Hopeful Thinking - Saturday, April 1, 2023 - Texting With the Universe

Despite my ironic lack of interest in mathematics itself, I am riveted by the subject of numbers. I suppose, if I had to describe my relationship with them in words, the closest I could come would be “intercom with God.”

Numbers to me have meaning and symbolism, and probably even vibration. Numbers are concrete solid things that have the capacity to describe entirely fluid and conceptual ideas. There are very few things in our world that can sit astride those two realities. 

Cultures through history have devised myriad layers of value that correspond with all sorts of numbers, whether single digit or multiple. These various disciplines are referred to as numerology. Some numerological traditions are incredibly complex, requiring various forms of mathematics. Some are elegant and simple.

I find simple numerology to be a comforting little practice. There are many variations to even the simplest forms of it, culture to culture. And numbers mean different things to different people even within those traditions. So the ones you use are the ones you’re taught.

In my own preferred numerology, the numbers one through nine each have value. And while it’s a bit oversimplified here, the meanings I use are basically this: the number one symbolizes independence/individuality, two: partnership/communication, three: magic/mystery, four: solidity/rules, five: freedom/change, six: love, seven: higher power, eight: eternity, nine: completion/revision.

When I’m wondering about big questions, or using a superstition to comfort myself about making a decision, or facing a hurdle to come, I take notice of the numbers around me and allow them speak to me like fortune cookies whose pre-written message just happened to end up in my takeout bag. 

I then let my intuition and imagination drive the experience and see where my eye lands. Sometimes I count the trees to see what the forest would like me to think about that day. I take comfort in the numbers of my house.

Is it all superstition? What if it is? Does that change our ability to make use of it? Isn’t a “lucky rabbit's foot” carried as a prayer for good fortune? Are all prayers heard or not? 

So that leads me to believe that if God is both listening and speaking to me, It’s doing so through whatever method works best for me. I know some people look for signs in butterflies, does that mean they don’t find them? Is it possible that God has preferred languages too? I don’t see how that’s possible when we all express and receive information in vastly different ways. It seems more spiritually logical to me that an all-knowing Benevolence would bend Its ear to our level rather than require us to make the linguistic leap ourselves.

My point is that I think whatever inner mechanism it is through which we have the innate capacity to communicate directly with the Divine occurs on a level that’s far deeper than the counting of numbers, or the looking for shapes in tea leaves. The tea leaves aren’t the thing that’s doing the talking. It’s the innate connection we have with the Divine through which all communication occurs. So it’s not the numbers themselves which matter, other than the fact that we’ve chosen them as our method. It’s what the numbers activate inside us that matters. And each person can have their own numerological understandings, their own symbolic meanings, etc. They can pick whatever “language“ they would like when deciding to communicate with the divine. Feel free to invent one.

Think of it as everyone utilizing the same central computer, but with modified keyboards, one for each culture, language, and country. The computer hasn’t changed, just the method by which various end-users, according to their own symbolic languages, have developed their own tool through which they can communicate with It.

Whatever method works for you is automatically the best method. Because it’s the one that connects you best to that innate part of your being that’s actually maintaining the channel. It’s the “keyboard” you have chosen to speak with the Mainframe. And that Mainframe is thus able to communicate more easily back. 

A language has been chosen. Now, like learning all new languages that may not be our first, we need to work on and continue to refine our vocabulary, and more importantly, refine the use of our intuition through which that real communication occurs.

Pick a language. Let God talk to you through it. There is a peace in this. Make a blessed use of it.