What is Karma? : Karma is the belief that one reaps what one sows. In esoteric literature, karma is thought of as the universal law of cause and effect, which is played out over many cycles of rebirth, and so the playing out of karma can take place over many lifetimes. Obviously, this belief system subscribes to the notion of reincarnation: The soul of an individual is reborn, again and again, into different physical bodies, and karma is worked out through each incarnation. In addition, there is both good karma and bad karma. Karma is a term used to designate thoughts or actions of the past which show up in the present and require retribution, or, to put it colloquially, “payback time”. The idea is that all life is connected and so, what you do, say, and think will eventually come home to roost.
The word karma is similar to saying: “What goes around comes around.” Basically, both mean the same thing: that there is some labor of the soul that has to be righted. Karma is a belief that says, quite simply, each of us is responsible for our actions and thoughts. Karmic Debt : First, we want to introduce to the idea of karmic debt. Karma debt is a kind of a debt people accumulates, whether it’s a debt of abuse of love or of power. Similarly, numbers 13, 14, 16, and 19 (karmic debt numbers) are about selfishness in love, power, work, or freedom in past lives, and indicate a total disregard for others, for consequences, or moral concern. T
he idea is that if you were self-serving and lazy, or cruel, irresponsible, or greedy in the past life, now, in this lifetime, is your chance to set the record straight. The number 10 is a different story. It is not a karmic debt number, but it is a karmic number. We will explain the number 10 in a minute. Each of the metaphysical sciences have a unique way of identifying your karmic responsibility. Note that the karmic debt numbers are 13, 14, 16 and 19, and the number 10 is a good karma number. In this chapter we’re concentrating on two karmic indicators in Chinese Numerology: karmic lessons and karmic numbers. Karmic Lessons : Karmic lessons are indicated by the numbers missing in your birth name. When a number and its vibration are absent from your birth name, it’s an indication of an energy that you haven’t experienced in a previous life, and so is a vibration missing in your energy field at birth. In this life, you are given the opportunity to experience this energy.
Nonetheless, the missing number or vibration will show up in your life over and over again, until you finally master the energy of that number. Your karmic lessons by the Numbers : Your karmic lesson number or numbers identify the specific action, thought, or understanding you’ll want to pay attention to in this lifetime. You can think of karmic lessons as a way to learn what’s out of balance in your vibrational pattern or your makeup: Once you know what number or numbers are missing from your name, you’ll know what to work on. It’s kind of a neat system for brining balance to your life. But just think, you might get it together this time! When we make the effort, life flows. Meeting your lessons – not again : To find your karmic lesson number(s), find the missing number(s) in your birth name.
Note that you can have more than one number missing, and in some cases, there might be as many as five numbers missing. The fact that you’re missing numbers in your name means it will be necessary to use these numbers’ specific energies to deal with the situations life brings you this time.
Rule : To find your karmic lesson(s), look for the missing numbers in your birth name. The important thing to remember is that missing numbers represent vibrations missing in your overall essence, kind of like a part of yourself you would want to reclaim so that you might be whole. Finding the missing numbers in your birth name requires that you lay out your birth name, assign the appropriate numbers to the letters in your name, and then determine which number(s) are missing. You’re looking, of course, for numbers 1 through 9 only _ no letter will have a number higher than that. We look to see effect which numbers are missing. We will take example of some numbers: The 3: Learning to say what is true for him emotionally. The 4: Learning to be practical, reliable, and disciplined without becoming controlling, rigid, or stubborn. The 7: Learning to look within for wisdom and truth.
Getting it Right This Time : Remember, these are karmic lessons, so it’s implied that you’ll be working on your karma with other people in the picture, very likely karmic souls from another life. Karmic Debt Numbers : The second karmic aspect we look for in numerology is the presence of karmic debt numbers in a chart. These numbers will show up as your birthday number or destiny number, it’s a signal that you’re working with issues from the past. The number itself will tell the nature of the issue you are facing. Finding karmic Debt Numbers : We described in this chapter, “Learning to Read Between the Numbers,”.
It’s precisely this process you’ll want to check again to see if that final total included any karmic debt numbers (13. 14, 16, and 19) before you reduced them to 4, 5, 7, or1. Got it? Look to see if you have karmic debt numbers hidden in your birth date, or if you have a karmic destiny Number. Remember, a karmic debt is owned because of something that occurred in a past life where there was misuse of power or love _ and now its payback time. In other words, some action you took in a past life is now requiring you to set matters right. Payback Time : Chances are you’re already familiar with this concept, whether because the same people keep showing up, or the same situations keep repeating themselves.
Either way, it’s clear you’re meant to be learning something. The karmic debt numbers 13, 14, 16, and 19, are defined like this: The number 1 in each number signifies selfish abuse of the number that follows. The number following the 1 indicates the arena in which the selfishness was played out: The number 3 in 13: creativity energy and joyfulness turn into frivolity and superficiality. The number 4 in 14: discipline, hard work, accountability, and stability turn into rebelliousness and indulgence, all in an effort to escape what’s required.
The number 6 in 16: love and commitment have been forsaken. The number 9 in 19: wisdom, spiritual knowledge, and power have been used for personal gain. We write these numbers as 13/4, 14/5, 16/7, and 19/1, because the reduced number or the base number tells where the debt lies and what the remedy is for releasing the debt. We’ll discuss each of these in depth in next pages. The Burdens of Karma : One thing to keep in mind with these karmic numbers is that it’s believed that anyone with one of these numbers has taken on an additional burden in order to learn the necessary lesson. T
his burden is the karmic debt. These four karmic numbers take on great significance if found in the numbers of the
- Personal Year
- Destiny
- Birthday Number
- The Wheel of Fortune
Let’s take a look at a karmic number that’s not often listed with the karmic debt numbers because it has a different sort of karma good karma and is not really about a debt yet to be paid. The number 10 means karmic completion, and is the number of rebirth. It suggests that the karmic debt has been paid and now the person is free to begin again, free from past debt. Look to see if this number shows up in your chart. Remember, a 10 might be reduced to a 1 (1+0), so be sure to look at your 1s to see if any of them might actually be a 10/1. No matter where the 10 is found in a chart, it refers to a kind of destiny. This means you’ll encounter situations.
The 10 gives you the opportunity to stand on your own and to use all of the positive traits of numbers 1 through 9. In addition, the 10 usually indicates there has been a past misuse of personal power, and that you’re now called to use courage, independence, and leadership to bring about the destined rebirth. It’s time when your life needs to link up with the universal. The 10 is considered a fortunate number and holds the promise of victory in difficult situations. This rebirth has been a long time coming. Go forth with courage! Number 13: All Work and No Play : While the number 13 is usually associated with bad luck, when it appears as a karmic debt number, it’s not about luck. Instead, expect Hard in all areas of your life.
In fact, the 13 is one of the most misunderstood numbers of all. The purpose and goal of this vibration is to bring a spiritual consciousness into matters of expression and to develop discipline. For example, when you “tell to like it is,” you will have to learn how to do it without being abusive in your presentation. The other part of the 13/4 debt is to be disciplined in practical matters, such as not waffling on your commitment to lower your cholesterol. It’s not just a matter of you being “good” this time, it’s about understanding that what you abuse now will eventually require retribution, either in this lifetime or the next. The 13 indicates that you are developing a spiritual conscience and beginning to see that all things are linked. With a 13/4 as your core number or as your Birthday Number, you’ll have to be overcome again and again until the lesson is fully learned and the debt completed. U
Sually people with 13/4 will exhibit the negative traits of the 4, which are
- Being rigid
- Needingg to control
- Being dogmatic
Blaming others for limitations they feel Living with a 13/4 : In this lifetime, the 13/4 will need to accept limitations and restrictions and learn to work constructively through the hard work. If the 13/4 should resort to laziness or negativity, (just like the last life), then the problems only magnify. The lesson is to just hang in there, gut it out, and do the hard work. However, even if you were been born on the 13th of the month or have a 13/4 Destiny Number, do not despair. Many famous people carry karmic 13 birthdays. Wherever the 13 shows up, you’ll be given the opportunity to succeed by focusing your energy. Usually there will be temptations in this life to take the shortcut or to go for the quick way out. But because this is the number of discipline and hard work, no shortcuts are allowed. In order to have success with this number, you must maintain order in your life (the 4 rules order).
This means you’ll have to keep your appointments, follow through on commitments (yes, you’ll have to be the chairman for next year’s auction- you promised!), keep your house neat and tidy, and never procrastinate. With a 13/4 in your chart, you’re here to learn this lesson of focus and discipline. But there’s good news, too: If you make a steady and consistent effort, you will find reward and success.
The key is to concentrate and direct your energies. What if you don’t do it? What if you say, “Forget it, it’s too much work”? Well, that’s how you got into debt last time! If you choose (and we do mean choose, because we all have free will) to blow off the required focus or discipline, then know that you’ll be doing this routine over and over again, in this life or in the next. Remember, this is karma: Debts have to be paid! Number 14/5:
The Temptations : The karmic number 14/5 involves past lifetimes where freedom was abused. The debt is to relearn the value of freedom and the discipline required to earn this freedom. In a past life, those with this number will have found freedom for themselves at the expense of others, and that’s where the debt comes in: There was some kind of irresponsibility and lack of accountability in the past. Now it’s your time to set things right. The 14/5 is the number of the rebellious free spirit who knows no limits to his or her desire for adventure, risk, and escape. As you may remember from your discussion in, “
The Number 5: You shall Adapt!” the number 5 is also the number of sex and sensuality. So it follows that someone with the karmic number 14/5 will take huge risks in the name of sexual, lustful pursuits. The number 14/5 in one of the 5 core numbers indicates that you’ll tend to exhibit the negative traits of the number 5- jumping from relationship to relationship or job to job, for example- with no sense of accomplishment or goal firmly in mind. There’s also a tendency to pleasure oneself through physical sensations, be it food, sugar, sex, drugs, or anything else that meets your fancy. The 14/5 represents the craving for something new and exciting rather than doing the boring, hard work of discipline or building something by sticking to it and seeing it through (all traits of the 4). Eventually, once you see that this is not the road to freedom, you’ll take a more constructive path. Getting to the Root of the 14/5 : Let’s look more closely at the root of this number, the 5. The 5 remember, is the number of change and freedom. That means that when the 5 shows up as the karmic debt number 14, the issues will be about having to rein in any escape mechanism tendencies such as drug abuse, alcohol or food addictions, or overindulgence in sexual pleasures. We’re talking about past uses of these addictive behaviors as ways to escape (because you crave freedom) from the task at hand. Now, in this life, you’re required to become moderate- not with disregard for tomorrow, but using temperance today. It should come as no surprise that the number 14 card in the Tarot deck is the Major Arcana’s Temperance. The key to this karmic debt number is commitment, something that a person with this number will have found hard to do in previous lives. This means commitments will be hard to make until you’ve learned the lessons of the 4 in the 14, which says, “You’ve got to have order to your life in order to maintain clarity and focus.” The 4 also suggests that mental and emotional stability are called for in order to hold a steady course as your life presents you with endless changes. You must commit to order and structure in your life, and being flexible and adaptable are at the very core of this struggle. What else can you expect when the 14/5 is one of your core numbers?
- If you have 14 as your Personal Year Number, you might expect emotional upsets and delays.
- If 14 is your Destiny Number, then you’ll possibly learn these lessons through setbacks, disappointments, and reversal of fortune, or, at the very least, be presented with life circumstances where you have to make commitments, stick to your goals, and weather the many ups and downs that come with this number.
- If 14 is the number of your Date of Birth, you are here to learn to let go, resist the temptations of indulgence, allow things to change, and steer a steady course.
Success lies in being able to establish a belief system for yourself that allows you to magnetically draw what you need to maintain order to your life and do all things in moderation. You cannot become fixed, rigid, or controlling under this number, for the law of change will demand that you roll with the punches. These karmic debt numbers require that we go back and do it over. This time, however, it helps if you know what the lesson is you’re trying to learn and be aware of the name of the challenge you’re facing. You can do it- just remember Universal Law #5. Universal Law #5 : You’re never given more than you can handle. The thing to remember with the number 14/5 is temperance in all things.
Number 16/7: The Abuse of Love : The karmic debt of the 16/7 arises from past involvement in illicit love affairs that caused suffering to others: In some manner, love was abused. Quite simply, the 16/7 indicates a failure in the past to act responsibly in matters of love. As with all karmic debt numbers, the 1 in this number indicates self-centeredness. In addition, the 6 in 16 suggests a lack of responsibility and distortion of loving feelings. Past abuses stem from a lack of integrity with regard to the feelings of others involving love, family, or commitment-all components of involvement in the notorious “Love affair”. We write this karmic debt number as 16/7, for it’s the reduced number 7 where the remedy is for releasing the debt. Until they learn to act otherwise, people with a 16/7 number usually exhibits the negative traits of the number 7:
- Indifference
- Analytical aloofness
- Withdrawal
- Difficult to approach
- More concern for his/ her own needs of privacy than for the feelings of others.
- Intellectualizing emotions. The influence of the number 7 is that it’s the number of the mystic- one who goes within and relies on his or her higher guidance.
The 7 requires that a person look to the source of all things as the guiding inspiration. It’s only then that a 16/7 person is no longer torn by the outer world. Similarly, the goal with the 16/7 is to link the personal spirit with the universal spirit. Only then does the person’s path become tranquil and the repetitive cycle of destruction and rebirth stop. The karmic number 16/7 is also the Major Arcana Tower card in the Tarot deck, which symbolizes destruction of the old and a rebirth of the new. When foreseen and sudden events tear down what was established, this card-carrying 16/7 carries the same message:
A spiritual rebirth is required in order to release the karmic debt. In fact, what happens is that there’s usually some kind of fall from the “tower” in one’s life. Destruction and rebirth are two interwoven themes of the number 16/7. Life presents the 16/7 with challenges that will humble the individual, and it’s precisely this humility that’s the key to future success. An individual with this number will learn to follow a course of higher consciousness that will come from the continual cycle of destruction and rebirth that dominates the 16/7’s life. The number 16/7 indicates that the person with this number has a tendency to use his or her highly intuitive and refined intellect to look down on others. In addition, the 16/7 won’t be a stranger to alienation and loneliness in this lifetime. You can run, but you can’t hide : The number 16/7 is the path of personal development and spiritual growth. It presents the opportunity to transform, but it demands a kind of tearing down and rebuilding of one’s life in order to do so.
The key word for the number 16/7 is “awaken”: The person must awaken to the higher principles of living life on earth. This number will take you down the path that “rises out of the ashes”, reconstructing your life on higher ground. Remember, this number has great significance if you have a 16/7 Destiny, or Birthday Number. If that’s the case, your life will be a series of events that bring you to the bottom, only to rise up again, to fall again, and so on. The pattern will continue until you finally grasp the notion that you must honor the spiritual, higher nature of all things, and that now you must rebuild your life on those principles.
That’s the debt, the story, and the release of the number 16/7. The Number 19/1: Abuse of Power – and you knew better : The last of the karmic numbers is 19/1. With this number, you might think that the gods are not happy, because the 19/1 is a travesty against all that is sacred, compassionate, and spiritually correct. You can be sure there’s been some kind of abuse of power when the 19/1 is present: the karmic debt of this number stems from past abuses of acting in a completely self-centered manner, blind to everything except self-fulfillment of one’s own desires. The basis of this number is learning to stand on your own and the proper use of power. The reduced number 1 of this number indicates that a 19/1 person will often exhibit the negative traits of this number, until the lessons have been understood.
The negative traits are:
- Selfishness
- Intimidation
- Dependence
- Failing to stand up for oneself
- Stubbornly resisting help from others
- Egotism
- Laziness
- Aggression When you have this number, don’t be surprised to find that throughout your life you’re for yourself or, worse, are left to stand alone.
Difficulties faced in this life will teach independence, consideration of others, and having to assert yourself rather than hang back and appear weak. Because of a tendency to stubbornly resist help from others, you may find yourself in a self-imposed prison. Paying a Little Karmic Debt : It is thought that the karmic debt of the 19/1 developed from the abuse of power in the past. In some manner, there was a life of selfishness – disregard of anyone else. The 19/1 indicates a past life where you had a position of power in some way, and in that position you chose to live life for yourself instead of for the good of all.
In some way, you used your power to gain favors and status or satisfy personal desires. In this life, 19/1s repeat these patterns until situation after situation arise that call for them to rectify these past abuses. Usually, the 19/1 person will be immersed in his or her own concerns and have difficulty becoming aware of the needs of others. The 19/1s are often surprised by others negative reactions because they’re so used to thinking of themselves that when they finally do see themselves through the eyes of others, they’re surprised and often confused.
The 19/1s just can’t seem to see themselves realistically in relation to others. Sometimes 19/1s may appear unable to act on their own. Unhappy with their dependence, yearning to be independent, but unable to take action, they find solace in blaming others or the environment for their own inability to stand on their own two feet. Success comes from looking past your own needs to the needs of others. When you work toward independence, resisting the urge to be dependent or feel weak, you’ll begin to pay off this karmic debt. Of course, just being aware that you have a karmic debt will help you see a path for changing your life and changing your ways. After all, the 1 always promises a new beginning.