Kabbalistic Numerology uses the Hebrew Gematria system, translating the letters of your name into numerical values according to their phonetic equivalents in the Hebrew alphabet. From this translation, three core numbers are calculated: the Name Number (total Gematria value — symbolism of your outer essence), the Soul Number (vowels only — inner drives and spiritual needs) and the Life Lesson Number (derived from date of birth — central karmic theme). Each of these three numbers corresponds to one of the nine Sephirot on the Tree of Life — the cosmic map of consciousness in Kabbalah. The analysis reveals in which part of the Tree your essence resides, what this means for your spiritual development and how the three spheres complement one another.
Where it comes from
Gematria is the practice of reading Hebrew words by the numerical values of their letters, and it is old — it appears in rabbinic literature and became central to Kabbalistic interpretation of scripture, where two words of equal value are held to illuminate each other. Attaching gematria to the ten sefirot of the Tree of Life, and applying it to a person's name as a character reading, is a later Western esoteric development rather than a rabbinic one.
How the method works
The letters of your name are transliterated into their Hebrew phonetic equivalents and each takes its gematria value. Three numbers come out: the name number from the whole name, read as outward essence; the soul number from the vowels, read as inner motive; and the life lesson number from the date of birth, read as the central karmic theme. Each is then reduced to one of nine and mapped to a sefirah on the Tree — Chesed for expansion and giving, Gevurah for restraint and judgement, Tiferet for balance at the centre, Yesod for the foundation that transmits. The reading is in where the three sit relative to each other on the Tree: three numbers clustered on the pillar of severity describe a different structure from three spread across all three pillars. Transliteration is the weak point, since there is no single correct way to render a Latin-alphabet name in Hebrew letters, and different conventions give different totals.
What a reading covers
A reading gives your name number, soul number and life lesson number with their gematria values, the sefirah each corresponds to, and a reading of where on the Tree of Life your essence sits and how the three spheres relate.
Common questions
- Does my name need to be in Hebrew?
- No. It is transliterated by sound. That is also why results can differ between sources, since transliteration is a judgement rather than a rule.
- Is this authentic Kabbalah?
- Gematria is authentically Kabbalistic; using it to read a person's character and map them onto the sefirot is a Western esoteric adaptation. Traditional Kabbalah applies gematria to scripture, not to personality.
- Which name should I use?
- The name you go by, since the system reads the name in use as the one carrying the vibration. Using both your birth name and your current name gives two readings, and the comparison is often the interesting part.