I am not a superstitious person.  Nor am I a person who follows my horoscope regularly, or any other discipline, except that which ‘feels true’ to me and which is a useful ‘tool’ for understanding myself and Life.

However… some years ago I did participate in a series of workshops about colour therapy.  Within those workshops was an overview of Numerology and how numbers and their energy (vibrations) relate to colour vibrations, and therefore are useful in therapeutic situations.  As I understand it, this is a discipline that attempts to explain all things, based on numeric values which have inherent vibrations.  (Apologies to devotees, if I oversimplify this, I welcome your comments…)  If it helps, most of us learned in high school science that each colour has a different ‘wave’ of energy assigned to it, red being larger, blue being smaller etc.  Carry this idea of energy to the broader world to understand that everything, even our thoughts and prayers have ‘energy’ to them.

The way I was introduced into this concept was through assigning numbers to each of the letters of my name and birth date (the numbers are specific, not at my discretion).  Eventually, the numbers are reduced down, by adding them together, to a single digit, except in the case of the numbers 11 and 22 as they have a special meaning.  (consult a book called ‘Numerology and the Divine triangle’ by Javane/Bunker, if you want a more detailed explanation)  In my own case the numbers 7, 11 and 4 were very significant.  The number 4 was the product of the procedure for finding one’s ‘Life Lesson’ number.  As I have understood it,  a person’s life lesson is about why they are here on earth, and what they are meant to learn from experiences in life.

The number 4, among many things, is about balance and building foundations in one’s life (as in the four corners of a building).  When you have a number for your Life Lesson, you will also find that multiples of that number have significance as well.  So in my case, 2, 8, 12 and 16 will also bring to bear on the experiences contributing to my life lesson.  Are you still with me?

Last year when I turned 58, I confess to the sceptics, I was aware that this would be a number 8 ‘year’ for me, all year, and that it had a strong ‘4’ vibe to it, but I had only made note of the fact and pushed it to the back of my mind.  My birth day (17^th) and month (05) adds up to 13 which is reduced to a ‘4’ and then you add the year, 2011, another four, which made it an ‘8’ year all up, but because I had turned 58, which also adds up to 4 made my Life Lesson ‘4’ vibration very strong for the year.  Three days after I turned 58, on the 20^th of the month (a ‘2’), I received a phone call that my mammogram had something unusual on it and I needed to have another one.  On the 26^th (an 8) I had the mammogram and ensuing needle biopsy the same day.  On the 31^st (4) I received the news that I had cancer.  By this stage I was not surprised.

On the 2^nd of June I learned I had ductal carcinoma.  On the 16^{th (16/06/2011} = 8) I had the surgery.  I was in room #4, bed #2 and was operated on in theatre #8.  The day I left the hospital, the 17^th (8) Don and I had lunch at a little café around the corner from the hotel and when we sat down I noted the table was #4. (I did not consciously orchestrate any of this.  I did not choose the date on which I was operated, or the room I would occupy etc.  However, I do acknowledge it may be possible to subconsciously ‘cause’ these things to happen on these dates etc. based on vibrational energies, though I profess NO skill in this area.  Also, there are many ways to interpret numbers in numerology and it’s entirely possible someone else would interpret them differently.)

On November 20 (20/11/2011 = 4) my dear friend died of breast cancer (see ‘Remembering Ivy‘), and in February our daughter left home to begin her new life and I noted… it was the 4^th. (see ‘She is gone‘)  I’m not trying to draw any conclusions, on which to base future decisions or life path, but likewise, I don’t believe in coincidences.  I do think there probably is some significance in all of this.  What it is, I’m not sure, but of one thing I am very certain.  There is no doubt in my heart that I have been on my true path the passed year.  I’m also certain that numbers bring with them an energy, just as colour has ‘waves’ of energy, and our thoughts, words and deeds are accompanied by energy.  If you doubt me, look for a book by Gary Zukav called ‘The Dancing Wu Li Masters’.  It explains the ‘new physics’ called Quantum Physics, so that the non-academic reader can (mostly) understand it.  There are many things in this world/Universe that we don’t understand, and I like to think I can expand my mind to at least include the possibilities they represent.

What did I learn from my #8/4 year?  That I am extremely blessed and loved.  What greater lesson can life hold?

(I began writing this several months ago, and have only finished it today.  Just now I looked down at the calendar on my computer desktop to see that it is indeed the 4th.  I swear I didn’t plan this.  My year of 4’s was over on the 17th of May 2012, but as you can see, there is a lingering energy, perhaps trying to help me make sense of it all… or perhaps the Universe is just revealing its wonderful sense of humour!)