Numerology – Critique

Numerology
Critique

In the material that follows, we will cite seven reasons why we think numerology is a waste of time. First, each of the basic numbers, 1-9, has been assigned a list of key per­sonality characteristics, much like the astrological houses. But do such lists, as supplied in different numerological texts, always agree? No, they don’t agree.^[1] This means, for ex­ample, that the number 2 may be given different characteristics in different texts. Thus, since the “meaning” of the numbers is not uniform, the client may receive conflicting read­ings from different numerologists.

Second, critical tests of numerology have failed to confirm its predictive ability. For ex­ample, in numerology the name a person is given at birth and the name by which a person may now be known, or prefers to be called, may have different meanings. The “birth name” in numerology supposedly describes one’s destiny, and the name one chooses to use expresses current personality characteristics. But one study of preferred names indicated that the numerological description given was not equivalent to individual’s personal self-assessment: “Overall, the results do not leave one with the impression that numerological descriptions for preferred names compare well with the self-perceptions we hold for our personalities.”^[2]

Third, there are a host of different interpretations and approaches, revealing that numer­ology is ruled by subjectivism. As in astrology, ancient, medieval, and modern numerology promoters do not have consistent systems, nor do they interpret every indicator in the same manner.^[3] We have already seen that different numbers may be used for different letters, and this gives different results. Thus the key number for a given name may be either 1 or 4, with each carrying vastly different interpretations. People with the number 1 are said to be powerful individuals having dominating personalities leading to success, while people with the number of 4 are likely to encounter “failure, poverty and general gloom”^[4]:

One of the problems about analysing yourself numerologically is the fact that your name and birthdate may yield so many different numbers. It is difficult to know how to weigh and combine the varying results and how to exclude the elements of wishful thinking or, with historical figures, of hindsight. And the language of numerologists, like that of astrologers… is generally vague and woolly, so that with ingenuity almost anyone’s character can be fitted into any given number.^[5]

In addition, some numerologists use “master numbers” that go beyond 9, such as 11, 22, and 33 rather than the common practice of reducing them to their single digits of 2 (1+1), 4 (2+2), and 6 (3+3).^[6] Others reject this approach. Because of the complexity, frank practitio­ners will confess the confusion, although the particular method they choose always seems to be claimed as the best or most accurate. Not surprisingly, matters deteriorate rapidly when one incorporates additional systems of divination into numerology practice, such as cabalism or astrology. One numerologist refers to:

… the blatant discrepancies that are constantly cropping up in astro-numerology whenassigning number influences to planetary rays and vice versa. Disconcerting contradictions appear in textbooks which necessarily lead the sincere student along the path of confusion…. [N]umerology experts know their numbers but are either completely ignorant of astrological fundamentals or know little about them…. Then, too, numbers have many meanings. Take their symbolical interpretation when evaluating human character and human destiny. This differs from their religious significance or their ritualistic one as in the light of Cabalistic teachings and the hermetic schools of transcendental magic. One cannot expect these versions to agree with the numerical influences as expounded in this volume…. In order to bring system into this confused state of learning, we have exchanged our findings with top professional astrologers, and have succeeded in coming up with a theory we feel is both logical and practical.^[7]

In other words, after agreeing that “astro-numerology” is a mess, the author merely adds one more contradictory system to the picture: his own personal invention. Thus, this same author assigns the following “planets” the following numbers:

It does seem to bother him that no planet “Vulcan” exists. He explains that no one can see Vulcan because “it is invisible even through a telescope, even when it passes over the disk of the sun. But humans can nevertheless feel its influence, for it races around the sun in about 6 weeks. Therefore if you feel out of sorts one Blue Monday, and you don’t know what accounts for it, blame it all on Vulcan.”^[8]

Another noted numerologist contradicts the preceding by giving the following contrary correspondences between planets and numbers:

In this second list, no less than seven of the planets have completely different numbers assigned to them when compared to the previous list. The author of this list confesses, “There are some professionals who will take exception to a few of the above planetary assignments, but that is neither here nor there. In the last several books I have read, no two have agreed. It is my considered opinion that the above is the most correct interpreta­tion possible.”^[9] Again, the individual numerologist only assumes his particular system is the best. Like divination in general, numerology is filled with arbitrariness and subjectivism.^[10]

The subjective aspects inherent in interpreting numerological charts are little different from those found in the astrological charts that we detailed in Astrology: Do the Heavens Rule Our Destiny?^[11] In one instance, exhaustive instructions are given for gaining a “com­plete interpretation on any individual chart,” and these details take up an entire chapter of instructions. For example, “In the short range forecast, the letters pertaining that period from the excursion should be used. The Personal Year, Universal Year, Year Pinnacles, Year Challenge, Periodicity, Monthly Cycles, Personal Month, Universal Month, Month Pinnacles, Month Challenges, must all be considered. If the forecast is to be tightened up even further, the day vibrations must be studied.”^[12]

Leaving aside the delicate issue of studying and interpreting the “day vibrations,” would numerologists in general agree with the above citation, let alone all the detailed instructions in the entire chapter? Not at all. Although this author refers to taking the reader “deep into the exact science of numerology,” he also confesses that “many of these interpretations are the author’s own, developed through much hard work and long periods of studying many charts. A few of the charts employed in this book concerning forecasting are the author’s creation.”^[13]

This numerologist of more than 25 years also confesses, “Volumes concerning numbers are usually full of misinformation, the majority basing their study upon superstition,” and the “science of numerology must now be freed from the chicanery that has surrounded it for centuries.”^[14] Yet this same writer claims that without the unique knowledge he supplies in his book, “the understanding of numerology is incomplete.” Of course, with such knowledge a person “will have at their disposal the knowledge of all life, past, present and future. The knowledge of the destinies of empires, corporations, individuals.”^[15] Another numerologist says, “To my knowledge, no one has ever presented this scientific system of predictions to the public. It represents over 25 years of experience and hard work on my part, gained through observation, trial and error, and research.”^[16] But her “scientific system of predic­tions” not only fails, it is also contrary to other systems.

(to be continued)

Notes

1. ↑ Richard Cavendish, ed., Encyclopedia of the Unexplained: Magic, Occultism and Parapsychology (New York: McGraw Hill, 1976), pp. 159-60; Geri Tully, The Secret Powers of Numerology (New York: Pocket Books, 1977), pp. 18-23; Helyn Hitchcock, Helping Yourself with Numerology (West Nyack, NY: Parker, 1978), pp. 27-35.
2. ↑ Joseph G. Dikopolsky, “A Test of Numerology,” The Skeptical Inquirer, Spring 1983, p. 56.
3. ↑ Richard Cavendish, ed., Man, Myth and Magic: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Supernatural (New York: Marshall Cavendish Corporation, 1970), p. 2026.
4. ↑ Cavendish, Encyclopedia of the Unexplained, p. 159.
5. ↑ Cavendish, Man, Myth and Magic, p. 2023.
6. ↑ Tully, p. 17.
7. ↑ Vincent Lopez, Numerology (New York: Signet, 1969), pp. 131-32.
8. ↑ Ibid., p. 139, emphasis added.
9. ↑ Kevin Quinn Avery, The Numbers of Life: The Hidden Power of Numerology (Garden City, NJ: Doubleday, 1974 rev), p. 100.
10. ↑ Hitchcock, pp. 149,163; Harry F. Darling, Essentials of Medical Astrology (Tempe, AZ: American Federation of Astrologers, 1981), p. 2026; W. Wynn Westcott, Numbers: Their Occult Power and Mystic Virtues (London: Theosophical Publishing House, 1974, rpt of 1890 ed), pp. 33-36.
11. ↑ John Ankerberg, John Weldon, Astrology: Do the Heavens Rule Our Destiny? (Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers, 1989).
12. ↑ Avery, p. 283.
13. ↑ Ibid., p. XVII.
14. ↑ Ibid., pp. X, XVI, emphasis added.
15. ↑ Ibid., p. 246.
16. ↑ Hitchcock, p. 162.