I’m not a student of numerology — the mystical belief in numbers having meaning beyond their, well, meaning. But when a friend told me recently that 2025, because its individual numbers add up to nine, is a year of completion, I found myself nodding — and Googling.
In numerology, “the number nine holds a significant and powerful position. It symbolizes the idea of completion, though not necessarily finality. Instead, it signifies the conclusion of one phase, paving the way for the initiation of the next.” So says the Sept. 9, 2023, Hindustan Times (Yes, there is such a publication and, yes, this acolyte of the Wall Street Journal editorial pages is referencing it!)
Whatever the source of the information, 2025 as a year of finishing the unfinished makes perfect sense to me.
First, this year I’ll be finishing being in my 50s. Egads! David and I figured out the other day that we met each other’s parents when his were younger than I am now, and mine younger than him. No offense, parents and in-laws, but you seemed kind of, well, older. Yes, I know 60 is the new 40 or something, and hopefully I’ll see 70 and 80, too, but still, 60 feels like the ending, the completion, of my youth. I’m not rueful about it, it just feels strange.
Big finishes are in store for our kids this year, too. One will complete graduate school, the other undergrad. That both graduation ceremonies are the same weekend in different cities will require smooth travels (out of my control) and profound inner calm (that’s on me) so please say some prayers to the airline gods as we celebrate these milestones.
What else might represent the ending of one cycle and the start of the next? I’ll be recording my first published book as an audio book this year and I intend to complete a draft of book number two. The planning for the recording is underway, and some writing friends and I are holding each other accountable to put words on paper for our new projects. I’d also welcome a prayer for me to the creativity gods to turn that word “intend” into “will,” not to mention a request to the god of optimism that this new book will take one year, not 13 as the last one did, to complete.
After perusing the Hindustan Times, I came across an article on numerology in that other literary provocateur of deep thought, Cosmopolitan magazine. In April 2024, writer Kerry Ward noted, numerology’s “basic principle is that the universe is a system and once broken down, we are left with the basic elements — numbers. Everything comes back to numbers.”
“No matter,” she writes, “which type of numerology number you’re calculating (such as numbers based on birthdate or letters in your name which are given a numeric value) the general rule is that you continue adding numbers together until you get to a single digit, with 11 and 22 also being significant. Each number profile has a different meaning, personality, influence, and impact.”
If I’m doing the math right (and that’s a big if given I don’t completely understand the instructions) my life path number and my heart’s desire number are both nine, the same as 2025.
According to Cosmo, that means all good things about my ebbing and flowing and passions and embracing of the cycles, and my purpose, which boiled down, the numbers say, is helping others. Too general, you say? Could apply to anyone? I say, we could use a few more nines around here.
As for me, numerology-wise, I’m all in. To paraphrase Jerry Maguire’s line to Dorothy in the 1996 film, “2025, you complete me.”
A member of the Marblehead Current’s Board of Directors, Virginia Buckingham is the former chief executive officer of the Massachusetts Port Authority, chief of staff to two Massachusetts governors, deputy editorial page editor for the Boston Herald and author of “On My Watch: A Memoir.”
