Cycles, Time, and Numerology: We've been through this before
This was originally published in late 2025 over at my Patreon. I have updated it because I was using Gemini like a crutch to structure my notes while I was recovering from a lengthy illness. This is a much more rambling post, but fuck it. It's all me.
I'm getting my attention span back, so make a sandwich and a cup of tea, and strap in. This is not short, and there will be more blog posts about this as I write them.
If you've felt like the world has become a raging dumpster fire over the last nine years, it's not you. Well, it might be you just a little bit. The world has actually always been a dumpster fire, but now we have these charming little devices in our pockets that stream 24/7 just how bad it is out there. If there's one good thing that can come from being bombarded with sensory information from a part of the internet ruled by Rahu (that would be social media), it's that we have a much better sense of the world we live in.
But, as many people have noticed over the years, there truly is an order underpinning the chaos. Numerology, like astrology and other metaphysical subjects, studies patterns in nature. Astrologers study the patterns created by the movement of planets and stars. Numerologists study the patterns created by numbers. All of it is "natural."
But, I don't want to rehash that discussion right now; let's save that for the day that all I can find in the pantry is decaf. I want to talk about observable cycles of time in metaphysics. There are two cycles that I am thinking of right this minute. The first one isn't really numerological, although it is numerologists who wrote about it for a hot minute back in the 1900s.
glances back at what I've just written: 1900s...ages 800 years
Moving right along....
Think of a defined span of time as a complete moon cycle: there is a waxing, full, and waning phase that can be divided into quarters. If you’re new here, this framework applies to various time spans: an hour, a day, a week, a month, a year—it doesn't matter. As a numerologist, I talk about this most often in terms of the personal year or personal month. I also talk about the numbers in terms of either their Tarot or planetary correspondences. You’ll see lots of that here in this blog.
Very quickly, I'm going to address something that I have seen here and there, and the people who level it seem to think they've landed some great gotcha moment: Numerology requires a modern calendar. It requires dates. It requires a Western naming convention. So yes, I am patently aware that none of this traces back to Pythagoras. It is a modern system of metaphysics, a reflection of the technological world we live in. Even if the Gregorian calendar - or any calendar, for that matter - is “artificial,” billions of people live their lives, sign contracts, celebrate births, mourn deaths, and mark all sorts of events according to it. This creates a collective agreement amongst an overwhelming majority of us on this planet. All things are energy, including the collective agreements we make as a people, and energy takes the path of least resistance. This, in turn, spawns its own sort of egregore, making these cycles worth understanding. If you don't think time has any sort of power over you, throw out your day planner. Never look at a clock again.
Armed with this information, I want you to think about moon phases. The basic moon phases are: New/Dark Moon, Waxing Moon, Full Moon, and Waning Moon. This culminates in the New Moon, and the cycle repeats. This model can be applied to any length of time when the beginning and end are known, and it is the lens through which I interpret numerological transits for my clients. Modern numerology functions on a nine-year cycle, and we will come back to that, but right now I want to look at a defined stretch of time that we are all familiar with: the century. Let's apply the "moon phase analogy" to the twenty-first century.
First, let's break down the century: the "New Moon" phase was the turn of the century, the year 2000. The "Waxing Moon" phase occurred in 2025. The "Full Moon" phase occurs in 2050. The "Waning Moon" phase occurs in 2075. Then, in the year 2100, we start this particular cycle again. H. Lewis Spencer wrote about this cycle over a hundred years ago in his book, "Self Mastery and Fate with the Cycles of Life." Numerologist and Astrologer Dusty Bunker expanded on this in her book, "Numerology and Your Future." If my ramblings interest you, consider buying either one of those books.
These points in time have terms in numerology, and they are not moon phases. This was a lens to understand them. The Waxing and Waning points are called "Action Points," and the Full Moon portion of the year is called a "Peak Point." The action points function in a manner similar to squares in astrology. The energy around these times is tense; there is a lot of push-pull and a desire to act. When these points occur in our personal transits, we might feel the desire to do something, anything. If we do nothing, if we go for a good, brisk sit instead of doing something, this energy will manifest anyway; we just won't have as much control over how that happens. In universal transits, the transits affect the planet as a whole.
We spent 2000–2024 in the “New Moon” and “Waxing Crescent” phase; a time of seeding, hidden developments, and emerging technologies. But as we leave 2025 and head into 2026, we hit the first action point as we leave the first quarter of the century behind us.
I compared this energy to a square in astrology, or a 90-degree angle between planets. This is an aspect of challenge, tension, and necessary action. Seeds planted at the start of this century must fight their way through the soil or be crushed. As a 100-year time span, the lead-up to this didn’t start yesterday. Like all transits that occur over long periods of time, we were feeling the buildup to 2025 starting around 2016. We’ll be integrating/feeling the results for the nine years after, give or take a couple of years.
This moment feels so much more volatile than other times in our lives, and that has a lot to do with another cycle that I will look at another day: the numerological 81-year cycle, or 9 x 9. This also shows up in astrology as the 84-year Uranus return cycle and in sociology as an 80-year cycle, so it is becoming well-documented in our time.
To go a little deeper, we need to look at the number vibrations which have been quietly shaping our lives since the beginning of the century. Get out your Tarot cards, kids, and if you don't have them, open another window and get thee to Google.
The High Priestess and the Number 2
The number 2 represents the earliest years of the new millennium (2000-2009). This is based on how we say things. Arithmancy or numerology is really the study of vibration; numbers are the correspondence or container that helps us to discuss these vibrations. When you understand this, the spelling of words is important, yes, but in a day-to-day context, it is not as important as the speaking of them.
In the early portion of the new millennium, we said “the year two thousand” or “two thousand five”, and so on. We were calling in 2/High Priestess energy every time we led with “two” plus whatever other number was on the end of the year being said. We utter the year much more than we did before, so we call that energy into our consciousness on a regular basis. For example, how many times do you find yourself saying, “Hey Google, how do I change my password on [insert platform here] in 2025?” We ask for the year in our queries because there is so much information online, and without that year as a qualifier, we risk getting outdated results.
In 2010, the energy began to shift subtly. While some of us were still invoking the two-vibration, saying “two thousand ten,” many of us did what most English speakers do: chop the year into two separate numbers (“twenty-ten”). At that point, we started calling in the 20/Judgment vibration plus whatever other number we were calling in that year. So, for example, in 2010, we were calling in the energy of both twenty and ten every time we spoke the year. That year, we called in energy that aligns with Judgment and The Wheel of Fortune.
The energy of the High Priestess—the guardian of the veil, the subconscious, and the power that hides beneath the surface, summoning, stirring, and growing out of view — gave way to revelatory plot-twisting energy as we passed through the 2010s and began to shift what we call in as the universal year energy by calling in the energy of 20/Judgment. We moved from “believing” to “awakening.” The energy of 2/The High Priestess will never go away because the entire millennium starts with this energy, and during this century, even if we say ”twenty,” that vibration ultimately reduces to two.
So for the last quarter-century, we have been accumulating data, secrets, and hidden tensions. The High Priestess doesn’t act; she sits back quietly, removed from the hubbub of everyday life, and directs the energy in silence. This explains why the “chaos” of the last few years has felt so visceral and sudden. 2/The High Priestess has summoned, stirred, and called forth while we weren’t looking, and then 20/Judgment has been invoked to hold our heads still, so we’re made to see. We’ve been forced to look behind the veil of our institutions, our technology, and our own minds.
The darkness within the world is being pushed out for examination, and we're getting a quick-and-dirty lesson on what things truly are. Social scientists are calling this the “extinction burst,” and it has been on full glorious display for about the last ten years, although the changes that created it actually started in the 1800s….which makes sense when you realize that the energetic cycle of a millennium will have a significantly longer lead-up period than a century.
The conflict: The action point is highly energetic. This creates a massive tension when the universal cycles lead with a two-vibration, like a dam holding back an ocean of secrets. We are currently seeing that dam break. The High Priestess is handing us the scroll of hidden wisdom, but she’s doing it through the discord of the action point, whose energy functions like a square.
Judgment (20): The Century’s First “Check-In”
While the 2 defines the millennium, the 20 (Judgment) firmly defines the era we find ourselves in. If the High Priestess is the silent intuition, Judgment is the loud, external wake-up call. Crossing this Action Point is like the universe hitting the “refresh” button on the century. The energy of 20 demands a “Come to Jesus” period of reckoning.
We are looking back, now that we are all being made aware and recoiling, especially as we realize that much of what we think of as "history" or even the stuff of the tinfoil hat brigade is either still happening or actually real. Those experiencing the extinction burst the most – those who are resisting change and clinging to the old guard of the previous 1/Sun millennium (particularly the karmic 1900s, which are still a living memory for the majority of the planet) – their behaviour ranges from embarrassingly gauche to downright oppressive. This all forces us to ask, “What have we built? Is it sustainable? Does it serve everyone or just a few?”
The Action Point Pulse: Because we are at the crisis point of the span of the century, this isn’t a gentle energy. It manifests as global ordeals: political upheavals, climate shifts, and economic fracture and restructuring. It is the Death—in the Tarot sense of irrevocable transformation—of the 20th-century mindset as the 21st century takes form and we start to see hints of how things will shift. The 2 vs. 20 Dynamic: The 2 (Priestess) wants us to go within, while the 20 (Judgment) pulls us out into the light. This is why the 2020–2030 window feels so bipolar—we are caught between isolation and introspection and radical, public transformation.
Cresting the Wave: 2025 into 2026
As we leave 2025—the literal “peak” of this tension—we are entering the separating square energy of the action point. The “crisis” has peaked, and now we begin the work of building the structures that will carry us to the 2050 peak point of the century, the “full moon” energy, if you will.
The Positive Reflection
We are finally “waking up.” The fire of Judgment is igniting the passivity and intuition of the High Priestess. This is the decade where we stop talking about change and actually enact it because the discordant energy of the old system has become unbearable. That’s the thing about action points. You can do nothing and hope this energy passes you by, but it won’t. It’ll still punch you; you’ll just have less control over how it lands.
The Negative Reflection
The action point can feel like a breakdown. Because it is like square energy, it often brings conflict. People who are unwilling to hear the trumpet of Judgment may retreat into the shadow side of the High Priestess—delusion, secrets, and a refusal to face reality. They will not allow light to penetrate within, a collective mumpsimus with a scorching case of cognitive dissonance.
How to Navigate the Residual Embers (2026-2030)
We have crested the hill, but the momentum is still high. As we move into the 10/1 Universal Year of 2026, remember that we are all pioneers in the second quarter of this century.
Trust the Intuition (2): The High Priestess is still your guide. If a system feels “wrong” or “dead,” don’t ignore that feeling.
Answer the Call (20): Judgment is asking you to step into a higher version of yourself. The collective grinding of the last several years was designed to shake apart and bring down what needs to go by the time we experience the energy of the peak point of this century, which reaches its apex in 2050.
Construct the New (10/1): Use the initiating energy of 2026 to start building the new way forward in earnest. The first quarter is over; the energy of the action point will begin to ease back over the next five years. A new normal will start to set in.
Over the last couple of years, people have been asking, “When does all this end?” 2030 looks like a better time, but I direct you to Billy Joel and his 1980s hit, “We Didn’t Start The Fire.” The dumpster fire has always been raging, but Westerners aren’t typically used to getting burned. Nations that have been living in the shadow of the Western World are chuckling and saying, “New here? First time?” We are the generation of the “First Turning.” We have survived the first action point of the 21st century. As the smoke clears from the 2025 action point, we are seeing the future landscape more clearly than ever before.