3 Personal Year | Expression & Creativity
April 8, 2017
5 Personal Year | Unexpected Opportunities, Travel & Changes
April 22, 20174 Personal Year | Effort, Longer-Range Goals & Limitations
In numerology, we believe we experience nine-year periods of time called Personal Year Cycles.
I call knowing your Personal Year number knowing the theme to your party. You don’t want to show up at the wrong party in the wrong outfit for an entire year! (seriously . . . !)
We all feel this shift in energy, don’t we? We get restless toward the end of the year, as the New Year’s Resolution frenzy get underway.
Numerologically speaking, there’s a very real energetic transition that happens for each of us from year to year.
We feel this energy whether or not we understand numerology—or even believe in numerology. When you learn the theme to each Personal Year, you can align with the energy of the year rather than push against it. Know your theme and you’ll find that you have much more success throughout the year. Or at least you’ll be able to extract deeper meaning about why things are happening and how to make sense out of it.
Also note that there are two schools of thought regarding how to understand and experience the Personal Year.
The first school of thought and the most “popular” is that the Personal Year is a 12-month cycle that’s a calendar year. It runs from January 1 – December 31 of any given year. Also, the energy related to your Personal Year intensifies around your birthday. It also comes to a crescendo during the month of September. Numerologist’s Hans Decoz, Matthew Goodwin and many others subscribe to this way of calculating the Personal Year.
The second mode of thought is that the Personal Year runs from birthday to birthday, somewhat like a Solar Return in Astrology.
If you know my work at all, you’ll know that I’m someone who simply attempts to point out the different schools of thought and then the ball is in your court. It’s up to each of us to determine method makes the most sense to us and feels right or correct. I have clients who absolutely insist that the birthday-to-birthday approach is what feels correct for them and for their personal experience. And I have clients who feel the same regarding the calendar year approach.
It’s like anything else in life. People can get really adamant about the correct diet (keto? paleo? vegan? gluten-free? vegetarian? and on and on). In Astrology, some belief that being born on the cusp makes a huge difference, some Astrologer’s don’t believe in that at all. Who’s right?
You can go to different doctors with the same condition and get different courses of treatment. You can study Pythagorean numerology, or subscribe more to Chaldean numerology, or other modalities.
I don’t mean to belabor it, but it might surprise you how many people contact me and leave comments insisting that their particular methodology is the only right way to do it.
If you subscribe to the birthday-to-birthday way of thinking, you calculate this way: Using your birth date, add the MONTH + DAY + YEAR OF YOUR LAST BIRTHDAY
Just know that you’ll change into a new Personal Year on your BIRTHDAY, meaning that you’ll also change which Personal Year you read for your Forecast! This mode of thinking is more confusing until you wrap your brain around it. 
So I just want to be clear. It’s up to YOU to determine what school of thought feels right to you. And it’s ends up being just that: HOW IT FEELS. Sit with it. Ponder it. Feel into it.
If you feel the Personal Year runs from birthday-to-birthday, the flow of it is a bit more wonky. Meaning: On your birthday, it switches gears and might feel as if it’s more of a dramatic or abrupt shift. And you’ll experience two different Personal Year number during a calendar year.
Remember also, when you’re in a Personal Year that has the same number as your Life Path, you’ll feel double indemnity from the slings and arrows of the year—you’re going to feel all the positives doubly. This also means that you’re going to be doubly challenged with the obstacles inherent in the year’s theme.
When you experience a Personal Year that is the same as your Life Path number (or another of your core numbers), the year offers you many experiences and opportunities to bolster where you might have a weak link that needs strengthening within that particular theme. This simply might show up as more intensity or more dramatic occurrences or experiences that revolve around the key themes of your year.
Calculate the Personal Year (calendar year method)
EXAMPLE:
Take the date of birth: February 1, 1954
Use only the MONTH and DAY:
February is 2
Day is 1
Then use the CURRENT YEAR.
2017 = 2 + 0 + 1 + 7 = 10; 1 + 0 = 1
Now add the month, day, and current year together.
2 + 1 + 1 = 4
In this example, you’re experiencing a 4 Personal Year.
4 Personal Year | Effort, Longer-Range Goals & Limitations
Get ready to batten down the hatches and get serious about your future.
It’s time to work hard and sharpen your skill set. After your lighter and creative 3 Personal Year, it’s time to time to slow down, steady your pace, and become more methodical about which goals you want to focus on.
After last year, chances are you have some projects in the works that need to be tended to, nurtured, and implemented. This is a more serious year requiring hard work to set the foundation for whatever you’re working on—job, relationships, health or family.
Often the first part of a 4 Personal Year feels good in the same way committing to a deep-cleaning of your house feels good.
It’s like the feeling of satisfaction you get when you clean out the closets and donate stuff that hasn’t been used in years. Perhaps you also decide to replace the carpet and update the bathroom. Then you see how much nicer everything looks and feels and decide to reorganize the office and change the window coverings.
Oh—and now that you’ve done that, you realize you really need to get all your files into one place, color code them, and box them by year and category. And then . . . Get the picture?
Understand that often there’s a burst of energy and enthusiasm at the beginning of a 4 Personal Year and yet as the year wears on, it can start to feel rather arduous. Therefore, it’s a good idea to understand at the get-go that a slow and steady pace will get you to the finish line with more of your sanity and good humor in tact than sprinting out of the starting gate in a mad frenzy to get it all done over a weekend.
Since the energy of the number 4 is all about foundations, often you’ll find yourself building a house or moving to a new home.
Home and your sense of security can take front seat. When you’re experiencing a 4 cycle, you’ll also work with limitation in various forms. How does this show up for you? A 4 Personal Year can challenge you with health, family, and career issues having to do with limitation. What limitations are to be worked with and negotiated through? What limitations do you actually create for yourself that aren’t necessary? Don’t let this concept scare you! Think of it as “proper care and maintenance” time.
This is a time where you’ll be tempted to either over-work or under-work.
Optimally, you’ll need to forgo Happy Hour and stay a little later at the office to finish up that big report or file, complete the last part of the chapter you’re writing, or think through the way you’re wanting to systematize your project. While it may feel a bit thankless at times, you’ll reap the rewards when you accomplish your goals step-by-step. Slow and steady wins the race.
It’s a year to pay special attention to health maintenance.
You’ll have to consciously take time for self-care—plan it and prioritize it. Otherwise, burn-out is virtually guaranteed.
A 4 cycle also tests you with some old family issues bubbling to the surface needing to be resolved or dealt with differently. Get ready for that little joyride. The relief, healing, and positive outcome from this family-oriented work is more than worth the effort. All in all, you’ll glean the most satisfaction from the 4 Personal Year when you take the time to focus your longer-range vision, systematize your life in whatever way will make it much more effective in the years to come—whether that’s by focusing on work, getting your house in order, reviving your health, or healing family issues.
