As our year draws to a close, it can be helpful to reflect on the cycles of life. Our life repeatedly moves through these energy influences. These growth cycles can begin each year, each month and each project.

Numerology offers a picture of how life evolves and expresses itself in cycles of 9. Below are descriptions of these 9 stages using a simple metaphor of how nature and a seed evolves:

1. New beginnings, creative impulse – the seed is planted.
2. Teamwork and cooperation – the seed needs support from others and the environment.
3. Tentative expression and careful growth – the young vulnerable plant sprouts through the soil.
4. Review, regrouping, structure, consolidation – the roots grow to provide stability.
5. Opportunity, options, freedom, change – the plant grows and flowers.
6. Generosity, abundance, duty, family – the plant bears fruit and offers its bounty to others.
7. Understanding, synthesis, gratitude – appreciation for the process.
8. Reward for the effort of the previous 7 cycles – the harvest is complete.
9. Completion and release, as the one cycle ends and we await new energy – seeds are released to start a new cycle.

Can you identify the stages of the growth cycles for your current activities?
How might you block the natural creation cycles in your life?
What seeds are you planting in your mind for the new year?

“The need of expansion is as genuine an instinct in man as the need in a plant for the light, or the need in man himself for going upright. The love of liberty is simply the instinct in man for expansion.”
-- Matthew Arnold

“Don’t drag your bad habits into the New Year. You don’t have to carry them with you. Leave behind all useless thoughts, past sorrows and bad habits. See life anew.”
-- Paramahansa Yoganananda

Resources
Human Life Cycles - Work with your cycles, not against them.

A Reminder
Quarterly/Yearly Re-Treat Yourself Process – Book time now for your precious solitude to relax and reconnect with the past year and with your big picture for 2008.