Chinese Numerology
By Kathy Northland
Although the exact origins of numerology are unknown, Chinese numerology is believed to be one of the earliest forms of numerology. It is thought that the origins of Chinese numerology date back nearly 4000 years to the banks of the Yellow River.
The tale that is told is that the first of the five mythical emperors of China, Wu of Hsai, was working on the banks of the Yellow River trying to find a method to prevent the floods that regularly devastated the communities located along the river. It was during the course of this work that Wu found a tortoise shell, which at the time was considered to be a very good omen.
This particular tortoise shell, however, was extremely rare, unique and special because it had fascinating markings on it. The shell showed a magic 3x3 square on its back that later became known as the Lo Shu Grid. The Lo Shu Grid was particularly remarkable because every row, column and diagonal on the grid add up to the number 15.
The number 15 was very significant because it is the number of days between the new moon and the full moon. Additionally, the number 5 was highly respected in ancient China, and was located in the important center square of the grid.
The Lo Shu Grid became the basis of Chinese numerology and is still used today in the Far East.
The grid took on a different adaptation in the West, and eventually over time Chinese numerology evolved into three different systems that are used today. There is the Western Version of Chinese Numerology, Traditional Chinese Numerology and the Ki system.
There is very little known about the origins of the Western version of Chinese numerology, although Hettie Templeton is credited with its popularization. Templeton taught classes and gave numerous public lectures and broadcasts throughout Australia during the 1930s and 40s. Her teachings helped Western Chinese Numerology gain the popularity it enjoys today, so most of the current information regarding this form of numerology comes from Australia and New Zealand.
The Western version of Chinese Numerology is by far the easiest of the three versions of Chinese Numerology to learn, and it is believed by many to be the most accurate. In fact, there are a large number of numerologists in China and Hong Kong who use the Western version rather than the traditional version of Chinese Numerology.
Chinese numerology uses only the numbers 1-9, and 0 is not included. Western Chinese numerology uses a square made up of 9 boxes - 3 down and 3 across. You can think of this square like a tic-tac-toe square or like a number sign (#) Each box in the square has a number from 1-9 associated with it. The boxes are numbered from 1-9 starting in the lower left square and moving up each column. So, from bottom to top in the first column would be 1,2,3, from bottom to top in the second column would be 4,5,6, and the last column from bottom to top would contain the numbers 7,8 and 9.
The numbers from a person's date of birth are then input into these boxes one at a time. So for instance, if someone was born in the year 1966, they would have one 1 in the bottom left box, one 9 in the top right box, and two 6's in the top middle box.
Depending upon how many of each number a person has in their grid, you can tell a lot about their strengths and weaknesses, their character traits and more.
  
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