Getting to Know Your Numbers: How to Complete Numerological Calculations
In the Information Age, numerological calculations can be done using software or an online calculator. Back in the day, however? You did the painstaking work of calculating people’s numbers by hand. For those of you who can see its benefits, let’s learn how to draw up your spiritual information through calculation. For the sake of convenience and popularity of use, we’ll use the Pythagoran/Western style.
Running Numbers
When looking to see what your spiritual energies are through numerology, the use of a Pythagorean calculation can reveal details about your personality, destiny, and lessons that you need to learn this lifetime. Barring compound numbers (such as 11/2), Pythagorean numerology distills numbers down to an expression between 1 through 9. How you reach them depends on what you’re calculating. But first, let’s get into the types of calculations you’d be making in the first place. For the sake of brevity, I’ll focus only on a few:
Life Path: Your destiny writ large. This number contains critical information about the kind of life you’ll likely live, from how you experienced childhood to how you’ll spend your twilight years. This is calculated by adding your birth month, birth day, and year, distilling each and then adding all together to form a single number. Unless you’re one of the Architects (more on this later) who incarnated via a Life Path 11, 22, or 33.
Birth: The literal day you were born. Though given way less importance in Pythagorean numerology than Vedic, it still maintains relevance as a driving trait that you can draw upon in order to succeed. When in a pinch and you need to work on instinct, knowledge of your birth number increases your odds of things working out in your favor. If your day of birth is past the 9th, just add the two numbers together until you have a single-digit number.
Heart’s Desire/Soul Urge: The longings that serve as an undercurrent for your actions and choices, whether you’re aware of them or not. In some instances, there is friction between the heart and one’s destiny that your spirit laid out on purpose, in service of a higher lesson. This can be sussed out by considering both numbers and their complements, or - to be honest - it’ll just be really...really obvious. To calculate this, add all of the vowels in your name.
Expression: The toolbox that you came with in order to complete the terms of your life path. Any natural talents or character deficiencies not made apparent in the life path interpretation can be revealed here, as well as expectations for how they’re supposed to be used. In some cases, chronic illness can be predicted (or managed effectively) via shrewd day-to-day application of one’s expression number. The latter is not a popular take, but it’s one that can be considered with some degree of seriousness when working alongside other members of your support team. To calculate this, add up your full name as given at birth (I know...I know. I know).
Personality: Equivalent to how one’s rising sign in astrology can indicate how others perceive you, your personality number is basically your mask: that which you show to the world, and what they’ll readily believe, while your other numbers are in aggressive play. To calculate, add all of the consonants in your name.
Actually Running Those Numbers
To start, take a look at the chart that we use to translate letters to numbers:
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, Q, Z
9: I, R
To help you understand how to calculate your own energies through numerology, let’s do a sample calculation using a fictional character from BioWare’s Dragon Age franchise:
Cassandra Allegra Portia Calogera Filomena Pentaghast
We’ll give her a real-life birth-date of August 28, 1980; fans of the franchise who know astrology will find it fitting that we’ve made her a Virgo. Let’s calculate her life path:
08 + (2 + 8) + (1 + 9 + 8 + 0) > 8 + 10 + 18, which when we reduce becomes
8 + 1 + 9, which equals 18, or Life Path 9.
For the sake of enrichment, let’s calculate her full birth name, which gives us her Expression Number. I’ll spare you the full breakdown and show you the ending distillations:
(26) + (29) + (34) + (35) + (39) + (39), which becomes:
8 + 11 + 7 + 8 + 3 + 3 = 40, or Expression Number 4.
Fours, by the way, are often stubborn, hardworking, and rarely freaking quit. They are often defined by dedication and dogged determination. To those who play Dragon Age: sound familiar?
A Note on Names
Though I teach from the conviction that destiny can be changed, I do so from a shared premise with other numerologists: your birth name carries valuable information about your destiny or your path in general, even if you do not use that name any longer. I honestly and sincerely recommend looking into the meaning of your birth name beyond numerology. Even though associations with your birth name may be painful, there may be a key to your healing buried within. If you are ready to take a look, I encourage you to do so.
Limitations
The Western and New Western systems, as it’s currently taught in the West, require the Anglicization of letters. If your native language makes use of more than the 26 letters of the English alphabet, you might be out of luck in terms of easy calculation - or, you can try translating over as best you can and seeing if the numbers resonate. Especially when it comes to vowels: I’m not of the belief that we can just deduce that the energy of, say, short “a” and a long “a” in Arabic, are exactly the same.
