Arithmancy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For the use of the word in the Harry Potter books, see Hogwarts subjects - Arithmancy.
In modern numerological terminology, arithmancy (a shortened form of Greek αριθμομαντεια divination by numbers) is a simplified version of ancient Greek Isopsephy or Hebrew/Aramaic Gematria, as adapted to a recent version of the Latin alphabet (with "U" and "V" considered to be separate letters, and "I" and "J" also considered distinct, which was not common until the 18th century).
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[edit] Etymology of the name
The name Arithmancy is derived from two Greek words – arithmos(meaning number) and manteia (meaning divination). Arithmancy is thus the study of divination through numbers.
[edit] History of Arithmancy
Arithmancy has been practiced for over 2000 years by the ancient Greeks and Chaldeans. When the Greeks practiced Arithmancy, they calculated the values for the names of warriors who were to fight each other, and predicted the winner.
[edit] Method
[edit] The Agrippan Method
The letters A-Z are assigned numerical values 1-9 as follows:
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I |
| J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R |
| S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |
Based on these values, the value for a person's name is calculated. If the result is greater than 9, the values of the digits in the number are added up until it is reduced to a single-digit number. This is a system used to predict the strengths and weaknesses in a person, by using the heart number, the life number, and the personality number. The heart number is determined by adding together only the vowels in a person's name. The social number is calculatd by using only consonants. The character number is determined when both vowels and consonants are used. A similar approach is to use the numbers from a person's birthday to derive their character number. Each of these numbers is considered to have a suitable predictive meaning. Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa first applied the concept to the current Latin alphabet in the 16th century and it has been widely used. It is often called “Pythagorean,” but is not connected to Pythagoras.
[edit] The Chaldean Method
A lesser known method is the Chaldean method (in this context, "Chaldean" is an old-fashioned name for the Aramaic languages and their speakers). The most significant difference between the Agrippan method and the Chaldean method is that the number 9 is not used in the calculations. This method is otherwise similar to the Agrippan method, but the letters were assigned values as follows (partially based on equating Latin letters with letters of the Hebrew alphabet):
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | B | C | D | E | U | O | F |
| I | C | G | M | H | V | Z | P |
| J | K | L | T | N | W | ||
| Q | R | S | X | ||||
| Y |
[edit] References and Sources
- Arithmancy at Hogwarts at The Leaky Cauldron
- Arithmancy (at articleworld.org)
- Arithmancy (at themystica.com)
