Numerology
Number mysticism
is as pervasive as it is ancient. Almost any civilization that you can think
of devoted a fair amount of its primordial intellectual energy to
contemplating numbers and devising numerical systems. Our own form of
numbering, which we refer to as "Arabic" numbers, is in actuality Indian.
Indian mathematicians were the first to wrestle the concept of zero to the
ground, a feat that facilitated all sorts of useful things like the decimal
system and the significance of the position of the numbers. Zero was,
therefore, eagerly embraced first by Islamic scholars, sometime during the
seventh century. It was not until 1143 that Western Europeans embraced the
same concept, about 500 years later.
Bear in mind that
the Arabic numbers and numbering system are simply one of many methods for
arranging and conveying numbers. It is not as though no one could count until
1143. The Greeks and Romans were very efficient with their own brands of
mathematics and numbering. Which brings us to Pythagoras, a Greek
mathematician from about the sixth century BC who considered 6 the perfect
number. In addition to being the founder of geometry, Pythagoras also founded
the concept of mystical numerology. Pythagoras and his followers believed
that all things -- ideas, emotions, material entities, -- are related to the
first nine numbers. Pythagoras felt that the numerical relations among things
was the motive force of the universe. This is the core of all forms of
mystical numerology and the same principles are still used today.
Number mysticism
persisted in a variety of forms -- some more mystical than others -- well into
the eighteenth century. Roman emperors were addicted to it, as were the early
Christians. St. Augustine devoted much time to decoding the Divine Plan
through numbers and was one of the founders -- and legitimators -- of the
practice of interpreting the Bible numerologically.
Medieval Christian
scholars were particularly fond of this kind of "transcendental arithmetic. By
the time of St. Thomas of Aquinas, whole dictionaries of biblical numbers had
been compiled, and the significance of three (the trinity) and twelve (the
apostles) had been solidified into Christian dogma.
The most
interesting numerological development of the Middle Ages was not exclusively
numerological. The Kabbalah, a profoundly complex Jewish spiritual philosophy,
sought to elucidate the divine structure of the universe. Kabbalistic
mysticism differentiates between the unknowable, divine It, whose laws and
reasons will never be understood, and the God who may be revealed by the
appropriate study of His creation. The central text of the Kabbalah, the Sefer
yetsirah, or Book of Creation, proposed a diagram of the divine ordering
principles of the universe, which were, essentially, emanations of the
godhead. This diagram, known as the Tree of Life, shows ten manifestations of
God, called the sefirot, in the form of circular stations connected by a
pattern of energy shaped like a lightning bolt moving from sky to earth. The
sefirot are also aligned vertically into what Kabbalists refer to as pillars:
the Pillar of Equilibrium, the Pillar of Mercy (comprised of active forces),
the Pillar of Severity of Judgement (comprised of passive forces). At the top
is Keter, the crown, which is the highest sefirah and closest to the divine;
the light of God moves from it in its lightning-bolt formation, to Hokkmah,
wisdom, and thence to Binah, understanding. From there it travels to Hesed,
mercy; then Gevurah, judgment; then to Tiferet, beauty; and moving on to Nezah,
eternity, and, in human terms, passion. From there, the energy flows into Hod,
glory or mastery; below and next is Yesod, foundation, or connection and
perception. Finally, the divine will connects to the earth at Malkhut, the
kingdom, which signifies the existence of God in all things. Each of the
sefirah manifests an attribute of God, but each has a human aspect as well.
The Tree of Life may, in fact, be overlaid on any human endeavor or construct
to show the relationships within it.
In addition to the
sefirot themselves, the twenty-two paths between them constitute a further
revelation of God's plan. Together, they describe a path toward the divine to
which, by intense study, the Kabbalist may ascend.
Where, you may
ask, is the numerology in all this? Actually numbers are integral to the
Kabbalistic theosophy, for the divine universe is comprised of thirty-two
elements, all represented in the Tree of Life. Each of the sefirah has its
number -- from 1 to 10 -- as does each of the paths between them -- from 11 to
32. These numbers are not mere tags, but important constituents of the dynamic
of the sefirot. Thus, for instance, the number four is eternally endowed with
the quality of Hesed, mercy or compassion. (Indeed, much of the modern
characterizations of the numbers are derived from such Kabbalistic
interpretations.) The numbers associated with the sefirot are as much a
subject of contemplation as the qualities themselves and, indeed, are regarded
as a vehicle for understanding.
The Kabbalistic
tradition of spiritualizing numbers was reinforced by an even more ancient
numerological method called gematria. In applying gematria, each letter of an
alphabet is associated with a number, and any two words that have the same
total numerical value are thought to have a relationship. Gematria is
practiced in most cultures, but Hebrew is particularly well adapted to the
system because its letters and numbers share the same symbols. For Kabbalists,
gematria provided yet another means to discerning the occult connections
between all things. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Christians got
wind of the Kabbalah and set about adapting it for their own purposes. Through
the use of gematria and notarikon (another occult numerological system), they
reassigned the meanings of certain Kabbalistic texts to affirm the divinity of
Jesus Christ.
This Christianized
Kabbalah became all the rage in renaissance Florence, where the philosopher
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola started the ball rolling by deriving, via a
semi-numerological process, the name of Jesus from the Tetragrammaton, the
sacred four-letter name of God. In seventeenth century England, the weird and
wonderful Robert Fludd, a devoted Kabbalist, devised a fairly inexplicable
system of numerology based on the shapes of numbers, the Pythagorean idea of
number pantheism, and his own bizarre view of the structure of the universe,
which involved monkeys. In the eighteenth century, the chilly wind of
rationalism toppled the numerological philosophies so carefully constructed in
the preceding millennia. However, the great nineteenth century magicians and
spiritualists considered numerology to be a crucial foundation of the
universal occult system for which they were perpetually searching. The French
magician, Eliphas Levi, for example, constructed a grand synthesis of occult
knowledge combining numerology with tarot, astrology, and Kabbalah.
Despite the
depredations and additions of history, predictive numerology has remained
fairly true to its Pythagorean roots. The philosophy is strait forward: every
person is formed and guided by the numerical relationships that are embedded
within them. These relationships find avenues of expression in names and
dates, which can be understood when they are reduced by simple calculations
into single numbers. Anything composed of letters and numbers may be
translated into a number of numerological significance. However some letters
and numbers are more significant than others.
Write out the name
of the person you want to know about.
J O H N M I C
H A E L S M I T H
Use the following
table to assign values:
J O H N M I C
H A E L S M I T H
1 6 8 5 4 9
3 8 1 5 3 1 4 9 2 8
These numbers
total 77. Using this method you then add all the digits together of the sum,
in this case 7+7=14 1+4=5
Now you have the
nominal number. Use the following table for the traits associated with each
nominal number.