Stillness 8-11: I’ve been thinking a lot about the number 5 and why it has always been my favorite number. The feeling of the number five is movement, shimmer, change, expansion. It’s twinkle. It’s playful. It’s fun.
Ancient Pythagoreans and numerologists explored the energy of numbers through how they show up in nature. So, in sacred geometry, the 5 is represented by the 5-pointed star, which also has within it the shape of a spiral. The Golden Ratio, on which spirals in nature are based, expresses the harmony, beauty, and growth that exists in all of us. Artists, writers, and musicians have long understood its power to affect our feelings. When you look at a spiral, and at its mathematical and magical proportions, you see how it shows up over and over: in nautilus shells, of course, but also in flower blossoms, pine cones, cabbages, and hurricanes. And if you’ve ever explored galactic astrology, you know how your birth chart can be read and interpreted through the lens of the golden ratio that is at the heart of the structure of our galaxy.
In the tarot, simply the numbers themselves lead us playfully through a magical sequence of growth and transformation. For example, we can see how moving from the sedentary, square, stable, secure number 4 into the expansive sparkling 5 is a natural and important transformation. We can’t always be sitting on a chair with 4 legs, or stuck in a room with 4 walls. We need to stretch, to get out and move about. We need to expand our bodies, our minds, and our experiences. That’s the energy of the 5.
We need change, transformation, and growth in order to survive. We need to keep expanding, through feelings, experiences, consciousness—lived in this time and space. We are not static, no matter how much we wish things could stay the way they are. They don’t. They can’t. The energy of the number 5 fills us with longing for expansiveness into our fullest potential. It holds within it the energy of life itself.
Embrace your number 5. Don’t be afraid of change … you’re expanding and that’s always a good thing, no matter how hard it may sometimes feel.
Here’s a lovely practice for you—do something different today. Take a risk, even if it’s just a tiny one. If you have coffee every morning, try having tea instead. Call someone you haven’t reached out to in a long time. Move furniture around. Try writing a poem, especially if you’ve never written one before. Or get out your crayons and draw. Expand your psyche into something you’ve never tried. You’ll be amazed how you stimulate your nautilus 5 with lovely, surprising flecks of shimmering silver and gold. You’ll breathe more deeply, feel more harmonious, and become even more the beautiful, light-filled being you truly are.