The Universal Year Number

The Universal Year is the number that colours a calendar year for everyone alike, as against the Personal Year that varies from person to person. It is calculated simply by reducing the digits of the year itself, so that, for example, the digits of a given year are added and reduced to a single figure, which is held to set the collective tone of that year, its shared theme and mood.

Where the Personal Year individualises the forecast, the Universal Year is the background against which each person's Personal Year is read, the two combining to place the individual within the wider cycle. It shares the nine-year rhythm of the rest of the system, the world passing from Universal One years of new beginnings to Universal Nine years of completion. The concept belongs to the Pythagorean numerology built in the United States in the early twentieth century; it is a modern method of characterising the years, called Pythagorean by convention rather than by any genuine link to Pythagoras or to ancient practice.