What does gematria

gematria is an ancient system of numerology that assigns numerical values to words, phrases, or other sequences of characters. It is believed to have originated from the Hebrew or perhaps even from the ancient Babylonian civilization. Gematria has become widely used in Judaism and other religious texts, as well as being practiced by some occultists and practitioners of esoterism.

Many believe that Gematria helps reveal hidden truths behind words, such as connecting thematically-related words that bear similar numerical values. Through Gematria, one can gain insight into the true meanings of various texts and how a single numerical value can link seemingly unrelated ideas together.

To understand Gematria, one must first understand its basis in numbers. In traditional Gematria, the characters are assigned values from 1-9 or from 1-22 depending on the method employed and the language it uses. The numerical value for each character is then summed together to obtain the overall numerical value for a given word or phrase. This process provides evidence that indicates which words are related in terms of their numerical meaning, even if they don't necessarily share a common definition.

For example, using Hebrew Gematria (which assigns numerical values between 1–22), one could compare the words "God" (Alef-Lamed) and "Love" (Alef-Vav). They share a common value of 3 since both Alef (1) plus Lamed (2) = 3 and Alef (1) + Vav (2) = 3. This suggests that these two terms are related thematically — in this case representing aspects of the divine — even though they do not share a common definition.