Each day, we are exposed to numbers. We have phone numbers, birthdates, even our financial information is driven by numbers. Numerology is the study of the numbers in our lives and how they affect us. A student of numerology uses the letters in a word, such as a full name, or a birth date and reduces that to a single number.

That number tells them certain things about the person's character, what strengths and weaknesses they possess; it can even be used to predict their future. Numerology is often closely associated astrology as astrologists assigned the numbers 0 through 9 to each celestial body in the solar system and each number has its own set of values.

Numerology has been around for thousands of years. The Egyptians and Babylonians both used it over 10,000 years ago. Pythagoras, a mathematician whose theories are still in use today, is believed to have official organized numerology in Greece over 2,500 years ago. He held the view that math concepts were easier to regulate and classify than physical ones. Others beliefs and writings important in the development of numerology were early Christian mysticism, the Chinese Circle of the Dead, the Kabbalah, and the Indian Vedas.

At the beginning of the 20th century, L. Dow Balliet published the first book about numerology, beginning what is known as the modern phase of numerology and interest in it grew over the next few decades. Recently, a revival of interest in numerology has occurred and many people are learning how numbers might affect them.