About Personal Year Cycles in Numerology

There is some confusion about when exactly the Personal Year cycle starts and ends.

The most important medium-term cycles in numerology are the Personal Year Cycles and the Essence Cycles. Generally speaking, the Personal Year cycles tend to be overrated, while the Essence cycles are almost always underrated.

Let's talk about Personal Year cycles.

The Personal Year cycles in particular are popular, because not only are they strongly felt, they are also very easy to calculate. (See Calculation Methods.)

What exactly are Personal Year cycles?

Think of Personal Year cycles as short 1-year sections of your Life Path. They reveal how your "internal" cycles are influenced by the Universal Year cycles. This is also reflected in the way the Personal Year cycle is calculated: Add your Month of Birth, your Day of Birth, and the current (universal) year together, and then reduce to a single digit. In other words, add your Month and Day of Birth to the Universal Year cycle. A fusion, so to speak, of your Birth Date and the Universal Year cycle.
It is because of this fusion, that the Personal Year cycles run concurrent with the Universal Year cycles and, of course, the calendar year cycles.

But, if that is true, why do some numerologists feel that the Personal Year cycles start at your birth day and not at the beginning of the year?

The answer, as you may have guessed, is in the overlapping cusp periods.

Think of your birth day as a powerful force that pulls and guides all your cycles, including the Personal Year cycle. The force your day of birth bestows upon your Personal Year cycle pulls this cycle towards maturity. Just like the moon pulls the tide, your day of birth pulls your Personal Year cycle.
Remember those cusp periods? Well, those cusp periods, which can be anywhere from 1 month to 6 months long, are controlled by your month and day of birth.
For example, a person born in February, has a short cusp period of perhaps one or two months at the beginning of the Personal Year cycle, reaching maturity sometime in the early part of January, which is followed by a five or six months period from January through July or August during which the Personal Year cycle is fully mature, after which the cycle slowly decreases over the next five or six months. During the last couple of months of this period of decrease, the new cycle is already muscling its way in.
See the graphic below for an accurate presentation of when Personal Years are in place, and their cusp periods, based on the month of birth.

Red shows the period when your current Personal Year cycle is in full force.
Yellow reveals when the old cycle is still influencing you, but is on its way out.
Blue/purple highlights the time when the next cycle starts to make its presence known.

The list of months on the left reflects the months of birth.

Each row to the right of a month of birth shows the strength and duration of a Personal Year cycle for someone born during that month.

Personal Month cycles.

Personal Month cycles are calculated by adding the current month to your Personal Year cycle. And, just like Personal Year cycles, there is a cusp period on each end. This time, however, the cusp period is not controlled by your month of birth, but by your day of birth - in a similar fashion but on a smaller scale, as the yearly cycles.

Personal Day cycles.

Personal Day cycles also have cusp periods. In Personal Day cycles they are based on the time of your birth. In addition,  daylight savings time and location/time zones often push these cycles forward or backward several hours. You can see why some people feel that the Personal Day cycles are more accurate if shifted one day forward or backward, whichever the case may be.

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