Anyone good at faking arithmancy/numerology?

[ffutures]

I have a phrase of 13 words, 15 syllables, 54 letters. The letter numbers (a=1, b=2 etc.) add up to 682 692 if I haven't messed up my maths. I'd rather not quote it here because spoilers for forthcoming chapters, but if anyone thinks it would help send me a personal message.

For Harry Potter story purposes I need some sort of MAJOR arcane arithmantical significance in the numbers etc. - I'm guessing that Arithmancy works something like a more complex version of numerology, but I'm quite happy for it to be some other sort of mathematical progresson or something. Any suggestions?

Later - correct total is 692, my bad. Comes from a background in physics and biology, not maths, it's the right order of magnitude...

Comments

[purplecat]

If you can find a 5 somewhere... then (13 * 54) - 15 - 5 = 682. Obviously you'd then need some kind of story for why that equation.

[ffutures]

Okay, that's one possibility. Thanks!

[ffutures]

Just checked again, it's 692 not 682, my bad!

[watervole]

On the system I used as a little girl, 692 means: money, love and happiness. In short, the complete package of everything you could want.

(we all used to read our fortunes from the numbers on bus tickets)

[watervole]

If you want some flim flam behind this, then explain that the old children's rhyme about magpies is in fact a very degraded version of the actual arithmancy, but does have a tiny element of truth when used in the correct circumstances.

Hence, in layman's terms, I could explain the significance of the number 692 as gold, kiss, joy.

Naturally, the full arithmantic analysis is far more detailed, but that would take several pages of calculations to show you why it is the complete package of all your desires.

[ffutures]

Okay - I think you've given me some fun ideas there for spinning it so that readers won't be too annoyed, I hope.

[watervole]

Thanks! Glad I could give you a starting point. (I love stuff that touches on folklore)