Wondering what this numerology stuff is all about? Read about it here.
2+0+2+6 = 10 | 1+0 = 1 Year
1+5 = 6 Month
The number 6 is about healing, harmonization, responsibilities, family, and community. This chapter succeeds the 5, which is often a fast paced time of rapid change and momentum. April went by so fast that the arrival of May snuck up on me and I woke up today on May 1st scrambling to get this newsletter out to you.
This cycle brings us back to our obligations. On an individual level this looks like maintaining your responsibilities to your friends, family and peers, but on a collective level this looks like:
the moral architecture of society
collective responsibility
the strain on families and communities
emotional exhaustion
the commodification of care
the question of what a humane future actually looks like
As the 1 year initiates, the 6 month evaluates whether what is being initiated is sustainable, ethical, beautiful, or life-giving. The 6 also embodies the labor that keeps civilizations functioning. Parenting. Teaching. Nursing. Cooking. Cleaning. Emotional regulation. Community maintenance. Infrastructure. Service. The invisible architecture of care that modern societies increasingly exploit, privatize, automate, or neglect.
And that’s why it feels so symbolically fitting that a nationwide general strike is occurring on May 1st this year.
May 1st has long been associated with labor movements across the world because of the sacrifices workers made in the fight for basic human rights during the industrial era. In the late 19th century, laborers regularly worked twelve to sixteen hour days in dangerous conditions for starvation wages, including children. The movement for the eight-hour workday reached a breaking point in the United States on May 1st, 1886, when hundreds of thousands of workers went on strike nationwide. Days later, during a labor rally in Chicago’s Haymarket Square, violence broke out after a bomb was thrown at police. Workers and officers were killed, labor organizers were arrested, and several people were executed despite little evidence tying them to the bombing. The event became an international symbol of working-class struggle, sacrifice, and state repression, which is why much of the world now recognizes May 1st as International Workers’ Day. The United States, however, gradually shifted Labor Day to September, distancing it from the radical and socialist associations tied to May Day. Officially, it was framed as a less politically charged celebration of labor. Unofficially, it reflected a deeper discomfort with remembering that many of the rights workers now take for granted were won through strikes, bloodshed, imprisonment, and collective resistance.
This is why I’ve made Solidarity Forever by Pete Seeger this month’s song:
“They have taken untold millions that they never toiled to earn
But without our brain and muscle not a single wheel can turn
We can break their haughty power, gain our freedom when we learn
That the union makes us strong.”
This movement really needs to last the entirety of May rather than just one day in order to be effective, but I’m glad to see it happening at all. Everyone can do something that starves the machine, whether that be moving your money to a credit union, choosing more wisely where to spend your money, opting out of federal taxes, or calling your local apartment complex and breaking down how their rent is impossible to sustain. Overall, the lesson of this month is that the most impactful healing and growth occurs when we soften enough to perceive whats important and individuals take action towards the greater good rather than just themselves.
The question underneath all of this is simple:
What kind of world are we actually creating together?
Aside from the collective responsibility, the 6 also rules beauty and the home, making this a month where people feel a stronger urge to clean, decorate, garden, cook, create art, or restore sanctity to their living spaces. How can you make your world beautiful, and how can you give back the feeling you get from this?
If you would like insight and guidance on where you are on the 9-year cycle, sign up for my personal monthly readings here (feel free to DM me with any questions):
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