to put those values into action and to educate members of the society in its values.  I love the connection to old traditions in the Enchanted Forest Old One.  There are rings within rings of these traditions for all of us, from our personal lives out through family traditions to our local culture, our country and, perhaps, our global connections.  Used as a positive, it gives us landmarks and guideposts in our lives.  Used as a negative, it leads to theocratic intolerance and bigotry.

V The Heirophant can be a huge help in the transition of 5 times.  When we’re betwixt and between, it’s helpful to have markers to keep us from falling completely off the beam.  Institutions that keep us tethered to our values can be that beam. 

It can also exacerbate one of the negative tendencies when people don’t recognize the landscape: clinging to beliefs out of fear, which can lead to refusal to make changes or to allow others their own beliefs.  It’s a very big deal to have beliefs questioned at any point in time – rather like pulling the carpet out from under one’s entire life – but especially so in uncertain times, which is definitely the case in our 5 year.

Tarot de Marseilles

Looking deeper into the numbers, the 5 is built from 2 2s, a 0, and a 1.  We’ll need to proceed through those numbers in reverse order: 1, then 2, then 0, then 2 again, at a deeper level of understanding.

1 speaks to the individual, as always, for better and worse.  With a healthy sense of ourselves, we set boundaries, know our strengths – and weaknesses – and can lead from those strengths when called on.  If we’re refusing to use our one-ness, we are passive/aggressive babies who are most effective at creating change through temper tantrums (cringing as I imagine it!).  If we get so into being number one that we can’t see others, we’re selfish despots steamrolling over everyone else as we bully them into submission. 

The healthy 2 is sensitive to others and seeks to bond, based on emotional connections.  The unhealthy 2 is either co-dependent and hyper-sensitive or on lockdown, refusing to open up to others.

0 is the “God” number.  0 indicates Divine intervention – opportunities and challenges over which we have little control.  We can either be responsive or reactive.  Big events like pandemics or global recessions, even if there are traceable human causes, are considered to be “0” events. 

So, as we meet events this year, we’ll need to make sure that we’re owning up to our own part and to our own responsibilities first.  Then, we need to make the important first step toward cooperation: connecting to others as individuals.  When the unexpected shows up, as it will with the 0, we need to move most strongly toward cooperative energies.  The ultimate responsibility is to connection, to intuition, to respect of other individuals, without sacrificing our own individuality.

Since we’re still early in the 2000s, we’re very young learners as a species when it comes to cooperation and sensitivity.  It will take time for all of us to get over the individualism as ultimate lesson that was part of our evolution through the last millennium.  This decade is actually a big boost in our education since the 2 repeats throughout the 2020s.  None of us will see the next opportunity, which comes in the 2200s, for an entire 100 years.

We can all up our one-on-one relationship skills through this year.  Our biggest strength through the changes this year will be in our connections to others, both as members of an institution, faith or tradition, and as individuals connecting with other individuals. 

Structuring Change

1506 NumbersSome changes are easy and feel very freeing. Others are more demanding and require that we learn to work with new limitations.

So guess which one is up for this month?

Yeah, *sigh*, it’s the one we’re less likely to choose.

It’s a month where our past decisions in favour of unfettered slackerdom will come to bite us in the hindmost body part. Or where self-serving structures will be broken apart in favour of those that serve a larger community.

If revolutions and ineffectual complaints are going on around us, we don’t have to buy in. Focus on what changes you want to see, imagine the structures that will support making them happen and take a leadership role in getting them in place.

Even though it’s an uphill climb this month – over rocky ground – the energies support change that benefits the community. Consider the obstacles as things that turn up to make your structures even stronger. Don’t give up!

Weekly Card V The Heirophant Revisited

140925 V The Heirophant Enchanted
The Enchanted Tarot

The Enchanted Tarot version of V The Heirophant always makes me think of the Sermon on the Mount. That’s a perfect example of the spiritual education that this card indicates (your key word from Tarot . . . It’s Easier Than You Think).

We’ve met him before, so let’s look at the specifics of this beautiful image.

The Heirophant has an expanded headdress. It’s like his crown chakra has met the heat and opened fully (anyone else thinking Jiffy Pop?). And it’s not a cold spirituality, by any means: a pure white heart is up there in the centre of the headdress. This is someone whose heart is in his beliefs. His headdress bursts into petals up at the top. I always think that his mind is flowering. Ideas that bring fragrant beauty to the world.

His robes are white, the colour of purity. He’s fully clothed in white – someone who lives a purified life.

He’s standing on purple ground. Purple being the colour of the spiritual, could it be that he’s on sacred ground? Is it the ground that’s sacred, or does any ground he walks on become sacred? That same purple is in his flowering headdress, along with the blue of water and emotional involvement (again, the path with heart).

He holds the book of the Law, which connects him to tradition. He dispenses his tradition with an open gesture, a benediction.

What of the two people in front of him? Could that be our masculine and feminine sides in daily life? Notice that the man is reaching out to the woman, beseeching the involvement of the feminine.

Who do you go to for spiritual guidance? And when are you in a position to dispense that guidance, from within your own traditions?

Learn it, live it, and pass it on!

 

 

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We’ve had another look at V The Heirophant here.

Explore the Sacred

140709 Explore the Sacred

Most of us have heard that curiosity killed the cat.  It’s been used to keep us in line or to hide secrets.  Sometimes it actually keeps us out of trouble.

Religions, usually connected with the sacred, sometimes use a version of this to assure allegiance.  “That’s their God.”  “Our holy writings are the only ones inspired by the Divine.”  Even, “attending services at another church will get you a ticket to h-e-double-hockey-sticks.”

So, here’s the thing:  we’ve all got our dogmatic side, whether or not it has anything to do with an established religion.   Think of your view of the sacred as your personal religion.  And that religion could use a little shaking up.

Fortunately, the energy this month encourages exploration.  Been curious about rituals and rites from other religions?  Go for it.  Thinking about a friend’s world view and starting to see her point?  Integrate what resonates with you.   Have a sacred site you’ve wanted to visit?  Travel on out.

Follow your curiosity to new inner and outer landscapes and see how that shakes up your sense of the sacred.

Oh yeah, and have you heard the end of the cat story?  Satisfaction brought him back.

Yes, numerological counseling is amoung the services offered here.

Here‘s where to find all the Numerology posts for 2014.

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