The inclusion grid: what the letters of your name say about your strengths

Nine boxes for every letter of your name

The grid starts from the same letters as the expression number, also called the destiny number: each of your birth first names, in the order of the birth certificate, then your birth surname. Each letter takes its value from the Pythagorean table, from A worth 1 to I worth 9, starting again at J; the full table and its special cases are on the page about how numerology is calculated. Only, instead of adding these values up, you count them: how many 1s, how many 2s, and so on up to 9.

The result fits into nine boxes, often drawn as a three-by-three square. A box can stay empty or hold six or seven letters, and that relief is what you read: the expression number gives you a total, the grid shows you what the total is made of.

The first name you go by is not added to the grid: if it is one of your birth first names, its letters are already there. A nickname or a married name does not change the boxes.

Filling in Camille’s grid, letter by letter

Take the example the site follows on every page, Camille Louise Martin. Her full name has nineteen letters: seven for Camille, six for Louise, six for Martin. Convert each letter, then place it in the box of its value:

• Value 1: three letters, an A in Camille, an S in Louise, an A in Martin.
• Value 2: just one, the T of Martin.
• Value 3: five letters, the C and the two L’s of Camille, then an L and a U in Louise.
• Value 4: two letters, an M in Camille and another in Martin.
• Value 5: three letters, an E in Camille, an E in Louise, an N in Martin.
• Value 6: just one, the O of Louise.
• Value 7: none, no G, no P, no Y.
• Value 8: none, no H, no Q, no Z.
• Value 9: four letters, an I in each first name, then an R and an I in Martin.

Always check the sum of the boxes: it must equal the number of letters in the name. Here, 3 + 1 + 5 + 2 + 3 + 1 + 0 + 0 + 4 does make 19.

The expression check: the grid already holds the total

Multiply each value by the number of letters in its box, then add everything up: you get exactly the total of the expression number. For Camille, 1 × 3, 2 × 1, 3 × 5, 4 × 2, 5 × 3, 6 × 1 and 9 × 4 give 3 + 2 + 15 + 8 + 15 + 6 + 36, which is 85, the total that passes through 13, a karmic debt number, before it reduces to 4.

This check does two jobs. It catches counting mistakes, the most common slip when you fill in a grid by hand. And it shows why two people with the same expression number are not alike: a 4 built on a mountain of 3s and 9s, like Camille’s, does not have the texture of a 4 made mostly of 1s and 5s.

Full boxes: the resources at your fingertips

A well-filled box points to an energy you draw on without effort, sometimes without noticing: it shows in your gestures, your tastes, your reflexes. To judge it, keep the common letters in mind: E, A, S, I, R and N turn up in most names and feed the 1, the 5 and the 9, which fill easily. Three letters worth 7 or 8, carried by rarer letters, weigh far more than three letters worth 5.

In Camille’s grid, the 9 holds four letters, enough to feed a life path 9, idealistic and generous. The 3 holds five, well above what a name of that length usually gathers: that is her real abundance. Words, humour, the urge to create and to bring people together come to her without her having to look for them.

A very full box has its flip side: excess. Many 3s can scatter you and make you start more projects than you finish; many 1s make you impatient; many 5s make you run from routine. This is not a flaw but a strength to channel, and the rest of the chart tells you where to direct it.

The dominant number, or hidden passion

The value that appears most often in the grid is called the dominant number. Tradition also calls it the hidden passion: a talent that keeps coming back, a drive that pushes you even when you are not looking for it. It replaces neither the life path nor the expression number; it tells you what you cannot help doing.

For Camille, it is the 3. It joins her soul urge number 3, her hereditary number 3 (a position of French numerology, read from the birth surname) and her birthday, the 12th, which also reduces to 3: number 3, which tradition links to Jupiter, runs through her whole chart. A hidden passion that confirms the core numbers is lived as something obvious; missing from the core numbers, it calls instead for an outlet, a hobby where it can express itself.

When two values tie for first place, the site shows both. Hugo Bernard has two: the 5, with an E and an N, and the 9, with the two R’s of Bernard. Read them together, as a passion with two faces, here a taste for movement and a taste for ideals.

Balance or relief: three grids side by side

Hugo Bernard has only eleven letters, and yet all nine of his boxes are filled: every value has at least one letter, and only two have two. It is a balanced grid, where nothing crushes the rest; its strength is versatility, its task, choosing one direction.

Yann Le Goff, ten letters, shows the opposite: only five boxes filled, the 5 (two N’s and an E) and the 6 (an O and two F’s) with three letters each, and four empty boxes. A grid in relief focuses its energy on a few values and takes them far; it also leaves some ground fallow.

Camille’s sits between the two: nineteen letters, seven boxes filled, two empty, the 7 and the 8. Each empty box is a karmic lesson, a quality life invites you to acquire; their meanings, one by one, have their own page.

Reading your own grid in five steps

A grid reads in a simple order, from the most visible to the most discreet, and then connects to the rest of the chart:

1. Check the count: the sum of the boxes equals the number of letters, and the weighted sum gives back your expression number.
2. Find the fullest box, your dominant number, and look for it among your core numbers.
3. Look at the boxes with a single letter: resources that are present but thin, and worth tending.
4. Note the empty boxes, then read their meaning on the karmic lessons page.
5. Finally, cross the grid with your life path and your expression number: it tells you by what means you follow the road they draw.

The site’s calculator draws your grid from your birth first names and surname, and marks the empty boxes as lessons, the fullest one as your dominant number. The calculation happens on your device; the help page about your numerology chart explains how to keep it.