An Introduction to Quintographical Numerology

Article originally authored by Stephen Gray and published 21 August 2013 by the Numerological Society; republished with permission here. All opinions are of Stephen Gray and neither necessarily represent those of the Numerological Society nor Humphrey Mullen.

Numerology is a necessity. The fact that the linguistic forms, that all the symbolic features of words did not and do not evolve by coincidence, but rather that the quintographical mind has shaped them, is enough to postulate a Numerology. Language is an expression of primordial postulates, and these postulates can therefore be studied by looking at the forms which the mind uses to express them.

Hana Slánský in Numerology (1927)

On the 4th of May 1927, Hana Slánský, possibly the greatest promoter of Quintography in history, blessed us with the discovery of Quintographical Numerology derived purely from Middleton's first principles and subsequently granted us one of the greatest tools of human comprehension. This page should serve as an introduction to Quintographical Numerology for people who are newly interested.

In order to learn the Numerology in more depth, SPQR2Gang recommends taking a course from a local Quintographical society, which usually but not always have a qualified Numerologist on standby. We also recommend getting Simon Dennis' marvellous book Numerology for personal study.

What is Numerology?

Numerology is the study of numbers to find deeper hidden meanings, usually by assigning numbers to words or letters of the alphabet. The study has a long standing history across many different cultures, and yet it is often dismissed as a pseudoscience. We again urge anyone who thinks this to read Simon Dennis' Numerology, which begins with a series of excellent refutations of the arguments of Numerology's critics.

Quintographical Numerology, while being the continuation of these traditions, is based solely in the rational research of Quintography and thus is the ultimate logical endpoint of Numerological study.

Basic Numerology

We will assume that you are already aware of the effects of, including the risks, of engaging in Numerological activity.

If you are not, one famous story about the dangers of Numerology when not properly trained is found in the death of composer Arnold Schoenberg. Schoenberg was known for inventing the twelve-tone technique, developing a method of using all the Numerical Qualities of musical tones, and as such seemed to be an astute Numerologist. He greatly feared the number 13, and considered that his date of death would be a multiple of thirteen. He feared his sixty-fifth birthday in 1939, but ultimately survived that year.

Schoenberg's death was in his 76th year: considering only the Numerological Multiplication of Time, but not the Numerological Summation, that is to say, lacking a full Slánský-Peano postulation of Numerological Arithmetic, Schoenberg was shocked to receive news from a Numerologist that this year, 7 + 6 = 13, was critical. And thus, at the age of 76 he died. Such are the dangers of playing with Numerology without proper education in the matter.

The most important tool in Numerology, at all levels, is the Triskaidecad. The Triskaidecad is a set of 13 unique items, the number 13 having varying connotations but remaining very important across several cultures.

Slánský's contemporary J. D. Hedgeworth once argued that the reason that thirteen is considered so unlucky in Western culture is because a triskadecology creates a kind of quintographical imbalance that must be resolved by on a primordial postulatory level, which often occurs by unpleasant means. This theory was discredited in Slánský's seminal numerological work On New Postulatory Derivations.

The Triskaidecad corresponds to the alphabet as follows:

Formally this is called subfundamental AB literal analysis. As in many traditional systems of Numerology, a word or name can be Numerologically analyzed by deconstructing it into its constituent letters, converting them to the Numerological values and then summing the values. In Quintographical Numerology this is considered fine for a basic analysis, however more advanced methods must be employed in order to obtain a more comprehensive meaning. Also be aware that this Numerological system will only work for English and Czech, and it is a safety risk to attempt to perform this type of Numerology on other languages.

Some important sums in Numerology

Some of the most important sums in Numerology are the following: 25, 41, 50, 55, 63, 65, 75, 131.

In the case of 41, notice that 4 + 1 = 5, and that "forty one" has a basic Numerological value of 41: it is a Numerological center in English, as is 63. The first Numerological center in Czech is 84. And for 131, 1 + 3 + 1 = 5, and there is also some importance in the fact that 131 is prime and contains the numbers 13 and 31.

The Quintogram

Slánský created as an aid when performing Numerology the symbol of the Quintogram, one rendition of which is shown below. Not only is it useful as an aid (especially when you start studying generation theory!), but it beautifully sums up one of the great applications of Quintography.

Practising basic Numerology

One way of practising Numerology at home is by utilizing a French/Anglo-American card deck, as it naturally forms a Triskaidecad from the 13 different numbers. Be aware that this is a very serious activity and should not be treated as a card game.

Deal out six cards face down to each practitioner, which they may look at. Once each practitioner is dealt cards, the next card is to be dealt face up as the root suit, and then the remainder of the deck is placed face down.

The procedure consists of turns where practioners lay down 2, 3 or 4 cards at a time against other practitioners. The first practitioner to place down cards chooses to place to the person either left or right to them (their opponent), and that order remains throughout the entire procedure. At some point, someone will be the first to have either one or no cards remaining, in which case they are declared the Wisest Numerologist of the group.

The placer places 2, 3 or 4 cards face up from their hand, to which the opponent may either take the cards or place an equal number of cards which beats or draws with the cards just placed. Of course, due to this, the placer cannot place more cards than the opponent has in their hand.

If the opponent successfully responded, then the cards placed down are discarded into another pile. If either practitioner has fewer than six cards at the end of a turn, and there are still cards left in the deck, they pick up cards from the deck until they have six. The placer takes first, then the opponent. The card used to determine the root suit is taken after all other cards in the deck have been. The opponent then takes their turn, unless they decided to take the cards, in which case they are skipped and the turn goes to the next person.

Valuing hands

The base valuation of individual cards is A (= 1) < 2-10 < J (= 11) < Q (= 12) < K (= 13).

Any hand with a root card beats a hand with a no root cards, except in the cases of same number hands, and in four card hands where inversion occurs. Inversion means that root cards count negatively, subtracting points from the total value of the hand.

A hand where all the cards are the same number beats any hand with higher total value. Inversion does not apply for four card hands if this is the case.

Total inversion

A version of the procedure can be done with total inversion, where only the cards A, 2-7, J, Q, K are used (1/1.3 of the normal deck) and the inversion rule applies to all hands.