Numbers

In the esoteric traditions numbers carry qualities as well as quantities: one for unity, two for division and duality, three for synthesis, four for order and the material, and so on. This category treats the symbolic numbers, the meanings a tradition attaches to each, as distinct from the positions of a numerological chart, which are treated separately.

The idea that numbers have natures is old and widespread. Pythagorean number theory, which held number to be the principle of all things, Jewish gematria, which reads the numerical values of Hebrew words, and the number symbolism of Christian and Islamic thought all contribute to it.

Modern numerology, which reduces names and birth dates to single digits and reads a character or fate from them, is a nineteenth- and twentieth-century construction on this older Pythagorean and gematric base, associated with figures such as L. Dow Balliett and Juno Jordan. The atlas distinguishes the ancient number symbolism from the modern popular system built on it.

The entries give each number its traditional qualities across the several sources, from the Pythagorean to the Kabbalistic. The slots of a numerological reading, Life Path, Expression and the rest, are treated under the number-type category.