Following the philosophy of Pythagoras, cycles appear everywhere, including the method by which you assign values to letters. In numerology, each letter of the alphabet is assigned a numeric value from 1 to 9. For letters A through I, you number them based on where they fall in the alphabet—A is 1, B is 2, and so forth. Once you get beyond I, you begin to add the digits together to get a single number.
For example, with J, which is the tenth letter in the alphabet, you add 1 + 0, which gives you a value of 1. Likewise, because K is the eleventh letter of the alphabet, you add 1 + 1 to get a value of 2. Can you see the pattern here? This new pattern continues until you get to the letter S; because S is the nineteenth letter of the alphabet, you still have a double digit when you add the separate digits together (1 + 9 = 10). In cases like this, you have to add the separate digits again to get the single digit—for S, it’s 1 + 0 = 1. The following table gives you the complete set of values.
If you compare the Pythagorean table with the Chaldean table (see Chapter 1), you’ll be pleased to see that while the Chaldean numbers don’t have a simple letter-number correspondence, the Pythagorean numbers are very systematic. Beginning with A is 1, it’s as simple as counting to 9 repeatedly to obtain the other values.
Here’s another easy way to associate the numbers with their corresponding letters and to remember the letter-number combinations:
- 1s like action and all that jazz (J, A, S).
- 2s are collectors and need a basket (B, K, T).
- 3s are communicators and use clues (C, L, U).
- 4s like rules and structure, like the Department of Motor Vehicles (D, M, V).
- 5s are curious and like things that are new (N, E, W).
- 6s like beauty and may look like a fox (F, O, X).
- 7s are discerning and can spot a gyp (G, P, Y).
- 8s are powerful and have high-quotient zeal (H, Q , Z).
- 9s are universal and interested in international relations (I, R)
Adding Up the Numbers
Building on what you learned in the previous section, numerology involves calculating with straightforward addition. Like you did when finding the value of each letter, you take the values for each letter and add them up until you get a single digit.
For example, assume that you want to know the value of the phrase, “We, the people.” Here’s how you find out:
1. Write down the letters and place the corresponding number values below them (see the “Pythagorean Letter-to-Number Table” if you need a reference).
WE THE PEOPLE 55 285 756735
2. Add up the digits. For the letters in “We, the people,” the total should be 58.
5 + 5 + 2 + 8 + 5 + 7 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 3 + 5 = 58
3. Unless the total is a single-digit number, you need to add the digits in the total together until you get a single digit. In this example, you add 5 + 8, which gives you a value of 13.
You then reduce to a single digit by adding 13 as 1 + 3, giving you 4. 5 + 8 = 13 1 + 3 = 4
If you were a computer program, you would just keep adding, getting a sum, and then adding the digits in the result until you arrived at a single digit. Alternatively, you might arrive at the sum and then just keep subtracting 9 from that sum until you achieve a single-digit result.
However, unlike computer programs, we’re human, and we do get bored and tired because we can’t perform addition or subtraction at lightning speed. But one thing people can do is perceive patterns, which allows us to make intermediate adjustments. One of the beauties of calculations in this system and the behavior of our decimal (10-based) number system is that intermediate values of 9 can be discarded, as long as there is still something left to total. So you can cross out any 9s or numbers that add up to 9 without changing the result. It’s quick, easy, and still accurate.
Try it out. First, add a set of numbers the “traditional way,” using the steps you learned in the previous section. For the numbers in this example, the total is 40. You then reduce to a single digit by adding 4 + 0, which gives you 4.
9 4 5 8 1 3 6 4
9 + 4 + 5 + 8 + 1 + 3 + 6 + 4 = 40
4 + 0 = 4
Now try adding up the same numbers with the “casting out nines” method:
1. Find any nines and put a slash through them. 9 4 5 8 1 3 6 4 The 9 can be crossed out here
2. Look for groups of numbers that add to 9 and put a slash through those groups. Here’s how you’d do this for the example set of numbers: 9 4 5 8 1 3 6 4 4 and 5 = 9, so put a line through both the 4 and the 5 8 and 1 = 9, so put a line through both the 8 and the 1 3 and 6 = 9, so put a line through both the 3 and the 6
3. Add up the remaining digits that don’t have a slash through them. For the example, notice that the only number without a slash through it is the 4. This gives you the single-digit value, which you can see is the same answer you got when adding the traditional way
Practice by writing down any series of single-digit numbers and first adding them the traditional way and then adding them using the preceding method. You should come up with the same answer no matter which way you do it. Amazing little trick, isn’t it?
