Like astrology and palmistry, numerology too is a science of divination; but unlike them, the bais of numerology is, primarily, numbers. Numerological predictions are based on an individual's date of birth- the day, the month and the year of birth- information which is known to practically everyone. What can be predicted on the basis of the date of birth has been dealt with in earlier chapters. We shall have more to say in this regard, by reference to the compound number of the date of birth. What is a compound number and how it can be used, will be dealt in a subsequent chapter.

Here we will deal with the month of the birth. The months of birth we are referring to are not the 'months of the year' as are commonly used or understood. It may be called that while dealing with the dates of birth and the basic numbers, we had, in passing, dealt with the period of birth. We did not call it the month of the birth, because if we had just stated ' the month of the year', readers may have confused this expression with January, February, March, etc. which are the months according to the Gregorian calendar, which is currently in the throughout the world. We are, however, delineating certain characteristics based upon solar months.

Before we explain the concept of solar months, it is important to understand how the knowledge of personality traits and characteristics, both, latent and patent, can help us chart out our pattern of life better. The captian of the ship will be able to navigate better if he knows where the water is deep and which places are full of shoals and rocks. The first thing, therefore, is to know our faults and shortcomings, and in which matters we excel or can excel. The second point is to improve in those matters in which we lack, and make efforts in those fields where nature has given us an advantage.

What are Solar Months?

We have referred to the zodiac in the preceding chapter. We have also stated that the zodiac is divided into twelve sectors. They are referred to as Aries, Taurus, Gemini, etc. These are called signs. The Sun appears to be in each sign for about one months. This period of about one months, starting from the time the Sun enters a sign, traverses through it and then exits, is called a Solar month. The dates of the Sun's entry into, and exit from each sign are given below and represent Solar months.

The solar months do not coincide with the calendar months. Up to 21st March of any year, the Sun is in Pisces; after 21st March, it goes to Aries. Some numerologists enumerate characteristics of men and women born in January, February and so on, according to the calendar months. We do not consider that scientific. How can the characteristics of people born before 21st March agree with those born after 21st March? But, certainly, people born in the same solar month tend to have some common characteristics.