Knowing your Personal Year Cycle in Numerology is the most immediate way to get some exceptional information about what’s going on for you during the course of any given year (click here for more about the Personal Year Cycle).

If you want to go to the next level, get to know your Pinnacles and Challenges.  In Numerology, we believe that we all go through 4 distinct periods of development during our lives and these stages are called Pinnacles.  

Think of them like a master plan. Each Pinnacle Number represents the lessons to be learned and mastered during a certain period of time.  The longest period of time resides at the beginning and at the end of your life, with two 9 year cycles in the middle that often coincide with the energies related to your Personal Year Cycle.

Fair warning:  Calculating your Pinnacles and Challenges is more involved than dealing with your Personal Year or your Life Path number.  So get ready to do some math and to check your calculations!

Think of the Pinnacle Numbers as the energy surrounding and influencing you during each defined period of your life in addition to your Life Path Number. Often times knowing your Pinnacles and their Challenges offers some great validation and insight about the experiences you have gone through until now – and then offers some insight into what’s in store for you in the coming years.

Here is the basic formula for finding your four Pinnacle Numbers

  • First Pinnacle = Month of Birth + Day of Birth
  • Second Pinnacle = Day of Birth + Year of Birth
  • Third Pinnacle = First Life Stage Number + Second Life Stage Number
  • Fourth Pinnacle = Month of Birth + Year of Birth

Calculate Your Pinnacles 

Now you must calculate the age you are during your different Pinnacles. Your age in every stage depends on your Life Path Number.

To calculate your age during your First Pinnacle, take the number 36 and subtract your Life Path Number from it.

Example: If you’re a 9 Life Path, subtract 9 from 36.

36 – 9 = 27

This means that your First Pinnacle transpires from the time of your birth until you’re 27 years old.

To calculate your age during your Second Pinnacle, simply  add  9 to the ending age of your First Pinnacle.

Example: For the 9 Life Path, whose First Pinnacle ended at age 27, we calculate:

27 + 9 = 36

Your Second Pinnacle lasts from age 27 to age 36.

To calculate your age during your Third Pinnacle, add 9 to the ending age of your Second Pinnacle.

Example: For the 9 Life Path, whose Second Pinnacle ended at age 36, we calculate:

36 + 9 = 45

Your Third Pinnacle lasts from age 36 to age 45.

Your Fourth Pinnacle starts at the end of your Third Pinnacle. This age initiates the energy surrounding you for the rest of your life.

Example: For the 9 Life Path, whose Third Pinnacle lasted until age 45, the Fourth Pinnacle began at age 45 and continues until you pass away.

Challenge Numbers

Knowing your Challenge Numbers and how they interrelate to your Pinnacles is vital. 

Understand that the Challenge Number indicates that you’ll be challenge with the negative or destructive elements of the number while simultaneously being challenged to step up to the plate and embrace and act upon the positive and constructive aspects of the number.  Challenge Numbers are not meant to be overcome; rather they indicate what you must become.

Here’s how to calculate the Challenge Numbers for your Pinnacles. Let me be clear: You must subtract numbers here rather than use addition. Another funny thing you need to know is that there are no negative numbers in numerology, so you actually can subtract a larger number from a smaller number. If you subtract a 9 from a 2, for instance, what you end up with is a 7. If you subtract a 7 from a 3, what you end up with is a 4. 

Here’s the basic formula for finding your Challenge Numbers.

  • First Challenge Number = Day of Birth – Month of Birth
  • Second Challenge Number = Year of Birth – Day of Birth
  • Third Challenge Number = Second Challenge Number – First Challenge Number
  • Fourth Challenge Number = Year of Birth – Month of Birth

PINNACLES AND CHALLENGES REFERENCE GUIDE 

Please keep in mind that this list is merely a glimpse of some of the potential extremes inherent to the Challenge Number. The Challenge Number by definition is confrontational; it challenges you to overcome the destructive energies while becoming aligned with—and embodying—the constructive energies associated with a particular Pinnacle Number.

Pinnacle 1

During this Pinnacle, you are focused on developing independence, self-reliance, and individuality. The primary energy during this phase of your life is to achieve mastery in these areas. This is a time spent developing your ability to express your individuality by cultivating original ideas, by leading and directing others, by attaining success and achievement in the material world, and by gaining recognition for those achievements.

First Pinnacle: Keep in mind that especially during a 1 Pinnacle, all people and circumstances in your life are fully on purpose; these people and experiences are your teachers if you can perceive them in that light. When you have this number for a First Pinnacle, chances are your youth is spent learning how to develop and use original ideas. You’re called to lead and to rely on yourself without resorting to the downside of ego, stubbornness, and being self-centered or dominating. It’s not necessarily a settling time because it’s governed by exponential learning, which includes all the hard knocks that go with it.

Second or Third Pinnacle: If you have a Number 1 for the Second or Third Pinnacle, you’re being groomed for—and challenged with—embracing leadership and developing all that being an effective and inspirational leader entails. You’re being called upon to focus intently on these aspects: courage, drive, vision, focus, determination, and, most of all, integrity. You might experience a certain degree of aggressiveness in your demeanor at this time. Your ability to get ahead is limited only by your own initiative during a 1 Pinnacle.

Fourth Pinnacle: A Fourth Pinnacle with a Number 1 is marked by what might be called imposing energy; meaning, any thought of slowing down or retiring is most likely not in the cards. Both challenges and changes will accompany this last stage of life and your accomplishments can be profound if you’ve mastered the art of leadership, direction, and expression of your own original ideas.  You’ll be challenged with keying into you unique and creative ideas and acting on your individuality and independence.

Warning: When you’re being groomed by the Universe for a leadership position, you’ll be required to be an intern first. This means that it’s unlikely for you to magically be handed golden opportunities for success—and if you are, take them and run with them. Usually you’ll have to construct your own opportunities through desire, focus, self-determination, and the ability to take a punch, get up, shake it off, and keep going.

1 Challenge

If the number 1 as a Challenge Number, you’re being called upon to stand up for yourself, be true to yourself, and be self-reliant. You’re truly being called upon to step up to the plate and become a leader. This won’t necessarily be a gift that simply falls into your lap; you will need to cultivate leadership qualities, trust in your vision, and hone your people skills so you can be most effective in getting the job done.

During this time, you’re likely to feel dominated by others in one way or another—either professionally or in your relationships. This feeling of being dominated might lead you to be competitive and you might experience an overwhelming sense of needing to achieve above all else. Your challenge lies in your ability to recognize when you’re being pulled into this negative vortex and instead focus your energies on controlling the ego and keep self-righteousness in check.

You’re learning about self-reliance and how to solve your own problems—and perhaps the problems of others—independently. You need to cultivate your wit and intelligence and cast tendencies toward argumentation and resentfulness aside. Also cultivate your confidence. This is a period where you’ll come under fire by critics and detractors. Don’t allow the naysayers to stand in your way or deflate your vision.

Potential Destructive Aspects of the 1 Challenge:

  • Major or minor bouts with feelings of insecurity
  • Becoming an aggressive “know-it-all”
  • Getting caught up in “being right” at all costs
  • Allowing addictions to overtake you
  • Becoming extremely emotionally needy
  • Feelings of ill health due to frustration

Pinnacle 2

When this is your Pinnacle, you’re being beckoned to envelop yourself in the elements of learning to cooperate, share, be considerate of others, and be at your best when you are in harmonious relationships without sacrificing yourself in the process.

2 is the number of partnerships, patience, balance, and keeping fairness at the helm. Therefore a Pinnacle is a time where love and group effort takes front seat, whether it’s through marriage or partnership, parenting, or other experiences that have the elements of unconditional love at the core.

This is a time where you will be called upon to work on—and perfect—your subtle art of relating. The 2 energy also has to do with gathering and relating facts or data, perfecting details, and being a team player whose strength lies in being of service in a joyous and balanced way. Where precision and details are valued, you’ll be happiest with your contributions.

A 2 Pinnacle immerses you in friendliness and harmony. This energy asks you to pay attention to details and practice patience and tact. It won’t offer much recognition for all you do during this time, so you must turn to yourself for acknowledgment in order not to feel resentful.

First Pinnacle: If you experience a 2 First Pinnacle, count on being an overly-sensitive child who’s easily hurt and who takes on the emotions of those around you. Yet, since you’re so young, you won’t realize you’re feeling both your own emotions plus those of everyone else. You may have difficulties with both verbal and emotional expression since you are overloaded with feelings that you’re not yet mature enough to recognize and filter out. Your mother is likely to be the strongest influence on you during this time.

Second or Third Pinnacle: A Second or Third Pinnacle with a 2 influence will surround your life in the energies associated with working in balance with other people. This is a time that isn’t so much “me” focused as “us” focused. When you master your ability to promote harmony in all things, show patience and a willingness to forgo credit based on your contributions to the whole, you’ll be operating optimally. The work you engage in during this time is likely to be quite detailed and demanding. If you’ve been a content stay-at-home mom, for instance, it wouldn’t be surprising to see this number in your Second or Third Pinnacle.

Fourth Pinnacle: If you have 2 energy in your Fourth Pinnacle, it’s an opportunity to cultivate harmony. You can retire or continue to work, yet the key to feeling satisfaction and fulfillment will be patience, tact, and cooperation. Again, you’ll need to control a tendency toward sensitivity. It doesn’t serve you well to be at the mercy of overwrought emotions.

Warning: The 2 energy is super-duper sensitive. If you don’t work with this energy mindfully your tendency will be to get your feelings hurt often and deeply. If you take every little thing personally, instead of cultivating your ability to relate well with yourself and others, you’ll experience a substantial amount of pain during this time—not to mention a battering of your self-esteem in the process.

2 Challenge

This is one of the most common Challenge Numbers because it revolves around developing your sensitivity to all human relations and developing your sense of seeing other peoples’ points of view. This is a lifelong challenge for all of us, yet when it’s your Challenge Number it’ll present you with especially intense tests surrounding working with feelings of fear, not standing up for yourself, and lack of self confidence. The pain inherent in these lessons can be fierce. You’ll be challenged with getting past basing your actions and decisions on what other people think or say about you. Again, the balance between giving to others constructively and giving to yourself in a way that isn’t totally self-absorbed is part of this challenge period.

The challenge here is that you’re being called to work with the energies of harmony, cooperation, and diplomacy, and yet you are feeling none of this. Instead, you find it difficult to work with people because of your fear of criticism, or of being ignored. You feel huge doses of self-doubt, lack of self-confidence, and there’s always that nagging worry (sometimes tipping into paranoia) that other people are judging you.

So you can see that the challenge is to understand the destructive aspects of the sensitivity of the 2 energy so that you can strive toward incorporating the constructive aspect instead. This would include using your keen sensitivities as a strength because you’re so attuned to others and what they’re feeling. If you’re wearing your “psychic armor,” you can use that to your advantage with all of your interactions.

During this period you’re faced with great difficulties in asserting yourself and making solid decisions. You might shy away from positions of responsibility and authority because you’re so emotionally tender. Your mantra for the 2 Challenge: Don’t take anything personally. This is a time for slower, more deliberate growth, rather than seeking quick or immediate gain or results. Respect this more “quiet” stage in your life.

 Potential Destructive Aspects of the 2 Challenge

  • Becoming defensive, self-absorbed, and angry to the point of being irrational
  • Stubbornness and taking unfair actions
  • Feeling unworthy to the point of allowing abuse
  • Feeling resentful and unacknowledged for things you do for others
  • Unable to follow through on things you want to do (for example, finish school, train for a job)
  • Health issues, particularly in the joints

Pinnacle 3

When a 3 Pinnacle comes, get ready to dig into your emotions and express yourself. This is a time to get to know your inner life intimately, to identify and deal with your emotions, and to cultivate your creativity in all its forms. You have no other choice except to dig deep to locate your underlying emotions and learn to communicate these with clarity and purpose. It’s time to learn to speak your truth.  If you attempt to hold your feelings and ideas in, you’ll implode. Now is the time to allow yourself and others to see the true creative and emotional you.

This Pinnacle is set up for light, enjoyable activities that support joy and expression. This energy is supportive of travel, social activities, friendships, and entertainment. You may feel affectionate and certainly you feel the push to be outgoing during a 3 Pinnacle. The foundation is being poured for growth and development of personal expression, particularly verbal expression. Even if you haven’t felt particularly “artistic” or “creative” before, now you are likely to feel drawn toward participation in artistic creation of one kind or another.

The 3 vibration is aligned with the joy of the present moment. Long-term plans made during this stage might not come to fruition exactly the way you planned them. It’s all about being with people, having some fun, and acting with a youthful attitude. It can be an “easy come, easy go” stage, where variety and movement trump hunkering down and making things happen. Think. Dream. Imagine. Create.

Pinnacle ONE: While it sounds rather breezy, if the number 3 shows up during your Pinnacles, it offers many challenges. While there may be lots of opportunities to develop and pursue artistic and creative potentials, chances are you won’t recognize them or be willing to work at making them come to fruition this early in life because you lack the wisdom and experience that comes with age. So instead, there’s a tendency to scatter your energies or perhaps to work on fleeting ideas. Better yet: You may just be having too much fun to worry about the future. The best spin: The Three First Pinnacle will encourage the development of a creative career 

Second or Third Pinnacle: If you’re in your Second or Third Pinnacle, the 3 energy pertains to good friends and happy relationships, joy, gratitude, the pleasures of life, and creative self-expression. This is a time where your responsibilities and accomplishments are greatly dependent on your social demeanor and communication skills. You may be presented with opportunities to write, speak, design, or take a job in the entertainment industry. This time is marked by imagination and feelings.

If you’re nurturing this number’s healthy aspects during your Pinnacle, it has a natural attraction for money and an easier life full of creativity where you’re drawn to encourage and inspire others. You could even become interested in some aspect of the healing arts.

Fourth Pinnacle: If a Number 3 shows up for your Fourth Pinnacle, there’s a good possibility for travel and social activity. Often this is accompanied with a freedom from financial worry. It can be a very comfortable final stage in your life that is supportive of all your creative endeavors.

Warning: You’ll feel that with the 3 energy, you can get easily scattered, distracted, and drained. The 3 energy is so curious, you’ll want to learn something and then quickly move on to the next thing. You would benefit from developing more groundedness and a sense of self-discipline in order to take full advantage of this joyful and happy number. 

3 Challenge

If you have a 3 Challenge, you’re learning to identify your feelings and to speak from your heart. It’s a time where you’re truly learning and mastering one of the major teachings of the 3 vibration: Your words have a profound impact on your life.

Sometimes the challenge resides in taking yourself and your feelings seriously; it may feel easier to use humor or criticism to mask your feelings. Or perhaps your challenge will be in taking yourself too seriously.

Some of the tendencies that the 3 vibration brings with it are the propensities for superficiality, exaggeration, self-centeredness, moodiness, and scattered energy. What this Challenge Number is inviting you to do is to use your creative energy to develop your positive, happy, loving, and inspirational spirit. Wasting 3 energy is like throwing away a priceless gift. It’s the vibration of pure happiness.

You might feel the compulsion to do too many things at once during a Pinnacle that has a 3 Challenge. Despite your heightened imagination and gift for words—both written and verbal—this challenge will knock you over with a “block” when you want to express yourself effectively and honestly.

Even though you know you should be “out there” cultivating friends and business associates, you’ll feel the urge to bury your head in the sand and a general malaise you can’t seem to shake—or at least not for long. Instead of experiencing the great joyous vibrations the Three has to offer, you’ll instead be bombarded with hopelessness or perhaps depression. You’ll struggle with feelings of negativity even to the point of becoming defensive and reclusive.  You might also have a tendency for money to slip through your hands during this time.

You may have a talent or desire to practice your talents for writing, acting, or speaking, yet you’re reluctant to involve yourself with these activities because the thought of facing criticism is overwhelming. So you turn to expressing yourself with a negative emphasis as cynicism or ruthless judgment, or you might hide your creative talents behind a façade of withdrawal and feelings of shyness. You’re being called to develop yourself in a social and creative way. You must jump over the destructive landmines along your path.

Potential Destructive Aspects of the 3 Challenge

  • Experiencing such a sense of self-doubt that you don’t move forward in your life
  • Becoming an emotional sponge and experiencing severe emotional sensitivity
  • Acting out of criticism and judgment
  • Dwelling in negativity
  • Shutting down, withdrawing, and becoming emotionally unavailable
  • Attempting to get what you want through manipulation rather than stating it clearly
  • Developing physical illness (especially in the intestinal tract) and depression

Pinnacle 4

A 4 Pinnacle is the period of your life where you’re being called to build your life with solid, stable foundations that’ll last. This is often a period of time where you’re drawn toward purchasing—or actually building—a home and concentrating your efforts on career and family.

This isn’t a particularly light-hearted and “fun” time because you’re learning and being tested by issues related to organizing, setting up good systems, patience, hard work, endurance, working step by step, and moving ahead methodically. This stage is for designing and pouring the proper foundation for your future. It’s a practical time where you’re putting your ideas into the material world and manifesting your vision with discipline and a serious attitude. This is a period of time where you’ll be tested in the realm of recognizing, moving through, and getting around limitations.

You’re being immersed in the energies that support a practical and realistic approach to life. So a demand for order, system building, and organization is key. The 4 Pinnacle encourages you to be dependable, conscientious, and reliable. Determined and somewhat relentless effort is required and you may feel a strong compulsion and emotional need to immerse yourself in work during this Life Stage. When you do, you’ll thrive on that energy.

First Pinnacle: Experiencing a 4 First Pinnacle sets you up for a demanding childhood and adolescence. You might find your economic circumstances demand more concerted effort and hard work. This can also be a stage of life devoted to the pursuit of your education. In either event, it’s unlikely you’ll be involved in the normal frivolity of life because of the intensity of your schedule. 

Second or Third Pinnacle: A Second or Third Pinnacle with a 4 emphasis will fuel your ability to get ahead in the world and achieve—not so much because of innate talent as much as your drive and ability to out-work the competition. You might find some economic limitations during this Life Stage, set in your path to test your commitment to building solid and steady foundations while not being beaten down by obstacles and limitations.

Stage Four: A Fourth Life Stage imbued with the 4 energy will most likely not allow you to slow down or retire in the way you might desire or expect. 4 isn’t a leisurely vibration, so it doesn’t even recognize the notion of “retire” or “slow down.”  The important factor here is to do the work and feel good about the sense of accomplishment. There is a possibility that economic conditions will control your ability to slow down or retire.

The 4 Pinnacle teaches you that your effort is what counts. The upside: If you take this energy seriously and build a strong foundation, you’ll reap the benefits for the rest of your life.

Warning: The 4 energy offers with it a bevy of teachers. As you’re challenged to build something of lasting value, you’re setting up your future relationship with money, your ability to meet deadlines, your ability to institute effective systems, and your way of dealing with limitations. 

4 Challenge

When you’re met with a Number 4 Challenge, you are meant to learn about the value of discipline, organization, practicality, hard work, and thrift. Take this to heart: This isn’t an easy challenge. It’s full of restrictions and limitations that are demanding you learn how to succeed and work within these boundaries.

It’s also a time where you’re challenged with learning to set your own personal boundaries with others, learning to temper impatience, stubbornness, narrow-mindedness, and self-righteousness. With the 4 Challenge, you are being pulled to slow down, create a clear plan with obtainable goals, and then work tirelessly to achieve them.

The 4 Challenge also suggests a difficulty with work. Either you are challenged with not wanting to work at all, not liking the work you are “forced” to do, or problems completing tasks and working with efficiency. You may also exhibit tendencies to be careless and lack a sense of practicality. With this number, it’s difficult not only to focus on work and obligations, but equally as difficult even to see what the real issues surrounding work and obligations are. You might not feel that you’re being lazy. You might feel you’re just unlucky. Or make excuses about it. You get the idea.

With a 4 Challenge, it’s vital to learn patience, understanding, and the practical and effective way to deal with what you might consider mundane responsibilities. You’ll most likely also be challenged to learn the importance of working within the parameters of a time schedule, showing up on time and when you say you will, and managing your downtime constructively.

Potential Destructive Aspects of the 4 Challenge

  • Feelings of discouragement and confusion, often resulting in you feeling like a victim
  • Being undependable, uncommitted, lazy, and irresponsible
  • Making the same mistakes over and over again
  • Allowing your relationships within your family to influence decisions negatively
  • Avoidance of, and difficulties with, systems and processes
  • Being prone to panic attacks when feeling overwhelmed

Pinnacle 5

When you have a 5 Pinnacle, get ready for what I call an “ADHD experience.”  This is a time for change and uncertainty. It feels as though you’re experiencing life without a filter. In this Pinnacle, vivacious, unbridled energy surrounds you and it’s hard to know what direction to go or what to grasp onto. Ultimately, this is a time for loosening up patterns of restriction you have held on to in the past. The 5 Pinnacle is all about developing a new sense of freedom, liberation, and adventure.  This Pinnacle is all about change. 

Change is the mantra for this period of your life—and that means change in everything from career direction and business decisions, to spirituality and health, marriage and divorce. You name it. It’s all up for review during this highly energized portion of your life. If you’re forward thinking and ready for a shakeup, this can be a brilliant time of transformation—but not without the pain associated with growth. This isn’t a time to nest or settle down; instead you’ll find yourself being drawn into the public world.

The major focus of a 5 Pinnacle is to learn to be adaptable and flexible. Remember: What you resist will persist. Don’t resist this cataclysmic energy, yet also avoid impulsive decisions, including the strong urge to run away and avoid whatever you’re experiencing.

First Pinnacle: A 5 First Pinnacle can be a difficult period because it’s hard to find the stability to establish yourself, develop a sense of who you are, and set the foundations for what you want in adult life. Perhaps you end up moving quite often during this First Pinnacle and it requires that you change schools and friends often. The 5 energy invites you to live by your own rules in many ways during this early time, which can be great for you, if well managed. Most likely you’ll find yourself getting into trouble. You’re likely to experience a good amount of impulsiveness and a craving for unbridled independence during this early stage.  The 5 is all about progressive thought and action – and also supports engagement with people and experiences that broaden your horizons.

Second or Third Pinnacle: If in the Second or Third Pinnacle, the vibration of the 5 supports your ability to progress and achieve in a fast moving, highly fluctuating environment. Adaptability is critical to your healthy progress during this stage. Your desire for—and sense of—freedom is quite powerful and significant during this Pinnacle. You must be careful not to get too carried away and damage relationships or partnerships because of your unyielding urge for freedom, travel, and adventure.

Fourth Pinnacle: The 5 energy that guides your Fourth Pinnacle results in a continuously fast-paced life. This won’t be your road to a laconic retirement. Change and variety continue to present themselves and this can be an interesting stage of your life. In many cases, the 5 energy at the final stage of life brings with it freedom from overarching financial or domestic worries.  Travel, adventure, change, and resilience define this final Pinnacle.

Warning: Because the 5 Pinnacle is a time to expect the unexpected (and change is usually difficult for all of us) this period in your life can be exciting and yet unsettling. It’ll often prove to be a transformational time accented with restlessness, activity, and a distinct desire to get outside of your own box. There also may be the tendencies to quit something before it’s completed, to be promiscuous in your sexual life, or to habitually overindulge in food, drugs, alcohol, or gambling. Balance is key and a huge test during this Pinnacle.

5 Challenge

The challenge inherent in the 5 is that you’ll feel a little crazy. This energy is highly charged and quite intense. Think about how you’ve felt during the 5 Personal Years you’ve already lived through in your Personal Year Cycle: That’s just a small glimpse of the feelings surrounding this longer segment of your life. Impatience, restlessness, and a relentless desire for personal freedom are at the core of your challenge. This is the time to mindfully become free from limiting behaviors. The problem with that is that under this challenge, being mindful is particularly hard.

With this challenge, you’ll find yourself being extremely impulsive and unstable. You’ll want to try everything at least once, so there’s a chaotic and uncontrollable aspect to this vibration. Change will be inevitable, yet it must be handled in a thoughtful, meaningful, and controlled manner. The 5 is all about freedom through self-discipline – the constructive and focused use of freedom. 

 You’ll be pulled toward evading responsibility rather than committing to healthy and constructive change. All in all, this challenge requires that you learn, as early on as possible, to reign in your reckless tendencies and to monitor your impulses.

Potential Destructive Aspects of the 5 Challenge

  • Feelings of chaos resulting in either emotional paralysis or bad judgment
  • Living a life of pure self-indulgence and lack of discipline
  • Being irresponsible and unfocused
  • Becoming fully immersed in addiction to food, sex, alcohol, drugs, or overwork
  • Living with a victim mentality and flitting from relationship to relationship, job to job
  • Health issues, including mental health, adrenal system burnout, injuries, and accidents

Pinnacle 6

Love, duty, responsibility, and family are the hallmarks of any 6 Pinnacle. This is a stage in your life that is immersed in the energies of nurturing, service, and love. You may choose to nurture your career or your family—or even your pets or employees—yet you can’t avoid these years that are devoted to nurturing those around you, embracing your sense of responsibility, and balancing giving to others and giving to yourself simultaneously.

If your giving is lopsided and you give, give, give to everyone else and leave nothing for yourself, you’ll certainly experience the difficult lessons that accompany that imbalance. Or if your behavior is lopsided in the opposite direction, where you’re self-involved and self-absorbed at the expense of giving freely to others, you’ll certainly experience the difficult lessons that accompany that imbalance. You must achieve balance within yourself and your chosen family.

This is the stage where you’ll feel the irresistible urge to establish or intensify your involvement with home, children, and the beautification of your surroundings. The Six energy also carries with it a vibration associated with a commitment to community and humanitarian service of some kind, and so this might be a period of time that you’ll feel compelled to be involved in some aspects of these services.

You can make considerable money during this Pinnacle when you are solidly focused on your visionary contributions and service. This is also most certainly the “love and marriage” stage with intense focus on babies and the home. It can also be the “marriage and divorce” stage when the marriage as it stands can no longer be sustained.

One of the major influences of this 6 Pinnacle is experiencing such an overwhelming sense of responsibility that brings with it an undeniable feeling of restriction and being tied down. The bottom line is that you’re learning about responsibility and nurturing, plain and simple. You’ll learn what’s required and when enough is enough by setting your boundaries. It’s a time where you’re developing knowledge of what’s really in your heart and acting on it with compassion.

First Pinnacle: As a younger person in the midst of a 6 Pinnacle, you’re likely to find yourself knee-deep in duty and responsibility related to home and family. This may be because of the pressures you experience in your family with parents and siblings, or you may find yourself entering into premature marriage at an early age. Often this energy causes you to experience controlling circumstances from a parent or another authority figure.

Second or Third Pinnacle: If you have the 6 vibration in your Second or Third Pinnacle, you might find great achievement through accepting increasing levels of responsibility and interacting with diplomacy in whatever you do during this period. Home and family often take precedence over business, or at least meld with it. It’s a time for you to attend primarily to the demands of family and friends rather than to the development of yourself as an individual.

Fourth Pinnacle: If you have a 6 Fourth Pinnacle, the vibration brings with it the rewards and pleasures of family, friends, and security. You’ll most likely act on your feelings of philanthropy. This is a stage where giving back is vital to your innate sense of well being and purpose in the world.

Warning: The 6 vibration is such a high-frequency vibration that it tends to idealize the world, people, relationships, and even the self. This results in stubbornness and being overly opinionated. The true lesson of the 6 is to learn acceptance – and learn to modulate your sense of responsibility.  You’re being tested not to be overly responsible or overly irresponsible. 

6 Challenge

When you experience a 6 Challenge during one of your Pinnacles, you’ll most likely feel burdened or overwhelmed by family obligations. You’re learning to serve others and strike a balance between honoring your commitments to them with your commitments to yourself. This is no small task. Remember: Even if you’re able to achieve some semblance of balance of giving to yourself during this time devoted to nurturing others and learning about responsibility, you can’t and shouldn’t try to avoid caring for others under the influence of a 6 Challenge. If you’re operating with the destructive tendencies of the 6 Challenge, you may be myopically self-centered rather than generous and giving.

This Challenge is often related to the energy of codependency, enmeshment, and giving for misguided reasons. Rest assured that you’ll be alerted when you’re taking care of others in an unhealthy way during this 6 Challenge.

You’re prone to demanding extraordinarily high standards from other people and of yourself, which is in itself a setup for frustration and unhappiness. There’s no way others could live up to your expectations. If leaning toward the challenges of the 6 vibration, you’re apt to come across as authoritarian, intolerant, and self-righteous. If you don’t step back into the constructive aspects of the 6 energy, your tendency during this time may well be to get lodged in cynicism, criticism, and judgment.

Avoiding friction in relationships by emphasizing harmony, using diplomacy at every turn, and allowing others to set their own paces and live their own perfectly imperfect lives will be the key strategies for rising above the challenges of the 6 vibration. Ultimately, your challenge lies in learning, embracing, and practicing unconditional love and acceptance. 

Potential Destructive Aspects of the 6 Challenge

  • Feelings of superiority and thoughts of judgment
  • Being angry and disappointed with others and yourself to the point of cynicism
  • Becoming self-absorbed and uninterested in helping or supporting others
  • Becoming such a perfectionist that you feel paralyzed and fearful
  • Living in denial of your emotional life
  • Health issues that are often chest related (including asthma)

Pinnacle 7

Introspection and study are the key ingredients of the 7 Pinnacle. This is a segment of your life where you’re beckoned to explore your inner world through study, research, intense introspection, and soul development in whatever manner you choose to pursue it. You’ll experience wanting to be reclusive, as your focus turns mainly toward advancing your experience and knowledge in your area of specialization. This is a time mixed with analysis, gaining knowledge, and huge leaps in your intuitive capabilities.

By taking the time to develop spiritually under the influence of this 7 energy, you’re setting yourself up for gaining substantial wisdom and skill, setting yourself apart from others in your ability to explain the unexplainable, and using your gifts to encourage others to seek and find their own truth and wisdom. As you find yours, you’ll then be prepared to assist others in finding theirs.

Intrinsic to this vibration is a strict focus on learning, investigating, and gaining skills. You’ll be pulled inward during the 7 Pinnacle, so chances are high that you’ll become a bit of a loner during this time—as opposed to during other stages in your life when you’ll feel more open and outgoing. Your comfort zone will reside most distinctly in working alone or at least with few restraints.

While marriage is not out of the question, it’ll take concerted effort for both partners to make it work during your 7 Pinnacle. You might even find yourself uninterested or unconcerned with material matters and shy away from involvement in practical affairs. This could result in limited finances or even physical disabilities.

First Pinnacle: If you experience a 7 First Pinnacle,  it can be difficult because it means you’ll probably struggle with feeling alone and like you don’t belong. Expect dramatic life experiences during this time that serve as teaching tools for your journey. It’s a time when you’re a serious student and—whether or not you can identify it as such—when you’re motivated by inner yearnings. A First Pinnacle accompanied by the 7 vibration can be a difficult and confusing time.

Second or Third Pinnacle: If you experience this vibration in your Second or Third Pinnacle, you’ll be offered an opportunity to refine and specialize your skills down to a fine art if you so choose. Unless you’re directly involved with some sort of research, spiritual, or philosophical endeavors, progress during this Pinnacle can feel painfully slow. The benefits to your 7 Pinnacle won’t be seen in your material or financial realm as much as in your spiritual life and internal realm.

Fourth Pinnacle: As a 7 Fourth Pinnacle, your spiritual development will be undeniable. You’ll be called upon to teach others what you’ve learned. Continued time for study, development, contemplation, and higher learning are keys to this final Pinnacle. The 7 vibration at this point in life requires detachment from the practical realms and putting a renewed focus on more philosophical thinking and relating. You may find it difficult to relate to people during this time, so it’s best to seek out like-minded souls with whom to share ideas. Be patient and open though. People will come to you to hear what you have to say because of the wisdom and knowledge you have cultivated and gained through your life experiences. It’s part of this Pinnacle to become a master teacher and share your wisdom with others.

Warning: Does this Life Path sound as if it called you be a reclusive monk or the equal of Mother Teresa? Not so. Despite the concentration on your internal journey, you still need to live in the physical world and you’ll happily go out and dance the night away at a party, enjoy passionate lovemaking with your sweetheart, and hold down a job. You can do those things, but this vibration also strongly requires you to allow yourself the time, energy, and space needed to focus and study all realms of experience.

7 Challenge

The 7 competes with the 4 energy in terms of the seriousness associated with its vibration. While the 7 demands inner exploration, the chances of feeling alone and isolated are common. Contemplating the intricacies of life and spirituality isn’t mastered in a weekend seminar. Nor is it mastered in a lifetime. Yet that’s the task you’re being called to focus upon. Often there is a big “test” or some serious repression or avoidance during a Pinnacle that has a 7 Challenge.

Remember: The key lesson for a 7 Challenge is to understand that all your experiences—especially those that occur during this particular Life Stage—are fuel for your growth. Develop trust in yourself. All that you experience during this period of life is meant to hone your powers of analysis and observation, intuition, and spirituality. You’ll be asked to trust your analytic mind and your highly developed intuition.

During a period with a 7 Challenge you’ll be faced with difficulties brought on by your discomfort with your own inner thoughts and feelings. This could feel like detachment from people and situations or like tumultuous unexpressed and unresolved emotions. You might feel exasperated and helpless, as though you’re a hapless victim of life who is unable to change or improve his or her situation or circumstances. There’s also a strong tendency to chronically complain and criticize while offering no solutions to your perceived problems.

More challenging aspects of the 7 vibration might lead you to express everything you say or write in a negative manner. You may feel the impulse to avoid your feelings by putting up a wall of pride and aloofness. This is your opportunity to develop faith in your own abilities rather than to rely on the opinions of others or dwell on your limitations. The trick is to get out of your head and into your self.  This is a time devoted to truly, madly, and deeply uncovering the real and authentic you. 

Potential Destructive Aspects of the 7 Challenge

  • Withdrawing through drugs, alcohol, sex, or spending your life online
  • Either isolating yourself totally from the world or being unable to spend any time alone
  • Avoiding work by being scattered, unfocused, and overly emotional
  • Avoiding your own life by immersing yourself in someone else’s (for example, the life of a family member, business partner, or friend)
  • Becoming overly focused on money and material objects
  • Health-related issues like addiction and depression.

Pinnacle 8

Money, business, authority, ethics, personal power, and abundance: These are the key elements in any 8 Pinnacle. This is the stage where you’re bombarded with opportunities to embrace and define your personal relationship with power, money, and achievement. It has an intense focus on matters of responsibility, efficiency, power, authority, leadership, and management of financial affairs.

Sounds exciting, right? Yet under the influence of the 8 Pinnacle vibration your judgment will be tested over and over again and your career usually becomes your top priority. This isn’t a particularly easy walk in the park. Chances are this Pinnacle will require you to make some substantial shifts in your life and your relationships. While your opportunities for achievement, recognition, and financial success are heightened, it’ll require a lot of strength, courage, and tenacity to do so. This isn’t an easy Pinnacle; it’ll demand a lot from you and won’t let up.

The 8 Pinnacle is also tricky because, while its vibration supports all things relating to money, power, and authority, its vibration is unyielding in its demands that you get there through the use of the utmost ethics, honesty, integrity, solid leadership, and feelings of abundance—not just feelings of wanting to be “rich” or “wealthy.” The highest form of the Eight vibration has to do with giving as you’re receiving, with no strings attached, and from the clarity of your heart.

Aspects of the 8 Pinnacle are: status, success, recognition, business, and commercial activity. If you keep with it, this Pinnacle is set up to usher in improvements in your financial and personal power realms. The focus is on creative practicality with an emphasis on organizational and management skills and abilities. Emotions are downplayed and business acumen is at a peak.

First Pinnacle: If yours is an 8 First Pinnacle, chances are that you may become involved and interested in business or commercial activity at a very young age. You may be the kid who mows lawns and starts his own business or perhaps you tap into a more aggressive 8 energy and find another money making endeavor that surprises the adults around you. Your focus and dedication to your entrepreneurial enterprise is unyielding. Yet you most likely will face limitations and restrictions, which you’ll find these frustrating or just downright debilitating. You excel at practical thinking.  You’ll be tested severely from an early age in the realms of personal power. 

Second or Third Pinnacle: If you encounter an 8 vibration during your Second or Third Pinnacle, you’re apt to find yourself in the executive world—or you could be married to an executive. You’re required to rely more on rational judgments and less on emotional impulses. You’re single-mindedly focused on your ambition and achievement of great financial success, power, and authority.

Fourth Pinnacle: With an Fourth Pinnacle, you’re not geared toward quiet retirement. The development and culmination of status, wealth, and power can define this period—given that you act on both business principles and spiritual principles. This is your time to give back in substantial ways by using your gifts of money, power, and influence to help others. Thinking with the power of abundance and of giving back will support you in establishing a great and lasting legacy.

8 Challenge

When the 8 is your Challenge Number, you’re being called upon to think big, step up to the plate, and get it done. Achievement is expected during this period and so, of course, this will also be your obstacle. People who experience an 8 Challenge either make it or break it—much in the same way that this happens with the 8 Life Path. It’s a difficult Challenge, yet if you realize that you’re supposed to be making money, supposed to be successful, perhaps you can shift out of the negative experiences and thoughts surrounding money and abundance and understand that this Pinnacle could be the time of your life in which you experience your greatest financial success. When you’re in your groove, you’re in the peak of both your financial and your spiritual abundance, because you’ll be giving most generously.

Your destructive pull will be toward greed, and you’ll believe that satisfaction can only be gained by accumulation and safeguarding. You might experience great difficulty and effort in your attempts to gain money status and power, often to the exclusion of all else. Family life and relationships suffer during this challenge since all your focus is on yourself and on your financial achievement (or lack thereof). You’re being called to use your ability to earn money and acquire status and power with a sense of balance and with a strict sense of ethics and philanthropy.

Warning: The caution here is to engage in all you do with your authentic self, with ethics and honesty and without greed and malice. If you lean toward the more destructive aspects of the 8 energy, there will be a price to pay. The 8 Challenge also signals that you need to stop giving away your power. This is a period of development where you’re being groomed to fully embrace your sense of personal empowerment and learn to empower others.

Potential Destructive Aspects of the 8 Challenge

  • Suppressing your power by choosing poverty, homelessness, or other ways to avoid achievement in your life
  • By not focusing on your own relationship with money and instead focusing on everyone else’s through jealousy, bad mouthing, and indulging in feelings of disgust
  • Focusing only on material gain at the expense of everything else
  • Being arrogant, unyielding, and uncompassionate
  • Becoming lazy and feeling bored with life
  • Health-related issues like addiction and mental illness

Pinnacle 9

If you have a 9 Pinnacle, you’re expected to show the world what a true humanitarian looks and acts like on a day-to-day basis. You’re developing the attributes of compassion, love, ethics, and tolerance—combined with a big dose of inspiring and uplifting others through your wisdom and love. If this sounds like a big order to fill, it is. You’re learning the fine art of both giving and receiving.  The 9 Pinnacle is marked by emotional crises because you’re being asked to end and let go of all matters in your life that no longer serve you and your higher purpose. No matter how scared you are—and it will bring up a reservoir of fear—this is a time for gaining wise maturity and healing your emotional issues.

Because of the intensity of this vibration and the over-arching perseverance and wisdom it requires, this isn’t considered an easy Pinnacle. It’s a segment of life that demands the ultimate releasing of all that has held you back, of all of the painful stories you have continued to tell yourself about your past—particularly those that relate to your family relationships. The ultimate healing can take place during this Pinnacle if you invite it in.

Remember: While this may be a Pinnacle that appears to be thankless and filled with obstacles, it all depends on perspective. There’s plenty of potential for anything you want during this time when you’re fully committed to playing your role in letting go. When you surrender, all good things come to you. This is a time where you can literally create your own reality. Money, good fortune, loving relationships, vibrant health, purposeful living: These are all possible during a 9 Pinnacle.

First Pinnacle: With a 9 Pinnacle at the beginning of your life, the influence of its vibration may be barely noticeable. Selflessness is an attribute that’s developed over time and young children must first learn their identity for themselves before doing selfless service in a healthy and productive manner. Yet when you experience a 9 First Pinnacle, you may be a child who is the friend to the “underdog,” who’s a protector of the kids who get bullied, those who are handicapped, or those who are ostracized in some way by other kids. You may be a bit of an outsider yourself as you attend to those on the fringes.

Second or Third Pinnacle: A Second or Third Pinnacle directed by the 9 vibration might set the stage for expression of emotional and dramatic humanitarian views, such as working whole-heartedly and intensely for a cause like global warming, animal rights, or any other cause where you immerse yourself in an organization devoted to over-arching change. You may express such views through political action or social service, or in a variety of other venues. The thrust of your desires and actions rests in humanitarian action, whether it’s through charitable contributions, volunteerism, or direct employment within these realms of service. You might work for the Peace Corps or be an actor who is an activist for humanitarian causes. Either way, your purpose is to effect positive change in the world, and promote tolerance and compassion.

Fourth Pinnacle: If your Fourth Pinnacle is guided by the 9 vibration, your work will tend to be more charitable in nature with plenty of opportunity to give much more of yourself. If you have done well financially in your life, you might be drawn to using your assets to finance programs and support causes you believe in. This is a time where you’ve mellowed and have developed a more caring and heart-felt attitude about yourself and about others than in earlier periods of your life.

Warning: If your 9 Pinnacle is in your early years, this will be a rough period, full of losses and heavy challenges that bring early maturity. In the middle years, the 9 Pinnacle is a time for integrating yourself with the higher principles of wisdom, selfless service, and giving back to the world. If you have saved your 9 Pinnacle to the end, you are required to rise above the fray and become a humanitarian in whatever capacity you choose.

Zero Challenge: The Cipher Number

The 0 Challenge is called the Cipher Number. This number represents all or nothing, empty or full. You decide. With this number, you are given “a free pass,” so to speak. You’re being offered an enhanced dose of free will.

If you have a 0 Challenge, you can choose to amble idly along without a determined course or you can grab this profound opportunity to rise above your demons and achieve greatness. That is how powerful this energy can be for your Pinnacle. When you see a 0 in Numerology, it serves as an amplifier. To meet the challenge of the 0 vibration, you must have some sense of mastery over the constructive aspects of all the other numbers: independence, leadership, creativity, emotional self-expression, diplomacy, application, hard work, understanding, responsibility, wisdom, personal power, and humanitarian vision

It’s suggested that a person who has a 0 Challenge number on their journey is a well traveled soul, so the 0 offers opportunities for you to use your compilation of soul knowledge during your lifetime.

There’s great opportunity for expansion and growth under this Challenge. The obstacles you face during a 0 challenge may not be many or they may be coming at you from all directions. You can think of it this way: This is the Challenge of Choice. Therefore, choice feels more confusing and difficult during this period. The 0 is challenging you to have the utmost faith in your own abilities to the extent that you can form a healthy sense of detachment with which you can analyze a situation, make a choice, and then act on that choice with ease and comfort, unconcerned and neutral in feeling regarding the outcome.

Warning: If you have a 0 Challenge in your life, it should not be taken lightly or cavalierly, because, with this number, a decision must be made. We rarely make empowering choices by default. There is a lot of responsibility when any Pinnacle contains a 0 Challenge. Use its energy wisely and fiercely

Master Numbers

Primarily, when you experience a Master Number (11, 22, or 33) in one of your Pinnacles, you are simply amplifying the energy of the 2, 4 or 6 accompanying it. If you upped the ante and have a Pinnacle containing the higher vibration of the Master Number, you’ll emphasize its metaphysical and spiritual elements. The destructive aspects of the Master Numbers are the same as the tendencies of their single-digit counterparts, only magnified by the Master vibration.

Pinnacle 11/2

If you’re working with the Eleven energy, you’re developing an extraordinary connection with your intuition and sensitivity. The pressure to wear your “psychic shield” will be at an all-time high under this Master Number since it creates quite a bit of volatility in the midst of enormous personal and spiritual growth. Optimally, the 11/2 Pinnacle allows you to catapult yourself into a creative, intuitive, service-oriented realm in whatever capacity you desire. The 11 is a more artistic and creative vibration (as opposed to the 22) which favors outlets such as media work, music, art, dance, poetry or anything that involves a visionary and future-leaning focus.

Remember also that the influence felt with the 11 energy is somewhat philosophic in nature and ultimately connected with spiritual and metaphysical study and illumination. Therefore, you could feel compelled to work in the arenas of social reform, philosophy, or social welfare. You may also feel a bit detached from the day-to-day practicalities of the world. With the higher vibration presented by the number 11, you may feel a constant underlying sense of nervousness, tension or restlessness.

Warning: There is a chance for fame or being placed in the spotlight as a result of this Pinnacle. This is a time for sudden and sometimes repeated changes in all realms of your life. If the Eleven vibration is too intense, this Master Life Stage will feel more like a 2 energy to you. Either way, hypersensitivity is one of your primary and consistent challenges during this Pinnacle.  Understand also that this is the number of the Wounded Healer and the number of Illumination – therefore you’ll usually have intense life experiences that are geared toward making you walk the walk and talk the talk.  You’ll use all of the difficulties you experience to help and heal others.

11/2 Challenge

When you have the 11/2 Master Number as a Challenge, you must respect the demands of the energy of both the numbers Eleven and Two. You’re being called to step up your vibration with the 11: to lead with spiritual clarity, purpose, and compassion. The lessons of the 2 call into play aspects related to partnership, relationship, service, and love. The challenge here is to have the strength, determination, and vision to operate in the constructive rather than the destructive aspects of those numbers.  I also find that one of the major challenges that comes with the 11/2 two has to do with taming the ego, coming to terms with nervous tension, and walking through possible addictions (from cigarette smoking to drug addictions). 

Pinnacle 22/4

This Pinnacle is uncommon. It usually comes into play only after you have experienced two preceding Pinnacle of 11/2. If you experience this Pinnacle, you’ve opted for an especially dramatic or traumatic path in your life. Because of the prior 11/2 Pinnacles you’ve lived through, you’ve been challenged to become a “master soul” or at least been called upon to work in a profound way on a higher spiritual path. Most likely you’ll have undergone radical changes along the way. You may even have a physical or mental handicap or major health issue.

With the 22/4 Pinnacle, with all of this experience up to this point, you have a chance to do something truly profound that will affect people on a wide-ranging scale. You’ll build something of lasting value that will benefit humankind in a way that will keep giving even after you’re gone. The 22/4 is the number that opens the door to high levels of personal and financial success if you utilize your incredible organizational skills to apply practical solutions to the problems encountered in the everyday world. This is a highly productive period of your life, yet also not easy considering it is chock-full of tests. Focus and endurance are a must. 

Warning: Whether you like it or not, your actions set an example for others, so you must know that your actions speak louder than your words during a 22/4 Pinnacle. Also it’s a time where you need to be aware that you’re subject to extreme sensitivity.

 22/4 Challenge

Numerologists do not look at the 22/4 as a Challenge Number. The challenges of 22/4 are the same as for a Four Challenge.

Pinnacle 33/6

This Pinnacle is rare and demands that you operate with higher principles. Yours is not a conventional or smooth journey, yet your purpose is to use all of your experiences, easy and hard alike, to teach others and affect the world on a large scale.

This is an intense Life Stage where you’re consistently offered opportunities to master your emotions and learn to think expansively both in terms of spirit and matter. This Pinnacle will require self-sacrifice, yet the rewards are endless. Coupling the nurturing and visionary vibration of the 6 with the double expressive and communicative energy of the Three, you’re a force for change, a teacher of teachers, and a person who shoulders great responsibility. With master energies, when operating optimally, you’re protected and guided along the way

33/6 Challenge

Like the 22/4, the 33/6 is not recognized as a Challenge Number. The primary challenges of the 33/6 are the same as with the Six Pinnacle, yet also this Master Number represents the test of healing yourself and others using spiritual principles.