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.

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.

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.