Numerology
Yesterday I touched on Numerology with the date of birth of Patrick McGoohan 1+9+3+1+9+2+8=33 3+3=6, 6 being his number, and thereby the belief, or theory of some that perhaps Patrick McGoohan was destined to create the role of the Prisoner, and that his number would be 6.
Well I got to thinking about this yesterday afternoon, and conducted my own experiment, because you can apply the same method to a persons name, interposing numbers for the letters of a persons name, then adding them up in the same way in order to arrive at a single digit number. So having applied this same method to Patrick Joseph McGoohan's whole name, by three different methods I hasten to add, I actually arrived at three different numbers, first 8, then 3 by giving the letters of the alphabet English numeric values, and finally with English letters having been given the Chldean numeric values I arrived at the number 7.
So what does all this mean? Well you pays your money, and takes your choice. Three different methods employed, and you use the one which suits your purposes best, to arrive at the number you want, but would that be a true number?
In the novel War & Peace Count Pierre Bezuhov did his very utmost to prove by Numberology that his destiny was intertwined with that of Emperor Napolean Bonaparte. Bezuhov employed any method of Numerology until he eventually arrived at the result he required, to prove that his own destiny was intertwined with that of Emperor Napolean Bonaparte, and to achieve this Count Bezuhov even used the Bible.
It all comes down to manipulation, manipulation of the figures, via different methods used to achieve the numerical number you desire. Mine is 5 by my date of birth. But perhaps by using my full name I would undoubtedly arrive at two very different numbers!
1+9+3+1+9+2+9+1+9+2+8=33 3+3= 6
This according to the figures of Numerology, that Patrick McGoohan's date of birth makes for conclusive evidence that he was destined to play the role of the Prisoner-No.6.
This was writen to me in a recent letter from an old and dear friend, but this theory has ben around for a number of years, and the trouble is you can manipulate numbers to mean whatever you want them to mean.
As well as using a persons date of birth, by adding the numbers up in the same way I have done, the same can be used to add up the numbers in a persons name, substituting the number of the letter for the letter itself. And if you do that to the name Patrick Joseph McGoohan you get, well a completely different number altogether, and it's not 6!
My number is 6 also, but I never knew about all this stuff until fairly recently.
ReplyDeleteIan Rakoff claims McGoohan was aware that 6 was a *perfect* number, and seeing as mathematics was said to have been McGoohan's best subject at Ratcliffe, one would certainly have expected the old Ratcliffian to have been cognizant of this fact!
What truly led to him to choose Six is possibly as unknowable as why he made Seven be so noticeably absent from the Village Information Panel. That was one tiny detail that was evidentally intended to be noticed by the audience, even in 1967's 625-line monochrome.
Hello Moor,
ReplyDeleteThere are other forms of systems which can be used, like attributing numbers to the letter of your full name, and that to give you your number, these use the Hebrew, Greek, or Arabic alphabets, if I'm wrong perhaps someone will correct me. Years ago I tried calculating my number using both the Hebrew and Arabic alphabets, and ended up with two more different numbers. I'll have to dig out the book I have on the subject of numbers and Numberology.
Regards
David
BCNU