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Utilizing Numerology in the Search for Life's Deeper Meaning
"Be one of the people on whom nothing is lost" -- Henry James
"The struggle for existence is a struggle "for" something; it is purposeful
and only in so being is it meaningful and able to bring meaning into life."
--Viktor Frankl
In this essay we'll discuss "Life's Deeper Meaning" as it relates to our study of Numerology. I believe Numerology can be an extremely useful and vital resource in searching for meaning within our lives. For me, it's used in part of a continuing process in which I am answering the calling of my
soul. Now you probably can't compare your own life with the harrowing experiences that Viktor Frankl encountered, but hopefully you will have gained some insights into yourself, through your own upsets and difficulties. Yet, through your own personal experiences you probably have learned to foster
hope, faith and inspiration for yourself and others. Fostering hope enables all of us to make and bring change into our lives and to find meaning and value for ourselves.
I would like to help you to utilize Numerology to help you understand your life better and to help you to decode the hidden messages that are hidden for you within your own life. I believe that you too can use Numerology to find meaning within your life and to help you to empower yourself. By now,
you probably have a regular practice in which you use your favorite insight tool to help you to search for meaning in your life. You may use the I-Ching, Runes, Astrology, Myths, Tarot or many others. I think, that as you search for deeper meaning in life, it is important to also find ways in which
you can empower yourself. These tools can be great allies in your process. They can be even more powerful if you learn to use them for yourself, and not rely on someone else to interpret their meaning for you. As you develop a greater understanding of your favorite insight tool, you will be able to
fill entire journals with personal symbolism. This can be a vital part in your process of personal empowerment and searching for meaning in your life.
As you begin to incorporate Numerology into your practice, you will begin to recognize patterns with the numbers that appear. The same can be said for the Tarot and other tools. For instance, as you incorporate the Tarot, you may begin to recognize a pattern with the cards as well. You may notice
that a particular color regularly appears within the cards. Now for you, a particular number or Tarot card may represent something slightly different than what it means for others. The symbols within the numbers and cards can speak to you if you let them. The same can be said for the other tools. As
you gain experience, you can then bring in other forms of soul work to aid you in a process of discovery. Imagine doing artwork around a particular Tarot card or your Soul Number! The process can be fun and dynamic. As your skill with these tools grows, you may even begin to recognize certain
themes/subjects that you are working on in art, movies or television.
Discovering meaning in life is about looking for the unexpected. It's about appreciating the world around us. We can go about our days oblivious to what is happening, or we can try to see how we are all connected, perhaps in small, but significant ways. It's about taking an active role within your
life. Consider that when someone was looking at one of Joseph Turner's paintings and then said, "I can see nothing in it," while the artist then replied, "Don't you wish you could?"
Numerology can provide powerful personal insights, but whatever particular method you primarily use, you can gain the greatest benefit by using that tool as a telescope into your soul. When you peer into your soul, are you happy with what you see? Maybe the first question that you should ask is:
"What do I want from my life?" Or: "What am I struggling for?" Both of the questions above relate to the following question: How are you bringing meaning and purpose into your life? Your answers might be very simple. They don't have to always be dramatic or life changing.
I know that I can occasionally get sidetracked by some of my own questions about life. At times, I know that I can try to shoot for the moon and try to assign some kind of deeper meaning to almost everything. Yet sometimes, as Freud might have said, a cigar really is just a cigar. Recently, I had a
chance to look at this process in myself. I was sitting in a packed auditorium listening to an author. I was getting annoyed with him as he continued to tell what I thought were dry jokes. I had come to the lecture to learn about deeper research that I had read about in his books. I wondered if he
was going to present anything new. After a while, I wasn't listening. I worried that his slide presentation was all that there was. Then the "answer" hit me. I guess I can make life as complicated as I want, but it doesn't really have to be. First, the books had the teachings. What else did I want?
Secondly, how could I learn anything if I was not listening? Sometimes the "answers" can be plain and simple, yet still powerful. Sometimes the answers are right in front of us.
Also I was recently watching "Groundhog Day" and I saw that Phil (Bill Murray) had finally learned about the simple pleasures in life. After he had repeated his day for what seemed like forever, he had finally learned to enjoy the moment. In the movie his news report kept getting more bleak, and
then instead of reporting on how we would be facing 6 more weeks of winter and how "dreary" the day was, he had come to marvel at the fact that he and the others celebrating would be able to enjoy a long and lustrous winter, with the comfort of friends. Phil had learned to find hope, rather than
existing in endless suffering. He found a way to enable and empower himself.
As this column is appearing at the end of the year, you may find it beneficial to find some private time to look back and to plan ahead. Of course, January is the 1st month of a new year. This signifies new beginnings and can be a great time to reflect and look at ways to bring more meaning into
your life. Mythically, you may wish to ponder the figure of Janus. This two faced character who can face the past and the future at the same time, may be able to provide some interesting insights into the deeper meaning of life.
Now, I think that within Numerology your Life Path Number and your Maturity Number reflect best on your search for meaning in your life. Your Life Path gives you a general outline of your calling in life. Your Maturity number shows how your Soul Number, Life Path number and other personal numbers
work together.
Your Maturity Number is a reflection of some of your best strengths. It highlights the inspirations, yearnings or dreams that generally come fully to the surface sometime in your 30's. However, you'll have to have done some work to get to know yourself, before you can fully understand its guidance.
One way to understand your Maturity number better, is to keep a journal of your strongest desires. Every year, you can go back to your journal and track your progress. Of course, as you mature, it will become easier to accomplish tasks that you thought were impossible as a youth. By keeping a
journal, you may find ways to bolster and enable your self- esteem and sense of self. By the time that you have reached your 30's, you will most likely have developed a strong personal identity and sense of your true self. This is when your Maturity number can become a most powerful tool, as it can
help you to reflect on your experiences and the path that you have been called toward. However, its full influence and potential will usually have a deeper and richer impact on your life after midlife. And, it also can be a tool by which you evaluate your relationships. Which relationships feed and
sustain the call of your Maturity number? Which do not?
Now, while the full influence of your Maturity number may require you to wait until you are older to fully understand, your Life Path generally has a stronger influence on you while you are still young. Although, you will probably only "get it" in a limited way. The influence of your Life Path
number can be diminished, if you don't begin to answer its call as a child. Recognizing it later in life may require you to work harder to transition your life and develop the qualities that it represents. It can sometimes be challenging to make major life transitions, but you can see examples of
people doing it everyday! Your Life Path number can be used as a compass. It can help to guide you in a direction that feels "right". Generally, you will feel naturally drawn to the activities that your Life Path relates to. You probably have had an interest in these particular activities for your
entire life. For instance, you may have always enjoyed reading about a particular subject. When you are on your true Life Path and following its guidance, you can also pull others into your life that are intrigued by the way in which you live your life.
These numbers have a deeply mysterious and spiritual pull. The power that they represent encompasses the talents, abilities and traits that relate to the calling of your soul. On occasion, we all tend to lose sight of our inner desires. We may push aside something that we enjoy doing, or label it as
merely a hobby. When we do push aside our inner interests, eventually we may gradually begin to lose parts of ourselves. As we mature we may begin to wonder about these missing parts of our lives. Many of us do eventually find the time to work on finding these missing parts. But for those of us who
refuse to think about any kind of soul work, personal crisis may eventually emerge. This is especially true when we avoid the pull of our inner growth and instead overly devote our lives to the material.
Now, when I want to understand what my personal numbers mean for me, I will usually do some sort of artwork around them. I'll grab a large drawing pad and begin to collect images that represent my Maturity number and paste them all to a page. It's like creating a big Tarot card. When I'm done I'll
hang it on a wall and work with the page for a few weeks or maybe even longer. From time to time, I'll create a new one. You might want to do something similar for one number or maybe all of your core numbers (Soul, Outer, Destiny, Life Path and Maturity). For me, it helps to get a glimpse of issues
that are important to me, at a certain moment in time. It brings out some of the deeper meaning in my life. Another step after viewing your images on paper, might be to act like Richard Dreyfus in Close Encounters and create a 3D sculpture, but you don't have to use potatoes! This can help you to
understand what your images mean in a more powerful way.
You may wish to create your own art imagery around your personal numbers. However, make it easier for you to start and to aid you in looking for meaning within your life, you may want to ask yourself some of the following questions:
Am I empowered?
Am I willing to explore the mystery in my life?
Am I willing to listen to my soul?
Am I able to listen to my soul?
What am I interested in?
What brings joy into my life?
Hopefully, as you begin to look at your personal numbers, you'll see that the process is really about finding the time to learn about life. It's about finding the time to explore and understand that you can have, and work toward, what your soul needs. It's about finding the deeper meaning of life.
Following the guidance and inspiration of your personal numbers can allow you to uncover the hidden meaning in your life and experience yourself in new and different ways. Your journey may not be a direct route to your ultimate goal, but following this path is about believing in yourself and
allowing yourself to appreciate the mystery of your own life.
Good luck on your journey into Soulful living and Numerology!
Copyright © 2006 Rob Ragozzine. All
Rights Reserved.
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