0 and 1

There is an intricate interplay between the 0 and the 1. On the one hand, you have the humble 0 being an invisible nothingness with a vast scope and infinite potential; yet on the other, you have the loud and proud 1, with a glaring and irrepressible presence that has squeezed the boundless scope and potential of the 0 into a very narrowly focused, one-pointed direction of force. To define this precisely, let us link the energies of each respective digit to that of a season.

Firstly, I ascribe the number 0 with that of winter; the reason being that as previously mentioned, I defined the 0 as having the qualities of unconsciousness, sleep, unused potential energy, lack, nothingness, the fertile void of space (with the shape of the 0 having actual empty space within it) and the poised witnessing “eye” in the calm of the storm. Now, if we consider winter, we can see these same qualities at play; for instance, it’s in the coldest season where all of nature freezes to a halt to begin a long rest, with animals hibernating, darkness ruling the day, trees and plants being reduced to almost lifeless stems and twigs, and green fields turning into sterile, senescent, white, snow and ice-laced sheets of bitter cold. So here you have a noticeable lack of color with a toned down presence of life. More particularly, though there certainly are winter blizzards and storms, the chances of getting violent, life-threatening hurricanes and tornadoes is slim, especially where you get snowy winters; because of this, winter can roughly be thought of as the calm eye of the storm where you have the least amount of drama and action. Such a cessation of activity forces us to enter a reflection mode, where we witness and analyze our lives.

In contrast, we are reminded that the 1 represents consciousness, awakening, activity, energy, movement and presence. Also, we could correlate this number with spring, since the 1’s shape is literally like a plant stem shooting and sprouting straight out of the ground with a leaf on top. So here we see Nature gathering together the accumulated potential energy of the wintery and slumbering 0, and then harnessing, focusing and blasting it forward like a laser beam of renewed life and vigor; this is reflected in the literal warming of the temperature, lengthening of daylight, the emergence of animals from hibernation, the presence of new buds and shoots on plants and trees, the melting of snow and ice with the subsequent elevation in water level of water bodies, and the overall re-appearance of greenery and color. 

Ok, great, so now what do all of these flowery mystical metaphors have to do with our everyday practical lives? Well, I feel that noticing the 0 and 1 together, in any type of pattern may be representative of the conversion of the vast sleeping potential energy of the 0 into the awakened active energy of the 1. This can be reflected practically by for example, the realization of a career goal, the creation of a musical, scientific or social genius through the careful awareness and then cultivation of one’s inherent talents, or even perhaps something as mundane as fertile, agricultural land becoming saturated with a rich amount of crops in the coming months. The basic principle at play here is the conversion of the abstract idea, conception, dreaming and planning of something into actualization, manifestation and implementation into physical reality. Also, remember how I talked about the 10 representing a spiritual journey of the sharply defined 1 to the complete abstraction of the 0 in “Perfect 10?” Well, I would like to add here that if we think of the 1 as the limited individual ego or personality as being reflected in the 1, then we could say that this limited ego ultimately draws its strength from the infinite reserve pool of the 0, which would then represent the source of all life. Another spin on the 0-1 transition could simply be the ordinary act of awakening from sleep; or, if we consider the 0 as an advocate for the subconscious mind, and the 1 for the conscious mind, then moving from 0 to 1 would simply depict the act of bringing deep subconscious issues to light and awareness, very much like what I wrote in “Fifth Gear” with the only difference being that the 1 would be the initial illumination of such issues, whereas the 5 would be the full, complete and maximum illumination of such issues to peak intensity city and full effect. But what if, for instance, we see alternating 0 and 1 in succession, like the binary code of computers? In this case, it may mean something simple, like an issue with your sleep, such as insomnia and frequent awakening, a disturbance with your sleep-wake cycles such as hypnogogic and hypnopompic hallucinations, or even frightening sleep paralysis episodes, something that I have personally experienced harrowingly often. Alternately, 1 and 0 alternations may indicate current, or future-related oscillation, or cyclical back-and-forth movement between the “winter” of the 0 and the “spring” of the 1, and this is precisely how life runs for most human beings, doesn’t it? Its kinda like an endless flipping between opposites, like cloudy periods and sunshine during a day, the incessant changing between green and red lights at an intersection, or even the pattern of a barcode with the black lines indicating trials and difficult times in life which could loosely be thought of as “0 periods,” followed by the blank white spaces symbolizing quite the opposite as “1 periods.” What I’m getting at is that you have moments in life where everything seems to be frozen, sleeping, and almost dead; for example, you may feel a sense of deep loneliness, dissatisfaction or depression, which is then followed by moments where everything in your life is resurrected with life, energy and joy.

Now despite their opposing qualities, these numbers are quite dependent on each other for their very existence. For instance, without the huge sleeping preparatory potential energy of the winter, reflected, for example, in the heaps of snow and ice which will later supply much needed water in the next season, life would not be able to “spring” forth. On the contrary, without the sheer presence of blooming life we see in spring, winter would simply have no source of life to end, conclude, or at least temporarily put to sleep. So any type of repeating pattern featuring these two numbers could be indicative of both the balance and need for opposing elements in one’s life, and even the paradoxical link between such elements, as one could not possibly exist without the other. In this way then, the 0-1 combination may be trying to convey to us this profound truth about life that opposites of experience are needed in order to provide the contrast to fully appreciate each respective experience in our existence. For example, if you led an insanely peaceful life all the time, you’d probably get bored and not really value or appreciate such peace. But, when you reach a period of peace and rest after you end up going through stormy, difficult and scary times in your life, then you will sure as hell appreciate, savour and relish it because you’ve just experienced its total opposite; this is why relieving yourself after drinking much caffeine and being forced to hold it for hours feels ecstatic; the same could be said about finally landing after a nerve-wracking turbulent flight, or for professional athletes winning a trophy after an exhausting hard-fought match, or the endorphin rush we voluntarily seek out after pushing through a gruelling gym session, or even a mother glowing with contentment just having given birth post the hellish experience of labor; however, I would like to point out that this last point is something that may be shared in the upcoming 1-2 combination, since these two digits also have fundamentally opposing traits.