By John Robert Colombo
This month's column is something different because it does not deal with quotations about Ottawa or questions about the National Capital Region. Instead, it offers a short discourse on numerology as it relates to Ottawa. Numerology is the study of the relationship between numbers and letters and their significances.
Some Hebrew and Christian scholars now use computers to assign numerical values to letters of the alphabet and then interpret words and passages of Scripture in light of these equivalences. Members of the Kabbalarians, a group that was started in Vancouver decades ago, argued that if you are unsuccessful in life it might be because of the numerical value of your name. It might be the wrong value. By changing it to the right value for you – benign rather than malign – you could increase your chances of being successful in life. Canada's leading Biblical numerologist was the late Ivan Panin who spent most of his life poring over the Scriptures in Hebrew and Greek to find hidden correspondences. He produced 43,000 pages of notes that were largely unpublished at the time of his death in Aldershot, Ont.
Practitioners of numerology maintain that the relationships they find are significant and have come about through design, not through accident. In other words, the Scriptures were written by divinely-inspired mathematicians and theologians who hid deep truths within the letters for the information of future numerologists . . . or at least until our era.
If there are numerologists in Ottawa, they have yet to turn their talents to the subject of the National Capital Region, or at least they have yet to do so in public print. Allow me to try to compensate for their failure to do so. Here, like a good numerologist, is how I plan to proceed.
Most numerologists today use the Latin alphabet as their guide. They assign an increased value to each subsequent letter of the alphabet, in the series of 26 letters that runs from A to Z. Thus, A=1, B=2, C=4, right on to X=24, Y=25, Z=26. Here are some of the numerical values of references to Ottawa.
OTTAWA's value is 66. The value of REGION (as in Ottawa Region) is 68. The value of CAPITAL is 62. And the value of Sir John A. MACDONALD, the country's first prime minister, is 67.
Note that all of these relevant words are found in the 60s range! Could all this have come about by chance? Is there a message buried here?
To test the theory, I decided to try to determine numerologically the values of some relevant political references. I found, for instance, that OTTAWA (66) is not congruent with the BLOC QUEBECOIS (108). As well, the CONSERVATIVES (172) are simply out of the picture. REFORM (75) also overshoots, and NDP (34) sadly underscores. That leaves the LIBERALS (59) – they fall one number short of the 60s range!
Oops! Ouch! Upon rechecking these values, I realize I made a mistake. I note now that OTTAWA (15+20+20+1+23+1) comes to 80, not 66! (I must have made a hasty and silly mistake in my addition! I must recheck nay calculator!) But by now it is too late to change what I have written, as my deadline is near, so let me see what I can do about it…
Back to the keyboard; back to the calculator. Let me see what is in the 80s range. I find there are a number of intriguing references: NATIONAL (88), VOTES (81), PEARSON (88), CHRETIEN (88). But, take note also of the presence there of the TORIES (86)!
Numerologically speaking, it looks as if the Conservative Party has a future. Monsieur Charest should find encouragement in this! The Tories are linked to National and Votes!
(I can breathe a sigh of relief: It is a good thing I do not have to share this inside information with Mr. Pickersgill . . . he would not be pleased to learn that the Tories stand a chance in Ottawa!)
Photo: Dylan Note, Unplash
