Numerology

Where it comes from. The idea that number is the fabric of reality goes back to the school of Pythagoras, in the sixth century BC: for his disciples, the harmony of the world is expressed in ratios of numbers. It then runs through Hebrew gematria, which gives a value to each letter of the alphabet, through Greek isopsephy, and on to the Renaissance. The numerology practiced here is the fruit of a long evolution: its table of letters was first proposed, then studied over time in the light of psychology.

What it draws on. The full name at birth, as it appears on the birth certificate, and the date of birth. Each letter is worth a digit from 1 to 9. The values are added, then reduced, except 11, 22 and 33, kept as master numbers. The name gives the Expression, the Soul Urge (the vowels) and the Personality (the consonants); the date gives the life path, the cycles and the personal years. The names of your parents complete the reading: they tell what the lineage passes on.

What it is for. To name gaps: between what the character shows, what they secretly desire and what they end up expressing. These tensions often say more than any number taken on its own. It also divides life into periods — nine-year cycles, pinnacles, challenges — to place the current year within a longer movement, and to see what it opens or closes.

The calculation can be redone by hand and always gives the same result. The meaning given to each number, however, is an inherited convention, never demonstrated.