Welcome to A Beginners Guide to Arithmancy! The first question on every students mind when beginning an Arithmancy course is always the same: what is Arithmancy? There are many answers to this question, none more or less valid than the last; each perhaps highlights a different light of the subject--each Witch's or Wizard's employment of classification illuminates a new aspect of this field of study. Although the actual number of spells and incantations involved is relatively minimal when compared to the sheer bulk of magical practicability within other subjects (such as charms e.g.), the practicality, insight, and complexity of Arithmancy is unchallenged by any other subject; this perhaps being the reason so many suitable definitions exist.

I will here provide several definitions of Arithmancy I find not only to excel in their accuracy, but in their merit toward a consummate grasp of Arithmancy's underpinnings. Arithmancy is a study of the magical properties of numbers. It is also a study of shape and form and attempts to classify the governing principles of physics and mathematics that determine the occurences in our universe. It also strives to examine where laws of physics and Magic coincide in order to discern the outcome from situations that have been numerologically categorized, Magically identified, and physically defined.

Further, do not confuse real Arithmancy with the Muggle practice of Arithmancy. This involves the random pairing of numbers and letters in an attempt to tell the future, but is no more than a superstitous facade of magic over an underlying system based not in facts or Magical theory but in purely random associations that have been thoroughly disproved by the Witch Enelia Jintsworth in her work "A Study on Muggle Arithmancy and an Evaluation of its Methods and Results." So this is but another occasion where Muggles act as if they possesed or were aware of the movement of any magical energies, while it still remains blatantly obvious that they do not. 

Now that you have a basic understanding of what Arithmancy is, you're ready to venture into the subject material. We will start with the basics by examining each common member of the numberline for both magical and physical properties. Hopefully, this has piqued your interest in the fascinating world of Arithmancy. Happy Counting!

Table of Contents

1. General Introduction


2. The Number 1


3. The Number 2


4. The Number 3


5. Numbers 4-6


6. The Number 7


7. Numbers 8-12


8. The Number 13


9. The Number 42


10. The Number 0


11. What is Magical Potency? & Uses of Numerological Evaluations


12. Conclusion and Summary