Beginning Arithmancy: Lesson 2

[Rebecca Davenport]

The Beginning class of Arithmancers was bright and inquisitive, but unfortunately, they hadn't gotten as far as she had hoped and so was starting the lesson on time and giving the students little time to start side discussions.

"Arithmancy is the study of numbers and their magical properties," the professor started off as soon as the bell had sounded. Her whole demeanor told them that they better be writing this down or pay the consequences. There was no time to waste. "There are many different Numerological systems, but the one we will be focusing on the most in this class is called the Pythagorean system, named after the man most consider to be the father of numerology. It is most commonly used as a method of divination, but also has other uses which we will also get into."

She paused a moment in order to let the students catch up with their note taking.

"The premise of most basic numerology systems is that each and every single item, being, event, thought has a number assigned to it. In the system we are using, this is called the character number."

With this, she waved her wand at the board behind her and a chart appeared.



"Notice that each letter is in the column with a number. For example, A,J, and S are all in the one column, B,K, and T are all in the two column, and so on and so forth."

"We use this chart to find our character number and it's quite simple to do. You take the letters of your name... your whole name, and find the corresponding letters."

With this, the professor flicked her wand again and her name appeared on the board.

R e b e c c a L o u i s e D a v e n p o r t
9+5+2+5+3+3+1 + 3+6+3+9+1+5 + 4+1+4+5+5+7+6+9+2

"Now please notice that I use my full name, not my familiar name, and I include my middle name. We add these numbers together..." one more flick and the number 98 appeared. "We continue adding the digits until we are left with a one digit number.

R e b e c c a L o u i s e D a v e n p o r t
9+5+2+5+3+3+1 + 3+6+3+9+1+5 + 4+1+4+5+5+7+6+9+2 = 98

9 + 8 = 17
1 + 7 = 8

"So my character number is 8," she said simply. "If you have questions, please ask. If not, you may begin finding your number."



{please note that class has started. I'm trying to make up for my lack of lesson last go around}

[Fyona Richards]

Fyona took notes like crazy. She listened, nodded, wrote, and then listened again. She thought this class would have been harder than it sounded but so far she was catching on to the material pretty quickly. It was probably because she was putting forth the effort. When Professor Davenport referred to the chart Fyona understood immediately what she was talking about. Looking around at some of the dazed faces, she knew that most others didn't. There was one Huffle in the corner with his head on his desk sleeping, and a lion trying to quickly take down notes with a panicked look on his face. Smiling Fyona wrote down her whole name on the page.


FyonaCerysRichards
6+7+6+5+1+3+5+9+7+1+9+9+3+8+1+9+4+1= 94
9+4= 13
1+3= 4


So my character number is four. Cool.

"Professor Davenport. What does this number mean to us exactly? Why is it important to know it?"

[Rebecca Davenport]

{I'm sorry Miss Richards. I was hoping for more activity. What they mean will be the next class anyway. You are being rewarded greatly for being the only student to show up ;D }