The study of, or belief in, the mystical and esoteric properties of numbers, today numerology is one of the most popular methods used to interpret a person’s character or foretell their future.

The origins of numerology can be traced back to a myriad of ancient cultures, including the Babylonians, Greeks, Gnostics, Hebrews, Chinese, Egyptians and Indians. Ancient Greek mathematician, Pythagoras, believed that all things can be expressed in numerical terms as all things are ultimately reducible to numbers. As he and most early mathematicians preferred to deal with mathematical concepts because they’re both practical and provable, they turned to numerology to essentially make sense of the world. For example, Jewish mystics traditionally associated numbers with letters in the Hebrew alphabet. In order to discover the hidden meanings of words, they would convert a certain word’s letters into numbers. Words with the same numerical value were linked together and the mystics would then try to ascertain any relation among the words. This form of numerology, known as gematria, was also used by the Greeks.  However, in the vein of astrology and alchemy, numerology is now considered something of a pseudoscience.

Similar to gematria is the concept of digit summing, a common way to perform a numerological reading, in which a word or a number is reduced to a single digit. A life path or name number is found using this method. A person’s date of birth is used to define a person’s innate characteristics and their path in life, hence the resulting single digit is known as the life path number, On the other hand, a person’s full name is used to reveal a person’s overall personality. Say, your birthday is 10/23/1982. To reach your life path number you would simply add together the numbers in your date of birth. 1+0+2+3+1+9+8+2 = 26. Since 26 is two digits, you would have to break that down into one. 2 +6= 8. Therefore, your life path number would be 8.

Arriving at your name number is a bit trickier. In the English alphabet, all the letters are assigned a number, but they’re all one digit. L’s number, being the twelfth letter in the alphabet, is 3. 1+2 = 3. 

1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9
A    B    C    D    E    F    G    H    I
J    K    L    M    N    O    P    Q    R
S    T    U    V    W    X    Y    Z

So, say your name is Janet Damita Jo Jackson. You would substitute each letter in your name for its appropriate number, like this:
1+1+5+5+2    4+1+4+9+2+1        1+6    1+1+3+2+1+6+5
14        21            7    19 = 61 / 5+3+7+1 = 16
6+1 = 7.
Your name number would then be 7.

Now that you have your life path or name number, what does that mean? Though interpretations vary, each digit describes a set of personality traits that may or may not match up to who you are. There are both positive and negative aspects as well as different forms of development associated with each number. For instance, people who have a life path number of eight tend to be very ambitious and goal-oriented. Eights are born leaders and hard workers. For eights who develop in a very positive way, the stronger aspects are highlighted, such as their drive for success and the determination to achieve it. For an eight who develops negatively, they can be domineering and be overcome by the need to succeed so that they neglect everything else in its pursuit. They might also suppress their feelings, resulting in loneliness or isolation.

For someone who’s name number is seven, they can be keen observers, with a gift for analysis and tendency to be perfectionists. Sevens are peaceful, spiritual and affectionate but also very guarded. They don’t have many friends but a tight circle of very close ones. They enjoy being alone, off from the hustle and bustle of the world and usually follow their own intuition instead of the advice of others. A negative seven can be very pessimistic, lackadaisical, selfish, cantankerous and secretive. Because of these negative traits, they might prefer to live alone. However, due to the spiritual nature of the seven, there are few who develop negatively, at least without a few positive traits.

Numerology can be fun, whether you take it seriously or not. You may be delighted to discover how accurate or inaccurate your personal life path or name number describes you. Or you might be moved to further delve into numerology, curious to what else you might find.