Numerology

Numerology - A mystical connection between numbers and the world.

Numerology appeals to a divine or mystical connection between the properties of numbers and aspects of human life. Ancient intrigue in the power of numbers can be identified in many early cultures, notably that of ancient Egypt from 3000 BCE. Depictions of the Egyptian mythological figure of Seshat, the goddess of both mathematics and astrology, have survived in major temples throughout Egypt offering an insight in to the interplay between the mathematical and the mystical in Egyptian culture.

The study of numbers and their relation to the world was also adopted in later concerns and was prominent in Early Greek philosophy. The Greek philosopher Pythagoras was particularly influential in this respect, developing several mathematical principles that are still in use today. The principles bases are at least arguably numerological given the mystical approach to the properties of numbers that Pythagoras employed in their establishment. 

Modern numerology draws on many aspects of the ancient mystical treatment of numbers in order to analyze personality types or predict future events. Pythagorean numerology, for example, developed in the 1970s, appeals to the Pythagorean  idea that "all is number". Although today this is largely discredited as a pseudoscientific practice, its ancient origins are responsible for certain persistent superstitions. In modern  Chinese culture, for example, even numbers are considered luckier than odd, while many Westerners will be familiar with an unaccounted for aversion to the number thirteen.