You know how people ask, “Is Mercury in retrograde?” when everything seems to be going wrong? Funny thing about that is I was actually born during a Mercury retrograde and my theory is that when it happens, it doesn’t affect me the same way because I came into existence during it (or perhaps I really am a chaos variable and that explains it?). It did go retrograde again on June 29th, but things seem to have been haywire for me for at least a couple months now.

Anyway, when everything is going wrong for me, I usually can’t blame it on the movement of a planet.

I really thought 2026 was going to be an amazing year because of the way I felt coming into it. So after feeling like I’m definitely going through a, “when it rains it pours” phase, it popped in my head to take a peek at numerology again.

Now I know, plenty of folks would say that not just the whole Mercury retrograde thing but definitely something like numerology is hogwash (right up there with astrology, etc.) but it’s one of those things that I find myself oddly drawn to, especially in the last year or so.

It’s natural human nature to explore theories and try to come up with explanations on why things happen and I’m still a firm believer in the universe being full of mystery and surprises. Not one of us has it “all figured out”. I don’t care if you’re the most brilliant brain on the planet, there is still a lot of unexplained things out there. And when most people say they have it figured out, they’re mostly running on belief or faith and not always “hard facts”.

Anyway, in numerology, the concept of the 9-year cycle is built on the idea that human life moves in natural, predictable waves, much like the changing of the seasons. What I’ve been reading is Pythagorean numerology (which traces back to the Greek philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras in the 6th century BCE.).

Pythagoras believed that the universe was built on the vibration of numbers and that everything in existence could be expressed in numerical terms. Honestly don’t think he’s wrong there as I’ve seen enough weird number stuff over the years to buy that there’s something more to math than meets the eye. So he was all into viewing the numbers 1 through 9 as the fundamental building blocks of all life… basically a complete archetypal journey from birth (1) to completion (9).

Over the centuries, these mystical mathematics evolved into the 9-year cycle system used today in Pythagorean numerology.

So each year can be boiled down to 1 though 9 by adding up the numbers in the year. 2026 = 2 + 2 + 6 = 10 or 1 (you ditch the zero).

And then each year you also have a personal year number by adding all the numbers in your birth date to get to a single digit and then the numbers of the year to get to a single digit. So for me, this year is actually a 9.

I do find it odd that I seemed to sense the “new beginning” energy of 2026, but looking back on the year so far, since my birthday in March and finding out about the whole personal year thing, a lot of things seem to match up with that 9 year energy.

1 years are new beginnings, fresh starts, major changes, independence, and planting seeds for the future.

2 years are cooperation and patience, focusing on relationships, balance, teamwork, and waiting for things to develop.

3 years are socializing and creativity and great for communication, travel, and self-expression.

4 years are hard work and foundations, putting your nose to the grindstone, building structure, organizing, and creating stability.

5 years are change and freedom, an unpredictable year filled with pivots, new opportunities, freedom, and adventure.

6 years are responsibility and family, focus on home, family obligations, community, relationships, and self-care.

7 years are reflection and knowledge, a deeply internal, spiritual, or intellectual year meant for rest, learning, and self-analysis.

8 years are manifestation and power with a focus on business, finances, personal power, and seeing the results of past efforts.

9 years are completion and letting go … the final year of the cycle, a time for clearing out what no longer serves you, wrapping up loose ends, and preparing for a new cycle.

Side note – Mario died in a 5 year (and that was certainly a “pivot” and “adventure”…) and oddly in the 5 years since I’ve kind of followed the general theme of the years (again, without knowledge of this at the time, so just looking back now).

And since I’m in a 9 personal year, I’m naturally looking back over the last 9 years. 2017 was the 1 year but my last personal 9 year. I don’t think much got “resolved” in 2017 for me. It was a pretty rotten year all around. There was a massive amount of stress surrounding the purchase and subsequent remodeling of our rental house, I got in a car accident that took about 16 weeks to fully recover from, found out my aunt died (no one told me or my mom until long after the fact), and my kitty of 19 years died. It was like the whole 9 year cycle kind of started on a wonky, unsettling foot.

That’s not to say good things didn’t happen, as they always do, but it is interesting to look back in hindsight. Even if something seems a little “woo woo”, if it guides you to helpful information or insight, it’s worthwhile to me. So starting from there, I had some massive grief hits over this last cycle … Mario, my dad, another cat and almost lost my mom last summer.

And the thing that really stands out to me is that on no occasion did I really have a chance to just process the grief and do nothing else. Honestly though, who does in modern times? We’re expected to carry on and do all the things no matter what emotional gut punches we endure. There are always to-do lists and work and other personal obligations.

Grief especially has been resurfacing for me as I realize there are still old feelings to process. And if you’re following along with the numbers stuff, a personal year of 9 seems to be the perfect time to process and bring closure to emotions like that. Life can’t stop and wait for me to do that though, so I have to get creative. Luckily, creativity is my whole bag so it’s something I’m good at. So I’ll have to see what I come up with there.

Over the last couple months, mostly due to the on-going kitty health crisis saga, I’ve also become painfully aware of other things that aren’t working on a personal front and a professional front. So I’m working on those things too. Could numerology have something to do with it? Who knows, but at the very least, it was the catalyst for me making some deeper observations on my life and making positive changes.