EXCERPT

INTRODUCTION

What is so special about common numbers? After all, numbers are a part of our normal day-to-day lives. We regulate our lives by the date, the time, the year, income and expenditure. We also amass personal numbers like social security, credit cards, telephone numbers, addresses, account numbers … and so on. For this reason we can safely presume that numbers are important to us but if we look a little closer we will find that they can mean much more than we think.

Imagine entering a competition and winning something. Would we be happy? The answer is probably yes but if we won the second prize it is likely that we would have rather won first prize. So what is the difference between one and two if a number is simply a number? Quite simply we identify ‘one’ with winning and ‘two’ as not winning. If the boss at work offered us a salary increase would we accept it gladly without knowing how much? Surely a rise is a rise. Who cares how much? Some people even have ‘lucky numbers’, however, I must point out that I have never come across anyone who got rich by applying them to games of chance. Why do some people consider particular numbers to be lucky?

Suffice it to say that some numbers mean more to one person than another. Among the most common of these important numbers is our date of birth. This is a date that marks our entry into the world, by whatever calendar we choose to observe. It is therefore very important to us. Nearly all application forms for job, credit agreements, mortgages and even competitions will ask for a name and date of birth. Consequently it is a number series that we tend to remember with ease.

In contrast to the personal identification of our date of birth, it must be recognised that the same date will be important, on average, to a birth rate in a global population of six billion, to over 200,000 new people that day! This figure is mathematically contrived but it serves to identify that there are thousands of new births every day.

For this very reason, it is argued frequently that the more popular esoteric art of astrology is unworkable because the world’s population cannot be divided into 12 categories (Five hundred million per sign?). The argument, never the less, merely highlights how little people actually know about astrology. It is not the fault of the uninitiated, however, because most people’s exposure to the subject comes through newspapers and magazines that forecast purely on a persons ‘Sun sign’. Students of the subject know that a full natal chart will include the positioning of the Sun, nine planets, rising sign and mid-heaven (These are just the basics and I will leave it to the mathematicians to work out the possible permutations. I got lost at 22.7 billion).

The same argument is applied to numerology. One can argue that if 200,000 people are born into this world on the same day and date they are unlikely to possess the same personality. This is absolutely true. One only has to compare the nature of identical twins to see that this is so. The only real difference that can separate identical twins from their date of birth is their name!

If you were out walking and someone shouted ‘Peter,’ would you think they were talking to you if your name was not Peter? Of course not, therefore one can presume that our mind will automatically respond only to the name we identify with our ‘self.’ This identification is something that we learn. Our parents decide our name and for this reason it is argued that the name of an individual cannot be part of a numerological equation.

Most explanations to why the name is calculated begin to tread on religious territory and belief systems. There is a strong argument that numerology originated in India due to the strong link between numerology and reincarnation. As everything in the Universe is connected, it is implied that our parents are guided towards choosing the right name for the new incarnation. For the purpose of this book, however, I choose to avoid linking numerology to any particular belief system. There is enough logical evidence, in my opinion, to support a working system.

When a child is born, he/she will not necessarily have a name. Even if it does, he/she will not recognise it. Likewise, they will not recognise their date of birth but that set of numbers had nothing to do with choice. As a child grows to recognise sounds they will learn how to identify between ‘me’ and ‘everyone else’ by their name. It will take many more years of self discovery to know who they are as a personality. No one at the age of six would have any particular opinion about what political party candidate is suited to run a country. No one at the age of twelve will know how to deal with emotional stress. No one at the age of twenty is an expert parent. In short, there are some traits within us that we are born with – and quite likely it may be found that there are some genetic and hereditary factors involved – but equally there are other traits that we acquire through our upbringing, social conditions and environment. So even if we put the whole subject of numerology to one side, it seems sensible to acknowledge that some things we are born with and others we learn from life. This, in essence, is the difference in numerology between our date of birth and our name.

If a persons name is also included in the equation, it becomes very unlikely that someone born on the same day will be given the same name. This does not mean to say it cannot happen (my brother went to school with someone who was born on the same day and with the same first and last name. They both became musicians) but the chances against it are infinitely greater than it first appears.

Now that we have discussed numbers and names, we can talk about numerology. Numerology is an esoteric science that applies principles to numbers, which can then be interpreted to demonstrate the way we act, think and feel. It is, in effect, a blueprint of who we are but it also contains a path that our lives are geared to follow. A life path is nothing new. Salmon, for example, instinctively return to the source of their birth. Other animals follow similar instinctive compulsions with no prompting or instruction. Therefore why should something so natural be unthinkable for humans?

Not only does numerology interpret the date of birth, it also breaks down a person’s name into a numerical value. Thus we end up with a combined set of ‘core element numbers’ that are mixed together in much the same way that one would mix ingredients to make a recipe.

Try this simple experiment. Think of your favourite soft drink. Is it the same choice as your friends and family? Some may agree and some may disagree. Either way it is simply a matter of preference. Now consider the soft drink itself. The most common ingredient is likely to be water but can you actually taste the water? Why bother with flavours at all; why doesn’t everyone just drink water? Would you enjoy the drink as much if you consumed the ingredients separately? Very doubtful. Likewise there are certain traits within personalities that are as common as water but not inherent in everyone. Other traits are more individual, not unlike your choice of flavour in a soft drink. The important thing is that whatever traits a person may have, they are integrated into the whole person. People invariably relate to the end product but not the individual ingredients.

The task of a numerologist is to take the finished product, the person’s date of birth and name, and then break it down into its component parts. Then they must look at how each component reacts with the others. This way it is possible to understand, not just who a person is but why - keeping with the drink analogy for a moment - it is possible that some personalities will have to cope with incompatible mixtures such as milk with lemonade (try mixing the two together and you will see what I mean). The numerologist, having identified such an incompatibility might be able to suggest a way of swapping the lemonade for cream soda or the milk for lime juice.

People may have internal conflicts but incompatibility is more commonly identified when there are clashes between two people. A ‘custard personality’ is unlikely to get on with a ‘pilchard personality’ (I mean, let’s face it. peaches and cream, bread and butter, champagne and strawberries; some combinations go together naturally) but there are times when unpleasantness can be avoided by a little understanding and a few modifications. Those who understand the principles of numerology can weigh up the strengths and weaknesses of another person and become aware of the possible trigger points that create confrontation.

Whatever our own personality may be, there will always come a time where our ability to communicate effectively depends on how well we adapt our presentation to suit the recipient. We ourselves change the way we approach issues according to how we relate to them. Now you might hear someone say ‘This is the way I am and I can’t change it’. If this were true it must follow that mother is still changing their diaper. People do change - all the time - by adapting to the circumstances they come across. Making a declaration of intransigence is merely a declaration that we are unwilling to make an effort to understand the sensitivities of other people unless it suits.

Imagine approaching your boss for a rise in the same way you would approach the idiot who just crashed into the back of your car. How about asking someone out for a date the same way you would deliver a business proposition? By the same token, we would be affronted by people who approach us in, what we consider to be, an inappropriate manner. In effect, the most ‘pilchard’ of people can find a bit of ‘custard’ in them if they tried hard enough.

This last factor brings us to the very first principle to understanding numerology. As with all esoteric subjects it is vitally important that you ‘know yourself’, warts and all, good points and bad points, naked and facing the world as you are. If you cannot be honest about yourself it will be very difficult to understand how character traits affect other people. If, for example, you have a selfish streak and you find someone with exactly the same number where this feature becomes apparent, it will become impossible to demonstrate how that selfish streak interacts with other numbers in their chart if you refuse to acknowledge that it is there in the first place. We cannot hope to overcome our weaknesses if we do not face them. So the first resolve is to be honest in all things. The second is to approach the rest of this book with an open mind.