Numerology is an ancient metaphysical system of insight, dating back thousands of years and across multiple civilizations and cultures. It examines the relationship that the numbers and letters associated with our identity (especially our name and birth date) have with our personality and life path. Numerology can be a powerful self-help and self-awareness tool. Its 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 which type of numerology number you’re calculating, 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.
The number 9 is powerful. It represents completion, although not a final ending—more like the fulfillment of one cycle so that you can prepare to initiate the next one. It’s a recognition of life’s ongoing ebb and flow. The number 9 is the last of the single-digit numbers (which are known as cardinal numbers in numerology) and the highest in value. The number 9 shows you’ve lived and learned; you’re engaged with living your life in a meaningful, conscious manner and you’re setting rewarding goals.
Life Path Number 9
Your life path number is calculated based on your birth date, kinda like your numerological zodiac sign! This number represents your character, your life purpose, and the type of life you’ll lead. In fact, it’s one of THE most significant numbers in the numerology system.
To find your life path number, simply reduce the digits of your full birth date until you reach a single-digit number—excluding 11 and 22. Did you get the number 9, by any chance?
If so, then you are compassionate, patient, generous, understanding, and creative. You are drawn toward careers based in service (like medicine, teaching, government, or justice) or the arts (like music, art, writing, or acting). You’re drawn to good causes and charitable efforts, and you can often be found fighting for the rights of others. You feel good when you do good! Serving your family, community, and the wider world is the ultimate destiny pathway for number 9 people.
Heart’s Desire Number 9
Your heart’s desire number (also called your soul urge number) reveals your innermost passion and yearning—the unconscious, emotional, powerhouse driver behind your decisions and behavior that you are not aware of but nevertheless live by. This number is perhaps how you get to know your ~inner self~.
It’s derived by adding together the numbers based on the vowels in your full name at birth. The vowels are A (value 1), E (value 5), I (value 9), O (value 6), and U (value 3). Add them together and reduce it until you reach a single digit between 1 and 9. Did you get number 9?
If so, you think deeply and philosophically, and the underlying theme of your reflection is how to align your purpose with a greater universal need or truth. Ultimately, your soul urge comes down to serving others. Guiding, helping, healing, teaching, protecting, and supporting other people is what makes you happiest. You are drawn toward spirituality and seek a higher consciousness so you can make sense of this chaotic world. Your compassionate, giving nature and spiritual outlook on life draw others toward you, and people love to listen to your thoughts on life.
The Number 9 in Astrology
In astrology, the number 9 is associated with Mars, the planet of ambition, passion, and aggression. Mars rules over Aries (and in some schools of thought, Scorpio).
Mars gives these placements their ~edge~, instilling in them a fiery passion and ambition that, when directed toward altruistic and good causes, is powerful. However, that Mars influence can get them into trouble when it’s not channeled positively. Mars makes you keen to protect others and fight for what’s right.
The Number 9 in Tarot
The ninth card of the tarot’s Major Arcana is the Hermit. In astrology, the Hermit is linked to Virgo—which, yes, is different from the number 9’s connection to Aries or Scorpio, but don’t sweat it.
The Hermit is a card about enlightenment, wisdom, and self-awareness. It suggests powerful inner insights that are brought about through reflection, meditation, and contemplation. It’s the total opposite vibe of the Mars-like connection. If you look at it a certain way, it serves as a useful prompt for number 9s to always temper their urge to act with a period of thought about why they’re taking action. Being so busy serving others can take away from your own journey and self-awareness. It’s important to make conscious time for reflection because without it, we can’t put things in order.
Angel Number 9
Angel numbers are not derived from your name or birth date but instead refer to the repeating sequences of numbers that seem to show up everywhere you look. Whether angel numbers come to you via license plates, clocks, bills, house numbers, or bank statements, they’re seen as a nudge from above.
Angel numbers are a relatively new phenomenon in numerology. While the idea that numbers can convey a spiritual message goes back centuries, the term “angel number” is more recent, breaking into popular culture in the early 2000s. Angel numbers are believed to be cosmic codes from angels (or spirit guides) who are beaming down a message that the universe thinks you need to hear. These angels are persistent, and they will keep sending you these number sequences until you pay attention (like now…) and look it up (read on…).
If you keep seeing sequences of repeating 9s, like 999, then you’re being nudged toward the kind of life path behaviors that a number 9 person should have—think creative projects, a humanitarian or charitable cause, healing relationships with others, or letting go of a phase in your life so that you can activate a new beginning. Consider which of these feels like ~unfinished business~ to you and begin to address it, and the numbers should stop appearing.
Shop Number 9-Inspired Gifts
The M Jewelers The Angel Number Nameplate Necklace: 999
Kerry Ward
Tarot Reader
Kerry Ward has been reading and teaching tarot for over 25 years, and alongside her work as Horoscope contributor for Cosmopolitan UK, has worked for Cosmopolitan US, too. You can book a personal, written tarot reading with her, which comes as a beautifully illustrated brochure, while she is also the published author of Power Purpose Practice, Card of the Day Tarot and The Good Karma Tarot. She also created the Crystal Magic Tarot deck. Follow her on Instagram @mytarotbella for weekly forecasts, insights, and tarot teachings, or find her on LinkedIn.
