Numerology

Numerology is the art of reading those numbers. I have used it alongside tarot and astrology for most of my working life, and it is the first thing I calculate when I sit down with anyone's chart. It is quick to learn, you can do the arithmetic on the back of an envelope, and the first time your own Life Path describes the road you have actually been walking, it tends to stop you for a moment.

The system I use

There are several systems of numerology in the world. The one I use, and the one every page here teaches, is the Pythagorean system, named for the Greek mathematician who taught that number sits underneath everything. Each letter of the alphabet is given a value from 1 to 9, your name and your birth date are added up and reduced to a single digit, and three numbers, 11, 22 and 33, are kept whole because they carry more than their digits. These are the same rules my chart calculator uses for every reading I write, so what you learn here is exactly what I work with.

A chart, not a number

Most people meet numerology through one number, usually the Life Path, and stop there. That is a good place to start and a poor place to finish. Your birth date gives you a Life Path, a Birthday number, your Pinnacles and Challenges and the cycles you move through. Your name gives you a Destiny, a Soul Urge, a Personality and any Karmic Lessons. Put together, they are a chart, and the meaning lives in how they lean on each other.

Your name is also the part of the chart that can change. I read the name you were born with as the blueprint and the name you use now as the layer on top of it, and both belong in the picture.

How this section is laid out

The pages run in the order I would teach them.

Learning Numerology is the place to begin. How to Reduce a Number and The Letter Values give you the arithmetic, with every step shown. The Core Numbers explains the five numbers at the heart of a chart and how they read together. Personal Year, Month and Day shows you the nine year cycle you are moving through right now.

Then the deeper layers: Karmic Lessons, The Reality and Growth Numbers, The Pinnacles, The Challenges and The Major Cycles. Biorhythms sits at the end as a curiosity worth knowing about.

The Numbers gives each number its own page, 1 to 9 and the three Master Numbers, and covers how it reads as a Life Path, as a Destiny and in a Personal Year. Use those pages the way you would use a good dictionary, after you have done your sums.

The daily posts

The Tuesday series in the daily posts works through the numbers one at a time, and each post shows you how to find one of your own: the Master Numbers, your Life Path, the Karmic Debt numbers, your Destiny, your Soul Urge, your Personality and your Birthday number. The pages in this section link to them and then go further.

Where to start

Start with your Life Path. Do the sum, read the page for your number, and notice what fits and what does not. Then work out your Destiny and see how the two sit together. You will learn more from your own chart than from anything I could write about anyone else's.

You will be your own teacher. All I will do is help you remember what you already know.

If you would like your own numbers read as part of a full chart, my readings are here.

In this section

• Learning Numerology
• How to Reduce a Number
• The Letter Values
• The Core Numbers
• Personal Year, Month and Day
• Karmic Lessons
• The Reality and Growth Numbers
• The Pinnacles
• The Challenges
• The Major Cycles
• Biorhythms
• The Numbers
• 2027, a Universal Year 11/2
• Master Numbers in Everyday Life
• Karmic Debt Numbers 13, 14, 16 and 19
• Life Path Compatibility
• Your Birthday Number
• Repeating Numbers
• The Reverse Side of a Number