Arithmancy

"If being good at Divination means I have to pretend to see death omens in a lump of tea leaves, I'm not sure I'll be studying it much longer! That lesson was absolute rubbish compared with my Arithmancy class!"

—Hermione Granger's opinion of Arithmancy

Arithmancy was a magical discipline that studied the magical properties of numbers, including predicting the future with numbers and numerology. Those who studied and practised Arithmancy were called Arithmancers.

Arithmancy was an elective subject offered from the third year on at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the homework assignments of which included writing essays that required the consultation and/or composition of complex numerical charts.

Overview

While the class offered as an elective to Hogwarts students from their third year and up appeared to be narrowly focused on predicting the future using numbers, it would seem that, in a broader sense, arithmancy took on the same role that mathematics has in the Muggle world. Curse-Breakers required a passing grade on their O.W.L. exam in the subject, because banking and transactions were part of their job. Cerberus Langarm confiscated the accounts ledger from Slug & Jiggers Apothecary in Diagon Alley as evidence in an ongoing investigation, and delegated the task of going through it to Mathilda Grimblehawk and partner, which were later described by the former as a "really, really long book of boring financial figures", it was then passed along to Sage Bragnam, with Grimblehawk citing the reason as being that he had studied arithmancy.

History

Numerology and Grammatica, a third year textbook at Hogwarts.

New Theory of Numerology, which Harry Potter gave to Hermione Granger for Christmas in 1995, due to her love and passion for this academic subject.

Notable Arithmancers

Wizard(s)	Notes
Bridget Wenlock	The archetypal example; she was a celebrated witch who first discovered the magical properties of the number seven in the 13th century.
Septima Vector	Taught Arithmancy and Advanced Arithmancy Studies at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for at least six years (possibly more).
Hermione Granger	Famous high-ranking official in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, who strongly contributed to Voldemort's downfall as she accompanied Harry Potter in the hunt for Horcruxes; translated the Tales of Beedle the Bard into English from Runic.
Ben Copper	Achieved an O.W.L. in this subject at Hogwarts.
Percy Weasley	Achieved an O.W.L. in this subject at Hogwarts.
William Weasley	Achieved an O.W.L. in this subject and worked as a Curse-Breaker for Gringotts Wizarding Bank.
Curse-Breakers	An O.W.L. in Arithmancy is required to take the job.

Arithmantic texts

New Theory of Numerology by Lukas Karuzos

Numerology and Grammatica

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Etymology

Arithmancer and Arithmancy come from the Greek αριθμός (arithmos), meaning "number", and μαντεία (manteia), meaning "divination". Hence "Arithmancy" literally means "number divination", which is fitting.

Behind the scenes

• In the real world, the term "Arithmancy" refers to a supposed form of divination based on assigning numerical values to words or phrases; the term "Numerology", referred to in canon as a branch of Arithmancy, refers to any of a number of different beliefs in a divine or mystical relationship between a number and coinciding events.
• In film adaptation Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Hermione seems to choose Ancient Runes, not Arithmancy, as her favourite subject, comparing its superiority over Divination.
• In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Hermione expressed open contempt for the subject of Divination, which she detested because it seemed to be "a lot of guesswork." On the other hand, she also also proclaimed that Arithmancy (in which numerology, a term that in reality refers to any belief in the divine or mystical relationship between a number and one or more coinciding events, is prominent) is her favourite subject. While this may seem contradictory at first, a likely explanation is that Arithmancy applies a more rigorous and mathematical approach to predicting the future, which the scientifically-inclined Hermione would respond well to.
• If so, the field of Arithmancy might serve as a foil to the wooliness of Divination by basing its predictions on that which is already known. If the inclusion of numerology is any indication, and on the assumption that everything that exist have some numerological value associated with it, an arithmancer can presumably predict the likely behaviour of the world around them by using arithmetical laws to combine those values and interpret the meaning of the results. If so, Arithmancy might, at least in part, deal with the development of predictive models for estimating the probability of a given event taking place.
• In view of the above, it is easy to see how this would be of value to curse-breakers, as it would allow them to evaluate the potential success of a curse-breaking strategy without having to actually do it, simply by taking the numerology of a counter-curse that they want to use, and the numerology of the curse they want to counter, and use arithmetical laws to analyse how the two interact to and thus greatly minimise the risk of failure and/or injury.
• In Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery, Murphy McNully have been known to on accurately predict the outcome of certain events by calculating the probability of them taking place, be it the estimated chance of success of an attempted Quidditch strategy, or the behaviour of his fellow students. As the wizarding equivalent to mathematics, and given its predictive capabilities, Murphy McNully presumably uses arithmancy in order to calculate probabilities.

Appearances

• Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (video game) (Mentioned on a Famous Wizard Card)
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (First mentioned)
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (video game) (Mentioned on a Famous Wizard Card)
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Mentioned only)
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Mentioned only)
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Mentioned only)
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (video game) (Mentioned only)
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Mentioned only)
• J. K. Rowling's official site (Mentioned only)
• Pottermore (Mentioned only)
• Wizarding World (Mentioned only)
• Wonderbook: Book of Spells (Mentioned only)
• Fantastic Beasts: Cases from the Wizarding World (Mentioned only)
• Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery (Mentioned only)
• Harry Potter: Wizards Unite (Mentioned only)

External links

• Arithmancy on Wikipedia
• Arithmancy calculator