We can see where the background of numerology is enmeshed in the moral philosophies and wisdoms of the ancient past. It was not just exalted thinking; its base was scientific. The very first alphabet was designed by the greatest spiritual and scientific minds of the day. Just as numbers were not only symbols of quantities, letters were not simply symbols of sounds. Both were designed to reveal deeper meanings to those initiated into the mysteries. Generally words were formed to embrace the attributes behind the words themselves.
Sixty percent of English words are based on their Greek and Latin origins; for example, “manus” in Latin is hand. Manual labor is work done by hand. Manuscripts are handwritten (“scribo”= to write), a manual is a small handbook, and so on.
The English and Indo-European alphabets are derived from the Roman (Latin), which we can trace back to the original Phoenician alphabet.
The 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet were considered sacred, as they were believed to have been endowed with God's attributes. The actual formation of letters has been attributed to Hermes, the wisest of all the wise men, who was known to the Jews as Enoch, to the Greeks as Hermes, and to the Romans as Mercury.
There were no vowels among the original 22 letters. Vowels were deemed too sacred to write, for they were the animating spirit of words, and the sound of them spoke the true and overwhelming name of God. Instead, vowels were assigned to the seven known planets. The consonants that made up the alphabet were all composed of the flame-like glyph called Yod. And it does represent a flame as it is meant to be a spark of the Divine Light that makes up the body of God used for all His creation. Each consonant contains some of God's attributes. Later on in history the meaning of the Yod degenerated from a flame of light direct from God to that of a phallic symbol representing mortal generation.
When the Greeks borrowed the alphabet, they added vowels for clarity, omitted sounds they did not use, and added ones they did use—as did all following Indo-European alphabets. Other than that, the letters are very close to the same sequence as that of the original (see Chart 1 on page 36).
Hebrew letters are read from right to left for a very special reason. God began creation by His own reflection. In a reflection right and left are reversed, as can be seen in a mirror. It was important to the Hebrews to show this reversal. By writing right to left they were going toward their source of life, toward God. It is important to note that Aramaic was the spoken language of the people, while Hebrew was reserved for sacred writings because of its magical qualities.
The letter name is the mystical name of a number, and every Hebrew word, when examined letter by letter, number by number, reveals a hidden meaning, for their letters and numbers are completely interchangeable. The entire Bible was composed of various combinations of those letter-numerals, giving important clues to the deeper meanings (see Chart 2 on page 37).
Hebrew is a very difficult language to translate because the vowels are omitted, the words are not separated for clarity, and there are no past, present, and future verb tenses. Add that to the fact that the original writers of the Bible felt it was not wise to give out certain information to the unholy, and therefore used every trick they knew to conceal the mysteries, and you can understand why translation of the Bible was such a major job.
An exact translation was made further impossible because the translators lived under an act that authorized them to translate but forbade them from upsetting or deviating from established beliefs.
In our translations only the names and numbers come to us untouched. But through the Science of Numbers, and methods known as Gematria, Temurah, and Notariqon, many secrets are unveiled. Gematria is the name given to a method of figuring hidden meanings from the geometric shapes of letters and from the numerical values of both words and phrases. Numerology gives meanings from the vibrational traits of numbers. Temurah is the art of finding words within words and from anagrams, and Notariqon derives words from abbreviations and the initial letters of words.
An example of Temurah is found in the Bible in the word SWORD. It is an anagram of WORDS, and it means “the utterance of a thought.” “He has made my mouth as a sharp sword . . . ” (Isaiah 49:2). Its meaning is defined in Ephesians 6:17: “And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.”
Since the Hebrew letters were considered sacred and believed to have been formed by God and endowed with His attributes, the names people chose had spiritual significance to them. In many ancient civilizations people did not receive their own names until they developed their own personalities. Until that time they were given a childhood name that was known as a “milk name.”
When they were older and initiated into the temple, they were given a name purely for spiritual unfoldment and for philosophical reasons. This name was used only in secret. The system of choosing that spiritual name was based on astrology. Vowels were assigned to each planet and consonants to the degrees of the zodiac. A mystical symbol would be created, probably by using the person's birth date, and from this symbol they were able to form the name and interpret the spiritual meanings behind it that revealed the true nature of the person to whom it belonged—just as we can through numerology today. In fact, all ancient names pointed out a person's true nature.
Numbers in the Bible have an astrological meaning as well. When 12 is used as a number of nations, it represents all the people born under the 12 signs of the zodiac, and therefore, the whole human race.
Saint John wrote the Apocalypse in such a way that only the Initiates would understand its meaning. It was meant to confound the masses by being written hieroglyphically with numbers and images, in which great mysteries are concealed. And he wrote, “Let them who have knowledge, understand! Let him who understands, calculate!”
