How to Study Numerology
From the life path number to your personal year
Numerology is easy to enter because the arithmetic is simple. Fix the core numbers that come from your birth date first, add the numbers that come from your name, then move on to the numbers that change each year. The arithmetic needs nothing but paper and a pen, so work it through with your own birth date as you read.
Stage 1 · Find your inborn numbers
The life path is where numerology starts. Add the expression, soul urge and personality numbers and the outline of your nature takes shape — and you will also know what it means when a master number appears.
- 1. Numerology Life Path Numbers 1–9 — Your Path Read Through Numbers — How to calculate the Life Path number obtained by reducing your birth date to a single digit, and the meaning of numbers 1 through 9 and the Master Numbers.
- 2. The Core Numbers of Numerology — Reading the Expression, Soul Urge, and Personality Numbers — Beyond the Life Path, the three numbers drawn from your name — the calculation and meaning of the Expression, Soul Urge, and Personality Numbers.
- 3. Numerology's Master Numbers — The Special Resonance of 11, 22, and 33 — The Master Numbers 11, 22, and 33, left whole rather than reduced to a single digit. Here we look at the meaning of these numbers, which carry great potential and a heavy task alike.
Stage 2 · Read the numbers of the moment
If the inborn numbers answer "who am I", the personal year answers "what kind of year is this". Add the birthday number and lucky numbers and you have something you can use day to day.
- 4. The Numerology Birthday Number — The Innate Talent Held in the Day You Were Born — Unlike the Life Path, which adds up the whole date of birth, the Birthday number reads from the day of birth alone. Here we explore the grain of the innate talent it holds.
- 5. The Personal Year in Numerology — Which Year Am I On This Year? — Numerology carries a Personal Year number that turns through a cycle of nine years. From the 1 of beginnings to the 9 of endings, a guide to reading the tone of your year.
- 6. Lucky Numbers — The Numbers Beloved of East and West — The symbolism carried in numbers, and the numbers of luck and misfortune that differ by culture — the East's 3, 8, and 9 and its 4, the West's 7 and 13.
By the end of this path you can draw the core numbers from a birth date and a name, and place the current year within the nine-year cycle. The arithmetic is simple enough to pick up quickly, which also makes it easy to force a person into a single number. Hundreds of millions of people share your life path, so it serves you better to read several numbers together and pay attention to where they disagree.
When you can change the order
If all you want is your life path number, the first piece in stage one is enough on its own. The article on turning a name into numbers needs a settled romanised spelling, so if you have not fixed one yet you can leave it until later. The reverse works too: if you came looking for the shape of this year, start with the personal year number in stage two and come back for the core numbers afterwards. Nothing in the order breaks.
What people usually get wrong
It is often assumed that the master numbers, eleven, twenty-two and thirty-three, are better numbers to have. Traditionally they are read as numbers carrying a heavier share to handle, not as a higher grade. The other frequent misreading is that people with the same life path resemble each other. The whole world divides into nine numbers, so hundreds of millions share yours, which is exactly why several numbers are read together and the places where they disagree are the interesting ones.
What this path does not cover
There is more than one way to reduce the digits, and this path uses one widely followed method. If another book gives you a different value, that is a different reckoning rather than an error. The tables that turn letters into numbers also vary by language, and only the romanised version is covered here. Choosing a moving day or a contract date from a personal day number is not covered either. Decide such things by your circumstances, not by a digit.