After the craziness of the last few months, I’m excited for the month of August. August is the 8th month in the year, but this year being 2016 (which adds up to the number 9), it’s also the Universal month of 8, which means that the number 8 energies resonate strong this month!
The Role of Strength and the Number 8
In my studies of both tarot and numerology, I was happy to find that numerology complements the meanings of the numbered tarot cards. The Strength card in most tarot decks is number 8 in the Major Arcana, and the number 8 in numerology also embodies strength (among other things), so I thought it would be the perfect time to talk about strength and getting up after a fall. The energies of the number 8 also represent constant movement and manifestation, which is important because movement is your leverage, and manifestation is your motivation, in picking yourself up again.
If you look at the number 8 and turn it on its side, you will see that it looks like the lemniscate, or the infinity symbol. This symbol is also featured above the head of the woman taming the lion on the Strength card in the RWS deck. The symbol itself represents the never-ending cycle of movement, turning back into itself over and over again. There isn’t any end, but there are ups and downs.
The Life Path 8 is notoriously fraught with ups and downs as well, somehow more so than any of the other Life Path numbers in numerology. Consequently, those with the the Life Path 8 can be some of the most successful people in the world, many of them become millionaires or billionaires, but they can also be some of the most destitute people. Many of them have been at both sides of the spectrum at different times of their lives. The key here is that while people with the Life Path 8 often struggle more than other Life Path numbers, most of them keep moving forward, moving on, and getting back up every time they fall.
I am a Life Path 8, and extreme ups and downs has definitely been a theme in my life. When I teach my tarot courses, I like to tell my students my own personal story about how Strength manifested for me. One of my most pivotal falls happened when I was barely 19 years old. I had been hanging out with the wrong crowd. I was unhealthy, both physically and emotionally, trying to change who I was so that I could be who my “friends” wanted me to be. There was a lot of gossiping, backstabbing, and drama, and it eventually took a toll on me.
A couple of months after my 19th birthday, I was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma. In terms of where I was emotionally, I couldn’t have fallen any deeper. This was my rock bottom.
Getting Up Again and Moving Forward
The interesting thing is that after I recovered, whenever and if ever the topic of cancer comes up, I tell people that it was the best thing that could’ve happened to me. And it truly was. It’s because I had cancer at 19 years old that I turned my whole life around, started making different decisions, and became as strong as I am now. (I tell more of my experience here.)
The hardest falls are often the biggest catalyst for change. The biggest challenges often turn into the best opportunities.
It may be a cliché, but it’s also true that when you’re at rock bottom, the only place to go is up. We don’t have to be a Life Path 8 to be able to learn this lesson. The ability to get up and move on is in all of us. It’s so simple. Movement is the key.
If you’re not where you want to be, keep moving.
This is why the number 8 is also a powerful manifesting energy. If you want something, and you keep moving towards it, sooner or later you are going to have it in your hands. How do you expect to get to where you want to go, if all you do is wallow in the mud where you’d fallen? How do you expect to get what you want, if you don’t reach out for it?
It takes strength to pick ourselves up after our fall, but every time we pick ourselves up again, we get a little stronger. Every time we make a mistake, we learn something from it. So the next time you take a fall, remember that movement is strength, and remember that if you don’t like where you are, keep moving until you get to where you want to be.
