Alongside many divinatory arts, numerology is often associated with occult, and modern numerology is a mix of several ancient teachings and cultures including Pythagoras, Babylonian, early Christian mysticism, astrological philosophy from Hellenistic Alexandria, the Hebrew system of Kabbala, occultism of early Gnostic's, Chinese circle of the Dead, Indian Veda's, and Egyptian book of the Master of the Secret House. In understanding numerology, the first consideration usually is the date of birth, and this date is expressed numerically to determine the Life path number, and many other numbers related to person's life.

Understanding numerology can help people have better understanding of themselves, their strengths and weaknesses, what they have to work with, what they need to work on, what are the heights that can be reached and where are they coming from. In numerology, it is essential to understand the essence of root numbers, and each number is associated with certain positive and negative traits.

More than month and year of birth, the date of birth is an important numerological indicator that provides overall thumbnail sketch of person's traits, and it has a very strong influence on the most productive periods of their lives. Adding together all the vibrations of the vowels gives Soul Urge, and it depicts the longings of the soul, and motivations and goals of life. Understanding numerology is to also understand the science of using mathematical numbers to find the personal vibrations, which are then interpreted to find the hidden meaning in them and their true purpose. The predictions of numerology are made of very simple steps of addition and subtraction of personal numbers related to date and time of birth, or the name.

Sum of the birth date is called life path number, and it represents your identity at birth, and native traits that your will carry throughout your life. In general, most people have one, two or three Karmic Lessons, and more than three lessons can become burdensome and difficult undertaking Name signifies only half the story, and regardless of time and place of birth, the date of birth fleshes out the whole individual. The number of times same number repeats or lack of certain numbers has special significance in numerology.

Understanding numerology can help people to find compatibility with another person or to compare their number with someone else in order to get the deeper understanding of their relationship and chances of success. Characteristics associated with each vibration are positive, as well as negative. Number 1 signifies independence, creativity, ego, self and originality, 2 signifies cooperation, empathy, over-sensitivity, consideration and co-dependence, 3 signifies artistic expression, superficiality, friendliness, wastefulness and sociability, 4 signifies application, practicality, rigidity, loyalty and repression, 5 indicates adaptability, freedom, abuse of senses, travel and inconsistency, 6 indicates responsibility, love, meddling, understanding and jealously, 7 indicated mental analysis, spirituality, fault finding, wisdom and suppression, 8 indicates management, power, executive ability, materialism and unscrupulousness, 9 signifies artistic genius, romance, humanitarianism, dissipation and emotionalism, 11 indicates idealism, intuition, insensitivity, invention, and fanaticism, and 22 indicates practical idealism, get-rich-quick schemes, material mastery and viciousness.