One a day...

Yesterday as my appointment ended with my herbal/qigong/meditation practitioner, she stated that 2025 is a Nine year.

My eyes lit up.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

She answered, "When the digits are added up, they equal nine. Nine is the completion of a cycle bringing in a new cycle the following year."

"Wow. I just wrote a blog piece about the number nine," I responded.

We both discussed our love and fascination with the number nine.

I then opened my journal and showed her my recent reduction calculations of the first day and last day of each month through the years 2023 and 2024. 

I'd handwritten them in columns; it was easy to see the patterns from month to month and year to year.

When each month or day reduces to 9, the pattern begins again at 1.

This all started for me on June 24th.

I wrote the date at the top of my journal entry: 06/24/24. 

The number 24 equals 6 when reduced by adding the two digits: 2 + 4 = 6.

6/24/24 became 666, which caught my attention and made me laugh.

Thereafter, I started adding the digits every time I dated a journal entry.

And a pattern emerged. 

A few months later, I learned that I was calculating using the Pythagorean theory of reduction. 

(I write more about the process here: Mighty Fine Number Nine...)

~*~

I typically don't make New Year's resolutions. 

However, I do typically think in terms of a theme for the year. 

Sometimes I'll remember the theme through the year; sometimes not so much, until something happens that brings the theme back to consciousness.

A few days ago, I thought, "I want to be ordinary." 

I chuckled, "That'd be a good goal and theme for the year -- to be ordinary." 

But there is a twist...

My "ordinary" is in the context of all the ordinary miracles that surround us every day...

From sunrise to sunrise and all that happens in between...

Life itself is an ordinary miracle...

As far as scientists can supposedly calculate, one human body contains 36 trillion cells...

That's pretty miraculous...

~*~

Currently, as I endeavor to grow/transform/alchemize my morning-wake-up-to-another-day-of-struggle dread into wake-up-to-another-day-of-mystery gratitude, I've set an intention to note and be aware of at least one spontaneity or serendipity each 24-hour period and to write it in my journal at the end of each day.

So, for yesterday, the unsolicited (and thus spontaneous) subject of 2025 being a Nine year was added to my serendipity list, and it prompted me to look up that subject today.

I landed on a website about Numerology.

From what I read: "The foundation of Numerology is the single digits 1-9..."

The practice uses the reduction method with which I have become so intrigued.

I did not know that; maybe I'm a closet Numerologist. 

I know little about Astrology and even less about Numerology.

Do I believe either influences our lives? 

I'm open to the idea, but I can't say I believe it as an absolute truth, can I?

~*~

Another major serendipity this week happened Sunday evening...

Two bucks in the back yard battled for their territory...

They fought and one ran away...

Then he ran back and fought again until he submitted, again running away...

Another wild-kingdom moment in our backyard...

The serendipity?

A real-life, real-time example of an observation from a film I watched last week, Things Hidden: The Life and Legacy of René Girard. 

In the film, Girard shares one difference between humans and animals.

Animals (typically?) do not fight to the death with their opponent (within their own species, I assume).

One animal always gives up before death, granting dominance to his competition.

Humans, on the other hand, will kill their own species to conquer a given territory or to win a desired outcome.

~*~

So, Carol, be aware of... 

The "spontaneities," the "serendipities"...

The "ordinaries," the "miracles"...

One a day...

I guess it is a goal and a theme...

But would I call it a "resolution?"... 

~*~

Sarah McLachlan with Ordinary Miracle...

~*~

In looking up the etymology of resolution, I discover another serendipity: "a process of reducing things into simpler forms."  

Brings to mind the reduction of numbers. Ha. 

Source: The Etymology of “Resolution":

"To loosen, release, explain"...

"A breaking into parts"...

"Resolution’s earliest 14th century definition drew from its direct Latin source resolutionem (perhaps via the Old French resolution), which meant 'a process of reducing things into simpler forms,' drawing from the notion of resolvere as a word for 'loosen' or 'untie.'"

"The phrase "New Year's resolution" was first used in 1780 (or perhaps earlier)..."

~*~

Mighty Fine Number Nine...

06/24/24... 

I wrote the date into my journal...

Oh wow. That equals 666. 

Ha. I wonder if others notice that. 

Surely some do. 

Thereafter, I habitually began adding up the month + day + year for each date.

As I tallied the days in my journal, a pattern emerged.

When I add together 6 + 6 + 6 (derived from 06/24/24), the sum equals 18; 8 + 1 = 9. 

Once a day reaches the reduction sum of 9, the pattern begins again the next day with the reduction sum of 1.

The next day after 6/24/24 is 06/25/24 = 6 + 7 + 6 = 19; 1 + 9 = 10; 1 + 0 = 1; a sum of 1.

This continues -- each reduction sum of the following day increases by 1 until it reaches 9 and then starts over again with 1. 

There is also a pattern that appears from the first day of a month to the first day of the following month, and there is a year-to-year pattern. 

I have not yet found a pattern from the last day of a month to the last day of subsequent months. 

"Huh?" a reader might ask. 

Here's an example of the monthly pattern: 

1/01/23 = 7. 

2/01/23 = 8. 

3/01/23 = 9.

4/01/23 = 1.

And the pattern continues until we reach a sum of 9 (again), and the pattern starts over with 1.

Here's an example of the yearly pattern:

1/01/23 = 7.

1/01/24 = 8.

1/01/25 = 9.

1/01/26 = 10 = 1. 

And the pattern continues until we reach a sum of 9 (again), and the pattern starts over with 1.

~*~

One morning a few months after discovering these patterns, I was listening to a guided mediation that uses Solfeggio sounds. 

Curious, I looked up Solfeggio frequencies and came across an article about their possible origin/discovery. 

The article mentioned the Pythagorean theory of reduction. My soul lit up! 

Oh! There's a name for this [this reduction of numbers]! All the way back to Pythagoras!

(I'm a mathematician and didn't know it. Ha.)

I've been intrigued with the numeral 9 for decades.

I enjoy playing Sudoku, usually based on the number 9.

But what I really like is the practice of "nine overs," also called "casting out nines," which is an old-school method for checking addition. 

And I discovered casting out nines provides a short cut to the reduction method I was using for dates. 

Example: 

7/17/24. I can add it up long hand (so to speak), such as 7 + 17 + 24 = 48 = 12 = 3. 

7/17/24. I can add it up short hand (so to speak), such as 7 + 8 + 6 = 21 = 3.

7/17/24. I can cast out nines. 7 + 2 = 9. That leaves 7 + 1 + 4 = 12 = 3.

What difference does it make, Carol?

None. "Difference" is a result in subtraction, not addition. Haha.

But seriously, what difference does it make?

What is the point?

Why does there have to be a point, other than I enjoy it?

Ha, maybe that is the point.

Yet, the myth part of me wants to believe there's more to it.

For one, patterns are all around us.

I've read we are pattern-seeking creatures.

Maybe all creatures seek patterns. 

~*~

I also tried the above with full dates, such as...

7/17/2024 = 41 = 5.

7/18/2024 = 52 = 6.

Though the sum is different (obviously by 2 because of the extra "20" which, when reduced, equals 2), the pattern continues.

~*~

Here's an example of using "nine overs" to check addition...

I chose the addends at random...

      712 = 1

+   634 = 4

+ 8216 = 8 

               4

                 

9562 = 13 = 4

First you add up the three numbers which equal 9562.

Next, with each addend, add together (horizontally) any digits that come to the sum of 9 and cross them out.

Next, with each addend, add together (horizontally) the rest of the digits that are left after the 9s have been cast out; add again if necessary, until the sum is reduced to one digit. 

Then add up vertically those sums and reduce their sum to one digit, or, as a short cut, cross out any digits that when added together equal 9. [The short cut is in the example: 8 + 1 = 9, so those two digits (8 and 1) are cast out.]

Go through the same process for the original sum (9562): add together (horizontally) any digits that come to the sum of 9 and cross them out, and then add together (horizontally) the rest of the digits that are left after the 9s have been cast out; add again if necessary, until the sum is reduced to one digit. 

If you have added correctly, the reduction sums will be the same (as shown in the example above where both reduction sums equal 4).

Walaa! Addition is checked. 

Ain't that cool!?!?

But it's not foolproof; if numbers are accidentally inverted, it doesn't work. 

Such as, if I accidentally wrote 9526 instead of the correct sum 9562, the reduction would still equal 4. But 9526 is incorrect. Thus, not foolproof.

~*~

NUMBEROCK with Skip Counting by Nine Song

 ~*~

    

I also thought of The Beatles song, Revolution 9 from The White Album which I owned as a teenager.

Here's some tidbits about the significance of The Beatles and the number 9: The Beatles and the story behind Number 9.

 ~*~

"Is There an Architect?"

I received this song from a friend via email recently...

It tied into what I've been pondering about the year ahead...

It might be a good theme song for me...

I cannot deny my doubt...

That said, I am open to Trust...

And practice It daily...

Though I may always be in the agnostic camp...

I still seek beyond its perimeter...

And part of me answers...

There must be an architect...

Kacey Musgraves with The Architect...

Lyrics, by Kacey Musgraves:

Even something as small as an apple

It's simple and somehow complex

Sweet and divine, the perfect design

Can I speak to the architect?

And there's a canyon that cuts through the desert

Did it get there because of a flood?

Was it devised, or were you surprised

When you saw how grand it was?

Was it thought out at all, or just paint on a wall?

Is there anything that you regret?

I don't understand, are there blueprints or plans?

Can I speak to the architect?

Sometimes I look in the mirror

And wish I could make a request

Could I pray it away? Am I shapeable clay?

Or is this as good as it gets?

One day, you're on top of the mountain

So high that you'll never come down

Then the wind at your back carries ember and ash

Then it burns your whole house to the ground

Is it thought out at all, or just paint on a wall?

Is there anything that you regret?

I don't understand, are there blueprints or plans?

Can I speak to the architect?

I thought that I was too broken

And maybe too hard to love

I was in a weird place, then I saw the right face

And the stars and the planets lined up

Does it happen by chance? Is it all happenstance?

Do we have any say in this mess?

Is too late to make some more space?

Can I speak to the architect?

This life that we make, is it random or fate?

Can I speak to the architect?

Is there an architect?