Reflection: Numerology and The Dark Side of Spiritual Awakening

Happy 2023 beautiful souls. I took the last few weeks to reflect on 2022 and how I wanted to move forward in 2023. I will speak more on the lessons I learned at a later date, but for now, I wanted to touch on how to use numerology to understand the themes of 2023 and years to come.

As some of you know 2023 breaks down to 7, which means it’s a year of introspection and spiritual growth. The number 7 is quite interesting as it shows a balance between the analytical self and the spiritual self, so although one is going through a deep spiritual quest within the number 7, this quest is also about truth-seeking and making sense of the world around them. This can trigger a deep awakening process which can lead to the dark side of spirituality.

I know I always end off with “love and light” or “blessings” but that is not to say I don’t recognize that everything is not “love and light” all the time. You see our spiritual path is the most important path we will walk in our lifetime, but it's also one of the most difficult ones. The spiritual awakening that we continue to have is beautiful in that we start to merge with higher consciousness, but in order to do that, we pay the price of facing the darkness along the way. We all have pain, suffering, trauma, shadows and demons within. Not only have we acquired it from our present lives but from our past lives, our ancestors, our parents, our grandparents, and so on.

We also live in the era of kaliyuga where 75% of darkness (devil) prevails over 25% of light (god). This contributes to the karmic programming and amoral society we were raised to be a part of. Can you imagine having to undo all of this? I’ve witnessed people lose their sense of self once they are hit with these harsh realities. I myself struggled with this for a time being. But once you give yourself enough time to move through that awakening process, you start to find your place. You start to sort out what’s truly real and what’s not, and you start to be able to move through the world with a new perspective and new sense of self.

You also learn to embrace and accept the darkness in the world (and darkness within) and transform what needs to be transformed into light. That’s where my “love and light” comes in. :) I like to say that as a reminder that we all have a choice to live within the light... we all have a choice to choose love. That’s not to say to we ignore our shadows and traumas. No. Ignoring our pain only makes it harder to overcome later. But we have a choice to overcome our pain now and transform our shadows into love and light moving forward so it does not continue to follow us or worse… have power over us.

The year 2022 was the energy of 6, meaning as a collective, people worked on balancing and nurturing themselves and their relationships (families, etc). This year 2023 is more mystical in nature and focused on inner growth. The next year 2024, breaks down to the number 8 which is about climbing the ladder of power and success. This means as a collective, people will be a lot more empowered and focused on prosperity, especially in the material world. However, in order to reach that level of empowerment, it's important to take a deep dive within, do your spiritual work, heal, gain a deeper perspective and connect with your dharma (purpose, truth) in 2023.

We all also have personal year numbers (ranging from 1-9) which will resonate a lot more with people on an individual level and can be used to connect with the overarching number of the year (in this case it is 7 for 2023). You can look up "personal year numbers" but as a quick example, say your birthday is July 16th, you will add the following numbers (which consists of your birthday and the current year):

0+7 +1+6 +2+0+2+3 = 21

Then reduce the sum until it is a number 1-9.

In this case: 2+1=3

This means although this individual is a part of a collective energy of diving within doing their spiritual work and truth-seeking (7), on an individual level, they are going through the personal number 3 (within their 9-year cycle) and will be experiencing major themes of adventure, social enhancement, and creative self-expression.

A quick summary of the themes seen in each personal year number:

1 - Start of a new cycle, new beginnings, new opportunities, initiation, independence, leadership

2 - Partnerships, cooperation, empathy, connection, receptivity, balance, trust, patience

3 - Creative self-expression, arts, fun, adventure, social enhancement, enthusiasm, playfulness

4 - Discipline, building, stability, practicality, hard work, dedication, planning, self-improvement

5 - Changes, expansion, growth, exploration, risk-taking, life lessons, adaptability, resourcefulness

6 - Home, family, duty, nurturing others, stability, balance, loyalty, support, comfort, harmony

7 - Introspection, rest, truth-seeking, learning, contemplation, research, intuition, mystical ability

8 - Personal power, material abundance, reward, recognition, ambition, determination, authority

9 - Completion, wisdom, letting go, transformation, awakening, philanthropy, humanitarianism

I wanted to end off with why I chose Shiva as my deity for this post. In a month’s time will be Shiva’s day (Maha Shivaratri) which is a very transformative time energetically, but also because there is much to learn from him. Shiva is known as “adiyogi” meaning the first yogi, and I feel many people will be tapping into that hermit energy this year on the quest for spiritual growth. Shiva is also known as the destroyer. He helps us embrace the dark sides of ourselves that need to be embraced, while also destroying the dark sides of ourselves that no longer serve our highest good. He also has a special connection to the third eye and crown chakras, so he can help greatly with enhancing your intuition and connection with the divine. Shiva is also one of the easiest deities to connect with because he is omnipresent (always existing beyond space and time) and is the most non-judgemental deity making him accepting of people from all walks of life regardless of where they are in their spiritual journey.

Nonetheless, whether you connect with deities or not, this does not matter. The bigger picture here is whatever divinity means to you, allow it to guide and transform you, as that is the surest way to love and light. If you read this far, thank you. I sincerely hope you gained something from this. Wishing you all immense peace and clarity in 2023.

Many Blessings,

Vashti

Om Namah Shivaya 🙏✨