“February is the worst month of the year, but it’s an honest month! It’s a month that doesn’t hold up life any better than it really is.” – Kevin Killeen via Austin Kleon
February 2025 (11 + 9 =20/ 2) Two Universal Month
Here, encapsulated within the boundaries of these two quotes is the paradox of February…the second month of the year, past the embryonic inception point but very much still wearing the cumbersome vestments of a womb-like winter. February this year has the added task of a bevy of school work assigned during the winter break…and we’re all in the arduous process of completing our lessons. Sporting the 11 energies of what may prove to be a very dramatic and eventful 9 universal year, we are asked to return to life’s classroom and accept tutelage. For most of us, this is an assignment that’s not just mandatory, it’s epic defining.
It’s helpful at this venture to check in with the tarot cards represented by these two numbers: 11 Justice and the 9, the Hermit.
One of the most striking things about the master number 11 is while it is has a large presence, that essence has an intangible primacy. The wisdom of life’s secret, life’s innate intelligences are not easily quantified, but the word Justice, often associated with tarot card 11 is all ACTION. Both a principle of being and a title, Justice implies a state of assertive rightness or a journey toward that territory. It’s an idea and the name of an individual carrying out said ideals, a two for one process.
This is a feat that straddles multiple realities – the seen and the unseen worlds. We’re asked to take stock of the vibratory energies of the present moment (defend truth, good) and then we’re asked to embody this motive, to collect and assemble a knowledge code like so many tightly budded tulips and then bloom in concert with the collective awareness we’ve been presented with. If that weren’t enough, this all happens in the context of the universal energies of the 9 which asks us to double down on inner guidance. The Hermit invites us to be lit by an inner fire of hope in the universal year.
– Vaclav Havel (hat tip Maria Popova from the Marginalian)
“Hope is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously headed for early successes, but rather, an ability to work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed.”
Turn and face the liminal tsunami
We are most effective when we focus keenly and consciously on specific areas that have great meaning for us. Wherever there are pain points, apply salves (however many), adopt soothing practices that heal and fortify. It’s from this strengthened place that we do battle (yes, from a place protected and secured). We are tussling against ignorance within and without. And from that intellectual place of starting we must let go of non-essentials to pursue our deepest and most meaningful convictions. From that point we must quest forward.
“It can feel foolish to pause to marvel at the stars when the world is burning. Or to find the world beautiful when you’ve know it to betray you. But wonder is a liberation practice. A reminder that we contain more than tragedy. Beauty is our origin and our anchor.” – black liturgies
When moving forward still feels impossible, chant first, then move. I’ve found returning to the exhortation by Antonio Machado an apt treatise of guidance, for times when illumination is in scarce supply:
Caminante, son tus huellas
Traveler, your footprints
el camino y nada más;
are the only road, nothing else.
Caminante, no hay camino,
Traveler, there is no road;
se hace camino al andar.
you make your own path as you walk.
Al andar se hace el camino,
As you walk, you make your own road,
y al volver la vista atrás
and when you look back
se ve la senda que nunca
you will never travel again.
se ha de volver a pisar.
you will see the path
Caminante, no hay camino
Traveler, there is no road;
sino estelas en la mar.”
only a ship’s wake on the sea.
-Translated by Mary G. Berg and Dennis Maloney
So finally, do the work, even if lethargic, even if wounded, and weighted down by shortcomings and well, fears. And my dears, we’d do well to lean into this pro tip from astrologer Kelly Surtees — “when everything changes, change everything.”
To be sure, there are also other energies here… the High Priestess (2) and Strength (8) which in many decks is switched with 11–plus no inquiry into 9 would be complete without looking at the higher octave of 9, the 18th card or the Moon. Here, we’ll limit our discussion to the core energies. I’ll soon do a more complete discourse on these 11/2 and 8… a meditation on the Moon, stay tuned.
Also on deck…my Patreon with a run down for each personal year, a yardstick for the rest of 2025. Stay tuned…
MTD 
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