Against the Waves of Grain: the United States and National Numerological Expression
by Ashley M.N.
ESSAY 2: A THEORY OF NUMERIC TENSION
Prior Essays: Introduction
If there’s one thing that I’ve learned from practicing numerology, it’s that numbers do not happen in isolation from each other. Like human beings - like matter - numbers have relationships with each other, and those relationships generate an energy of their own. In order to understand the power of numerically-expressed energy, it’s important to consider those relationships in our calculations. While I’m not sure if other practicing numerologists have a term for this - I have read the work of both Vedic and Western numerologists, though there are many others from different cultures - but the term I give it is numeric tension.
Numeric tension is the difference between two or more operant numerological forces, which then goes on to generate its own distinct phenomena. It can tell us about what’s likely to happen when those operant forces are at work, the kind of energy that influences decision-making, and the “flavor” of the struggle between those numbers. To demonstrate this, let’s talk some more about the United States.
If you’ve read the first essay in my “Against the Grain” series, then you’re familiar with the concept of National Year Numbers and Collective Year Numbers. If not, I’ll give you a quick summary: National Year Numbers point to the place a country is in within any given 9-year cycle, starting from birth. Collective Year Numbers are the sum total of the numbers in any given calendrical year. Different calendars will produce different numbers, meaning different collectives and countries are governed by different numbers. Every country officially running on the Gregorian Calendar is currently in a Collective Year 8, even if their National Year Number is something different.
Smoke and Mirrors
The United States is currently in a National Year 1, which can be a year of significant momentum, progress, trailblazing, and unification. It can also be a “go it alone” kind of year, especially if the collective has other numbers that inflate a sense of individualism. It is a bridge year for most: things proposed in the previous 9-year cycle are finally given a means to the end, and the directive power of the 1 flows directly into those projects unless there’s substantial interference. Therefore, civic watchers who have an interest in numerology may derive some benefit from tracking which things have suddenly gained a lot of support, or are closer to completion than anything else.
Collective Year 8, meanwhile is a year that we’ve all come to discover is a “fuck around and find out” year. More charitably, it is a year in which we are often confronted with the choices we’ve made as a collective. It is also a year in which ethics, morality and justice are highly thematic. Our alignment with the values we claim to have is often directly tested or, in a number of cases, revealed to those around us as our circumstances begin to reflect them. It can be a time of reckoning before the energy of Collective Year 9 comes and sweeps, shifts, and breaks.
Yet despite these two numbers independently being clarifying forces in most cases, this has been a year in which people have been confronted with a lot of dishonesty and cognitive dissonance. True, things are being revealed - both numbers can and do support this. But if you’ve gotten the sense that there’s more hidden than open, or that things are not as they appear to be, it’s not coincidental. The numerology can help you to understand why.
Doing the Math
As to which number takes precedence, I argue that the Collective Year must be considered first. Think of the Gregorian-influenced Collective Year being a big umbrella beneath many countries are gathered. They may collaborate while it rains, bicker over space beneath the umbrella, or try to expand the umbrella’s reach, but they’re all under there. In numerological calculations where we’re trying to assess numeric tension between eras, then, the Collective Year must be entered first. Calculating numeric tension is a heavy exercise in context.
So if we want to look at what kind of numeric tension the United States is experiencing, we’ll run a formula like this:
Numeric Tension = Collective Year - National Year
Numeric Tension = (current y + y + y + y) - [(natal m + m) + (natal d + d) + (current y + y + y + y)]
Numeric Tension = (2 + 2 + 4) - [(7) + (4) + (2 + 2 + 4)]
Numeric Tension = (8) - [(7) + (4) + (8)]
Numeric Tension = (8) - (19)
Numeric Tension = (8) - (1 + 9)
Numeric Tension = (8) - (1)*
Numeric Tension = 7
I know: 1 plus 9 does not, technically, equal one. However, the decision to either simplify to a 1 or hold the 10 is a highly philosophical one, and it does lead to different results and considerations. For the purposes of numerological discourse here, I’ll be keeping it simple and reducing down to 1. But know that there’s much to be gleaned from exploring what a Numeric Tension -2 would look, feel, and act like. And there’s some similarities between NT -2 and NT 7 that may be revealed, besides.
Adding It All Up
As a general numerological expression, 7 is a number that is considered tricksy, slippery, and elusive. It is a number associated with the scenic route of any journey, including spiritual journeys - it’s the number that can lead you to the deepest part of yourself, although be careful: it’s just as likely to lead towards illusion, dead-ends, cul-de-sacs and ego. 7 is the number of transmutation and some forms of transformation, too. It can lead to intense investigations, but also spying and surveillance. It can lead to boundaries blurred and crossed, too. And perhaps most famously, 7 is the number associated with not only luck, but turns of luck.
But also, sevens can point to unfairness. Trickery. Lying. Theft. And getting away with stuff, too.
To have a Numeric Tension 7 anywhere in a chart can indicate that when two operant numerological forces are at work, the person, collective, or polity subject to it may be inclined do to any of the following:
Initiate journeys, trips and quests, especially quests for truth
Evade or delay
Focus on imagination, rather than facts
Place undue focus on what “can” be rather than what “is”
Prioritize creative expression
Obscure, or blur (double-speak and coded messages happen here)
Cheat, steal or lie, including by omission
Initiate, further or deepen investigations
Initiate, further or shift investments
Construct smokescreens
Practice mirroring, especially to hide true motives
In most cases on a collective level, Collective Year 8 is a pressure year. Remember: ethics, morality, and the law become huge themes during any period marked by an 8, including single numerological days. Because eights tend to promote the revision, review and renegotiation of contracts and agreements, any period marked by an 8 will generally prompt that. The US election is not the only reason why there was extensive conversation about the moral fabric of the country. As far as the numbers go, our collective circumstances have obliged it.
So what Numeric Tension 7 is doing - in a year where we’re forced to assess what we truly value and are under pressure to initiate action or take direction - is inducing a sense of…slipperiness. And what we have begun to see is that when people experience pressure between the values they perform and the values that they actually have, it’s the values actually held that tend to win out. But due to that 7? If there’s too great a difference between performed and internal values, people are inclined to act on those out of public view, away from the pressure and scrutiny generated by the 8. And also, away from those in whom Numeric Tension 7 has prompted the desire to investigate others.
I will also note that 7 can be a very a dreamy number; there are and will be plenty of people in the country for whom it’ll be much easier to bypass the struggle, put Lennon’s “Imagine” on repeat and shut out what they can. You may encounter rhetoric in the key of “it’s okay to disagree and be friends” coming from those for whom the pressure of the 8 is way too strong. Given what tends to come of 8’s grinding gears and the 9 that follows, however, I will put forth that this is a maladaptive strategy for dealing with our circumstances. Unfortunately, 8 calls for some rigor, even if rigor is funneled into changing who you support and how. 9 can be unrelentingly punishing for those who fail to respond adequately to what 8 placed in front of them as an imperative.
Closing Thoughts
Numeric tension can be used to assess things beyond national politics and statecraft. I regularly factor numeric tension into my natal and transitory numerological charts for others. Numeric tension can also help us understand the kind of story being played out between people, collectives, even families. I intend to write more about numeric tension because they contain so much data that would otherwise fall between the cracks. And it shouldn’t. We need clarity, like always, when moving forward. We don’t have to wait until something significant like a crisis or an election to get it.
