Objective Spirituality
Well, it’s that time of year – the beginning of a new one – when it feels like changes for the better may actually be possible. When it seems like there may be something we can do differently, some way we can improve things a little. Perhaps it’s just a convenient time to make promises to ourselves – New Year’s Resolution time. It doesn’t necessarily mean we’re going to change anything, does it? But what if, with no huge effort on our part other than just a little shift in our point of view, we may dramatically change practically everything for the better? What if we could give ourselves a whole new orientation that would simplify and clarify our experience of life?
My best resolution may be to leave my body (again).
Self-Created Obstacles
Most of our problems, most of the things we wish we could change for ourselves, are obstacles that we’re usually creating ourselves. We all know that already. Problems that pop up again and again and prevent us from reaching what we want or being what we’d like to be. But what might those obstacles look like if they weren’t right in front of us again, blocking our view and dictating our direction? What if we saw them from across the room? Or could look down on them, like a bird looking down from above? They probably would look like nothing much because, in truth, they usually are nothing but the constructions of our human minds.
Our human minds are very insistent mechanisms. They want us to believe everything they say is true. They want us to believe that we are our thoughts. But we’re not. We’re something else. Otherwise, how could we notice how crazy our thoughts can be? How could we say to ourselves I don’t even want to think about that and then not think about that?
You Are Not Your Thoughts
In Hinduism, there is a Sanskrit word sakshi which simply means the witness and it’s a simple idea. It’s an idea that you can assume as your own, because it’s about who you really are – apart from the demands of your rambling thoughts. Sakshi can suddenly shift your perception – your perspective – because it’s the witness that pays little or no mind to your mind. It applies no labels or judgments to what it observes. It’s the simple, pure awareness that looks upon all things with a graceful acceptance, with an objective compassion, as an intuitively analytical eye. Imagine being so cool! Now imagine it a little harder…
I had the mixed (but good) fortune of surviving multiple near-death experiences, and the first was in the classic out-of body motif. I looked down on the auto wreck and witnessed my own body, unconscious and apparently lifeless. Naturally, I suggest you avoid this scenario, but it was instructive. When I think about it now, I engage my memory, but I also engage my imagination – and you can do that, too.
Accessing the Sixth Sense
Imagine yourself outside of your body, being your pure self, unencumbered by the insistent designs and definitions of your mind. From there, you can look down on the limiting definitions your mind imposes on the huge potential of life; the power that’s so easily handed over to your old fears. From that point of view as the objective spiritual entity that you actually are, the world looks much simpler, much clearer. We experience what in Latin is called sub specie aeternitatis, the actual eternal nature of our pure self. The aspect of being that you may think of as an intuitive sixth sense and as a real, spiritual quality that we all as members of the human species possess.
When you identify yourself at that level, where your inner self and the rest of the universe are unified, the problems and obstacles of your life on Earth carry much less weight and power. For example, the guy at work who’s always in your face loses the label antagonist and is observed as simply demonstrating his need to express the demands of his own experience to anyone and everyone – not just to you. In fact, much less seems like it’s happening to you. It’s only happening for you, and because it must.
Becoming a Disembodied Spirit
With this simple change in perspective, you immediately gain a tolerant and empathetic consciousness, an acceptance of people as they are – and of the world – as it is. You are freed from personal expectations because you see them as simply part of the whole, as an inconsequential expression of the moment. This allows you to bring to each moment, and to the world, what you alone can bring to improve things as they are. You no longer have a horse in the race, because you’re watching the race from above with the objectivity of a disembodied spirit. Life becomes more easily acceptable. You can see the shape of every problem, so there’s no problem too large to be overcome.
This condition is a lot like Buddha Mind or Christ Consciousness – in which experiencing a little of either puts you in pretty good company and immediately bestows upon you a whole new definition of success.
A Tourist on Earth
You needn’t be concerned that you may become too detached from your own life or lose the passion you feel you need to inspire yourself. Your new point of view allows you to see your attachments and passions in a much truer context so you may engage them more accordingly. With the spiritual objectivity of sakshi, the size, shape and even origins of your personal obstacles become more apparent so you can see how they’ve fit into your past and how they can be dealt with more effectively as they pop up now. You engage your life as a whole – past, present and future to identify what works, what doesn’t and whom you would like to become.
Imagining that you’re up in the sky witnessing your body and mind (and everyone else’s) actually plants your feet more solidly on the ground. It empowers your actions, your effectiveness and your compassionate consciousness to show up for life with a simpler, clearer presence. Any responsibility can be met. Any obstacle can be dealt with – including those potential catastrophes that may lie just ahead of us all.
In Logion 42 of The (Gnostic) Gospel of Thomas, a rather Zen-like Jesus says, Be passersby, which could certainly stand in for the compassionate spiritual objectivity I’m suggesting – the slightly detached, fully engaged kind of tourist-on-Earth quality that can change our messy struggles into our empowering purpose.
For me, it may be summed up as a New Year’s resolution: I resolve to be a responsible, open-hearted, objective, compassionate witness of – and entirely engaged participant in – the remarkable, indescribable magic of life on this beautiful Earth.
To him who holds in his hands the Great Image (of the invisible Tao), the whole world repairs. – Tao te Ching, 35
About the Author
What Numerology Is and What It Can Reveal About You
Numerology is a discipline that interprets the meaning of the numbers associated with your birth date and your full name. To do this, it converts letters into numerical values and performs calculations that make it possible to identify key numbers. From these, it is possible to analyze specific aspects of your life, such as your personality, your tendencies, and the stages that repeat over time.
In this article, we explore what numerology is, how it works, and why it is used as a tool for self-knowledge.
Table of Contents
- What Is Numerology and What Is It Used For?
- What You Can Discover Through Numerology
- What Does a Numerology Reading Consist Of?
- Basic Principles of Numerology
- History and Evolution of Numerology
- Numerology as a Tool for Self-Knowledge
What Is Numerology and What Is It Used For?
Numerology is a system that translates your birth date and your full name into numbers with specific meanings. To do this, it assigns a numerical value to each letter and then reduces the figures until reaching simpler numbers, which are the ones that are interpreted.
Based on these results, a reading is constructed that allows you to understand how you think, what motivates you, what your strengths are, and which challenges tend to repeat throughout your life. This information offers a clear framework for observing your experiences and understanding certain personal patterns from another perspective.
In this sense, numerology is used as a tool for self-knowledge. It does not seek to predict the future or provide definitive answers, but rather to help you observe your life more clearly, recognize patterns, and make decisions more consciously.
What You Can Discover Through Numerology
A numerology reading helps you understand your life from a broader and more organized perspective. Instead of seeing your experiences as isolated events, it allows you to identify connections between your way of thinking, your decisions, and the situations that repeat over time. This helps you understand why you react in certain ways and which dynamics influence your daily life.
As you go deeper into this interpretation, you begin to recognize patterns that may previously have gone unnoticed. Numerology organizes that information and presents it clearly, allowing you to make sense of different moments in your life and better understand the processes you are going through.
- Personality and character traits: It allows you to recognize which characteristics define the way you act and respond in different situations. It also helps identify patterns that repeat in your everyday behavior.
- Life purpose and personal path: It points to the general direction of your development and the lessons that appear over time. It functions as a guide to understanding where you naturally tend to move forward.
- Relationships and compatibility: It analyzes the way you connect with other people and which dynamics tend to repeat in your relationships. This brings clarity to both personal and professional connections.
- Life cycles and key moments: It allows you to identify stages in which certain themes become more important. This helps you understand changes, decisions, and processes from a broader perspective.
- Personal challenges and lessons: It identifies difficulties that appear repeatedly and that are part of your process. Understanding them makes it easier to face them with greater clarity.
What Does a Numerology Reading Consist Of?
A numerology reading is based on the creation of a numerology chart, which is a report in which all the numbers obtained from your full name and your birth date are organized. This chart does not analyze the numbers separately, but instead integrates them to show how they relate to one another.
By observing the chart as a whole, it is possible to identify which aspects have the greatest influence on your life, how they relate to each other, and which dynamics are most active in your current moment. This makes it possible to obtain a more structured view of your personality, your motivations, and your processes.
Within this chart, there are certain numbers that function as the main axes of interpretation:
- Life number: It represents the general direction of your journey and the main lessons that appear over time. It allows you to understand the type of path you are following.
- Soul number: It is related to your inner motivations and to what gives meaning to your life on a personal level. It reflects a more intimate part of yourself that is not always visible to others.
- Personality number: It shows the image you project and how you are usually perceived in different environments. It influences the way you relate to other people.
- Destiny or expression number: It indicates your abilities, talents, and possibilities for growth. It points to the ways in which you can move forward and make the most of your resources.
- Personal year: It describes the predominant energy of the current period. It helps explain why certain themes or experiences have a stronger presence at this moment.
Basic Principles of Numerology
Numerology is based on the idea that numbers can be used as a language to interpret reality. Beyond their practical use, each number represents a specific quality that helps describe tendencies, behaviors, and ways of experiencing different situations. From this perspective, numbers become a useful tool for organizing and making sense of what happens in personal life.
This system is based on the notion that there is an order that structures both the universe and the human experience. Numerology takes this principle and applies it to the individual, using the numbers that arise from your personal data to identify patterns that are not always obvious at first glance, but that influence how certain processes unfold.
From there, numbers are interpreted within a symbolic framework that gives them meaning. Each one is associated with specific characteristics that, when analyzed together, make it possible to build a clearer understanding of different aspects of life. This approach does not seek to simplify experience, but rather to offer a structure that helps make sense of it with greater coherence and depth.
In the Numerology episode of the series The Other Side, available on Gaia, it is explored how numbers and their patterns have been used in different traditions to interpret reality and understand the human experience. Far from being presented as a form of fortune-telling, numerology is introduced as a tool for self-knowledge that allows people to identify personal tendencies, recognize patterns, and understand how certain dynamics influence the way each person lives and relates to the world.
History and Evolution of Numerology
Numerology has very ancient roots and has evolved over time through different cultural traditions. Although today it is presented as a tool for self-knowledge, its origins are linked to philosophical, spiritual, and mathematical systems that sought to explain the order of the world through numbers.
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Numerology in Ancient Civilizations
The earliest forms of numerology can be traced back to civilizations such as the Egyptian, Babylonian, and Chinese cultures, where numbers were already considered more than simple counting tools. In these contexts, they were given symbolic meaning and used to interpret natural phenomena, important decisions, and aspects of everyday life.
In many of these cultures, numbers were linked to religious and cosmological beliefs. They were thought to reflect fundamental principles of the universe and to provide access to deeper knowledge about reality and humanity’s place within it.
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Pythagoras and Modern Numerology
One of the most influential figures in the development of numerology was Pythagoras, a Greek philosopher and mathematician from the 6th century BC. His approach went beyond traditional mathematics: he considered numbers to be the foundation of all reality and believed that everything could be explained through numerical relationships.
Based on his teachings, a system was developed that connects numbers with letters and makes it possible to analyze personal aspects through a person’s name and birth date. This approach is the foundation of much of modern numerology and remains one of the most widely used methods today.
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How the Different Types of Numerology Emerged
Over time, numerology adapted to different cultural and spiritual traditions, giving rise to different systems of interpretation. Each of them developed its own rules, calculation methods, and ways of understanding the meaning of numbers according to the context in which they emerged.
Although they all share a common foundation, these systems may differ in the way they assign values to letters, interpret numbers, or apply their principles to personal analysis. This explains why there are different branches within numerology, each with its own approach.
- Kabbalistic numerology: It is based on the tradition of the Kabbalah and the interpretation of sacred texts. It uses the name as the central element for analyzing identity and life purpose.
- Chaldean numerology: It originated in ancient Babylon and focuses on the vibration of numbers more than on their mathematical value. It is considered one of the oldest and most precise forms of numerology.
- Tantric numerology: It comes from spiritual traditions of India and is related to the development of consciousness. It integrates numbers as a way of understanding the balance between body, mind, and energy.
Numerology as a Tool for Self-Knowledge
Numerology is not intended to reveal your future, but rather to help you better understand what you are already experiencing. Its value does not lie in predicting anything, but in offering you a framework from which to better interpret what you think, feel, and decide at different moments in your life.
When you analyze your numbers, you do not obtain fixed answers, but rather a clearer way of reading your own experience. You begin to recognize which dynamics repeat themselves, which aspects have the greatest influence on your decisions, and why certain stages feel like turning points. That understanding changes the way you relate to what happens to you.
This approach does not seek to simplify life or reduce it to a formula, but rather to organize the information that is already present. In doing so, it allows you to take a step back, see patterns more clearly, and avoid automatic interpretations that often generate confusion or unnecessary noise.
In this way, numerology functions as a tool for self-knowledge applicable to everyday life. It does not seek to tell you what to do or define a single path, but it does offer a structure that allows you to better understand yourself and move through your own processes with greater clarity.
