How the life path number is calculated
Write the birth date as month, day and four-digit year. Reduce each part separately by adding its digits until you reach a single digit — unless the sum is 11, 22 or 33, which most numerologists keep as master numbers. Then add the three results and reduce once more. Reducing each part separately (rather than adding all digits at once) is what allows a master number to appear; the two methods occasionally disagree, and the separate-reduction method shown here is the more widely used.
A worked example
Take 27 November 1985. The month is 11, which stays as a master number. The day reduces 2 + 7 = 9. The year reduces 1 + 9 + 8 + 5 = 23, then 2 + 3 = 5. Adding the three parts gives 11 + 9 + 5 = 25, and 2 + 5 = 7: a life path 7. If you instead add every digit of the date in one string (2 + 7 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 9 + 8 + 5 = 34, then 3 + 4 = 7) you get the same result here — but for many dates the two methods diverge, which is why the calculator shows its working.
Master numbers 11, 22 and 33
Most Pythagorean numerologists stop reducing when a component or the final sum lands on 11, 22 or 33, treating these as master numbers with an intensified version of the digit they would otherwise become (2, 4 and 6). The calculator follows that convention. A minority of practitioners reduce everything to a single digit; if you follow that school, read the profile of the reduced digit alongside the master number.
What each number is said to mean
Each life path has a traditional profile — a set of tendencies rather than a fixed personality. Our numerology section covers every number in depth, including the master numbers and how they relate to the single digit they reduce to, and how two life paths are traditionally said to combine.