What Is Arithmancy?

Arithmancy is a sort of fortune-telling using numbers. It can be used to tell about the personality of a person by just knowing his or her name. Ancient Egyptians used Arithmancy to foretell the future.

The main branch being the personality one, a similar table is drawn for help:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
A B C D E F G H I
J K L M N O P Q R
S T U V W X Y Z

Now take the name of the person or character; we will take Harry Potter for instance; write the correct number below each alphabet:

H A R R Y P O T T E R
8 1 9 9 7 7 6 2 2 5 9

Now add up all the numbers:

8 + 1 + 9 + 9 + 7 + 7 + 6 + 2 + 2 + 5 + 9
= 65 = 6 + 5 = 11 = 1 + 1= 2

Harry's number is 2. This means he faces a dilemma for his life. This proves true as Harry has two choices; to remain on the right side or join Lord Voldemort. He chooses the first one but the impulse to join Voldemort is strong sometimes.

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Arithmancy is mentioned in the Harry Potter books. It is a system of fortune telling and a precursor of numerology. It uses the numbers associated with letters in you name or in a word to understand a person's character, strengths and weaknesses and how to respond to certain situations.

Each letter of the alphabet has an associated number value. A person's name is written out and the letters are changed to numbers. These numbers are then added together. If the result is not a single figure, the numbers are added together until a single figure is obtained. This result is the character number and can be used to understand the overall character of the person.

If just the vowels in a name are used, the resulting figure is the heart number which describes a persons desire and fears in their inner life.

If the consonants are used,the resulting figure is the social number, it describes the way a person relates to those around them.

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I had not heard of arithmancy before and J K Rowling does not describe what it is in the books as far as I know.

However, there is something called "numerology" used in the Bible which basically means that different numbers have certain spiritual significance. 1 is the number of God, as he experiences himself ( As in the song "Green Grow the rushes O", "One is one and all alone and ever more shall be so.") 3 is the number of God as we experience him (i.e. The Trinity) and 4 is the number of creation. This is because many things in nature come in fours; four seasons of the year, four sides of a square, four points of a compass, etc. Seven is the number of perfection because it consists of 3 + 4 i.e God plus creation. 6 is the number of imperfection because it consists of 3 + 3, i.e. God plus someone/something set up in opposition to him. Hence 666, the number of the beast, is the number of imperfection multiplied exponentially. There is also a significance to the numbers 10 and 12 which I have forgotten, but I believe they may be something to do with the church and/or government.

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