Illumination - The Eleven

Many people today are finding themselves thinking about the event of eight years ago and yet what I am most reminded of today is something that happened more then eight years ago, eight years and three days ago in fact.

On 09-08-2001, I was traveling by train from Washington, DC to New York City. I had never taken a train into NY from the south before and at one point noticed that the only buildings I could see were the World Trade Center towers. I grew up about 60 miles from New Your City in a suburb called Danbury just over the state line into Connecticut. All of our local TV was NYC stations and so the towers were a constant icon of my youth. As I sat on that train, I looked out at the towers with awe and nostalgia.

A short time after that I arrived at Penn station, boarded a subway train, and then later ascended to street level. I walked out of the subway and headed north dragging my roller-board behind me. Suddenly, an energy caught hold of me. It was as if some person placed a hand on each shoulder and tugged. So I turned toward the south and uttered, out loud, “What?”

What I saw in the distance were two nearly glowing towers staring back at me. I knew it was the World Trade Center that sought my attention and I knew they were talking to me. Yes, buildings have consciousness. Cities too. Everything does. It is the consciousness of things that keeps the atoms together. And we feel them all of the time. When you say, “I love NY,” and really feel it, that’s who you love!

So I looked at the companions of my youth and asked them, again out loud, after all, who in NY is going to think I’m weird, “What are you trying to tell me?” And then I listened. I felt their energy, but could not hear their words. My query went unanswered that day.

Yet, suffice it to say, three days later, I knew. I could make out the words even. I was able to translate the telepathic communication. “Take a good look at us, my friend, because you will never see us in person again.” Intuitively I did as I was told, yet unknowingly.

Now, despite my relationship with Wall Street (via my work) and New York (via my childhood and family), I, to this day, do not believe I knew a single person that died on 09-11-2001. And yet, on that day, and many times since, I have cried and cried at the very real loss of the two dear friends I did lose. My childhood ended on that day, as did the childhood of a tremendous number of people, of any age.

It is now eight years later and my life is completely different than it was then. In fact, it has changed multiple times. There is at least one more major change in the works and I’m sure many little ones that will build up to it, but before I go there, I want to talk about numbers.

In the digital age, numbers catch our attention, readily. Even as I write this line, I find myself glancing at the digital time display on my computer as it says 9:33 am.

So, what do these numbers mean?

Well, I am not a numerologist per se, but in writing A Fool’s Journey, I learned a great deal about numerology, at least as related to the Tarot. So lets look at a few numbers.

09-11-2001 is a 9.11.3, which totals 5. (9+1+1+2+0+0+1 = 14, 1+4 = 5)

In the Tarot, fives are filled with challenge and strife. The 5 of Cups is about sorrow, the 5 of Swords fear, the 5 of Pentacles financial hardship and infirmity. Even the 5 of Wands, the most optimistic of the fives, is still about challenge, albeit challenge that is explicitly chosen.

09-11-2001 was most certainly a five, in fact it was all of the fives of the Tarot at the same time. At the highest level of consciousness and truth, it was even a 5 of wands. Yet five was just the sum total number. The pieces were 9, 11, and 3. Nine is about completion, eleven is illumination, and three creation.

Now you might have noticed that I didn’t reduce 11 to 2. That is because 11 is a master number (a double digit). Master numbers can be thought to represent a higher evolution of the number they reduce to. Two means direction, the connection or path between two points. At eleven, the lights along the road get turned on and that which was hidden or hard to see becomes clear and apparent.

To me, 09-11-2001 was the physical manifestation of what was already in existence. It was an event that showed the whole world what was really happening, but previously out of common view. Through a completion or ending (9), the path ahead was illuminated (11) which in and of itself presented an opportunity to create (3) something different. I don’t think anyone will deny that life is very different post 09-11-2001 than it was before.

So now, let’s bring our attention back to the present or at least the very recent past. This week, we passed through 09-09-09. Now many refer to this as the 9.9.9, but to me, this isn’t exactly true. 2009 is an 11, not a 9. Nonetheless, 09-09-09 catches our attention and for this reason, it is significant.

And today is 09-11-09, which is a 9.11.11 totaling 4. As a four, we are stable, even if just for a moment. There are still endings to be had (9), and plenty to be illuminated (11.11), but for the moment, nothing will likely happen (4). No apparent movement forward. Four represents a resting place in between the linear growth of the 1..2..3 and the difficult shift of the 5.

Now, a date I am personally looking forward to is 11-11-2009, which is 11.11.11 and thus 6. Will something happen on that day to finally shed light on some of what we still don’t know? If it does, it should represent solution and progress (6). Who knows? I’ll be on the look out then and in the mean time.

And, you might find this interesting. Have you ever had a time period in your life when you seemed to catch 11:11 on the clock all of the time? For me, this comes and goes. Sometimes it is 11:11; sometimes I just seem to glance at the clock when it is 11, 22, 33, 44 or 55 minutes after the hour. When doing readings, this happens all of the time. However, for a good couple of weeks, I’ve been seeing 11:10 on the clock. “Funny,” I think to myself, “I keep missing 11:11 by one minute.”

You might laugh, but it was only a couple of minutes ago that I figured this out. I realized that my seeing 11:10 is probably because the 11.11.11 is coming and I feel it. It is the “eleventh hour” of the 11.11.11, you might say.

Many of you may have heard me talk about the Perfection of the Universe. Someday, you will see a book by that title with my name on it, I’m sure. Perfection is always present. What is right now, is the sum total of what has been. In that way, every five is chosen, is created and is perfect. Painful? Yes. Destined? No.

A client of mine once said, “Life right now is really hard, but as you say, it is what it is supposed to be.” But that is not what I am saying. 09-11-2001 was not what it was supposed to be, yet it was perfect. The sum total of humanity created 09-11-2001 and it was painful, but someday we’ll see what it brought that was beautiful. If you look, you can see plenty already. The love that poured out of everyone’s hearts the days and weeks that followed is an example.

As you remember whatever you remember today, I offer this: look for the phoenix. Look for that which rose from the ashes and soars higher today than before. Don’t deny what you feel. If there is pain left, there is pain. If there is sorrow, fear, or anger, acknowledge that, but look for the phoenix, because she is what will bring you the light, the illumination. This entire year is an 11, and it is not over yet.

“Do not fear or condemn the misuse of power; neither fear nor condemnation will save you from it.”

P. 312: XX – Judgment - A Fool’s Journey