Every term in your reading, in plain words.

The positions in your chart

Life Path

The central lesson your life keeps returning to.

Worked from your full birth date. The month, day, and year are reduced separately, then added and reduced again, keeping master numbers.

Expression

The natural abilities you were born with.

The total of every letter in your full birth name, middle names included, reduced to a single digit or a master number.

Heart's Desire

What you truly want, underneath what you say you want.

Worked from the vowels of your full birth name. In numerology, it's also called the Soul Urge.

Personality

The impression you make before people know you.

Worked from the consonants of your full birth name: the side of you people meet first.

Minor Expression

The abilities that show up under the name you go by.

Worked from every letter of the name you use now, such as a shortened or married name. It's meant to differ from your Expression.

Birthday

One specific strength that sharpens your Life Path.

The day of the month you were born, reduced. The digits behind a day like the 28th add detail.

Maturity

The lesson that comes forward in the second half of life.

Your Life Path and Expression added together and reduced. In numerology, we say it grows stronger from around 40.

Growth Areas

The qualities your life is asking you to develop.

The numbers from 1 to 9 missing from the letters of your full birth name. In numerology, these are called karmic lessons.

The Four Challenges

Four tests of character, each with its own season of life.

Worked by subtracting the parts of your birth date from each other. A Challenge runs from 0 to 8, never higher.

The Four Pinnacles

Four chapters of life, and the theme of each.

From your birth date. The first ends at 36 minus your Life Path digit, the next two run nine years each, the last stays open.

Life Cycles

Three long periods that shape early, middle, and later life.

Worked from your birth date. The first ends with your first Pinnacle, the second runs 27 years, and the third stays open.

Personal Year

The tide of the year you are in.

Your birth month and day added to the current year, then reduced. It runs in a cycle of nine that changes every January.

Your chart as a whole

How your numbers work together, and what to take from the whole.

Every number read against every other, and against the timing of your life. This is the heart of the Deep Report.

Terms you meet in a reading

Pythagorean numerology

The modern Western system, usually called Pythagorean after the Greek philosopher, though its name-and-date method took shape in the early 1900s. Fathomself uses this system only.

Letter value

The number each letter carries. A is 1, B is 2, and so on to I at 9, then J starts again at 1. Your name numbers are built from these values.

Reduction

Adding a number's digits until one digit is left, so 28 becomes 2 + 8 = 10, then 1 + 0 = 1. Master numbers are kept rather than reduced.

Master number

11, 22, and 33, kept whole instead of reduced. Sources agree on 11 and 22. They split on 33, so Fathomself shows it as 33/6, with both readings.

Compound number

The two-digit total behind a reduced number, such as the 21 behind a 3. It adds detail from its digits. Only the karmic debt numbers carry a named meaning of their own.

Karmic debt

Four compound numbers, 13, 14, 16, and 19, read as a lesson your life is set up to teach, not a punishment. They weigh most on your Life Path and Expression.

Karmic lesson (missing number)

A number from 1 to 9 that doesn't appear in the letters of your full birth name. Your reading calls these Growth Areas: qualities to develop because they didn't come naturally.

Core numbers

Life Path, Expression, Heart's Desire, and Personality: the centre of your chart, which every other number is read against. Your Free Reading reads all four in full.

The open challenge (0)

A Challenge of 0, which comes up when two parts of your birth date reduce to the same number. In numerology, we read it as the test of choosing for yourself.

Personal Month

The tone of one month, worked from the month and your Personal Year. The sources don't give month meanings, so Fathomself reasons them from the number within your year, and says so.

Universal year

The current calendar year's digits added and reduced, stopping at a master number such as 11. It's the same for everyone, and your Personal Year is built on it.

Working

The calculation shown beside each number: the letters or digits, and every step of the reduction. You can check any number in your chart by hand.

Where the meanings come from: Sources. What numerology is and is not: What is numerology.