2024: Our Collective Year 8
We just released our Personal Year Guides for 2024, but what about the collective? While each of us moves into our new respective year, so too does the collective shift in tandem. With this, we find ourselves universally in a Year 8 in 2024, which we arrive at by simply adding all those digits together - 2+0+2+4=8.
What does that mean? Well, the number 8 speaks to energy, movement, momentum and reward (among other things). It corresponds to Strength (Justice in some decks) and The Star in tarot. The number 8 also makes us think of that powerful Lion’s Gate portal, the concept of infinity and the myth of Ishtar, whose symbol is the lion (Strength) and the 8-pointed star (found on The Star)…curious.
2024 By The Numbers - Navigating The Personal Year Cycle
It’s going to be 2024 before we know it, so we wanted to get ahead of the game and release our Personal Year Number information a bit early this year!
For those who have been visiting us for awhile, you’ll know it’s tradition around here to offer these free, comprehensive guides each and every year. We do this because this system has become something of a special interest for us. Ever since I (Julia) started paying attention to it in 2015, I’ve really been able to see how the themes of each year manifest themselves, which helps me to prepare and respond accordingly. It’s kind of like working with the cycles of the moon or the seasons. Once you begin to acclimate to its rhythm, you can begin to see how your own life mimics that flow, and how you can get the most out of the current you’re in.
78 Connections
At the end of April, Tim and I started a new series called 78 Connections, which I’ve been sharing on Instagram and saving to a dedicated page in this space ever since. It’s essentially an exercise that takes two cards and attempts to find as many connections between them as possible. Most of those links are of a visual nature, but inevitably we end up exploring numerical, astrological, and qabalistic similarities as well.
On the surface, this all appears rather simple and straightforward and I’m not sure that the value is immediately obvious. But what I can say is that this practice of comparing and contrasting scenes has been one of the most interesting, eye-opening, and integrative methods I’ve so far found to squeeze as much information as I can from the cards. It’s a general principle that follows us daily; if we want to really know something, to truly define it, we will benefit from examining it next to something else.
However, that wasn’t the expected outcome when this activity was born. This all began while trying to work through something that was irritating me. Inevitably if you spend enough time online, and around social media, you’re going to be exposed to a world of thought that clashes with your own. Without getting too specific, I will say that it touches a nerve when I see people putting an unnecessarily negative slant on something without having a basic understanding of its history. This is especially the case when it devolves into declarations around who can and can’t read tarot, which decks should or shouldn’t be worked with, or otherwise making dictations based on presumptions. Dogmatic attitudes, opinions presented as absolute facts, don’t settle comfortably with me regardless of the topic. But I realize that’s none of my business and partly my problem. I also don’t need to confront misinformation directly. But, what I can do is sit longer and look harder at this tool that has done so much for me and, I’m assuming if you’re here, for you as well. In doing this, I’m either going to see what they’re seeing too or reinforce what I already hold to be true, and as far as I’m concerned, either is a fair outcome.
2020 Reflections With The Emperor
2020 was a collective year 4, which we arrive at by adding the digits of the year together and reducing until we have a single one. In this case, 2+0+2+0 equals 4, which is associated with The Emperor among other things. There is much that can be said about what The Emperor meant for our year and how we could apply its lessons. I wrote a good chunk about this in my 2021 Personal Year Guide which you can still grab if you want to know more about the collective and personal energies for the coming year.
The Emperor, besides its obvious implications around building foundations, enforcing stability, creating boundaries and understanding authority - harbors another auspicious aspect, and that is its relationship to vision. The Hebrew letter associated with The Emperor is heh, which translates to window, and the physical sense associated with this key is that of sight. The year 2020 (as in, 2020 vision) may be interpreted as one where we had the opportunity, even through challenge and chaos, to see with more clarity. Yes, there were many distractions and a lot of the outside vying for our attention - but beyond this, what else were you able to glimpse? In the comfort (or discomfort) of our personal homes (houses as well as bodies) maybe we had the chance to look out and witness things about ourselves or our worlds that we haven’t noticed before.
Follow The Signs: Making Sense of Those Repeating Numbers
When I was in college, I began seeing 11s everywhere. Most commonly, I would catch the time 11:11 or 1:11. At that point in my life, I wasn’t super connected to spirituality in very obvious ways. I was 19 years old, a bit disconnected, just trying to navigate life transitions.
The numbers happened so frequently though that one day I decided to Google 11:11 and that was when I found entire communities devoted to some kind of so-called “awakening”. It was described as a “key”, “portal”, “gateway” to higher consciousness. We were undergoing a shift, a leveling up, and those sensitive to these energies would see 11:11 as a sign that they were on the right path and a reminder of their true spiritual nature.
I was intrigued. And looking back, I can say that time in my life was pivotal in a lot of ways. A crossroads even, and the decisions I made then, very much link to where I am today.
Since then, the numbers are still a part of life, and I hear many others talk about the patterns that show up for them. Now, it’s not just 11:11. It’s 2s in sequence, or 3s. Personally and lately I’ve been seeing a lot of 4s and 5s - but what does it all mean?
The High Priestess & Justice: Two Side of the Same Coin
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Full disclosure - I am of the camp that believes Justice has found it's proper place as the 11th Arcana, though I know there are many who prefer it as the 8th and I am sure there are plenty of valid reasons why that makes sense. However, I'm here to discuss one of the reasons why the latter resonates more with me, and that is because in the 11th spot, based on numerology, it vibrates in line with The High Priestess.
While on the surface, Justice and The High Priestess appear to have little in common, I actually consider these cards to be two sides of the same coin and the secret to reading the tarot. A bit of a bold claim I suppose, but stay with me and we'll get to that...before we do though, let's explore the visual similarities and differences.