Numerology and Numerical Superstitions

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k1234567890y
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Numerology and Numerical Superstitions

Post by k1234567890y »

In many cultures around the world, there are some mysticisms and superstitions around number. For example, the lucky 7, the misfortune-brining 13 among westerners, the connection between 4 and death among Chinese and Japanese people, the miracle of 19 among Muslims, the "number of the beast" in the Bible, etc. The ancient Greek mathematician and philosopher Pythagoras even had a belief system built on numbers.

Do your concultures have something similar? if so, what are they?
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Lao Kou
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Re: Numerology and Numerical Superstitions

Post by Lao Kou »

Géarthtörs certainly has the number seven hardwired into its culture and language (including a defective septimal number), naturalism be damned. [>:)]
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Re: Numerology and Numerical Superstitions

Post by ukfl »

I intend to include numerology, but haven't gotten there yet. In research I'm doing on the Anglo-Saxon culture to inform development of conculture, I saw that they focused on multiples of 3.
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elemtilas
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Re: Numerology and Numerical Superstitions

Post by elemtilas »

k1234567890y wrote: 10 Apr 2018 21:57 In many cultures around the world, there are some mysticisms and superstitions around number. Do your concultures have something similar? if so, what are they?
Daine are not naturally superstitious, though it is often the case that their cultures find the numbers three and nine auspicious. Two is definitely a double edged precipice: twins for example seem a blessing to a race with a high infant mortality rate; yet twins often clash with the social norms around them, sometimes to the point of being reviled or sent away. Or even (quietly) killed.

Yttuun find the number one to be most distastefully defective, the mere half of two, which is the most natural number in all the order of Nature. Their languages lack the singular number; the dual is the normative.

Men are terribly susceptible to superstition. Three and nine are generally considered lucky or auspicious, as is seven and thirteen. Eight is considered a number of power and circumspection in the Eastlands. One through twelve have sacro-magical connotations that one can often find hidden in folklore.

Dwarrows in the Eastlands are almost unanimous in considering two & the powers of two to be the perfect numbers and all others to be shabby counterfeits. They won't say why. Further west, other cultures vary more. Dwarrows are also quite unanimous in considering themselves the best qissumancers (practitioners of number magic) in all of Gea. None other than that renowned Dwarrowish fellow, Reginald the Pomatomancer, has developped a very complex and, according to his doting clientele, very accurate mathematical system for mapping the hair follicles to an improved mumblascopion (a device for charting events over the near future).
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Pabappa
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Re: Numerology and Numerical Superstitions

Post by Pabappa »

I am a very superstitious person and always have been. I had to step on stairs in a certain order and I carried the superstition into the high numbers like 34 so that when walking up multiple flights I had to skip steps all the way.

By middle childhood I had some sort of mental association with each of the basic integers, and in about 5th grade I started getting into the triple digits. I discovered the Julian calendar and realized that each day of the year had a particular number associated with it; for example September 15 is #258 on the Julian calendar. I incorporated the 666 <----> 777 from modern pop culture and realized that these were also Julian days because the years could wrap around; 666 was October 28 and 777 was February 16. Thus October 28 became an unlucky day and February 16 a lucky one ... helped by the fact that that same February 16 was also the Julian day #47, and 47 had been one of my favorite numbers going back even into earlier childhood. But most of my associations, like the aforementioned 258, were based on things that had happened to me or that I'd seen happen, and thus had no meaning to other people.

Many numbers are based on adding or subtracting six at a time.

I never borrow directly from modern culture into my writing, but nearly all of the superstitions I've had are self-derived and all I need to do is peel away pop culture bits like the 666/777 thing and male/female being reflected as 621 and 622 by reading the letters XX/XY as base 26.

EDIT: remembered that Feb 16 = 2-16, and 216 also == 6*6*6, proving that Julian derived numbers overrule powers of digits spelled out. (I had an earlier precedent that abbreivations like 2-16 for 216 were valid).
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