V The Heirophant

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. 

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.

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.