How numerology is calculated: the full method, with a worked example

The letter table, from A to Z

The Pythagorean method sets the alphabet out in rows of nine: A is worth 1, B is worth 2, up to I, worth 9, then J starts again at 1, and S once more. Each letter is worth the number of its column:

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

Accents and cedillas disappear (É counts as E, Ç as C), Œ and Æ count as OE and AE; hyphens, apostrophes and spaces are worth nothing.

Reducing a total, step by step

A total with several digits is reduced by adding its digits together; if the result still has two, you start again. Three cases show it all:

1. 27 gives 2+7 = 9: a single pass is enough.
2. 85 gives 8+5 = 13, then 1+3 = 4: two passes.
3. 199 gives 1+9+9 = 19, then 1+9 = 10, then 1+0 = 1: three passes.

Where the reduction stops: masters and debts

When a total lands on 11, 22 or 33, you go no further: these are the master numbers, also written 11/2, 22/4 and 33/6 to recall their root. Born on 29 November 1982, Léa Maya Dubois receives two: her first names and surname add up to 47, and 4+7 = 11; her birthday, the 29th, gives 2+9 = 11, kept as well.

Karmic debt numbers show up along the same route. If the reduction passes through 13, 14, 16 or 19, it is written with its root: 13/4, 14/5, 16/7, 19/1. The number stays the same, with one more demand, which the calculator flags.

Vowels, consonants and the case of Y

Two numbers sort the letters: the soul urge keeps only the vowels, the personality number only the consonants. A, E, I, O and U are always vowels. Y is one too, except when it sounds like a consonant: at the start of a word before a vowel, as in Yann or Yasmine, and between two vowels, as in Maya or Mayeul.

The rule weighs heavily. In Maya, the Y sits between two A’s: it counts as a consonant, and the soul urge of Léa Maya Dubois is 26, reduced to 8. Counted as a vowel, it would lift that total to 33, a master number, and drop her consonants to 14: two very different portraits for a single letter.

Which name to use: birth certificate, married name, particles

The calculation takes the name on the birth certificate: every first name, in order, and the family name received at birth, the one behind the hereditary number. A married person who uses their spouse’s name therefore keeps their birth surname; the married name only adds a secondary vibration.

The first name you go by only enters the active number, and only if it differs from your first name. Compound names count in full: Jean-Pierre or Martin-Dubois add up the letters of both their parts.

A particle or an article is part of the name as soon as it appears on the certificate. Le Goff therefore counts in full, L3 E5 G7 O6 F6 F6, which makes 33, a master number; Goff alone would give 25, reduced to 7. Copy your name exactly as the civil register recorded it.

The full example: Camille Louise Martin, born on 12 May 1990

Let us apply all these rules to the site’s example. CAMILLE LOUISE MARTIN has nineteen letters: the vowels A, I, E, O, U, I, E, A, I and the consonants C, M, L, L, L, S, M, R, T, N. Each number draws on its share, from the life path to the inclusion grid:

1. Life path, the whole date: 1+2+0+5+1+9+9+0 = 27, and 2+7 = 9.
2. Expression, every letter: Camille makes 28 (C3 A1 M4 I9 L3 L3 E5), Louise 27 (L3 O6 U3 I9 S1 E5), Martin 30 (M4 A1 R9 T2 I9 N5). The total, 85, gives 13, then 4: an expression 4, with the 13/4 debt.
3. Soul urge, the vowels: 1+9+5 + 6+3+9+5 + 1+9 = 48, then 4+8 = 12, then 1+2 = 3.
4. Personality, the consonants: 13+4+20 = 37, that is 85 − 48, then 3+7 = 10, then 1.
5. Active number, here the first name, Camille: 28, then 10, then 1. Hereditary, Martin: 30, then 3.
6. Birthday: the 12th, so 1+2 = 3.
7. Maturity: life path 9 and expression 4, which makes 13, then 4.
8. Inclusion grid: three letters are worth 1 (A, S, A), one is worth 2 (T), five are worth 3 (C, L, L, L, U), two are worth 4 (M, M), three are worth 5 (E, E, N), one is worth 6 (O), none is worth 7 or 8, four are worth 9 (I, I, R, I). The karmic lessons are therefore 7 and 8, the dominant number 3.

Time, on the same example

The numbers of time start from the date cut into three: the day, 12, gives 3; the month of May is 5; the year 1990 gives 19, then 10, then 1. An 11 or a 22 would stay whole for the pinnacles and be reduced for the challenges. These three digits combine as follows:

• The four pinnacles: day + month = 8, until age 27, the first lasting 36 years minus the life path; day + year = 4, from 27 to 36; their sum, 12, so 3, from 36 to 45; month + year = 6, from age 45 on.
• The four challenges, by differences: month − day = 2, then day − year = 2; their gap, 0, gives the main challenge, the challenge of choice, which holds for a lifetime; month − year = 4 goes with the last pinnacle.
• The three life cycles: the month, 5, until age 28; the day, 3, until 55; the year, 1, after that. They change in the personal year 1 closest to age 28, then to age 56: for Camille, 2018 and 2045.
• The personal year: birth day and month plus the current year, 1+2+5+2+0+2+6 = 18, so 9 in 2026, the end of a cycle, then 1 in 2027. The personal month adds the calendar month to it, the personal day the date of the day.

Why two calculators do not always agree

Compare several sites and you will sometimes see gaps. They almost always come from three method choices, not from a mistake:

• The date, in one block or in pieces. The site adds up every digit; reducing the day, month and year first keeps the root, not always the route. Born on 21 March 1988, Hugo Bernard gets 32, then 5, in one block, but 3 + 3 + 8 = 14, then 5, in pieces: a 14 debt appears.
• Y and the master numbers. Always counting Y as a vowel, or bringing 11, 22 and 33 down to one digit, changes the soul urge or wipes out the master numbers of many charts.
• The Chaldean table. Its letters are worth 1 to 8, by sound: the whole name reads differently.

To follow a number back to its source, tap it in the calculator: its bubble shows the letters counted and every step of the reduction, just as in Camille’s example.