Numerology and Astrology
Numerology and Astrology
(religion, spiritualism, and occult)Like astrology, numerology interprets character and predicts future conditions. Following the Kabbalah (also spelled Kaballahala, Kabalah, Kabbala, Qabbalah, and other variations), which is a system of Jewish mysticism popular in occult circles, the letters of the alphabet are assigned numerical values. When the letters of a person’s name are added together, the resulting number indicates her or his basic character—the numerological equivalent of an astrological sun sign. The numbers making up one’s birth date are also added together, providing a second number, which is interpreted in a like manner.
Although modern numerology has been mediated to the contemporary world through the Kabbalahalistic tradition, it is rooted in the number mysticism of Pythagoras (c. 580–500 b.c.e.), the ancient Greek philosopher and mathematician. The gender of the signs originated with the Pythagorean notion that odd numbers were male and even numbers female. This caused the first (Aries), third (Gemini), fifth (Leo), seventh (Libra), ninth (Sagittarius), and eleventh (Aquarius) signs in the zodiac to be classified as masculine, and the signs that came second (Taurus), fourth (Cancer), sixth (Virgo), eighth (Scorpio), tenth (Capricorn), and twelfth (Pisces) as feminine.
In numerology, the planets, including the luminaries (the Sun and the Moon) are used to represent the principles of the different numbers. Different systems of numerology utilize different correlations. In the Kabbalahalistic system, the associations were traditionally as follows: the Sun, 1 or 4; the Moon, 2 or 7; Jupiter, 3; Mercury, 5; Venus, 6; Saturn, 8; and Mars, 9. When the “new” planets were discovered, Count Louis Cheiro Hamon popularized a modified version of this system that assigned the extra numbers associated with the luminaries to Uranus, (4) and Neptune (7).
—Evelyn Dorothy Oliver