The study of an occult, divine, or mystical relationship between a number and one or more congruent events is known as numerology (also known as arithmancy). It is also the study of the alphanumeric value of the letters that make up words and names. Onomancy is the practise of applying numerology to a person’s name. It is frequently linked to the supernatural, along with astrology, and is comparable to divinatory practises.
Although numerological concepts have a long history, the word “numerology” is not used in any English-language sources until around 1907.
Even if a person does not engage in traditional numerology, they might be referred to as a “numerologist” if they lay faith in numerical patterns and make pseudoscientific interpretations from them. For instance, mathematician Underwood Dudley uses the phrase to refer to experts in the Elliott wave theory of stock market analysis in his 1997 book Numerology: Or What Pythagoras Wrought.
Gematria is a tradition that extends back to antiquity and involves giving words and names numerical values and ascribing religious meaning to those values. According to a Sargon II-commissioned Assyrian inscription from the eighth century BC, “the king built the wall of Khorsabad 16,283 cubits long to correlate with the numerical value of his name.” Gematria was utilised in rabbinic literature to explain Hebrew Bible verses.
Dissensions from the state church’s doctrine were regarded as civil offences in the Roman Empire as of the First Council of Nicaea in 325 AD. Isopsephy, or numerology, was still practised in traditional Greek Orthodox communities. The existence of numerology in the Bible and ecclesiastical architecture has been argued for despite the church’s opposition to it.
Numerology and several alchemical notions are closely related. For instance, the Persian-Arab alchemist Jabir ibn Hayyan organised his experiments using a complex numerology based on the Arabic names for various substances.
In addition, according to the mystic and philosopher Pythagoras, who lived in the sixth century, numbers were both divinely inspired and created and carried secret codes.
The Garden of Cyrus, a literary discourse by Sir Thomas Browne, makes extensive use of numerology. The author makes an effort to show how the number five and the associated Quincunx pattern can be found in the arts, in design, and in nature, particularly in botany, throughout the book’s pages.
Additionally, according to the philosopher and psychologist Carl Jung, “A mathematician once declared that everything in science was created by humans, with the exception of numbers, which were made by God himself.
Methods:
Alphanumeric systems
The letters of an alphabet are given a numerical value according to various numerology systems. The Arabic Abjad numerals, Hebrew, Armenian, and Greek numerals are a few examples. Gematria is the Jewish tradition of giving words mystical meaning based on their number meanings and linkages between words with similar numerical values.
Latin alphabet systems
There are numerous numerology systems that employ the Latin alphabet. Chaldean, Pythagorean, Hebraic, Helyn Hitchcock’s approach, Phonetic, Japanese, Arabic, and Indian are some of the several interpretation techniques.
Pythagorean method
The current Latin alphabet’s letters are given the numerical values 1 through 9 according to the so-called “Pythagorean” technique, which uses a place-value system similar to the ancient Hebrew and Greek systems for number-letter attributions.