My Current Favorites [December 2020 & January 2021]: Numerology & Astrology
In Vietnam, there are so many mediums that one of the activities among friends, when bored, is to go see a Vietnamese medium/astrologer to hear the year’s predictions, to know when you’ll meet your boyfriend or when you’ll get married. The predictions are always positive and don’t bring any important information. One year out of three is favorable for marriage, one year out of four is under a bad star, so we always leave the medium’s place laughing and instantly forgetting the predictions.
For many years, I wasn’t that interested, until the end of December 2020, when I had to choose a date to come to Croatia and Montenegro. Because of Covid, the future is uncertain and everything changes in a few hours. Having no idea about the favorable date, I consulted the calendar of favorable dates and I was able to choose the perfect date, allowing us to avoid restrictive measures or being confined somewhere.
By getting more interested, I found predictions made early December 2019, even in 2009, announcing a huge problem in 2020. Some are more precise with dates: problem in March 2020, a recovery in July then again a problem in December 2020. So, I asked myself if it was a coincidence, what they base themselves on, etc. I checked the information myself (for example when they talk about a conjunction of 5 planets (+ Ketu, south node) under the same sign in March 2020,, just look at the ephemeris on March 17/18 and see that it’s not a lie).
After reading several books on the subject, I think it has no scientific foundation according to our current standards, both in the explanation and in the method. You can’t even say it’s based on statistical methods. The positions of the zodiac signs (aka the constellations) have shifted since then. Basically, they say such planet is in such sign, but in reality, there’s a 26-degree difference with real astronomy. The planets are indeed very close in the sky, but not necessarily in Capricorn for example (in March, according to the siderealsystem, they were in Sagittarius). In numerology, they say they base it on Pythagoras’s method, but Pythagoras based his system on the Greek alphabet, not the Latin alphabet, and lived long before Christ (so long before our birth date system).
In short, they all claim “we don’t know why it’s relevant, but it works”.
- The first explanation is that everything is vibration. So whether you’re born on such date, such year, whether your name is A, B, or C, it has an impact on your personality because these numbers and letters have vibrations. Thus, throughout your life, you’ll be more affected by vibrations compatible with yours. You’ll be naturally gifted in music or painting, in listening or negotiation.
- The second explanation, more plausible and acceptable, is that everything in the universe follows a cycle. There are visible cycles proven scientifically like seasons, but there are also more personal cycles, like the menstrual cycle. Before, people didn’t have smartphones, calendars… so they looked at the sky to know where they were in these cycles. In Vietnam, an agricultural country, we looked much more at the Moon than the Sun. Every year, the lunar new year changes date, but every time, in Northern Vietnam, there’s typical lunar new year rain. How to explain that this rain arrives, without fail, in February one year, but in January another year, if you don’t look at the Moon? Similarly, the menstrual cycle, without apps like Clue, is hard to track. For example, I have my period every 2x days. It’s super hard to track and count by hand, and I need to track it to avoid booking a long bus ride right when I’ll have a stomach ache. There are certainly other things on a 2-year, 3-year, 89-year cycle… which conveniently correspond to planetary cycles. And then humanity forgets. If a cycle spans 978 years, no one will be there to remind us that Covid should arrive in 2020 ahaha. So the importance isn’t to know if xyz will happen, but rather to know where we are in that cycle, and leverage our potential when our moment of glory comes. It’s like taking out your umbrella when it rains, and your sunscreen when it’s sunny.
Practical exercise
According to numerology, a fairly simple way to calculate your 4 peaks (or turning points, major changes)is to use your ruling number. Ruling number = the sum of the digits of your birth date, reduced to a number between 2 and 11.
| Birth date | Ruling Number |
|---|---|
| 01/02/1960 | 0+1+0+2+1+9+6+0 = 19 1+9 = 10 Ruling number = 10 |
| 17/08/1977 | 1+7+0+8+1+9+7+7 = 40 4+0 = 4 Ruling number = 4 |
The age at which you’ll reach the first peak is calculated with the following formula: 36 – ruling number + year of birth. Where does the number 36 come from? They have no idea, but it works. Yeah I know, it’s frustrating, some things just fall from the sky like that.
| Birth date | Ruling Number | First peak |
|---|---|---|
| 01/02/1960 | 0+1+0+2+1+9+6+0 = 19 1+9 = 10 Ruling number = 10 | 36 – 10 + 1960 = 1986 |
| 17/08/1977 | 1+7+0+8+1+9+7+7 = 40 4+0 = 4 Ruling number = 4 | 36 – 4 + 1977 = 2009 |
Next, every 9 years, and over 27 years, there are 3 other peaks (major changes). You can see that the second person experiences their first peak later (at 32 vs. the first person at 26), but their last peak will also come later (59 instead of 53 for the 1st person). After the fourth peak, what happens? Well, there will be small changes, but not as significant as the 4 changes indicated.
| Birth date | First peak | Second peak | Third peak | Fourth peak |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01/02/1960 | 36 – 10 + 1960 = 1986 | 1986 + 9 = 1995 | 1995 + 9 = 2004 | 2004 + 9 = 2013 |
| 17/08/1977 | 36 – 4 + 1977 = 2009 | 2009 + 9 = 2018 | 2018 + 9 = 2027 | 2027 + 9 = 2036 |
My first peak being in 2013, that was the year I made a career change. Without knowing it, I fought to land that job, despite a significant salary cut. Against all odds, I got it, with no prior experience, as if the stars had aligned 😀 It’s a real turning point in my life, because it’s this new career that allowed me to be a digital nomad today. My next peak is expected in 2022, we’ll see how it goes.
JB’s first peak being in 2016, that’s the year he chose to … go on a world tour and fulfill his dream 🙂 It’s also thanks to this world tour that we are digital nomads today.
I tested this method on several people by asking them “did something super important happen to you in 19xx?” and the person would always reply “well yes, I told you I was doing this or that” (as if I knew the year by heart lol). I loved asking my parents, who have or are about to go through the fourth peak. And the dates really match their journey. My dad couldn’t believe he was changing jobs every 9 years.
There was just one time when someone told me “oh no, doesn’t ring a bell”. That’s because I had miscalculated their ruling number ahaha.
Well, what am I going to do with all this knowledge?
- First, better accept the idea that we can be influenced by cycles (so ups and downs). You can’t have positive growth every year, you can’t have turning points every 6 months. On the other hand, when the opportunity comes, you have to put in even more effort.
- Then, we also have to accept the idea that there are things that escape us and go beyond our scientific logic.
- Finally, even if all the planets are aligned, we still have free will, and that’s the most important information to remember. To go back to the example above, no one can stop you from taking out your umbrella when it’s sunny, you’re always the one choosing the path you want to take.
Sources
If you’re interested, here are a few books I recommend (in English though) :
- Llewellyn’s Complete Book of Astrology (Fnac link, Amazon link, Bookdepository link) : the author uses the keyword system I detailed in the article, which greatly facilitates autonomy. The author loves charts, which is great because it summarizes so much. I love the analyses of celebrity astral themes at the end of each section, so we can practice. She skips some concepts (well, she gives them without explaining their usefulness). The second book on predictions by the same author is harder to understand and is for advanced readers.
- The Only Astrology Book You’ll Ever Need (Fnac link, Amazon link, Bookdepository link): extremely comprehensive; there’s even a section on how to create your own simplified birth chart. Read this after the previous book for additional info. I find the interpretations in this book more relevant.
- The Complete Book of Numerology (Fnac link, Amazon link, Momox link, Bookdepository link) : a small book that’s very easy to read. The explanations of each number are very relevant. It’s a very simple method. You need to buy other books to go further, but for beginners, it’s already very good.
- How to Predict your Future Secrets of Eastern and Western Astrology (Fnac link, Amazon link) : if the Llewellyn collection is great for understanding basic concepts, I didn’t understand a thing in their Predictive Astrology book. I found James Braha’s book much more understandable and the explanations much more relevant (for me at least). And he offers two predictive systems: Western & Hindu. The Hindu system seems complicated but he manages to explain, always very simply, the tools, which makes you want to learn more.
- New! I just discovered the magazine The Mountain astrologer, the most respected in the field. You can buy back issues at a discount on their site (in PDF or paper format). To know which issue will interest you, you can access the list of past articles, interviews, and astral chart analyses of celebrities here.
To generate astral charts, you can either use astro.com, or an app like Astro Future. I love their animated chart. You can animate the transits by scrolling through the dates, which makes it easier to visualize the movement of the planets, identify stationary planets before/after retrograde. You can also set a start/end date and watch the planets move through the zodiac signs—it’s really cute.
The app is free, but I strongly recommend also getting the €2.29 option to see transits up to 2050 (the free version is limited to +1 year) and the €3.49 one to identify important events (especially planet returns, especially for the slower-moving planets, because having to sift through dozens of pages of ephemeris, especially when planets are retrograde, isn’t much fun). Some explanations are provided, but that’s not the most important thing. You can also add other people’s birth charts. You can export several things as PDF or image format to share on social media.
What’s missing is the table of aspects between transit planets & natal planets. You have to click on each planet to identify aspects, and it’s tedious.
For Hindu birth charts, I haven’t found reliable sources yet. However, you can calculate your dashas here.
Note that this app uses tropical astrology. For sidereal astrology (which I highly recommend), you need to use the app Time Nomad and set it to “sidereal.”
