Fun with arithmancy and divination
justcarol67
justcarol67 at yahoo.com
Wed Apr 4 15:38:25 UTC 2007
I was trying to remember the fancy word for tea-leaf reading last
night and a Google search led me to this site:
http://phrontistery.info/divine.html
which gives the names of all sorts of divination, from fortune-telling
using playing cards (which I remembered was cartomancy) to
coscinomancy (divination using a sieve and a pair of shears). Tea-leaf
reading, I discovered, was phyllomancy. There's also gastromancy
(divination by sounds from the belly) and ololygmancy (fortune-telling
by the howling of dogs). (The person compiling the site is interested
in words and etymology, BTW, not in divination, but if you like that
sort of thing, it's a good place to waste some time. You're likely to
be amused and you might learn some useless trivia to impress your
friends.)
Anyway, while I was there, I noticed arithmancy (divination using
numbers, naturally) and wondered (again) why Hermione would regard
Divination as a "woolly" subject but find Arithmancy, a form of
divination, useful and intriguing.
I went Googling again and found The Sorceror's Companion Arithmancy
Calculator
http://www.sorcererscompanion.net/arithmancy.html
which answered that very question:
"Arithmancy, an elective at Hogwarts, is an ancient system of
fortune-telling based on names and numbers. For over 2000 years,
people have used arithmancy to analyze their strengths and weaknesses,
overcome obstacles, and predict the future. Hermoine [sic] probably
likes this system of divination because it isn't based on interpreting
fuzzy images or giving meaning to random shapes and squiggles, but on
mathematical calculations you can do with a pencil and paper--or in
this case, right here on your computer."
Essentially, according to this website, each letter in a word or name
has a numerical value between 1 and 9. The person's character number
is the total of those numbers, which must be reduced to lowest terms
if it's more than nine. For example, Nicholas Flamel comes out to 58,
which is reduced to 5 + 8 = 13, which reduces to 1 + 3 = 4. (There's
also a heart number, what the person is like inside, derived from the
vowels in the name, and a social number, how the person appears to
other people, derived from the consonants.)
Two people whose names add up to the same number are supposed to be
compatible--alas for Harry and Ginny, a 2 (like Severus Snape) and a
6! Hermione herself is a 4, which fits rather well:
"Like a table that rests solidly on four legs, four indicates
stability and firmness. Fours enjoy hard work. They are practical,
reliable and down to earth; they prefer logic and reason to flights of
fancy. They are good at organization and getting things done. Like the
cycle of the four seasons, they are also predictable. They can be
stubborn, suspicious, overly practical and prone to angry outbursts.
The conflicts possible in "two" are doubled in four."
But Ron Weasley is a 2 (or a 1 if we call him Ronald).
Of course, we'd get different results altogether if we put in middle
names. Tom Riddle is a 1, but Tom Marvolo Riddle is a 7. He'd like that.
Carol, noting that "divination" is a 9 and "arithmancy" a 4, making
Divination incompatible with anybody and Arithmancy compatible with
Hermione (who has to do it all with quill and parchment because she
doesn't have a computer)
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