Arithmancy


In modern numerological terminology, arithmancy is a form of divination based on assigning numerical value to a word or phrase, by means of a simplified version of ancient Greek isopsephy or Hebrew/Aramaic gematria, as adapted to the Latin alphabet. Arithmancy is associated with the Chaldeans, Platonists, Pythagoreans, and the Kabbalah. When arithmancy is applied to a person's name, it is a form of onomancy.

Etymology

The term arithmancy is derived from two Greek words – arithmos and manteia. Arithmancy is thus the study of divination through numbers.

Methods

Pythagorean method

In the Pythagorean method, the letters of the Latin alphabet are assigned numerical values 1 through 9 as follows:
123456789
ABCDEFGHI
JKLMNOPQR
STUVWXYZ-

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 social/life number, and the character/personality number. The heart number is determined by adding together only the vowels in a person's name. The social number is calculated 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.

Chaldean method

A lesser known method is the Chaldean method. 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 :
12345678
ABCDEUOF
IKGMHVZP
JRLTNW
QSX
Y

Agrippan method

applied the concept of arithmancy to the classical Latin alphabet in the 16th century in Three Books of Occult Philosophy. He mapped the letters as follows:
123456789
ABCDEFGHI
102030405060708090
KLMNOPQRS
100200300400500600700800900
TVXYZIVHIHV

Note that the letters U, J, and W were not commonly considered part of the Latin alphabet at the time.