Exploring a Better Understanding of the Expression Number
As some of you may already know, I’ve been recently obsessing over numbers and numerology. I’ve been devising ways of understanding the knowledge and its personal application. The focus of my understanding centers on the Psychic, Lifepath, and Expression (P.L.E.) numbers. Of the three, the Expression Number has been the trickiest for me to get a grasp on. In my mind, how one expresses their self is very much related to that individual’s personality (via their Psychic Number) and therefore I was finding it difficult to make distinctions between the two. But thanks to a few things I’ve been reading, I think I’m gaining a better handle on, not only the Expression number’s role but also the dynamic between it and the Psychic number.
On her blog, NUMEROLOGY: The Vibration and Meaning of Numbers, Joanne Walmsley defines the Expression Number as: how you interact with other people...How you best express yourself, and where your talents lie. The Expression number, like the Karmic Number and Inner-Self or Soul Number, comes from the letters in your full birth name. To find the Expression Number specifically, you would use the alpha-numeric code below and convert all the letters in your full birth name to numbers--Then add up all the digits of each name, reducing the digit sums to one single number.
For instance, Jim Joe: JIM = 1+9+4=14 (1+4) =5. JOE = 1+6+5=12 (1+2) =3. So 5 + 3 = 8. Jim Joe’s Expression Number is 8.
HOW COULD WE BEST EXPRESS THIS?
In her definition, Walmsley states the Expression Number indicates how an individual interacts to others. I actually believe this is the role of the Psychic Number hence my initial confusion, as many Numerologists marry this aspect to both the Psychic and Expression Number. Another site I frequently refer to, Token Rock, despite calling it, the Birth Day Number defines the Psychic Number as: the approach you take to do what you’re here to do, and how you’re likely to react to life’s challenges and opportunities. They go on further to add something that sounds a lot like Walmsley’s definition of the Expression Number. “It also indicates a specific talent and ability you possess that will help you on your Life Path.” However, in my opinion, they can’t both be both! And furthermore, because the names of these numbers themselves have certain implications, I believe one has a more implicit relationship to the psychology in our behavior; while the other explores how we manifest that psychology into the external world. In other words, if the Psychic is the lemon, water, and sugar then the Expression Number would be the lemonade! After all, our minds and their pathos hold the ingredients to how we express our feelings and ideas via communication (whether socially or through art).
So the two numbers, more so than either to the Life Path, are intrinsically connected. The Expression Number is in essence, the delivery system for the Psychic Number. If a person has a Psychic Number of 5 (change, adventure, non-conformity) and an Expression of 4 (structure, order, law), then very likely this person needs constant stimulation and motion but is very organized about their passions, their talent possibly lying in planning, simplifying and perfecting their ideas. Depending what their Life Path entails, these numbers reconcile two completely opposites into a dynamic relationship. When they become too rigid and perhaps inapplicable, the #4 expressions rely on the #5 psyche to inject risk and a shift in lanes to produce solutions and further progress. They breathe, flowing back and forth.
As a music artist, I’m constantly meditating on creativity and expression. I actually define Art as any creative manifestation of our inner consciousness/emotions, in response to our external surroundings. #ArtFeedsArt. Expression is the vehicle for these manifestations. Whether its a painting, song, meal, or simply just some good ol’ advice, we reveal a piece of our inner selves in these talents. Whether inspired by positive or negative stimuli, we create vibrations that produce powerful stimulation in others. Whatever waves you manifest are likely to determine the kind that return to you. This is Karma. You get what you give, as they often say.
The Expression Number tells you the strengths and weaknesses of your innate ability to express your psyche. This number, which vibrates your consciousness, informs you the best way for you to deliver your mind/heart/soul to the external world. Whether you should have more patience, less analysis, more collaboration or less dependency, etc. It plugs you into your zone, that which has aligned you a specific way to the universe and guides you on how best to move in unison with it.
Madonna has a song called Express Yourself but its in the lyrics to her 1990 hit, Vogue, that we find a closer connection between what expression provides for the individual. In the song, voguing is a way of manifesting our feelings through action. Moving to the music, implies a oneness to which we need to submit ourselves, in order to offer back a truth. The beauty in which “we find it,” is the emotion or consciousness with which we create.
“All you need is your own imagination / So use it that's what it's for (that's what it's for) / Go inside, for your finest inspiration / Your dreams will open the door (open up the door)”
“Beauty's where you find it / Not just where you bump and grind it / Soul is in the musical / That's where I feel so beautiful / Magical, life's a ball / So get up on the dance floor...”
The Universe is music and dancing to it, is the alignment between our movement and its rhythm. We are all moved by the music in different ways and thus, express ourselves differently through the dance. As an analogy, the Expression Number states that this group is more likely to move their hips, that group to shimmy their shoulders, and this other group to simply tap its feet or jump up and down waving their arms wildly. How do you best dance to the Universe? Calculate your Expression Number and find out.
Sincerely, from the golden ratio of my love,
-AE (If any questions or comments, please feel free to express yourself here.)
1. NUMEROLOGY: The Vibration and Meaning of Numbers
2. Token Rock: Numerology
3. Madonna Vogue (I’m Breathless, Sire - Warner Bros, 1990)
