Welcome to 2024, an Eight Collective Year
Welcome to 2024, an Eight Collective Year
on power, embodiment, getting kinky, God, and more
Happy New Year!
Regardless of whether or not you observe January 1st as the beginning of a new year, congratulations! You’ve crossed an energetic threshold. Allow yourself a moment here to take a deep breath, shimmy your shoulders, and attempt a small smile. You made it. You’re here.
2024 is an eight year (2 + 0 + 2 + 4 = 8). In the tarot, it represents Strength and The Star. It’s big-hearted and brave, takes up unapologetic space, is both rooted and healing, and brings with it infinite options, resources, possibilities, and opportunities. At the end of a tumultuous seven year, which brought more conflict and confusion then clarity, the eight year is a chance to catch our breaths, and then screw our courage to the sticking place.
Below you’ll find an exploration of eight energy and what it could bring to 2024 through four keywords: Powerhouse, Embodied, Ordeal, God. Tucked under these umbrellas are thematic predictions, current events, spells and practices to try, food for thought, and more. I hope that it is useful to you today, and every day of the next year.
The information provided is the collective energy, external forces that effect us all. If you’d like to calculate your own personal yearly cycle, simply add the day and month of your birth to the year 2024. For example, if your birthday is today, January 1st, you’re starting a brand new nine-year cycle this year with a one personal year (1 + 1 + 2 + 0 + 2 + 4 = 10, 1 + 0 = 1).
This is quite long, a form I’m committing to this year with The Year of Yearning, so TL;DR:
2024 wants you to integrate and embody
2024 wants you to get back to going deep
2024 wants to resource you so you can keep going
2024 wants to pleasure you
2024 wants you to pleasure yourself
Otherwise, what’s the fucking point?
Eight is the Powerhouse
Eight (8) is the number of power, karma, resources, and abundance. Coming second to last in the spiral of the building block numbers, eight energy packs a punch, ruling over big picture constructs that have tangible impacts on our daily lives.
In a great deal of modern numerological writings, the number eight is connected to business and industry, to managers, supervisors, and CEOs, and to the endless production lines of capitalism. While I understand these present-day, contextual associations, I also believe wholeheartedly that the number eight deserves to be liberated from these kinds of economic confines.
Still, I cannot deny the collective stage that’s being set, and what may be spotlighted in 2024, including personal and shared debts, taxes and how tax payer dollars are spent, the housing market, consumerism as it pertains to both the economy and the climate, loans, banks, hedge funds, investment opportunities, Wall Street, industry changes, evaluations of labor and pay rate, the wealth gap, billionaires, government benefits, and more.
In 2024, I see there being both power struggles and power grabs. This energy is fertile for both fascism and organization. It would be a good year to examine the effects of People Power, as well as the continued divestment from the systems and structures that have proven fallible at best, and violent and repressive at worst. This collective energy is ripe for physical and economic protests, grassroot movements that seek justice and accountability, nationalism, extremeist action, and plugging in where you can.
In the United States, 2024 is an election year. Biden, the sitting Democratic president, has the lowest “approval ratings of the past seven presidents at the same point in their first term in office.”1 On December 30, his administration bypassed Congress for the second time in recent months to make a weapons deal with Israel, despite continued calls from American citizens, as well as the world at large, for a ceasefire.2 This also comes after Biden cited his inability to bypass Congress to forgive student loan debt to thousands of Americans. Former President Donald J. Trump is currently leading in many major polls, and is largely expected to be the Republican nominee.
The average age of historical empires is 250 years. The United States will celebrate its 248th birthday in 2024.
In Chinese numerology, the number eight is considered extremely lucky! It’s the number of money and wealth, two topics which will also be highlighted in 2024.
Consider your investments this year. Consider your savings as well as your spending. Perform money spells. Write an 8 on a piece of paper and put it in your wallet to call in some financial flow. Think big picture when it comes to debts, credit cards and scores, and loan opportunities. In astrology, the 8th house deals with other people’s resources, roping in inheritances, wills, trust funds, and more. Snip self-sabotaging financial behaviors in the bud.
A colleague of mine,
, recently wrote about their intentions to temper their own consuerism through embarking on a “Depth Year,” and I may have to join them. It sounds like the perfect way to work with external eight energy.“Put simply,” Siri wrote, “a Depth Year is a year of very low spending in an effort to use what you already have and go deep in the commitments you’ve already made.”3
Siri shares that this looks different for every person, but for them, it means not buying new books or tarot decks, in an effort to get through their TBR and use the decks they already own. They’re also not going to purchase new courses, instead committing to taking the ones they’ve already invested in, and they’ll replace clothes and make-up as needed or seasonally.
While a Depth Year seems incredibly simple and practical, it will likely be a daunting experience at times. It’s difficult to escape the lure of instant gratification! It’s hard to deny yourself the little treat! When temptation arises, remember what you’re devoting yourself too. What long-terms goals are you supporting? Chances are, they’ll be more satisfying than the short-term gains.
If this is an idea that’s pinging for you as you head into 2024, here are some questions from Siri that can help guide you to your own goals and intentions for going deeper with what’s already in your hands:
Once you have your reasons for doing a Depth Year, you need to figure out what your boundaries are and how you will enforce them. Where are you most likely to slip up? What contributes to your spending issues? What are some of your biggest impulses and why?
Eight is the Embodied
Eight is an emotional number, residing in the sex organs and the skin. It brings us into our soft animal body, encompassing the pleasure principle, which “strives to fulfill our most basic and primitive urges, including hunger, thirst, anger, and sex,” and also seeks sustainable security and safety during this lifetime of Earthly experience.4
Collectively, 2024 could bring new cultural, political, and legislative movement around reproductive rights, sex work, the handling of sexual violence and crime, labor efforts, and disability justice.
2023 brought us the first full year since Roe v. Wade was struck down by the US Supreme Court, and abortion rights have proven an important issue on state ballots. While many states have sought to increase protections, “fourteen states enforce total bans, and seven more restrict access under limits that also would have been unconstitutional under Roe.”5 We also witnessed solidarity between labor unions across multiple industries, with over 500,000 American workers going on strike throughout the year.6
I think that 2024 will bring continued efforts by those providing lucrative labor to bosses, companies, and countries. Will we continue to see the valuation of profits over people? Or will this be the year when more sustainable movements and processes are put in place? AI, and other technological advancements that seek to replace human workers, are sure to throw a wrench into this conundrum as well.
The last few years have blurred the lines between the office and the home, with the COVID-19 pandemic requiring companies to move to remote work. Now, executives are struggling to get employees back into city office buildings, revealing just how possible it is for business to run as usual without in-person workspaces. It has also made known just how ableist most work environments are, both in terms of what they ask from those they hire, and also how they discriminate against disabled people in the hiring process. “One in four U.S. adults has a disability which impacts major life activities, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention,” and yet the Bureau of Labor Statistics notes that in 2022, only 21.3% of the disabled population was employed.7
Beyond the workplace, 2024 could see additional areas of intersectional disability inclusion at the forefront of cultural conversation, such as accessibility, voting rights, political representation, legal and financial autonomy, and more.
The number eight is deeply connected to the Roman goddess Venus, who represents love, passion, sex, beauty, prostitution, prosperity, and fertility.
In 2024, issues around intimacy, eating, money, confidence, and other tender themes may arise. Venus, but more importantly, an embodied Venus, offers us some potent potables this year that may just serve as an antidote to the harsher realities of eight energy. Ann Saffi Biasetti, a psychotherapist, author, and founder of An Embodied Life, offers a definition for embodiment “as living life informed through the sense experience of the body.”8
This means that this year, get sexy. With yourself, with another, with many others. Eat delicious food. Put on your favorite outfit. Spritz yourself with something that smells good. Adorn yourself with jewelry. Affirm your gender through HRT or surgery. Dress the body you have now. Remember that consent is sexy, lube is your friend, and use whatever form of protection works best for you, and then go downtown, uptown, all around town, in whatever you way you fucking want to. Fuck. Hook-up. Make love. Make a baby. Okay? Okay.
Eight also rules vulnerability and shame, so here’s a confession that hits both buttons: For the last few years, I’ve been writing and reading horny fanfiction. It’s been a fucking dream, honestly. It’s been so fun! I’ve gotten so turned on! It’s totally changed and expanded my creative life! The line between sex and art is fine fine fine, baby, and oh, do I love to toe it.
The reason I’m baring my soul to you now is to share with you a new truth that I have discovered that I have only come to know because of this specific life experience, and that is that you are always just one fic away from a new kink.
Western culture, religious culture, surveillance culture—it all seeks to keep you from your deepest desires. Your truest wants. Because if you knew what you wanted, you’d know what you don’t want, and what you’re not willing to put up with. That would likely make you very hard to control, and the authorities can’t have that! The future of the entire Empire would be at stake. (Hint, hint, wink wink!)
Kinks are some of the most intimate pieces of self-knowledge and desire. To discover what gets your gears turning, what has your belly swooping, and heat licking between your legs, takes a willingness to engage with the more taboo parts of pleasure. This year, dare to find out what you’re into. Be open. Try things out. Don’t judge what does it for you. Your body deserves to feel good.
Eight is the Ordeal
I know, I know, Joseph Campbell has been canceled! We’re over linear, male, hero stories! And yet—the eighth step of the Hero’s Journey is the Ordeal. It’s the Final Boss. The fight that threatens everything we’ve worked so hard for. The moment to put your money where your mouth is, and give it all you’ve got. This one’s for the win! Your reward awaits you if you can just peservere.
We’re reaching the end of another spiral, a numerological trip we’ve been taking together since our last collective one year in 2017. We’ve learned a few things, been knocked around a helluva lot, and there’s still so much we do not know. So we need to keep our wits about us if we’re going to have any hope of overcoming what awaits us. 2024 will require intentional action. We’re no longer just swinging our sword and hoping for the best. This year, we’re taking aim.
In their latest installment of
, author and gender anarchist explores the eight year through the lens of the six cards of the tarot that feature the number eight. (They also quote my book, The Witch’s Book of Numbers, an unbelievable amount of times, and I think they’re so rad and smart that their inclusion of my words might just make me insufferable…)May Charlie’s words, and these cards, be a prayer, a balm, and a pep talk:
So this year, let us call on Strength to bolster our courage with love. Let us call on the 8 of Pentacles for capable and diligent work, the 8 of Wands for the purpose of a heart on fire, the 8 of Swords for liberation from lies and illusions, the 8 of Cups for breaking the loop of the status quo. Let us call on The Star for guidance, for healing, and for hope that spurs us to action.9
In The Witch’s Book of Numbers, I liken the number eight to Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. In case you’re not familiar, it’s the story of a people that are chained to a cave wall and made to watch shadow’s dance. Their ignorance runs deep, leaving them unable to recognize that what they’re seeing is just a reflection and not the actual puppet show. Even further from their scope of understanding is that there are others in the cave with them, pulling the strings and keeping them captive.
Then, one person breaks free. They venture out of the cave, going through a painful process of acclimating to the outside world, until they can finally stand in the sun. Just like Campbell’s heroes, they return with the reward of knowledge—that there is life and light outside of the cave—again going through a severe adjustment while re-entering the darkness. But what could have been a liberating moment for many instead ends in bloodshed. The ignorant become angered and confused by this notion of more, and kill the messenger.
I’ve been thinking about this allegory in a modern context, especially around the layers of programming that have woven its way into our lives. I’ve been thinking about all of the systems and structures that we have lost faith in over the last few years, of the programs and organizations that hurt the communities they promise to help heal, of the lies that must be believed in order to fund and further war, and of the fires of distust and hatred for the different that have been stoked in the name of supposed safety and homogeny.
I’ve also been thinking about how as much as we would like to position ourselves as the one who breaks free, it’s more likely that we are the ones chained to the wall, watching the puppet show. We are the ones who become enraged to the point of committing violence when faced with the reality that we have spent years being tricked by those who benefit from our ignorance. Yes, that is maddening. No, the one who broke free is not the enemy. Solidarity is key, it’s always they key.
In 2024, it would do us all well to avoid killing the messenger, and instead, commit to deepening our comprehension of the message. Eight is the Underworld. Just as the seven year in 2023 pulled up the floorboards and brought conflict to the surface, eight promises to reveal the rot that lies below and within. Examine and explore every point of view this year, especially yours. Consider motive and opportunity the way a detective would. Do not trust the words of those who maintain positions of power, but instead regard their actions. Decipher and pinpoint their values, and yours.
Next year, you’ll spin that knowledge into wisdom, but first you must venture below the surface of your own perspective. This is hearty, worthy work.
Eight is God
Eight is the energy of the divine. It has no beginning and no ending. When flipped on its side, the symbol for 8 becomes ∞, the lemniscate, the infinity symbol. Using an alphanumeric cipher called the Pythagorean Alphabet, which converts letters to the building block numbers of one to nine through the pattern A = 1, B = 2, and so on and so forth, even the word GOD becomes the number eight (G = 7, O = 6, D = 4, 7 + 6 + 4 = 17, 1 + 7 = 8).
Another way of seeing this energy is limitless creative potential. Source energy. The core of all that was, all that is, and all that will be. This well of infinite resourcing is ours to embody and use in 2024. Perhaps you will even be reminded that you are God. You are Source energy. You are magic and mystery; miraculous and mundane.
2023 was really fucking rough. I even have a friend who’s planning on spending January 1st at the beach, screaming at God by yelling at the ocean waves, a perfectly reasonable place to find oneself at this exact moment in time and space. And by all means, do your worst. God can take it.
2024 can offer you a chance to find your faith again. It will hold in its collective hands the opportunity to build better beliefs in the space left behind by what no longer resonates or serves. It won’t be easy, but it will be worth it.
I’m going to write more about this as we get into the year, but for now, I’ll leave you with this, also from my book:
The number 8’s true wealth lies outside of any system of greed. It resides instead in every pore of our resilient skin and in the deep, pulsing desires of our slick and twisted guts. It is infinite and flowing, connecting us with the fortuitous truth of who we are, within and without… The energy of 8 provokes us, urges us forward, tells us to go deeper, harder, faster, or slower, until these tangles are untied, unraveled, undone. It’s hard to have to unlearn so much and still be left with a ball of knots—ceaselessly sliding back and forth and yet closer and closer to our own cores, embodying what it means to be both malleable and powerful, and redefining what it means to be both gentle and electric.10
In 2024, I hope that you remember to be both malleable and powerful; gentle and electric.
Until next time, just keep swimming!
xx, Rebecca
Biden Ends 2023 With 39% Job Approval by Megan Brenan for Gallup (December 2023).
Biden Administration Again Bypasses Congress for Weapons Sale to Israel by Matt Surman and Edward Wong for the New York Times (December 2023).
Depth Year: What is it & My rules for 2024 by Siri Vincent Plouff on their blog (December 2023).
How Freud's Pleasure Principle Works by Kendra Cherry, MSEd for VeryWellMind (September 2023).
State Policy Trends 2023: In the First Full Year Since Roe Fell, a Tumultuous Year for Abortion and Other Reproductive Health Care by Kimya Forouzan and Isabel Guarnieri for the Guttmacher Institute (December 2023).
Why Were There So Many Strikes in 2023? by Cecelia Smith-Schoenwalder for U.S. News (December 2023).
Just 21% of people with disabilities were employed in 2022—how employers can reduce hiring bias by Gili Malinsky for CNBC (July 2023).
Defining Embodiment by Karden Rabin for Trauma Research Foundation (September 2022).
A Year of Strength, Hope, and Devotion by Charlie Claire Burgess for Queerly Devoted on Substack (December 2023).
Rebecca Scolnick, The Witch’s Book of Numbers: Enhance Your Magic with Numerology (San Antonio, TX: Hierophant Publishing, 2022).