Anne Jirsch, author, psychic and astrologer, introduced me to Numerology by directing me to Dan Millman's book called "The Life You Were Born to Live". It's great if you're looking for an in-depth look at Life Path numbers but luckily for those of us who just want a quite overview so we can then go muse on our own number, Anne gives us the essence of each number in her book Cosmic Energy, which you can see below.
How do you find out your Life Path number?
Write your date of birth like this: 10.09.1984
Now add all the numbers together: 1 + 9 + 1 + 9 + 8 + 4 = 32
This will give you a two digit number, add these together to reduce it to a single digit: 3 + 2 = 5
(The only exception to this rule is 11 and 22, these are Master Numbers and are ahead of their time)
Your Life Path is considered your most significant number because it reveals your destiny.
And what does it mean?
1: The Pioneer. To gain confidence and give strength and leadership to others
2: To teach and heal. To understand others and through doing so understand yourself
3: Self-expression. To develop your creativity. To heal through the arts, love and spiritual healing.
4: To organise and build for the future, for yourself and others
5: To give energy and life. To help others accept challenge and change. To use energy wisely.
6: To open your third eye. To investigate and probe the unknown. To study the mind and human behaviour.
7: To integrate the spiritual and material and set and example to others. To develop your intuition to the highest level
8: To find balance with money. To learn to feel comfortable in a material world and use money wisely for the good of yourself
and others.
9: Wisdom and travel. to travel, gain knowledge and pass on that knowledge for the good of mankind
Master numbers
11: To be a visionary and messenger, searches and seekers of the truth
22: An idealist who can lead others and build a better world
(1-22 is an excerpt from the wonderful Anne Jirsch and her book Cosmic Energy p.151.)