Post by watchman11 on Jan 3, 2006 16:52:34 GMT -5
Introduction
A) Nature and purpose of Numerology
Numerology, ie the study of numbers, encompasses several pretty different systems whose core consists in squeezing numerical numbers out of dates and/or words. These numbers have a specific meaning that offers insight into the names and dates studied in a way analogous to Astrology. It was originally thought the power of numbers was somehow derived from their sound vibration. I'll discuss an alternative explanation in the off topic section but will still occasionally refer to them as vibrations because the image of these physical waves oscillating between two extremes offers some neat perspective on Numbers.
The method we'll be employing in this class is the most common in the western World and called Pythagorean after the famous Greek Mathematician, philosopher,… No writing has emerged from the Greek period due to their being considered sacred, and though it's offspring is said to have started spreading through Europe in the middle Age thanks to Christian scholars such as St Augustine (AD 354 - 430), no readily available textbook appeared until the 20th Century. Some of the most extensive information we can now find, both in term of text and calculation methods was churned out by Hans Decoz. I'll discuss the pros and cons of his interpretations and calculator in Part II.
I'll now finish with a brief overview of what we're going to learn. Don't feel uneasy if it leaves you with a bunch of questions unanswered, we'll see all the details in the lessons.
Your first step into Numerology will consist in associating each letter with a number. Here's the chart for our class :
1 => A,J,S
2 => B,K,T
3 => C,L,U
4 => D,M,V
5 => E,N,W
6 => F,O,X
7 => G,P,Y
8 => H,Z
9 => I,R
Then we'll use dates of birth or names for calculating a bunch of "numerological" numbers, for example the Life Path Number. To avoid confusion between numerical and numerological numbers, I'll type them respectively "numbers" and 'Numbers' from now on.
The math here is very basic. The process is called "reduction" as it asks to add up all the digits in every calculation we make until finding either a single digit number or a 11, 22, 33, 44 that bear a particular significance.
The Numbers of a chart can be divided into 2 main categories, one describing psychological aspects and the other timelines, the latter underlie Numerology's being used as a divination tool. I'll give you an example of how it can spice up a tarot/rune reading but will focus a lot more on how the various cycles help us gain understanding of tests we can be confronted with in our life.
B) Other Numerology Schools
I'm going to remain very concise on them until we've completed the lessons then I'll update this section for those who want to check out the Chaldean way which seems promising to me and the Chinese one I've just discovered while preparing the class. The others are mentioned for the record.
Gematria : Gematria is part of the Jewish occult system known as Qabbalah. I won't get any further as it's purpose is beyond the scope of this class and it being based on the Hebrew alphabet would make it fairly tricky to tackle for most of us.
Chaldean Numerology : It's considered by some as the original school. It's adepts are relatively few in the Western world but some will tell you it's the only true Numerology and the rest is BS. I checked it out recently and if does give an interesting different perspective, though pretty limited in quantity from what I've found so far. Chaldean numbers' description is hard to come by on the net. I'll post a couple of helpful url's later.
Celtic Numerology : The only information I got on google was written by Mike Nichols. His starting idea was to attribute more of a "logical" value to each letter (some find the Pythagorian way to be too arbitrary). In his system letters then have a value from 1 to 5 after the 5 symbols employed in Celtic alphabet (Oghams). However drawn I feel to Celtic culture, this association sounds a lot like wishful thinking since there seems to be no written confirmation the Celts ever used Numerology. Not to mention it obtains a different set of numbers than that of the widely tested method for the very same chart.
Indian Numerology : It's about the same as Pythegorean Numerology. Calculations are identical. Numbers have the same meaning.
Chinese Numerology : This one is a system of it's own. We'll develop later.
