The power of numbers

The belief in some form of  the power of numbers or their ability to influence people and events  is universally distributed in some form, and we find it present in every age. 

It, generally called numerology, which can be translated as “science of numbers”, improperly as its basis  has very little scientific , however, has many levels of expression, from the superstitious and superficial ones of the vulgar to the more occult ones of the esoteric branches of religions and of spiritual disciplines. 

It is no coincidence that  cabala and ghimatria  are the basis of Judaism and Semitic religions in general, and that tantra is one of the foundations of Hinduism and dharmic religions. Often times divination practices of various kinds and even the same astrology and the use of tarot cards  and runes are closely linked to numbers. 

From Pythagoras to Gematria

We could bother Pythagoras  himself, who makes numbers the basis of reality, also attributing to them specific characters such as masculinity, femininity, union, perfection, etc.   

“Numbers are the language offered by the gods to men to confirm the truth” is a maxim often referred to Pythagoras. In all ancient cultures, numerology has  an alphanumeric value , from the Chaldean to the Chinese one, passing through the Arab abjad. 

Let’s take the cabal for example. There are numerous types, but the two main branches are the Jewish, the Christian and the Hermetic. All three are based on ghematria , an alphanumeric system with which it is possible to attribute a value to each word and from these to trace a specific influence, as  numbers are ultimately translated as vibrations .

Therefore, through ghematria, the interpretation of texts and names is no longer referred to their literal meaning but to their vibrational value. 

From tantrism to grimace

Tantrism is also based on Indian numerology, not unlike the Semitic ghematria of Chaldean origin. 

Each letter corresponds to precise numbers and precise colors, because vibrations , when manifested as electromagnetic waves , are not only sounds but also colors. 

This leads us very far, to a lost or buried knowledge that the ancients seem to have had and through which they not only interpreted the facts of the cosmos through the numbers they expressed, but came to have an influence on them. The so-called magic . 

Above this ancient layer of occult knowledge there are those of popular beliefs , of the search for fortune through numbers hunting for numbers in dreams to then play the lotto and attention to the “signs” that the universe sends us daily that can be translated into numbers, often in order to play them or use them to accommodate practical matters.

Different numerologies

Nowadays there is a modern numerology  that is not merely in search of material wealth but that seeks to facilitate interaction with the universe and its understanding. 

The fundamental difference with this numerology and the ancient ones is that the former represents an extremely simplified form of the latter, apparently more within everyone’s reach. 

In this case, according to modern numerology,  the conversion of a name into a number always tends to reach one of the numbers of the first decade as the final value , through a sort of addition of each digit. Instead in ancient numerologies, not only single digits and their individual value were considered but whole numbers, thus reaching  an almost infinite system of values ​​instead of limited to 10 meanings , large but inevitably vague.