So, you want to learn the origins of numerology. Good. So do I.
And, I also want to write more. So, here I am. Setting out to make the most accessible, pallatable and most importantly tolerable 'scroll' on numerology's history - fit for the next Great Library of Alexandria.
"When one teaches, two learn."
- Robert Anson Heinlein, naval officer, aeronautical engineer and science fiction author
history, noun: the whole series of past events connected with a particular person or thing.
This means, as far as I'm aware, that the task at hand is a behemouth. But, someone has to do it; that, ideally, is not a media publication or charlatan selling your emails when you input them into their numerology calculator.
Why is it a behemouth? Because numerology is one of the languages of the universe* and different key figures are relevant to its history through various periods in our civilisation spanning 1000s of years (though the word itself "numerology" is not recorded in English before circa 1907).
“Everything is numbers and to know numbers is to know thyself.”
- Pythagoras, ancient philosopher (c. 570 – c. 495 BC), polymath, eponymous founder of Pythagoreanism and father of numerology
*if, upon reading that numerology is one of the languages of the universe, you find yourself recoiling, remember that that is the reason why our job is to understand things.
"Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas."
Translates from latin to english to: "Fortunate is he, who is able to know the causes of things."
- verse 490 of Book 2 of the "Georgics" (29 BC), by the Latin poet Virgil (70 - 19 BC)
So, we now know that "numerology" is a modern (western) terminology for a language that our civilisation -- and likely those before us (but I'll leave that to Graham Hancock) -- were magnetised to.
And that I'm magnetised to it, here in 2024. You probably are, too. So, it's a serious subject.
Yet, I'm already name-dropping pythagoras and going as far back as circa 570 BC.
And, what about Chaldean numerology? Babylonian numerology? Indian numerology?
What about them indeed.
Well, it's time that I wrap up this introductory section, find a way to index the contents of what's about to unravel, and start to unravel it. Strap in.
Ronnie Cane (me)
September 3, 2000
Born: Basingstoke, Hampshire, England
Brian John Cane (my father)
June 30, 1953
Born: Portsmouth, Hampshire, England
Brian John Cane (my grandfather)
August 17, 1935 - July 17, 2003
Born: Portsmouth, Hampshire, England
Deceased: Portsmouth, Hampshire, England
William Vernon Cane (my great-grandfather)
July 24 1883 - October 13, 1957
Born: Portsmouth, Hampshire, England
Deceased: Portsmouth, Hampshire, England
William Conrad Cane (my great-great-grandfather)
March 12, 1850 - March 12, 1885
Residence: HMS Excellent
Born: Portsmouth, Hampshire, England
Deceased: Portsmouth, Hampshire, England
James Frederick Cane (my direct ancestor - 5 generations)
March 3, 1824 - 1866
Born: Bath, Somerset
Christened: Saint Mary St, Marylebone Rd Parish Church, London
Occupation: Master at Arms RN
Marriage: Eliza Cane nee Philips, May 1, 1845, Kilnaugtin, Kerry, Ireland
Deceased: Portsea Island, Hampshire
James Charles Duquesne (my direct ancestor - 6 generations)
March 18, 1795 - June 1, 1834
Name change: Duquesne (DuCane) > Cane
Born: Warminster, Somerset
Marriage: Anne Biel, November 4, 1815, St Marylebone, Middlesex, England
Residence: Oxford St, London
Burial: St John's Wood Burial Ground, London
Charles Duquesne (my direct ancestor - 7 generations)
November 29, 1767 - January 1842
Charles Duquesne (my direct ancestor - 8 generations)
May 18, 1747 - August, 1785
Born: Westminster, London
Henry Duquesne (my direct ancestor - 9 generations)
1720 - 1742
Born: Geneva, Switzerland
Gabriel Duquesne (my direct ancestor - 10 generations)
"Philosopher, Soldier & Honorary Marquis"
1684 - February, 1748
Born: Paris
Education: Entered University of Geneva. Major Philosophy (1699)
Naturalisation: England, 1711
Residence: St James, Westminster
Marriage: Elizabeth Yates nee Bradshaigh, August 28, 1714, St Peter Le Poer, London
Residence: Radnor House, Cross Deep, Twickenham, 1718
Burial: St Marylebone, London
Will: "The Will is brief. He left the sums of £10 to his son Thomas Roger and married daughter Anne French of the Isle of Wight for mourning rings, appointed Stephen Cabibel of the City of London, merchant sole executor and bequeathed him £400 for his trouble Dec 9 1747."
Henri Duquesne (my direct ancestor - 11 generations)
1662 - November 14, 1722
Born: Dieppe, 76200, Seine-Maritime, Haute-Normandie, FRANCE
Occupation: Baron d'Aubonne en Suisse
Deceased: Genève, 1200, Genève, Région Lémanique, SUISSE
Abraham "le grand" Duquesne II (my direct ancestor - 12 generations)
1610 - February 3, 1688
Born: Dieppe, Seine-Maritime, Haute-Normandie, France
Marriage: Gabrielle DuQuesne nee de Bernieres, July 15, 1661, Paris, France
Barony of Bouchet-Valgrand: Presented of Barony of Bouchet-Valgrand (near Etamples) by Louis IV, 1681, Île-de-France
Marquis Du Quesne: Raised to the rank of Marquis by Louis IV, 1682, Île-de-France
Deceased: Paris, Seine, Île-de-France, France
Abraham I Duquesne (my direct ancestor - 13 generations)
1570 - 1635
Born: Blangy-sur-Bresle, 76340, Seine-Maritime, Haute-Normandie, FRANCE
Marriage: Marthe Duquesne nee de Caux, Luncray Seine Maritine, France, 1608
Deceased: 1635, Dunkerque, 59240, Nord, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France
Lardin Duquesne
Birth: Blangy-sur-Bresle, 76101, Seine-Maritime, Haute-Normandie
Deceased: Blangy-sur-Bresle, 76101, Seine-Maritime, Haute-Normandie, 1604
Jean Duquesne
Occupation: Squire and Lord of Fournetot
Illumination in four scenes representing : Jean Duquesne gives the book to Charles le Temeraire (1433-1477), last duke of Burgundy, Cesar learning, The wedding of Pompee and Julia and Cesar and his army extracting from the belgian manuscript entitled Cesar's commentaries, writes by Jean Duquesne, in 1482
Key research links that I'm yet to unpack, decode and codex on my site.
In no particular order:
A busy mind is a mental seizure
The future belongs to the combinatorial creatives
My discoveries from disconnecting
How to recover from a breakup: the stoic way
The philosophy Andrew Tate and Leonardo Da Vinci share
Action is the cake that goes rotten without its cherry on top
Reflections on my experience of ‘burnout’ as a neurodiverse entrepreneur with ADHD
Article recovered from archives of my old blog originally written on the 9th of June 2019. This article captures what the old me called a ‘journal entry’ and it is a fascinating time capsule of who I was at the time and what I was grappling with in my mind.
Sorry, what was that? Yes, I know, this is a deep topic for a Sunday afternoon, but I’ve had too much coffee so here we are. And, no, I’m not writing this because I’m going through an existential crisis, that was last Sunday.
Let’s get into it. What is happiness?
Happiness has many definitions, across all different cultures and societies. In Buddhism, happiness is defined as the absence of desire. Old Buddhist wisdom, and in particular this Naval Ravikant extract, says that
Desire’s a contract you make to be unhappy until you get what you want. You become disturbed because you want something. Then you work really hard to get it and are miserable in the meantime. Finally, when you get it, you revert to the state you were in before you had it. It’s not like you achieve some peak level of bliss that you stay on forever.
No single thing will make you happy forever
People hold onto a delusion that there’s something out there that will make them happy and fulfilled forever. No single thing can do that.
Enlightenment is something different. It seems to be a permanent solution; but we’re not going to explore that just yet. We’re just talking about common sense happiness.
Happiness is a process of understanding and self-discovery
There’s no single permanent solution to happiness. Rather, achieving happiness requires a process of understanding and self-discovery. It is a process of training yourself to see certain truths.
If obtaining things made us permanently happy, then the cavemen would have been miserable, and we would all be deliriously happy. Yet, net happiness per person is not going up and might even be going down. Modernity probably brings more unhappiness than the past.
So happiness is returning to the state where nothing is missing in this moment.
– Naval Ravikant on desire
As a species, it is biologically wired into us to desire. So there isn’t much we can do to change that. What we can do, however, is alter what it is that we desire. If you are unhappy, then. you need to study yourself and come to a conclusion on what it is you desire that is making you unhappy. You might find it is something that you haven’t even set out to want, this is usually the case. You may just be after confirmation and acknowledgement from colleagues, which may stem from being mistreated or undervalued in previous employment. If you realised this, I’m sure you’d say to yourself something along the lines of ‘I don’t really care what other people think about me’. Although your unhappiness says otherwise.
If you are seeking happiness, which we all are (see, that is one of the basic forms of desire wired into us) then try your best to not have thousands of desires. Everyone desires things, such as a promotion at work. It is the things in between the lines, of which we are not consciously aware of, which are robbing us of our happiness.
Try picking a handful of central desires, for you and your life, and stick to those.
Article recovered from archives of my old blog originally written on the 9th of June 2019. This article captures what the old me called a ‘journal entry’ and it is a fascinating time capsule of who I was at the time and what I was grappling with in my mind.
I myself, among with many others, are victim to what we have labelled a ‘busy mind’.
However, I don’t think we’re aware that we are, in-fact, a victim to this form of mental seizure. It wasn’t until today, after reading something, that I came to this thought. So, I did the only thing I know how to do when I reach an ‘aha!’ moment, express.
In this case, I’m writing a blog; although my expressions are usually a flurry of tweets or a random outburst of energy to my flatmate. Being honest, it is usually whatever my strange, introverted and awkward mind deems best for me to do in the moment and I don’t realise it has happened until I sit back down.
I am an entrepreneur, a creative, an ADHD, a sufferer of mental health illnesses, and a born ’round peg in a square hole’. These self diagnosed labels are what I blame my own ‘busy mind’ on.
A ‘busy mind’ is something that people are aware of and talk about, but there is no real definition. If you have it, you know about it.
There are moments where five different things will be happening in my mind, I won’t sleep, I can’t concentrate, I can’t sit still, I can’t breathe, I can’t do anything.
There will be days where I will get nothing done, because everything is being done in my head. During these days or episodes where nothing is happening in my physical world, I will be in a state of deep exhaustion.
If you suffer from depression or anxiety, you will no doubt find that you can relate. A depressed mind is inflamed. The brain is constantly being filled with non-stop information and always being filled to the brim and getting worked up.
Imagine a boxer in the ring having a seizure. This is what is happening when your busy mind is overthinking.
This is why people meditate. To stop having a busy mind. Happiness is bred in a state of calm. The best state of mind is a focused one.
To reach this, try ensuring that each thought and action has a purpose. Try to instil stoicism in everything you do.
During my own depressive episodes, I have made awful decisions. I can be boisterous and toxic. I can lose all memory and control of my own mind. This is a by-product of my busy mind.
Good decisions can only come from a state of calm, purposeful thought. You will very rarely have good decision making skills while in a state of frantic thought and inflammation.
If you want to perform, you need to be able to make good decisions.
To operate at your peak performance, you must learn how to tame your mind and jump out of your seizure.