__notoc__ Petosiris to Nechepso is a letter describing an ancient

divination Divination (from Latin ''divinare'', 'to foresee, to foretell, to predict, to prophesy') is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic, standardized process or ritual. Used in various forms throughout histor ...

technique using

numerology Numerology (also known as arithmancy) is the belief in an occult, divine or mystical relationship between a number and one or more coinciding events. It is also the study of the numerical value, via an alphanumeric system, of the letters in ...

and a diagram. It is likely to be a

pseudepigraph Pseudepigrapha (also :wikt:anglicized, anglicized as "pseudepigraph" or "pseudepigraphs") are false attribution, falsely attributed works, texts whose claimed author is not the true author, or a work whose real author attributed it to a figure ...

Petosiris Petosiris ( grc, Πετόσιρις), called Ankhefenkhons, was the high priest of Thoth at Hermopolis and held various priestly degrees in the service of Sakhmet, Khnum, Amen-Re and Hathor. Petosiris was the son of Sishu and Nefer-renpet. He li ...

and

Nechepso Almost nothing is known of Nekauba (Ancient Greek: ). He is listed as one of the early kings of the 26th Saite Dynasty in Manetho's Epitome and ruled for six years. However, his status as king is not confirmed by any contemporary documents and h ...

are considered to be the founders of

astrology Astrology is a range of Divination, divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that claim to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the apparent positions of Celestial o ...

in some traditions. One translation of this letter into Latin is attributed to Saint Bede, and can be found in

Cotton Tiberius This is an incomplete list of some of the manuscripts from the Cotton library that today form the Cotton collection of the British Library. Some manuscripts were destroyed or damaged in a fire at Ashburnham House in 1731, and a few are kept in othe ...

. The technique is known by several names, including the Petosiris Circle, the Sphere of

Apuleius Apuleius (; also called Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis; c. 124 – after 170) was a Numidian Latin-language prose writer, Platonist philosopher and rhetorician. He lived in the Roman province of Numidia, in the Berber city of Madauros, modern-day ...

, Columcille's Circle, and

Democritus Democritus (; el, Δημόκριτος, ''Dēmókritos'', meaning "chosen of the people"; – ) was an Ancient Greek pre-Socratic philosopher from Abdera, primarily remembered today for his formulation of an atomic theory of the universe. No ...

's Sphere. The attribution of ancient authors is a typical practice of

Neoplatonism and Gnosticism Gnosticism refers to a collection of religious groups originating in Jewish religiosity in Alexandria in the first few centuries CE. Filoramo, Giovanni (1990). ''A History of Gnosticism''. Blackwell. pp. 142-7 Neoplatonism is a school of Helleni ...

, and the technique may arise from this tradition. Examples of the figure are known from Anglo-Saxon manuscripts. The technique involves calculating the numerical value of a patient's name, then dividing by 30 or 29, a number derived from the

lunar month In lunar calendars, a lunar month is the time between two successive syzygies of the same type: new moons or full moons. The precise definition varies, especially for the beginning of the month. Variations In Shona, Middle Eastern, and Europ ...

to find the remainder, which is (mod 29) or (mod 30) in

modular arithmetic In mathematics, modular arithmetic is a system of arithmetic for integers, where numbers "wrap around" when reaching a certain value, called the modulus. The modern approach to modular arithmetic was developed by Carl Friedrich Gauss in his book ...

. The number is then found on the diagram, to determine the

prognosis Prognosis (Greek: πρόγνωσις "fore-knowing, foreseeing") is a medical term for predicting the likely or expected development of a disease, including whether the signs and symptoms will improve or worsen (and how quickly) or remain stabl ...

References

Bibliography

* Fuentes González, Pedro Pablo, �
Néchepso-Pétosiris
��, in R. Goulet (ed.), ''Dictionnaire des Philosophes Antiques'', vol. IV, Paris, CNRS, 2005, p. 601-615.

External links

Magic (supernatural) Numerology Occult texts History of Catholicism in England {{occult-stub

See also

References

Bibliography

External links