Challenge numbers: four obstacles to turn into strengths

A challenge is born from a gap

The other numbers of the birth date are added; challenges are subtracted. They measure the distance between two parts of your birth date: the day and the month, the day and the year, the month and the year. The wider the gap, the more the two energies pull in different directions, and the more effort it takes to make them work together.

So a challenge is not a flaw. It is a point of friction, much like a square between two planets in a birth chart (see the aspects): uncomfortable, but fruitful. What you learn there often becomes what you are best at passing on.

Four subtractions from the birth date

The day, month and year of birth are first brought down to a single digit. Unlike the pinnacles, master numbers are not kept here: 11 counts as 2, 22 as 4. The reduction follows the usual rule, and the smaller number is always taken from the larger.

1. First challenge: the gap between the day and the month.
2. Second challenge: the gap between the day and the year.
3. Third challenge, the main challenge: the gap between the first and second challenges.
4. Fourth challenge: the gap between the month and the year.

The largest possible gap between two digits from 1 to 9 is 8: a challenge is never 9. It can, however, be 0, when two parts of the date carry the same digit.

The main challenge, from birth to the end

The third challenge stands apart from the other three: it does not come straight from the date, but from the gap between the first two challenges. It is the central knot, the one that ties the obstacles of youth to those of adulthood. It shows up in every area, at work as in love, and does not fade with age: it changes shape as you learn to recognise it.

When the same difficulty keeps returning in different forms, one relationship after another, one job after another, it is often this one. Naming it already changes a great deal: you stop believing in bad luck and finally see a lesson that insists.

A timetable of obstacles

The other three challenges follow one another, in step with the four pinnacles. The first goes with the first pinnacle, from birth until 36 minus the life path number; the second with the nine years of the second pinnacle; the fourth arrives with the fourth pinnacle and stays for good. During the third pinnacle the main challenge works alone, which is often when it shows most clearly.

Reading a challenge without its pinnacle means seeing only half of the period. A challenge of 4 during a pinnacle of 4, for instance, puts everything on work: the ground of success and the ground of the obstacle merge, which makes those years demanding, but deeply formative.

From 0 to 8: the trap and the lever of each value

Each value describes an excess or a lack to rebalance. The trap shows how the challenge plays out; the lever, how it becomes a strength. Every number has its own page for going further, from number 1 to number 8.

• 0, the challenge of choice: everything is possible, nothing imposes itself. The trap: hesitating, wanting it all, never deciding. The lever: choosing a direction and giving it time.
• 1: the trap, doubting yourself or pushing too hard. The lever: daring to decide while leaving room for others.
• 2: the trap, a touchiness that hurts and is easily hurt. The lever: turning sensitivity into fine listening.
• 3: the trap, scattering yourself or holding your words back. The lever: truly expressing yourself, and seeing projects through.
• 4: the trap, rigidity or discouragement in the face of effort. The lever: a flexible method and a sustainable pace.
• 5: the trap, running ahead and excess. The lever: a chosen freedom that also knows how to commit.
• 6: the trap, wanting to fix and control everything in the people you love. The lever: a love that leaves the other free.
• 7: the trap, isolation and mistrust. The lever: listening to your intuition, then sharing what you have understood.
• 8: the trap, measuring your worth by money or power. The lever: fair authority and a calm relationship with material success.

Camille, or the challenge of choice

Camille Louise Martin, our example, was born on 12 May 1990. Reduced to one digit, her day gives 3, her month 5 and her year 1 (1 + 9 + 9 + 0 = 19, then 10, then 1). Her challenges are therefore 2 (5 − 3), 2 (3 − 1), 0 (2 − 2) and 4 (5 − 1): her main challenge is the 0.

With a life path of 9, drawn to ideals and wide horizons, this 0 names the risk well: wanting to embrace everything without ever choosing. Her lever: picking her causes, then sticking with them. Until 36, her two challenges of 2 asked her to tame a keen sensitivity; from 45, the challenge of 4 will invite her to find the right relationship with effort and structure.

Challenges that cancel out, challenges that repeat

Léa Maya Dubois, born on 29 November 1982, has a day (29, then 11, so 2), a month (11, so 2) and a year (1982 gives 20, then 2) that share the same root: all four of her challenges are 0. Her whole life plays out under the sign of choice, with great freedom and the responsibility that comes with it: nothing blocks her path except scattering her energy.

For Hugo Bernard, born on 21 March 1988, it is the opposite: one challenge insists. His challenges are 0, 5, 5 and 5, and the 5 is also his main challenge. A repeated lesson is a central lesson: for him, living his freedom without scattering himself is the thread running through a whole life, and number 5 deserves his full attention.

Working on a challenge, in practice

A challenge is trained like a muscle, through conscious repetition. Spot the situations that keep coming back, note what they have in common, then look for the behaviour that is the opposite of the trap. The other numbers in your chart are your resources: a life path or expression number strong in the missing quality helps you develop it.

Do not confuse a challenge with a karmic lesson: the lesson is a value missing from the letters of your name, a quality to acquire; the challenge is a gap in the date, a tension to ease. Finally, a personal year carrying the digit of your main challenge often offers a fine chance to face it.