Acrophonology: The Magical Power of Letters

By Linda Bender

When we are born, each one of us is given a namea name so unique and purposeful that each letter in it has certain vibrations and energies that correlate to the signs and planets of the zodiac. In her comprehensive guidebook, Linda Bender shares insight into an ancient science that explains the power and association of letters and words that allows others to unlock the secrets that lie hidden within a name, including who we are, why we are here, where we are going, and how we can get there.

Bender, an astrologer and acrophonoligist, relies on inclusive notes from fellow astrologer Pepe Applegate in order to offer practical tools that help students understand and analyze the vibrational qualities of a name and its relationship to the planets at the time of birth. After detailing the complex background of acrophonology, Bender provides step-by-step guidance on how to investigate the letters in a name and apply that knowledge to our own lives and personalities in order to create a happier existence.

Acrophonology provides valuable information about unmistakable and repeated correlations between astrological factors in birth charts and letters in birth names that empowers anyone to heal from within and ultimately discover their true potential.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Apr 22, 2013
• ISBN: 9781475984583

Linda Bender

Linda Bender is an astrologer and acrophonologist who earned a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Tennessee. She became an ordained minister with the Alliance of Divine Love in 2005 and writes a monthly astrology article and a bimonthly forecast for the Alliance of Divine Love magazine. Pepe Applegate has studied astrology for over thirty years and was one of Shirle Kiley’s original students during the 1980s when she mastered acrophonology. She has helped many people on her journey in the world of metaphysics and became an ordained minister with the Alliance of Divine Love in 1993.

Book preview

Copyright © 2013 Linda Bender with Pepe Applegate.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

iUniverse books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:

iUniverse

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.iuniverse.com

1-800-Authors (1-800-288-4677)

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-4759-8456-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4759-8457-6 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4759-8458-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013906190

iUniverse rev. date: 4/15/2013

Table of Contents

Healing

Preface

Acknowledgments

Part I. Karmic Letters

Chapter 1. Introduction: What Is Acrophonology?

Chapter 2. Letter Analysis

Chapter 3. The Houses of the Zodiac

Chapter 4. The Role of Karma: Is It the First Name?

Chapter 5. Vowels, Consonants, and Letter Analysis

Chapter 6. Double Letters: Back-to-Back or Alongside

Chapter 7. Hinge Letters

Chapter 8. What the Mother’s Maiden Name Attracts

Chapter 9. Your Name, Letter Positions, and Influences

Chapter 10. Polarization

Chapter 11. Compatibility and Relationships

Chapter 12. The Steps of Name Analysis

Chapter 13. Changing Your Name

Chapter 14. Selling to First Letters

Chapter 15. Your Pets’ Names

Part II. The Qualities of Letters

Letter A

Letter B

Letter C

The CH Combination

Letter D

Letter E

Letter F

Letter G

Letter H

Letter I

Letter J

Letter K

Letter L

Letter M

Letter N

Letter O

Letter P

Letter Q

Letter R

Letter S

Letter T

Letter U

Letter V

Letter W

Letter X

Letter Y

Letter Z

Conclusion

About the Authors

To my late son, Sean Jared Bender,

who taught me so much about life through his wisdom, love, and sense of humor.

Healing

Oh, to help humanity and keep my sanity—

What a deal while trying to heal

All at the same time!

Healing comes in many forms:

Some are eccentric and some are the norm.

What’s important is the love, not the preacher,

As helping others is the best teacher.

Some healing comes through the hands;

Some healing comes through the mind.

But as you sift through the sands,

And reach deep in your own time.

If a person can think of the question,

Then they really know the answer.

And that is my quest

To help them shed their manacles!

Preface

Pepe Applegate and I met at a spiritual conference in October 2009 and discovered our mutual love for astrology. Pepe began to discuss acrophonology, which I had never heard of. She explained that it was an ancient science that associates individual letters in a name with certain vibrations that correlate to the planets of the zodiac. She mentioned that she had stored notes from the 1980s in a warehouse during the hurricanes in Florida in September 2004, and that when she was finally allowed to return to the warehouse, all of the boxes had been destroyed except the one with the acrophonology notes. She entrusted those notes to me in January 2010, and they became the basis for this book.

Acrophonology is structured into two parts: Karmic Letters and The Qualities of Letters. I suggest that part I be read initially for the general background of acrophonology, and that part II be used as a reference to help you investigate the letters of your name. Chapter 12, Steps for Name Analysis, has a chart to help you analyze names and letters.

Acrophonology is a tool to help you understand the vibrational qualities of your name and its relationship to the planets at the time you were born. It is fascinating to interpret the letters of your name one by one and see how they identify you. Acrophonology should not to be used as a party trick or to impress people; it should be used to help you understand yourself. Knowledge is power, and you can find truth through knowledge. Our intention for this book is to empower people to heal themselves by learning the magic of letters.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank my husband, Morton Bender, for his unwavering help using the computer. I would have been caught in a technical quagmire without his help.

I would also like to give my deep appreciation to my friend Amy Pogue, my webmaster, for setting up charts and for her editing skills. I also want to thank my son, Seth Cameron Bender, for his editorial assistance. And last but not least, I give my thanks and appreciation to Rabbi Steven Engel for his guidance and insight into the explanation of the Kabbalah.

Pepe would also like to thank her family for all of their love and understanding.

Part I. Karmic Letters

Chapter 1. Introduction: What Is Acrophonology?

Aristotle said, Know yourself. Acrophonology is about getting to know yourself!

Acrophonology is based on astrology, but you do not have to be familiar with astrology to learn from and enjoy this book. The name you were given was not an accident, and each letter in it has certain vibrations and energies that correlate to the signs and planets of the zodiac. Acrophonology will help reveal the power of your name. At this point, you are probably not aware of how powerful names are, or of how the many different ways people spell their names impact their lives. Acrophonology holds within it the key to who you are, why you are here, where you are going, and how you will get there.

Through Shirle Kiley’s detailed study of the ancient Kabbalah in the 1950s, she discovered unmistakable and repeated correlations between astrological factors in birth charts and letters in birth names. A name’s letter combinations can be as revealing and illuminating as a birth chart. Because the position and association of the letters sometimes advances or reduces the power of the energies combined in a name, it is clear that acrophonology acts in accordance with astrological rules and energy patterns. The understanding of these rules and patterns can unlock the secrets hidden in a name and can tap the power that names have held since the beginning of mankind.

According to Kiley, whose research this book is based upon, the word acrophonology is derived from the Greek and translates as the study of sound in space. The sounds that we hear are actually energy vibrations expressed as sound waves. As energies, these sounds powerfully affect the core of our being. Witness, for example, how the sound traveling through the air by vocal cords of a trained singer can shatter glass. Just like music, language is sound in space, and when voiced, its letters and symbols can activate energy. Different combinations of letters create different energies, just as diverse combinations of notes create different melodies.

Acrophonology is an ancient science. It is in the Kabbalah—five books that record the teachings of ancient Hebrew mystics and are known as the Torah in Judaism. The Hebrew word for Kabbalah means to receive. One of the books, the Book of Numbers in the Hebrew Bible, or the Old Testament, gives instruction in astrology, numerology, and acrophonology. This book holds knowledge of universal energies that can aid man’s spiritual evolution. Energy is constantly changing into matter and back to energy, as was proved by Einstein’s theory of relativity. Space and time should be considered together and in relation to each other. Space and time can dilate; become larger or wider, however, the speed of light is the same for everyone. When energy patterns are combined in a name as sound waves, these sounds can be either powerfully helpful or detrimental. There are twenty-two letters in the Hebrew alphabet. The Hebrew word for pulse, or a flowing of energy, is ratoot, which means vibration. It is a beautiful, mystical thought that the Light or Creator fragmented into twenty-two different forces to create our universe.

The mathematical code for numerology in the Kabbalah is called Gematria. Gematria is a mathematical method of studying the Torah, the five books of Moses in the Old Testament, in which every letter of the Hebrew alphabet has a numerical value—the same as in Greek, the other ancient language. For example, the Hebrew word chai means life, and in Gematria the letters add up to eighteen. The number 18 multiplied by 2, 3, and 4 adds up to 36, 54, and 72 which are special numbers and mean life, as living life to the fullest. Hebrew letters have special powers in their own number and sounds. There are zodiac signs engraved in ancient synagogues in Israel that connect with numerology, astrology, and acrophonology in the Book of Numbers. The central belief in astrology is that our birth chart is the programming of our souls; that is, that our characteristics are determined by the alignment of the planets at the exact time of our birth

Jacob, also known as Israel, had twelve sons. Each son was assigned to one of the twelve constellations in the order of their birth. The twelve constellations relate to the twelve signs of the zodiac. The twelve sons of Jacob were the patriarchs of the twelve tribes of Israel, which many consider to be the beginning of astrology in Judaism. As there are twelve divisions of the zodiac, there are also twelve months in the year and twelve hours in the day.

The entire works of the Kabbalah are also known as the Zohar. The Zohar was a hidden manuscript for centuries that was mainly handed down orally by learned men. The Zohar manuscripts were discovered in the thirteenth century by the Kabbalist Moses Deleon, but few people took notice. In the sixteenth century Kabbalist Issac Luria wrote a dissertation on the Zohar to try to simplify it for his students. Early in the twentieth century, Rav Ydhuda Aslag delved further into the writings of the Zohar and of Rabbi Luria to make it more accessible to the public. During the 1950s, Kabbalist Yehudah Brandwein completed more of these important works.

Astrologers understand that there is order in the universe through the placement and transit of the planets. Each letter of the alphabet is symbolized by a specific planet, and the combination of letters creates a specific flow of energy and power. You can tell if a person is in a good place or if the planets are wreaking havoc for them! Just as your destiny can be identified through your astrological chart, your name can also carry the same weight. You can change your name to another vibration, but do not change it at random! You need the help of a professional acrophonologist to change your name. In past times, rabbis would change someone’s name if they were extremely ill to keep the angel of death away. They were trying to trick the angel of death, under the premise that a new name would give improved health. Originally the custom in Judaism of naming a newborn after a particular person was to bestow these energies to the newborn as an honor to the departed person. The Hebrew word for name is shaym.

Ancient Joseph Akiba (50–135 CE) devised The Alphabet of Rabbi Akiba. He equated each letter of the Hebrew alphabet with a moral or ethical precept. According to Rabbi Joel C. Dobin in The Astrological Secrets of the Hebrew Sages:

In Jewish mysticism, the Bible was considered to be the blueprint of Creation, therefore, the first letter in the Bible was initiated. All of the letters of the alphabet were considered to be the tools and the molds with which God created the Universe. Thus, the letters were extremely important; they were thought of as having individualities of their own and as being able to