Your life path number comes from your full birth date and nothing else. To calculate your life path number, add the digits of the date and reduce the total, stopping early at 11, 22 or 33.
What is the rule?
Add all eight digits of your birth date, then keep adding the digits of the total until one digit is left. If a step lands on 11, 22 or 33, NinePath stops there and keeps that master number.
- Write your birth date as eight digits: day, month and year (DD MM YYYY).
- Add all eight digits.
- Add the digits of the total. Repeat until one digit is left, or until a step lands on 11, 22 or 33.
The order you write the date in doesn't matter. The same eight digits always add up to the same total.
How does it work on a real date?
- D1
- D4
- M0
- M7
- Y1
- Y9
- Y9
- Y0
1 + 4 + 0 + 7 + 1 + 9 + 9 + 0 = 31, then 3 + 1 = 4.
The life path number for this date is 4.
When do you keep 11, 22 or 33?
NinePath keeps 11, 22 and 33 as master numbers when a step lands on one, and they still reduce to a single digit: 11 to 2, 22 to 4 and 33 to 6. Numbers such as 44 are reduced in the usual way. Numerology in general does not always reduce 11 and 22, as Wikipedia's page on digital roots notes.
- D0
- D9
- M0
- M1
- Y1
- Y9
- Y8
- Y5
0 + 9 + 0 + 1 + 1 + 9 + 8 + 5 = 33. 33 is a master number, so it is kept; it reduces to 3 + 3 = 6.
The life path number for this date is 33, which reduces to 6.
A master number can also turn up in the middle of the working. A total of 38 becomes 3 + 8 = 11, and 11 is kept.
Why can two calculators give different numbers?
One reason is the order of adding. Besides adding all eight digits at once, you can reduce the parts first: reduce the month, the day and the year to one digit or a master number each, then add those three results and reduce again.
| Sample date | Add all the digits | Reduce the parts first | Same single digit? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14 July 1990 | 31, then 4 | 7 + 5 + 1 = 13, then 4 | Yes, 4 |
| 22 October 1980 | 23, then 5 | 1 + 22 + 9 = 32, then 5 | Yes, 5 |
| 9 January 1985 | 33, kept as 33 | 1 + 9 + 5 = 15, then 6 | Yes, 6 (33 reduces to 6) |
| 9 May 1988 | 40, then 4 | 5 + 9 + 8 = 22, kept as 22 | Yes, 4 (22 reduces to 4) |
The two ways always end on the same single digit, because changing the order of adding never changes the remainder after dividing by 9. They can only disagree about whether a master number appears on the way. For 9 January 1985, one way gives 33 and the other 6. For 9 May 1988, one gives 4 and the other 22.
Digital roots are used in Western numerology, but certain numbers deemed to have occult significance (such as 11 and 22) are not always completely reduced to a single digit.
Both ways follow fixed rules, so the choice between them is a convention, not a measurement. If two calculators disagree about your number, check which way each one adds, then pick one and use it every time.
Which method does NinePath use?
NinePath adds all eight digits, then reduces step by step. If any step is 11, 22 or 33, NinePath keeps it as a master number, together with the single digit it reduces to. Your life path comes from your birth date only, so it stays the same for life. What changes from day to day is your personal day number, which combines your birth date with the current date.
What this means for your day
For your day
Do
Write out all eight digits before you start adding.
Don't
Don't trust a new calculator until you know which method it uses.
Questions people ask
Can my life path number change?
No. It comes from your birth date alone, so it stays the same for life.
Is 11 a life path number, or should I reduce it to 2?
Both, in NinePath: 11 is kept as a master number, and it reduces to 2.
Do I need my birth time or my name?
No. The life path uses only the day, month and year you were born. Numerology works out other numbers from the letters of a name.
What if my total is already one digit?
Then you are done. That digit is your life path number.
Sources
- Wikipedia: Digital root. Repeated digit sums, the remainder after dividing by 9 (congruence), and the note that Western numerology does not always reduce 11 and 22.
- Wikipedia: Numerology. In the Pythagorean method, the letters of the Latin alphabet are given the values 1 to 9.