Perhaps the first step to overcome in regard to numerology is the acceptance that numbers actually impact on every sphere of our lives from the moment we are born, which includes the name we are given by our parents. Name numerology is a calculation comprising the individual letters of your name that are each given a numerical identity. These numbers are then added together until you arrive at two figures, each of the individual numbers are then added together until they make a single number. It is this single number that is said to reveal your destiny and also to identify where in the birth cycle between 1 to 9 you are born.

Chinese numerology follows Western numerological thought with many of its principals in order to achieve its goal for prediction while the characters are very different. A difficulty with Chinese numerology as well as other forms of numerology relates to the identification of names that you should use in your calculations. Some Numerologists suggest that you use only the names that you either feel most comfortable, or those that you regularly use. However, if you were provided a host of names by your parents it seems fitting that you should use them all in any of your calculations because only by doing so will you be able to properly attain the number that truly equates to you. Chinese numerologists believe that the names given you by your parents will be relevant to your destiny, therefore all the names they bestow are of equal importance.

Variations of Chinese numerology consider that and individual life expectancy should be no greater than sixty years, a similar supposition as that of Chinese astrology. Should you be fortunate enough to live past sixty it was thought that you did so because lessons that you had to learn previously had been missed and that you were being granted a second chance. Chinese astrology follows this line of thought by proposing that twelve animal signs can be identified each of which is cycled through five separate elements i.e. wood, fire, earth, metal and water. Multiply the five elements by the twelve animals signs and you discover a sixty year cycle.

Chinese numerology and astrology were both extensively relied upon by Chinese emperors through consecutive dynasties to a point where the position of Emperor's Astrologer/Numerologist became an exalted one. Emperor's relied strongly on the advice of these individuals to do with topics ranging from marriage, finance and war. In return the Astrologer/Numerologist received lands and wealth and a position within the community that was the envy of many.

It is a fact that both Astrology and Numerology have played a significant role in man's early development, the reasons centre on man's own curiosity over his existence which appears to push him to seek unorthodox ways in which to discover what it is that we are here to do. However, that these unorthodox methodologies continue in use today cannot but lend them credibility, if credibility can be interpreted as a belief by many.