Dear Reader,
In this text I will explain to you some lesser known facts about the so-called "Chaldean Numerology". This is basically a rewriting and expansion of an older text that I wrote years ago, and my intention in re-publishing it (or at least the ideas contained in it) is tied to the following purposes:
— To clear some confusions and myths surrounding this cipher;— To explain why "Chaldean" Numerology is not Chaldean, was never used by the Chaldeans, and is in fact a modern creation;— To explain the actual roots of this cipher within Hebrew Qabalah, particularly Hebrew Gematria;— To show the reasons why the number 9 isn't used in Chaldean Numerology, and why it wasn't a "sacred number for the Chaldeans" as it is so often repeated;— And finally, to tell my Readers that there isn't just one "Chaldean" Numerology, but in fact (at least) two different systems, coming from two different authors.
Hopefully, all of these subjects will be further studied in this...
History of Ciphers
by Luís Gonçalves
Part 6: Chaldean Numerology
Let's first talk about...
What is "Chaldean Numerology"?
I first read about Chaldean Numerology many years ago in Lloyd Strayhorn's book "Numbers and You" (check the author's website here). I still have a physical copy of that book, and even though it already has some loose pages due to some careless use, I still like this book a LOT and I've kept it safe on my bookshelf. It's a monster book on Numerology, and the work of its author was impeccable. I highly recommend it to my Readers who wish to study Numerology more deeply.
According to Strayhorn (pages 23-24):
"The Chaldean approach is very ancient and accurate. This system was developed by the Chaldeans of long ago, who once occupied the southern part of Babylonia. Because of their long and diligent study of the occult, the people of Chaldea became well known for their contributions to astronomy, mathematics and other sciences, particularly Astrology and Numerology. So adept were these Chaldean people in the metaphysical arts, that their name became synonymous with such studies.
The Chaldean system takes both your name and birthdate into consideration. The analysis of your name under this system uses only the name you are most known by, instead of your original name given at birth (a requirement of the Pythagorean system).
In the Chaldean system the numbers only go from 1 to 8, and not 1 to 9 — this means the transposition of the numbers assigned to the alphabet is different than in the Pythagorean counterpart. Below is the Chaldean chart:
As you may already have noticed, no alphabet letter was assigned to the number 9. The reason why the number 9 was omitted under this system was because the Chaldean felt the 9 was holy, sacred, and thus to be held apart from the rest. However, should your name or that of someone you know total 9, then the 9 remains. (...)"
I don't remember the specific year when I bought this book and saw this table for the first time, but I would presume it was sometime around the year 2000 or 2001, when I went to the University. And by that time I already had a deep knowledge of Jewish Qabalah and Gematria, and something... Well, something just didn't feel right in this explanation.
Where did this system come from?
As far as I was able to search, I believe that the first western numerologist talking about this specific system of Numerology was Count Louis Hamon, popularly known as Cheiro.
In his "Book of Numbers", Cheiro writes the following about this so-called "Chaldean" system:
"This ancient Chaldean and Hebrew alphabet sets out the number or value of each letter. It is the best system I know for this purpose; its origin is lost in antiquity, but it is believed that it was originated by the Chaldeans, who were masters in all magical arts, and by them passed to the Hebrews.
It will be seen that there is no number 9 given in the above alphabet, for the simple reason that those ancient masters of Occultism knew that in the "Highest Sphere" the number 9 represents the 9-lettered name of God, and for this reason no single letter was ascribed to it."
These two very paragraphs are very important, and we will be talking about what Cheiro wrote here, particularly the following points:
1. Was it really "Chaldean"?
2. (The real reason) Why the number 9 isn't used in Chaldean Numerology.
3. And finally: Why there isn't only one system of Chaldean Numerology.
1. Was it really "Chaldean"?
When I first saw this table of "Chaldean Numerology" it looked surprisingly familiar to me, even though I had never seen it before. And the reason why it looked familiar to me is because I had already seen it before — even though it wasn't used with the Modern English alphabet, but with the Hebrew alphabet instead.
In fact, in Hebrew Qabalah there is a table (related to another cryptographic technique) called Aiq Bekar, or Qabbala of the Nine Chambers, and it shows the letters of the Hebrew alphabet joined in 9 groups, in which each group corresponds to the reduced value of the letters according to Hebrew Gematria:
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| Click to enlarge. Note that the letters between parentheses represent possible pronunciations (or transliterations) of Hebrew letters. |
This table can be more easily understood once we consider the values of the letters. For example, in group 1, Aleph has the value 1, Yod has the value 10, and Qoph has the value 100. All these values are reduced to 1 (by adding all the digits of the numbers), so all of them belong to the same group represented by the number 1. It's from the letters in the two first groups that the name "Aiq Bekar" (A-Y-Q, B-K-R) is derived.
Comparing this table with the "Chaldean" table, it thus becomes apparent that this numerological system does not come from the Chaldeans, but it is in fact an adaptation of the Hebrew Qabalistic system known as Aiq Bekar to the Modern English alphabet. This can be further confirmed if we look closely into which English letters correspond to which numbers, and then compare them with the corresponding Hebrew letters — for example, number 4 corresponds to the English letters D, M and T, and to the Hebrew letters Daleth, Mem and Tav.
How, therefore, was the equivalence made between English letters and numbers, if the Hebrew alphabet (and Aiq Bekar) was used as a model? From the explanations of several authors who use this numerological system (examples here, here and here), in Chaldean Numerology the values are given to the letters based on vibrational patterns — that is, the sound of letters. So, in other words, it's how the English letters are pronounced that dictates how their correspondence with Hebrew letters is made, and thus can their value be found.
Most of the numerical equivalents as found in this system can be confirmed through this rule. However, there seem to be some exceptions, since the criterion by which the correspondence between English and Hebrew letters was made is not always clear. This is particularly true in the case of the letters C, F, H, X and Y. For example:
— Both "E" and "H" were given the value 5,
even though "E" derived from the Hebrew letter Heh (=5) and "H" derived
from the Hebrew letter Cheth (=8). However, as the rule to Chaldean Numerology is to attribute values to the letters based on how they sound, the Chaldean attribution could thus be confirmed, since the letter "E" derived from the Hebrew letter "He", which has the /h/ sound. If instead we followed the genetic derivation of English letters from the Hebrew alphabet, "E" would be
more reasonably given the value 5, and "H" would be given the value 8.
— Both "F" and "P" were given the value 8. In this case we can see how the rule of "pronunciation of letters = their value" works. As "P" derives from the Hebrew letter Peh (=80) which can also be pronounced as "F", it makes sense to give the same value to both English letters.
— "Y" was given the value 1. This again confirms the Chaldean pattern of giving values to the letters based on their sounds, since the letter "Y" can be a perfect transliteration of the Hebrew letter Yod (=10). Historically, however, the English letter "Y" is more tightly connected to the Hebrew letter Vav (=6), so in a Genetic (not sound-based) system of Numerology, "Y" would perhaps more correctly be given the value 6.
— Both "C" and "G" were given the value 3. This happens because the letter "G" derived from "C", and "C" itself derived from the Hebrew letter Gimel (=3), so it makes sense to give the same value to both letters. However, if the rule in Chaldean Numerology was really the vibration (i.e. sound) of the English letters, it would make more sense to compare "C" (and its hard "K" sound) with the Hebrew letter Kaph (=20), so it would be more reasonably given the value 2 instead of 3.
— And how about the letter X=5? This is the only English letter whose numerical attribution in Chaldean Numerology doesn't make any sense at all. In Hebrew Gematria, the only letters whose value can be reduced to 5 are Heh (=5), Nun (=50) and the final form of Kaph (=500) — and none of those letters are remotely connected to "X". So how was this numerical equivalence devised, exactly? I can't really answer that question because, honestly, I don't know. And it doesn't make sense to me. Anyway, we'll talk further about this when we talk about other systems of Chaldean (i.e. Kabbalistic) Numerology.
From these observations, it becomes clear that the method by which the numbers were assigned to the letters based on their sound wasn't always clear, and some numerical attributions are debatable at best — so they're thus open to discussion.
2. Why isn't the number 9
included in Chaldean Numerology?
From the observations presented above, it also becomes clear why the number 9 isn't used in Chaldean Numerology. In fact, number 9 isn't used in Chaldean Numerology because the Hebrew letters whose values are reduced to 9 (in this case, Teth & Tzaddi) didn't survive into our alphabet.
In fact, the Hebrew letter Teth (between CHETH / Greek Eta / Latin H, and YOD / Greek Iota / Latin I & J) doesn't exist in our alphabet. Likewise, the letter Tzaddi (between PEH / Greek Pi / Latin P, and QOPH / obsolete Greek Qoppa / Latin Q) didn't survive into our alphabet. So this is the reason why 9 isn't used in the modern "Chaldean" Numerology. It has nothing to do with special "powers" of the number 9, or with any supposed "fear" of it from the "Chaldeans".
In order to aid my Readers in better understanding this question, I will add a quick table for reference, where I show (1) the Hebrew letters, (2) their values in Hebrew Gematria, (3) the Greek letters derived from the Hebrew alphabet, and (4) the Latin letters derived (through Etruscan) from the Greek alphabet.
- Aleph (1) = Alpha = A- Beth (2) = Beta = B- Gimel (3) = Gamma = C, G- Daleth (4) = Delta = D- Heh (5) = Epsilon = E- Vav (6) = [Digamma] = F (indirectly, also U, V, W and Y)- Zayin (7) = Zeta = Z- Cheth (8) = Eta = H- Teth (9) = Theta = didn't survive into our alphabet- Yod (10) = Iota = I, J- Kaph (20) = Kappa = K- Lamed (30) = Lambda = L- Mem (40) = Mu = M- Nun (50) = Nu = N- Samech (60) = Xi = didn't survive into our alphabet- Ayin (70) = Omikron = O- Peh (80) = Pi = P- Tzaddi (90) = [San] = didn't survive into our alphabet- Qoph (100) = [Qoppa] = Q- Resh (200) = Rho = R- Shin (300) = Sigma = S- Tav (400) = Tau = T
The remaining Latin letters, U, V, W, X and Y have to be treated apart from the others, since they don't have a direct connection with any Hebrew letter. However, it is widely accepted that the Greek letter Ypsilon (from which came the Latin U, V, W and Y) was derived from the Hebrew letter Vav, and that the Latin X came from the Greek letter Chi (pronounced as /ks/ in the ancient Euboean Greek alphabet).
There is more to this and we'll get to it in time, but for now I would like to direct my Readers' attention to the fact that there isn't only one system of "Chaldean" (i.e. Kabbalistic) Numerology but in fact — at least — two different systems. I only found the second one when I bought Harish Johari's book "Numerology with Tantra, Ayurveda, and Astrology".
3. Is there only one system of Chaldean Numerology?
Nope! In fact, in the book by Harish Johari I found yet another system of Numerology that is remarkably similar to Chaldean Numerology, even though it gives different values to three letters: C, H and X. This is the system as it appears in Johari's book, where he calls it the Unit System:
Later, I came to understand that this is the system more commonly used in Vedic Numerology, while for the western world the Kabbalistic system we know better is known as Chaldean Numerology. In fact, both Chaldean Numerology and Harish Johari's Unit System can be called Kabbalistic systems of Numerology, since both are ultimately derived from the Hebrew Kabbalistic technique known as Aiq Bekar. However, the differences between this specific system and Chaldean Numerology are very worthy of note, so I will elaborate a bit upon them:
— The letter "C" was given the value 2. This is one such example in which sound (i.e. pronunciation) prevails over genetic derivation, as in the explanations previously given about Chaldean Numerology. As the letter "C" can have a hard /k/ sound, it was in this case compared to the Hebrew letter Kaph (=20), instead of the letter Gimel (=3) from which both "C" and "G" were genetically derived.
— The letter "H" was given the value 8. This equivalence has an advantage over the Chaldean equivalence with the number 5. While in Chaldean Numerology the letter "H" was compared to the Hebrew letter Heh (=5) which sounds like "H", in this case both sound and genetic derivation are respected. And this happens because the English letter "H" was genetically derived from the Hebrew letter Cheth (=8), which can also be transcribed as a hard /h/ sound.
— The letter "X" was given the value 6. This equivalence makes much more sense than the Chaldean equivalence with the number 5. The Chaldean correspondence makes no sense at all, either by the sound of the letter or by its genetic derivation. In this specific system, however, the correspondence with the number 6 is much more reasonable, since the letter "X" came from the Greek letter Chi (=600), which in the ancient Euboean Greek alphabet was pronounced like the modern Greek letter Xi (=60). So an equivalence with number 6 is much more reasonable than the equivalence that is used in Chaldean Numerology.
The discovery of this system later led me into finding its source, which from my investigations seems to be a book written in 1920 by Sepharial (Walter Gorn Old), "The Kabala of Numbers". In the third chapter of this book, dedicated to Numerology, Sepharial shows the following table of numbers & letters:
This table is extremely pertinent in this investigation because:
— It shows how the correspondences were made between English and Hebrew letters, based on the sound of the letters;
— It clearly demonstrates the reason why the number 9 isn't included in Chaldean Numerology, since "Th" and "Tz" are possible transliterations of the Hebrew letters Teth (=9) and Tzaddi (=90) respectively, which didn't survive into our alphabet.
Some notes towards a "pure"
Genetic system of Numerology
In this section I will show my suggestion of a purely Genetic system of English Numerology — that is, a system that isn't based on how the English letters sound (and the connection between sounds and Hebrew letters), but instead on how the English letters derived genetically from the Hebrew alphabet.
The reason why I'm proposing a "pure" Genetic system of English Numerology is because the choice of the how the letters sound as a criterion for assigning them certain values can be dubious sometimes. See for example the letter "H". In Chaldean Numerology it has the value 5, since in this case the sound /h/ can be represented in Hebrew by the letter Heh (=5), while in Sepharial's Kabbalistic/Hebraic system it is assigned the value 8, since the Hebrew letter Cheth (=8) corresponds to a hard /h/ sound.
If, instead, we follow a method in which the English letters are assigned the values of the Hebrew letters from which they were derived, then each and every English letter will only have one possible value — that is, there won't be any margin for error or dubious correspondences.
If, instead, we follow a method in which the English letters are assigned the values of the Hebrew letters from which they were derived, then each and every English letter will only have one possible value — that is, there won't be any margin for error or dubious correspondences.
Based on one of the tables shown above, in which I showed why the number 9 isn't used in Chaldean Numerology, we can thus create the following table of correspondences:
When comparing this system with Chaldean Numerology, some differences can easily be noted, namely regarding the letters F, H, X and Y. This happens because:
— Both letters "F" and "Y" are connected to the Hebrew letter Vav (=6). "F" is a direct derivation from the Greek Vau/Digamma (=6) while "Y" came from the Greek letter Ypsilon, which in turn was also derived from the Hebrew letter Vav. So it makes sense to assign both letters the value 6.
— "H" is assigned the value 8, because it derived directly from the Greek Eta (=8), which in turn came from the Hebrew letter Cheth (=8).
— And finally, letter "X" was assigned the value 6. In this case, however, there isn't a direct connection with any specific Hebrew letter; "X" derived directly from the ancient Greek Euboean letter "X" (=600) which sounded like /ks/, and was pronounced like the modern Greek letter "Xi" (=60). So it also makes sense to give "X" the value 6.
It's also possible to build a Genetic Greek system for the English alphabet, in which we consider how the modern English letters derived directly from the Greek alphabet. If my dear Reader has read my post on the Latin ciphers, this is basically a reduction table for the Æquicalculus cipher, which was also mentioned by John Opsopaus in this Biblioteca Arcana website (here, with further explanations here and here).
In this case I will suggest my Readers to visit John Opsopaus' webpage mentioned above, since it contains some valuable informations that will shed some light on the reasons for these numerical correspondences. I should mention, however, that in this case there is a number 9 in this table, for the simple reason that the letter "Q" is the only English letter that was derived from a Greek letter whose value is reduced to 9 — in this case, the Greek letter Qoppa, which has the value 90 (=9).
Suggested Bibliography
In this presentation I mentioned several sources which may be very useful for my Readers if they want to follow these studies. In order to make it easier for everyone, I'm leaving here a list of some of the books I learned from, as well as some useful links:
— STRAYHORN, Lloyd, "Numbers and You", Ballantine Books (1980):— HAMON, Count Louis ("Cheiro"), "Cheiro's Book of Numbers", Herbert Jenkins Ltd. (1926):— JOHARI, Harish, "Numerology with Tantra, Ayurveda, and Astrology", Destiny Books (1990):— OLD, Walter Gorn ("Sepharial"), "The Kabala of Numbers", William Rider and Son, Ltd. (1911 - first edition):— Links from John Opsopaus' Biblioteca Arcana:- Isopsephia Calculator:- Isopsephia Alphabet Charts:- Some Notes on the History of Isopsephia (Gematria):- Genetic Correspondences between Hebrew, Greek and Roman alphabets:
Some Final Words...
It is my hope that this article has helped my Readers in understanding how "Chaldean Numerology" was created, and what were the bases behind its creation. This may have been perhaps the most technical article that I've written about the ciphers of Gematria to this day, and in fact it had to be that way. There is no way to understand a cipher if we are unable to explain it in all details and actually understand how it really works — and so, would there be a better way to explain it if not by deconstructing it and completely understanding its logic? Of course not. So that was precisely my plan from the first minute I wrote about this cipher.
I also didn't take my time in exploring any numerical correspondences with this cipher (or the others that were mentioned in this text) because I'm really not a fan of ciphers containing reduced values, so I never duly explored it. Instead, I preferred to leave that for other more pertinent occasions, and instead I've chosen to focus on explaining the bases behind this cipher and how it was created.
Perhaps one day in the future I will return to this. But not now.
For my next text(s), I will again focus on more than one cipher. One of them is Alphanumeric Qabbala, a cipher that I already talked about in a previous post. It's one of my favorite ciphers so far and, because of its nearly perfect mathematical properties, it allows us to "play" with it in many different ways. As my previous text on this cipher was highly incomplete, I will be dedicating a whole new text to this very curious cipher.
Another cipher that I will talk about is Satanic Gematria. Even though some people might think that this is a "bogus" cipher, it is actually quite interesting due to its very special properties and some eye-opening equivalences that we can find when using it. Also, as the origin of this cipher is virtually unknown, I think it is time to give this cipher the attention that it rightfully deserves.
Some surprises will await my Readers when they read these future texts, though, so stay tuned if you're enjoying my work! 😋
My best regards to all my Readers,
Luís Gonçalves
