Fifth Gear

So rolling on beyond the solid structures of the 4, we arrive at the versatile and communicative agent of change, jack-of-all-trades, general smooth operator and skilled weapon of choice: the number 5. Now, there are some traditional meanings that do ring true about this wild and diverse number; in fact, it’s so diverse that I had to practically write an essay about it here. Anyways, there are also a number of possible hidden faces that make up this number, which I will propose. So, let us delve deeper into further possible meanings of this complex number. Actually, the 5 holds a personal significance to me in light of the fact that not only does my birthdate fall on a day that adds up to this particular number, but, I was born at the 55th minute of a particular hour too! Triple 5 power!; but wait, does this mean communication on steroids, as in mass communication? It remains to be seen…

Anyways, the 5 can be associated with the themes of versatility and flexibility. It’s not difficult to understand that you need a certain cognitive flexibility in order to learn and acquire knowledge and skills to an adequate degree. This is why children especially are sponges for knowledge as, in addition to literally having very neuroplastic brains, they also have a lack of experience and therefore psychological “battle scars” from the past, which allows them to have (for now) a relatively raw, unpolluted and open-minded perception of the external world, which in turn helps them to absorb knowledge more easily; in contrast, us adults have both lost a lot of neurons and likely suffered a few knocks here and there by now to create certain fixed “rules,” and filters of perception according to our experiences to solidify those same old neuro-pathways. Anyways, such versatility also bestows upon the 5 a multifaceted nature, which allows it to not only perform a myriad of functions at an at least capable level of skill, much like the proverbial jack-of-all-trades, but also allows the ability to perceive things from several unconventional angles, many of which had possibly never been considered before; consequently, this could lead to a particular genius in a field of knowledge by being able to come up with creative and unconventional solutions to problems. It’s also the quality of versatility which allows us to smoothly and effectively interact with all types of different people in the world, whether those differences are in terms of age, personality, cultural background, or all of them together, for example. At the same time though, such an ability to look at things from multiple angles could come at the cost of scattered attention, absent-mindedness and spreading oneself too thin, instead of pouring all of one’s energy and focus into the immediate task at hand.

Then, we come to the subject of communication, of which this number has always been regarded as a principal significator of. This would tie in nicely with the trait of versatility, as being able to effectively present knowledge in an unbiased way requires a versatile, neutral and broad mind to be able to portray information quickly from a balanced variety of viewpoints; of course, that could be in the form of a writer, a singer or a journalist, as some examples. However, communication need not be limited to literal examples like this. The way we “talk” to ourselves and therefore program our own subconscious minds all day long through our repetitive auto-pilot thoughts is also a form of communication, albeit subtler, that affects our moods, emotions and even our physical health. There is documented evidence of our thoughts and moods, both negative and positive, having beneficial and detrimental psychosomatic effects, respectively, on our bodies. Next, there is the subject of intuition and psychic abilities, and the people that possess these to a high enough degree can also be compared to machines like computers, which are able to download information in the form of insights with the use of their intuition. Downloading information is also a form of communication  since there is an obvious dynamic transfer of information, and so this is why I would think that any kind of “smart” technology would also be correctly represented by this number. In the same vein then, I think the 5 could also represent brains and nervous systems, and the qualities of knowledge and learning as well. However, getting back to the point, we must keep in mind that communication by itself can be compared to a double-edged sword that could be used to either shield, shelter, inspire and embolden us with uplifting words; or on the other hand, such words can be used to cut down, injure, strike, divide and destroy us ruthlessly with toxic speech; the choice depends on us. Furthermore, it’s likely due to this neutral aspect of communication that the planet Mercury has been traditionally associated with the 5, functioning as the go-between middleman and messenger according to Greek mythology, whether that be for good or evil purposes, which brings us smoothly to the next point.

Since the 5 can be regarded as a middleman messenger, this elicits yet another one of its fundamental qualities: that of being at the “middle” in a set of numbers from one to ten. The way I see it, this can take one of a few different forms. Firstly, being “in the middle” seems to imply the aforementioned role of being a messenger between perhaps two or more people, groups, organizations or entities. Secondly, it could extrapolate the first point a step further where the simple messenger transforms into an actual mediator and diplomat, trying to actively negotiate peace and harmony between perhaps two opposing people, like someone trying to save a marriage which is headed towards the rocks, or someone trying to break up a bar fight, for instance. On a larger scale, this could be smoothing out relations between opposing factions, companies, political parties or even countries; but, the point is the same. Thirdly, I like to apply the concept of “the middle” or a “midpoint” more towards processes rather than people and organizations. So consider things like the middle of a day, or the eccentric phase of a squat with your thighs parallel to the ground, or the exact midpoint of a sharp upslope in a stock price where your call option is in-the-money, or the middle phase of pouring your coffee into the mug where you have the thickest stream, or even the physical prime of your life. What is the commonality then of all these perhaps seemingly unrelated examples? You’ll notice that there is a noticeable peaking and maximizing quality here where you are deep in the middle and most intense parts of these processes. So it follows that, at least in my mind, I like to ascribe the 5 to those precise intense, climaxing and peaking points of processes in nature that oftentimes (but not always) seem to occur around the midpoint of a particular sphere of activity. Excuse the ongoing phobic obsession with tornadoes, but an example of this would be the EF-5 rating for the most intense and destructive classification of a twister; similarly, you have category 5 hurricanes as being the most damaging (interesting fact: I’ve lived through what was classified as a Category 2 while over us, but became a 5 later on; yikes). Then, consider the IgM antibody of our immune systems, which has the maximum number of arms: 5, to, incidentally, deal with viral and microbial attackers acutely (within an immediate or at least short period of time) with the maximum attack potential possible, compared to the four other types of antibodies. Lastly, you typically have the 5th gear of a vehicle representing the highest speed. As a quick aside, we need to be careful here, because, at least in a simple number sets of one to ten, the ten itself can also be representative of a maximum magnitude of something ie. the Richter scale for earthquakes, though this number would be obviously be more fitting for endings of processes rather than midpoints. Anyhow, as illustrated, the 5 could be considered to be the busiest number of all, in terms of intensity and activity level.

Then comes the old association of the 5 as the catalyst of change, and such change can take an infinite array of forms. Now, remember that The Trilogy depicted the 3 as an impetus to break out of a possible stalemate, dilemma and indecision of the 2; therefore, it could be thought of more as an element of initial change. But, I still agree with the line of thought that the 5 is the main representative of wide sweeping change in general; though, like all odd numbers we can see that the 5 also carries with it an inherent in-born instability and imbalance within itself, except this time, that instability is magnified greatly because it’s the primary number typifying the essence of change itself. Now, 5 can represent literal concrete changes in our lives, like that of a job position, or a relationship, or even a place of residence. It may also indicate the more profound aspect of evolution and adaptation, which includes both involuntary evolution through nature over long expanses of time, and as humans, our unique ability to undergo fully conscious, self-directed evolution. Indeed, I view this as the first number of self-sustaining evolution represented by a single digit; naturally then, this is the first number with an ability to actively implement change while consciously trying to improve itself compared to a previous version of itself. As it turns out, the capability to direct and one’s own evolution through one’s free will, choice and decisions, is a very defining quality of being human; in this way then, the 5 is closely associated with humanity. So, focusing on our conscious evolution as human beings then, such evolution would go beyond that of purely gross, physical and genetic evolution. We can make the daily voluntary choice to improve our intellectual, emotional, social and spiritual faculties compared to the day before; alternatively, we can also choose to do nothing at all and remain stagnant with these faculties. However, even more problematic though (which seems to be the trend today), we can choose to degenerate, worsen and dumb down these faculties so that we actually become worse off each day and devolve. As a brief digression, funnily enough, it seems the COVID virus is much more intelligent than us humans as it continuously exploits its inherently unstable and error-prone viral genetic structure and machinery to endlessly and rapidly evolve, improve itself and ensure its survival on a relentlessly consistent basis: very “5” qualities. This is in stark contrast to humanity, which has spent ages in attempting to destroy different groups of itself. Getting back to the point, as humans, we have the fully conscious will and power to choose our actions and reactions in contrast to the rest of nature’s creatures, in which this ability is limited, as most of their decisions are based on moment-to-moment subconscious survival instincts and reflexes rather than fully conscious willpower. But let’s elaborate on the darker aspects of change, which would include the inevitable concepts of chaos, destruction and upheaval, and so these can also be tied to the number 5. Here, the element of change is still seen, but this time it occurs in sudden, tumultuous and extreme waves of magnitude, such as the literal waves of a tsunami or an earthquake wiping out entire communities, or a stock market crash obliterating your savings; yet, even here we can see rarer examples of sudden positive changes, like winning the lottery or lightning strikes curing medical conditions, though it goes without saying for this latter point: I am not advising this, please don’t attempt this at home, and if you do, it’s at your own discretion; but seriously dude…just don’t. Indeed, much like the “Tortoise and the Hare” fable, nature usually seems to implement positive constructive change in gradual increments, as opposed to extreme leaps of change, which usually tend to be more destructive in quality. However, there’s even another take on this: the potential to strengthen and grow quickly as a person by experiencing a few traumatic upsets in life; what I like to call as “evolution through crisis,” and I think the 5 aptly depicts this as well. In fact, I can relate to this, and sometimes I think this “accelerated evolution” may be symbolized by the presence of multiple crisis-creating 5’s, which I talked about in the starting. Anyways, remembering the 4, the 5 also shares the theme of “death,” in the sense that it is the actual process of change of the mature and final part of something, which was represented by the 4; however, we needn’t always relate this literally to a person dying; rather, we can use a lighter and better synonym: that of “change;” as after all, even “death” in general, is really just a transformation of something into a different form. Also, keep in mind that the 5’s ability to violently break you out of the 4’s four-sided “box” can be a blessing of freedom from a negative and oppressing situation, regardless of how unsettling it can feel at first; it is precisely this freeing quality of the 5 that traditionally it’s associated with freedom and individuality. So, the 5 can then act simultaneously as both a force of constructive change and evolution, as well as chaos and destruction, with the only common denominator between these two being that of change and transformation; additionally, individuality and freedom together are also associated with the 5.

Now, I apologize in advance as this fifth paragraph of the body may seem to ramble on and on (it even made me cry), but this is because of some important correlations that need to be stated. As alluded to earlier, it’s no coincidence that 5 represents humanity and humans, we creatures with 5 senses plus the ability to exercise our free will, consciously make decisions and self-direct our own evolution at physical, mental, emotional and spiritual levels. However, its interesting to note the correlation between the Indo-Sanskrit word “manav”, meaning “human,” and “mann” another Indo-Sanskrit word, referring to “the mind.” So you can see the word “mann” integrated into the first syllable of the word “manav,” which states that humans are the first creatures to possess an actual fully developed and conscious mind; actually, the literal translation of “manav” would be something like: “a being who/that possesses a (fully conscious) mind,” reinforcing this same point. Ok fine, but how does this relate to the number 5, you may ask? Here’s how I see it: the English word “manipulate” again seems to contain this root word of “mann” in its first syllable. Now, whether this word is derived way back in time originally from this Sanskrit word “mann,” I’m not sure of. Yet, such a derivation is within the realm of possibility as the word “manipulate” means to skillfully handle or control something, and in order to do this, we need to use our mind or “mann” to accomplish this. Now don’t lose me just yet: the word “manipulate” is immediately derived from the Latin word “manus”, meaning “hand”, which outlines the hand as being amongst the most precise and skilful parts of the human body, capable of building wonders of engineering, playing complex instruments or creating works of art through the skillful manipulation of materials and instruments. What I’m getting at then is that the hand (“manus”) could be compared in similarity to the Sanskrit word for the human mind (“mann”), which has the potential for acquiring the highest degree of skills amongst all of Earth’s creatures. Now, since we have a working comparison between the hand (“manus”) and the mind (“mann”), and also an Indo-Sanskrit comparison between the mind (“mann”) and being human (“manav”), it therefore follows that a human (“manav”) could be compared to a hand (“manus”). Why is this? Because, just as a hand can skilfully manipulate physical materials to create a masterpiece, so can humans, using their mind and intellect, skillfully manipulate resources and the environment to ensure their own survival and progress to a degree, which is why our civilizations, and those before us, exist and have existed, respectively. Now, perhaps I’m stretching it with the level of abstraction here, but the number “5” could relate to all of this when we see that a hand has five digits; furthermore, each of these digits can be thought of as representing each of the five senses. So, metaphorically speaking then, a hand as a whole (representing the mind), with the coordinated effort of each of the five fingers (each representing a particular physical sense) can exert control over objects in the environment. This working together of the 5 senses under the ultimate guidance, control and direction of the mind is a trait most exemplified by mankind, as mentioned earlier, because although most animals also have 5 senses, they are, as also aforementioned, limited when it comes to their consciousness and intellect, and function more on instinct. Actually, we could go a step further and state that the human ability to self-direct and choose every action and reaction bestows us with a sense of uniqueness and individuality, versus the more instinctual herd-like drives of animals. Therefore, the 5 in this sense, may represent not only humanity, but the specific quality of self-directed consciousness and willpower. One facet of this could be always having the ability, no matter how difficult, to watch and witness (borrowed from the 0) one’s own automatic impulses. For example, you could one day decide not to curse, display obscene gestures and cut off the driver ahead of you who continuously slams their brakes too close, regardless of the anger coursing through your veins. You may also decide to stop checking your smartphone every minute, and allow yourself the luxury of sitting still while doing nothing, and enjoy the silence of the present moment, something that your overstimulated mind may not be in the habit of. Perhaps, you find yourself not remembering whether you actually checked the door-lock because you did it robotically without any conscious attention to it, when you really should. Maybe you just unintentionally wasted an entire hour ruminating on anger over something in the past and now realize you need to become aware of some hidden negative event back there and bring to your conscious attention to finally deal with it and let it go for good; or, maybe you reflexively push people away and your conscious analysis of the root cause has just revealed to you that you do this because of a backstabbing incident in the distant past, as a few general examples. Returning to the points of uniqueness and individuality, 5’s appearance could be signalling us to set out from the crowd and follow our own individual calling whatever that may be, whether in the form of your entire lifestyle, or a career choice or your social circle, or even a place of residence. It could be telling us that we are being too conformist (a quality that the preceding 4 revels in, because of its strong urge for security, authority and tight control) and that we need to be wild, brave and free trailblazers to follow our own unique path.

Taking it all to the register then, the 5 is a special and eclectic number symbolizing scores of meanings. Firstly, seeing this number repeatedly can mean that you may need to break free of the rigidity of the predictable patterns of the preceding number 4, and incorporate an attitude of flexibility and versatility in your life; now, this can mean being open to new concepts and ways of thinking, being and living; it can also mean being able to interact with all types of people who may differ from us to a certain degree in any way; or perhaps, to the acquisition of new skills, for example; alternatively, it could indicate that you are successfully doing this already. It’s also possible that the 5 is warning us about spreading ourselves too thin with too much multi-tasking, and that it’s time to slow down and focus on one thing at a time, with quality over quantity in our activities. Then comes the theme of communication; so, here this number could mean that you need to simply get out there, clear your throat and talk more and exchange information with your environment and people around you, including friends, coworkers, loved ones and significant others. Actually, you’ll notice that this is quite similar to the number 3; except, here the focus would be bent more towards the actual information and words exchanged, as opposed to the 3’s focus on self-expression and social interaction. On a deeper level though, the 5 could also be telling you to pay attention to how you talk with yourself daily on a mental and thought level to judge whether it’s healthy or not. Next in line, this unique number can represent all things pertaining to “the middle”, upon which seeing the 5 can be telling you to function as a messenger between two people or groups of people or entities, much like a secretary or an interpreter; or, it could be indicating the need to take it a step further and act as a peacemaker, much like a diplomat, for example. It’s also possible that 5 is showing you that you’re in the thickest, deepest and most intense part of a situation in your life, but halfway through it as well, whether that be something dark, like a personal crisis or a family problem, or something more lighter or positive, like the most thrilling part of an amusement park ride, or even the pinnacle of your career achievement. Fourthly, we come to either the most potentially feared or welcomed role of this number in our lives: the harbinger of change. Indeed, the 5 can be trumpeting a message to “fasten your seat belt,” as you may experience some upcoming changes, whether that’s in small and steady pleasant increments, or a complete and shocking overhaul of something in your life. Indeed, much akin to the 4, the 5 can be warning you of a coming complete transformation or ending of something around you, like your immediate environment, or in yourself, such as your current line of thinking, beliefs or emotions. But, it’s not all that bad and scary, because you know what?, perhaps the 5 can be nudging you awake to tell you of the urgent need to change something and break out of the 4’s illusory secure and comfortable “prison” that you’re currently stuck in, like an abusive relationship for example, in order to gallop ahead to attain full freedom and progress in your life. Lastly, we come to the fifth (the irony) and final point, the 5’s association with the qualities of being human, of having a fully conscious self-willed mind, and of possessing a unique personal individuality. So in this sphere of thinking then, the 5’s appearance may be giving you a wake-up call to shine the search-light of your conscious attention on something hidden in the dark. Seeing the 5 could also be telling you of the need to bravely step out of the monotonous herd and follow your own unique, free, individual path and style in life, regardless of what everyone around you thinks you “should” be doing.