The Aso-neith Cryptogram

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THE ASO-NEITH CRYPTOGRAM Revised Edition (This corrected edition supplies text that was missing in one of the articles.)

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

THE NUMBER THEORY OF ASO-NEITH Numbers Rule Your Fate

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Names, Numbers and Fate

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Fate, Numbers and Vibration

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What the Mystic Numbers Foretell for Alice's Future

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Name Values

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The Newest Way of Marrying Happily

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New Cult Solves Secrets of Universe

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Unhappy? Your Number is Wrong

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Naming Babies an Exact Science

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CRYTOGRAM

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THE LIFE AND DRAMA OF ASO-NEITH Mrs. A. N. Cochran

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Everything's in a Name

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Finds Reason for John D's Success

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Priestess Will Change Society Girls' Names to Suit Conditions

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(Untitled article on baldness)

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Magic Amid the Cocoanuts

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Marital Warfare of the Millers Ended

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Gets $500,000 to Stop Divorce Suit

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"Aso Neith" Cult Explained

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Noted Cartoonist Dies in New York

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Traded on Her Belief in Magical Numbers

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Magic Numbers in Business

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C. M. Pond Sued by Wife

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Name out of Tune, Wife Quit

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Discordant Name Disrupts Home

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Detectives Seek Mystic Teacher Following Raid

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Police Still Hunt 'Omnipotent Oom'

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Fortune Teller Fined

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$50,000 Willed to Cultist

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$50,000 Fund Left to Fortune Teller

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THE NUMBER THEORY OF ASO-NEITH

CRYTOGRAM

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The [NY] Sun, Sunday, March 29, 1903 NUMBERS RULE YOUR FATE. THAT IS THE THEORY WORKED OUT BY A MUSIC TEACHER. She Has Applied Mathematics to Divination and Says Every One Can Succeed Merely by Keeping His Enterprises in Accord With His Numbers. One of the latest additions to modern augury is mathematical divination, or rather, like most other systems of fortune telling, it is an old theory revived. The attention of the writer was first called to it in the office of a Wall Street broker. It was when copper was beginning to advance and a customer was leaving an order. "Did I understand you," said the broker, "that if I don't buy to-day at 63, you put in a buy order to-morrow at 65, that you don't want to buy at 64, and if I don't get it to-day or to-morrow at 63 or 65, to stop the order until the twenty-sixth or twenty-seventh of the month?" "Yes, that's right. I don't want you to buy except on the days and at the figures I have named," replied the customer. "What! Not if there should be a reaction?" The broker glanced at the calendar. "To-day is the seventeenth. I may not be able to execute your order to-day or tomorrow. The market is very irregular just now and in a week there are likely to be a good many changes. If copper should sell off, shall I buy at a lower figure than 62?" "Not unless you can get it at 56, and it isn't likely to react that much. Anyway, if it should, the day of the month would not be right. No; if you don't buy to-day or to-morrow, stop the order until the twenty-sixth or the twenty-seventh and, let me see, the twenty-ninth would be all right if you should not get it before." The broker wrote the order and glanced somewhat anxiously at his customer as he said: "Now let us see if I have this right," and he read what he had written. "Yes, that's all right," said the customer, smiling a little as he noted the broker's puzzled expression. "Do you think I'm a trifle off my bearings?" he continued. "It's not strange if you do, but you see it's like this: These numbers are according to a system I've been looking into lately. It's a little like the old Jewish cabala and the thing works; it's great.

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"The woman who discovered it worked out my numbers, and when I stick to them everything goes my way, and when I don't they mostly go the other way. I heard of her through Charley Thompson. He, Richards and I were boys together. "One night they were taking dinner with me, and Richards, who is usually more than good company, was glum. At last I asked him what was the matter, and he told us he had been having a hard time of it, ever since he moved into his new offices down here on Broadway. Said he had not made his office rent since he had been there. Half a dozen times big deals had fallen through when he supposed they were as good as made, and he was getting pretty thoroughly discouraged. "Thompson suggested that perhaps he was under the wrong numbers. We did not know what that meant and wanted him to explain, and he told us about the system. He heard of it through one of his pupils. Being, in a way, in his line, he was interested and looked into it. "You see, it is like this: Each person has certain numbers that belong to him, out of which a concord can be made, and if he works under this harmony, success is the result, and if he doesn't, he is likely to get a discord. "Well, Richards went to the woman who got up this system, and she told him he would never be successful at the number where he was located and he must move. He had a long lease, and there were other reasons why it was impossible for him to do so. "He asked her if there was not some way out of it, and she suggested that if he had a partner whose numbers were in accord with the number of his offices to take charge of a part of the business which she indicated, the difficulty would be, in part at least, overcome. "He and Carter had been talking of a partnership. The woman worked out Carter's numbers, found they were all right, the partnership was formed and business has been going all right ever since." "Queer," said the broker, "and not easy to _______" he hesitated and then added, "understand." "You were going to say 'believe,'" said his customer, "and I admit it does seem an improbable thing, but no more so than sending a wireless did ten years ago, or that one kind of light ray will heal and another burn, as Finsen has demonstrated." Just then the notes of old Trinity's chimes fell in a shower of silvery melody among the big buildings and the throng of people hurrying up and down Wall street. You see," he continued, "the year, month and day of the month of one's birth,

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together with one's name, give each person certain numbers, and just as those chimes form a overtone these numbers form a concord. We don't hear each note the bells strike, what we hear is the overtone, and what counts in this system is the concord, or overtone, for the whole thing is founded on the principles that are the basis of music, and nonsense, or not, the thing has, so far, worked as uniformly as the law of gravity, with me and I propose to let it keep working." And he went out leaving the broker wondering. It was found on investigation that the person with whom this system originated is not a professional prophet, but a teacher of music, who makes a specialty of teaching musical compositions. In studying vibrations and harmony somewhat beyond the point that has as yet been set down in books, she thinks she has found that each digit and each letter has a uniform vibration. She says, as a matter of fact, that there is no such thing as chance, that everything is relevant and signifies; and that a rose by any other name, however sweet it might be, would not be a rose, since a name is of importance. The alphabet, digit, and the law of vibration are the foundation of the system. It is declared that the alphabet of every language is of deep import, and is not only in itself prophetic but interprets prophecy, as it relates to people who use it. The system divides the alphabet into three divisions, or degrees. The first nine letters constitute the first degree; the next nine the second degree, and the last eight the third degree. Each letter is represented by a digit number, as follows: A, J and S are represented by one in each of the three degrees; B, K and T, by two; C, L and U, by three; D, M and V, by four; E, N and W, by five; F, O and X, by six; Y, P and G, by seven; H, Q and Z, by eight, and I, and R, by nine there being no ninth letter in the third degree. The significance of each number and letter of the first degree are as follows: one is the beginning, the father; two the mother or moulder; three, the created; four, the matter, the physical; five, the duality of man; six, the pattern of all building; seven, the completed temple; eight, the manifestation of God; nine, revelation. The other two degrees, with some slight differences, are simply an intensification of the first. As an illustration, take the name and birth dates of Pope Leo XIII. The letters of his first name, Joachim, are represented by the following numbers: 1, 6, 1, 3, 8, 9, 4. Add these, and the sum is 32. Add again, as all numbers are reduced to a digit, and the sum is 5. In the last name, Pecci, the letters represent 7, 5, 3, 3, 9. The sum of these numbers is 27. Adding again to get the digit, and we have 9. March is the third month, and the Pope was born the second day of that month, 1810. Adding the numbers of the year, and we have 10. This makes the numbers from which the

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concord is determined, 5 and 9, which represent the name, and 3, 2, 10 the birth. Ten, being one intensified, the numbers of the Pope's birth represent the first three great principles. Ten is said to represent a person who is sufficient unto himself and this is especially true if a factor of ten is found in the name as the 5 in this case. According to this system, these numbers form a combination which indicates, in part at least, the strong and remarkable character of the man. In addition to being represented by a number, each letter is said to have a color vibration which is also significant. Once thoroughly understood, the author says that by this system one can determine almost anything in connection with his life, for example, the years which will bring exceptional business prosperity, and also those which will not be likely to be successful, so that one may prepare himself, as did Pharaoh of old, in times of plenty for periods when leanness may be expected. Again, that it enables one to determine what persons will prove profitable business associates and faithful friends, and also in what avenue of effort one will be most likely to be successful. In teaching her pupils the author of this system uses it to determine in what department of music he or she will be most successful. An instance of this was a young woman who came rather less than a year ago for instruction and had for some time been studying instrumental music and composition. On applying this system, it was determined that she would be much more successful as a vocalist. As was the case with Melba, who had completed her education in instrumental music before she discovered she had a remarkable voice, this young woman had not supposed she had a voice worth cultivating, but in less than six months she made a successful debut in concert as a vocalist. Another incident is related of the successful working of this sort of divination is of a man who had been, for a long time, struggling with an invention which he was unable to complete. A friend induced him to try putting himself in accord with the vibrations of his numbers. In a few months had his invention perfected and on the market, and is now a multimillionaire. The author of the system holds that his success was due to the concord of his numbers and, to the doubting says that if they will look over their lives they will see that their periods of success have included, in each instance, the same numbers, unless it be that they have outlived the numbers under which they were born, and there is a way to determine that. In support of her theory, the author calls attention to the old Jewish cabala, which she asserts this system makes plain, though she had never examined it until her own had for some time been completed. She also cites the fact that people find certain numbers lucky while others are the reverse, and says that invariably the

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lucky numbers will be found to be those which make up the person's concord. *******

The [New York] Sun, Sunday, January 17, 1904 Names, Numbers and Fate More About the System that Enables EveryOne to Be His Own Prophet ... Here is something more about the system of divination based upon the supposed relation between one's fate and certain numbers indicated by the letters of one's name. The system is the invention or discovery of a New York woman, and an article printed in The Sun about it some months ago attracted widespread attention and interest. First, as to some results or alleged results: A man well known in Wall Street was discussing investments in the office of the president of a trust company the other day. When they had looked up various securities, the president of the company asked: "Do you want the matter arranged to-day?" "Let's see, what day of the month is it? The 5th, isn't it? No, I will wait until Wednesday. That will be the 8th. My number is 8, at least that is one of my numbers and the one that belongs to me specially. I will come in Wednesday. Then I'll decide just what I want and we will close the thing up." "What, has it come to that? Are you growing superstitious?" asked the president. "Not a bit of it," was the reply. "This thing of numbers is a science. It's part of the great law of vibration that makes things go and keeps them going." "What is it? What is it called? Where did you get hold of it?" "It's a system that shows a man what his vibrations are and how to do things without being undone by them half the time, or more. I got hold of it through an old acquaintance who had been down on his luck for more than a year, but pulled out in good shape when he got himself straight with his numbers." "How is it done? Who got the thing up?" "It wasn't got up; it was discovered by a woman, a musician — not a player of music, but a born musician. As to the way the thing is done, that's a long story, and

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one I can't tell, for I'm not letter perfect myself yet." "How about your acquaintance who was in hard luck? Who told him about these numbers that turned the tide of his affairs into the current of prosperity?" "An old college chum, who is connected with Columbia University. I'm not sure just what he teaches there, but for a number of years he has been interested in the old Jewish cabala, and other things in that line. He heard of this woman and her discovery and went to see her. He studied the thing and found it worked. "When he saw Nichols, he told him that he believed the trouble he was having was that he was under the wrong numbers. At first Nichols wouldn't listen to him — said it was all bosh; but as he kept losing right along, and things were getting to a tough pass with him, like a drowning man, he was ready to catch at a straw, and he went to see the woman who made this discovery. "When she had studied his name and birth dates, she asked him where he was doing business. He told her at 71 Broadway, and gave the number of his office. "'You might as well,' said she, 'expect to send a message across the Atlantic by tapping the Morse alphabet on a table as to hope to make a success of anything you undertake there. "'Your leading number is 7, the others are 10, 5 and 3. Now, you are under 8, which has no relation to any of them, for none of them is even a factor of it. "'Broadway is 8 and the street number and your office number, when added to get the digit, each make 9. This gives you constant, unrelieved opposition, which you cannot overcome. "'Again, this year is not favorable.' It was last year, 1903. You see, when the numbers of this year are added and reduced to a digit we have 4, which has no place among your numbers. Next year you will be better, for 1904, reduced by addition to a digit is 5, which corresponds to your 5 and is a factor of your 10.' "Though he did not put much confidence in the thing, Nichols still wanted to know what he was to do, according to her calculations, to be saved from the numbers that were working him woe. She told him to get an office at 52, or some other number which added would make 7, or, at least, one of his numbers, or some number in harmony with them. "If he could not do this he was to get a man to work with him some of whose numbers accorded with his own. He did the latter, as he had a lease he could not get rid of. "Later he moved to a building where the street number makes 7, and his office

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number 5, and things began to look up. I saw him this morning and he told me that last Tuesday — that was the 5th of January, and this is his good year — he made a deal in which there is big money. "This number business certainly does work. Last year it saved me a good deal more than I want to lose. I should have been long on Southern Pacific at the time of the break, which did not mend, but I held off because the numbers weren't right. "A broker was determined I should buy. Thought there was a gold mine in it, and went in for more than he was worth. And he isn't in the Street now. "Mind you, I do not think this thing will make a man what he isn't, but only that it will help him to make the best of what he is." Then the investor went out, leaving the president of the trust company, who at one time was Secretary of the United States Treasury, shaking his head and looking as if he thought another good man had gone wrong. The woman who discovered the system, which may be called mathematical divination, relates this story in connection with its origin. She noticed, in studying musical composition and observing her pupils, that certain numbers seemed to have a uniform meaning or vibration, and also that certain letters in names seemed to be identical with these. She became so interested and impressed that she determined to give herself up for a little time to the contemplative study of it. She directed that she should not be disturbed and shut herself up in a darkened room, where she remained three days without taking food or holding conversation with anyone, giving her whole mind to this subject. As the architect sees the cathedral in his mind before he has put a line on paper, so she, as the result of this study, saw how numbers and color vibrations are related to individuals. To assure herself that the system was no illusion she set about verifying it by the names and birth dates of historical characters and by those of people who were well known to her, and the results were a surprising confirmation. One friend of hers had been writing for years and doing more and better work than others much more successful. She found, on examining his name and birth dates, that they were wholly at variance with the names he had been using and the numbers under which he lived. She advised him to take a pen name representing numbers which would form a concord with his own, and to see to it that the colors about him were such as belonged to him, and to move so that the name of the street and number of the

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house were not discordant. This was a year ago, and in the last twelve months he has achieved more recognition than in the whole course of his previous life. Another instance was that of an inventor who was utterly unable to get capital to put his inventions on the market. In fact, he was so poor that to pay the cost of living was a little more than he could well compass. His wife had at one time been a pupil of the discoverer of the system and knew of it. She took the matter in hand, changed their place of residence, put herself and her husband under the correct colors and in all ways adjusted their lives in accordance with the teachings of this system. In a short time he found a hearing, their fortunes prospered steadily, and now this man is a millionaire and his possessions are still increasing. The Irish poet and essayist W. B. Yeats asserts that the memory of the individuals is a part of one great memory, the memory of nature herself, and that this great mind and memory is evoked by symbols. He states that he has seen vivid images, which might be called pictures, of the more important events of the life of an individual, evoked by means of many colored squares, each one of which was numbered, together with the repeating of a certain formula. In accord with this is the assertion made by the author of this system that there is a deep meaning in the alphabet of a nation; that each letter is a symbol of far reaching significance. In speaking of this, she says there is no such thing as chance — that everything is relevant and significant, when understood, that there are no spiritual laws as distinct from material laws, and that the alphabet of every language is not only prophetic, but interprets the prophecy which relates to the people who use it. She further states that the alphabet of the English language is not complete and other letters are to be added to it. As she explains it, the system, to enable each person to become a prophet, divides the alphabet into three parts, or degrees, with a number and color definition belonging to each, as follows: FIRST DEGREE. A, 1. The creator; the beginning; the architect. Color, white. B, 2. The mother; the moulder. Colors, yellow and green. C, 3. The son; the Christ. Color, light blue. D, 4. Matter. Colors, blue and gold. E, 5. The Covenant; the duality of man. Color, blue. F, 6. The pattern of all building; the word made flesh. Color, very light blue. G, 7. Completed material temple. Color, very light green.

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H, 8. Power; manifestation; the highest name. Color, orange. I, 9. Justice, judgment, revelation. Color, red. SECOND DEGREE. J, 1. Christ cycle. Color, white. K. 2. The identity of the Christ. Colors, purple and heliotrope. L, 3. Expression of the will of God. Colors, royal purple and violet. M, 4. The spiritualization of matter. Color, blue. N, 5. Black magician. Color, black. O, 6. The word made physical. Color, orange. P, 7. The physical completed. Color, blue. Q, 8. The double manifestation of spirit and matter. Color, canary. R, 9. The completion of justice, judgment and revelation. Color, red. THIRD DEGREE. S, 1. Crucifixion. Color of flame. T, 2. Atonement. Color, light yellow and green. U, 3. Manifestation. Color, blue and green. V, 4. Regenerated matter. Colors, very light blue and green. W, 5. Crucifixion. Colors, dark blue and green. X, 6. Ability to rise above all; resurrection. Colors, dark pink and blue. Y, 7. Power to exercise the seventh sense. Color, pink. Z, 8. Invested with power. Color, orange. While the definitions of the letters and the numbers which belong to them are religious, and some of them, seemingly, too much so to be associated with ordinary humanity and business, it should be borne in mind that they are not positive, but only relative. For instance, when A is prominent in a name, as the initial letter and perhaps recurring several times, it will be found that the person is given to taking the initiative and to working originally. If B, then, to mould and form, will be the tendency. If I, there will be the quickness of comprehension which is in a way a revelation, and there will also be a sense of justice and the power to judge. If N, whatever is achieved, affliction in some form accompanies it. The degrees are also taken into account as each degree intensifies. Once the numbers are found, it is simply a matter of addition until a digit is reached, with the exception of 11 and 22 which are not added. The great trinity of numbers in this system is 8, 9 and 11 and 22 is 11 in its physical form or dress. These, in a certain way, correspond to the trinity as religiously understood, and the person who has any one of these numbers will find that he is in accord with him who has in his concord either of the others.

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As an example of the working of this system, take the name and birth numbers of Abraham Lincoln, Feb. 12, 1809. The first name or names give the individual or leading number. The numbers, as will be seen by the table, are 1, 2, 9, 1, 8, 1, 4. These added are first 26, and again added to get the digit are 8, which is the number of power. Lincoln is 3, 9, 5, 3, 6, 3, 5; added, this is 34 and again added is the digit 7. The year 1809 added in this way gives the digit 9. February is the second month, and so is 2. Adding the12 gives the digit 3. This makes the concord 8, 7, 9, 2, 3. Briefly this signifies: Power; complete understanding on the physical plane as an inheritance, as the last name is the name of the father; justice, judgment and revelation; the power to mould and shape and the tender spirit of the Son, the Christ. This does body forth the character of Lincoln. A peculiar incident recently came under the observation of the writer. A woman whose name is Antoinette, always had a penchant for 11. Antoinette by itself does not cipher out 11. Whatever she started under this number went well, and persons under any one of the trinity of numbers were invariably her people by natural selection but nothing could be found in her name or birth numbers which would be a reason for this. Not long ago, in looking over an old record she found that she had been christened Antoinette Prudence. Her mother having died when she was a child, she had not been told this. The two names make her lucky and gave 11 as her number. There are few persons who do not find themselves peculiarly satisfied and at ease when surrounded by certain colors. It is said that this is invariably true of colors indicated by the name, and also that the effect of these on the nerves is beneficent, and that they conduce not only to the health, but also to success in all ways. The letter colors are not, however, to be taken bald and unrelated, but as the colors on a palette, to be combined and blended, and the more skilfully this is done the better the result. It is interesting to note that the name colors combined in this way are becoming. A person who has studied this system with its author conceived the idea of making attractive studies of name colors which find ready sale. A woman who has one of these says that it brings about a great saving of time and strength in selecting her wardrobe, and in other ways.

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She takes her color study, selects the tints she will use for a single season, is certain they will look well and gives the matter of color no further consideration. She also gives these color combinations to the decorator when she is having her house put in order, indicating which she wants used, and thus is spared bother and unsatisfactory results. Color as well as numbers is taken into account when determining which persons will prove satisfactory as social or business associates. When it comes to determining the years that will prove successful or the reverse, numbers are used. There are few who have not observed that there are times when all is fair sailing, and again that there are periods of nothing but stress and storm. The author of the system asserts that by this system one may know what to expect and be able to do for himself what Joseph did for Pharaoh, in providing, in periods of prosperity, for those years when leanness is to prevail. The author further states that she sometimes finds that a person has outlived his name and birth numbers, has completed certain things and achieved others and has begun a new cycle. In this case the concord is determined by observing the recurrence of certain events, or perhaps it would be more correct to say, a certain kind of events, on certain dates. By noting which are propitious and which the reverse, the numbers which make the new concord can be determined. In supporting her theories as to this system, the author calls attention to the fact that Pythagoras taught that all is number and harmony, and averts that she has but discovered the working of a law as old as creation. As the fact that the numbers of, for example, a great actor and a thief are often very similar, is likely to be confusing, she points out that in each case there would be likely to be the same temperament; the same impatience of hardship, the same desire for congenial surroundings, and so on. The difference would be in an actuating realization of what is legitimate and what illegitimate as a means of gratifying these desires, and the slight difference in the numbers would indicate this. She also asks those who cavil at the idea that letters and numbers have a vibration which indicate determining influences, to consider how beyond the belief of a few years ago are the recent discoveries in connection with the law of vibration. And again, that, throughout the universe, it is the viewless which actuates and the infinitely small which often counts most potently. *******

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THE ASO-NEITH The [NY] Sun, Sunday, January 29, 1905, p. 6 Fate, Numbers and Vibration A SYSTEM WHICH BY ITS INVENTOR IS USED TO TELL THE FORTUNES OF INDIVIDUALS AND TO GAIN KNOWLEDGE OF THE UNIVERSE.

"Numbers and the musical vibrations which they represent control each individual and the universe of which he is a part," said Mrs. Aso-Neith Cochran, the author, or, as she puts it, the discoverer of the Aso-Neith system of cryptogram numbers, which has already been described in THE SUN. According to this system, each human being is anchored in the infinite by a certain geometrical sign which reveals a digit number. Of these numbers there are but eight, 9 being a composite number, the Alpha and Omega of a cycle. The author asserts that when rightly understood these numbers open the door of a life. This done, all will be adjusted according to the laws of harmony and the individual can then go forward along the way to the least resistance that leads the soul to its individualization and polarizes it in harmony with the infinite. "Each digit number," said Mrs. Cochran, "has its own individuality, characteristic and temperamental musical vibration, as has each musical tone. The system, which is exact, rests as does music on the great law of vibration; a law which is coming to be more and more recognized, though as yet but little understood." Recently returned from a stay of something more than a year in Germany and Italy, Mrs. Cochran says she was greatly surprised to find that persons with whom she came in contact in these countries were eagerly interested in her cryptogram of numbers, which, when she first announced it in New York, met with incredulity. She says that many with whom she discussed her system in Europe had studied the cabala and other number systems and entered into the study of the AsoNeith numbers with an interest born of understanding. Mrs. Cochran says: "One gentleman, a wealthy and accomplished Russian Hebrew, thoroughly conversant with the cabala, who all his life had been a student of numbers in their large as well as their subtle significance, was so deeply interested that he took up the study of my system with me. "He asked what was to be done when the vibrations of a name were inimical to the one bearing it, and I told him another name should be taken which would be beneficent, and the person should be put, or put himself, under the vibrations of the new name while still using the one by which he had been known, if for any reason it was desirable to do so. Then he asked:

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"'Have you not heard that among my people, when a child is sick and the ailment does not readily yield to ordinary remedies, the name is changed?' "When I assured him I had never heard of this, he stated that there is traditional assurance that in most cases where the name has been changed the child recovers. This reminds me," continued Mrs. Cochran, "of experience in Munich. "I made the acquaintance of a physician there who became interested in my contention. He had a patient, a young American woman, in a hospital seriously ill, whose ailment did not yield to his remedies and was growing rapidly worse. "We talked the matter over and it was decided that we should try musical and color vibrations. This we did, according to my system, with the result that in two weeks the young woman was on the way to complete recovery and is now perfectly well. I should not be willing to have this lady's name published without her permission, but will gladly give her address to anyone who wishes to verify my statement. "At the present time I am watching the recovery of a young woman who had been assured by eminent physicians and surgeons that it would be necessary to remove a certain organ of her body. I asked her to wait a month and see if her case could not be reached by vibration. The month has not yet passed, but she is so improved that a surgical operation is no longer considered. "Another striking exemplification of the curative powers of beneficent vibration is the sister of a student of the cryptogram system who lives in Washington. Her mind was so seriously affected that at times she was quite violent. it is but a few weeks since she was first surrounded with what, to her, are harmonious vibrations, and she is now able to do without an attendant and takes her meals with the family, which she had not been able to do for a long time." To prove that the number cryptogram will reveal and adjust all that pertains to one's life, from the least to the greatest, Mrs. Cochran relates that a little more than a year ago a man who had recently started a manufacturing business went to her to learn something of her system. Taking the name of the factory, together with the name of the man and his birth dates, she found that the undertaking would not be successful and named the date when it would fail. A few weeks ago this man came to her and said that her predictions had been verified, even to the date of the closing of his factory. That individual numbers are compelling and indicate a fixed fate Mrs. Cochran denies. She says that each person's character is reflected in his numbers and that they represent what may be said to be the day and night side of things for

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THE ASO-NEITH

that person. That is, they show if a certain course is taken what the result must be and that if one takes an opposite direction the consequence will be something quite different. As there is nothing more crucial in life than deciding what is best to do and what best to leave undone, were it possible to know what this system is said to reveal it would certainly simplify life. Mrs. Cochran spoke of what she calls the law of eleven. This, she says, is the law of equilibration. Being a fulcrum, it is either perfection or that which is opposed to perfection. There is no middle course for him who has either 11 or 22 in his numbers. According to this number cryptogram one whose dominant number is 11 cannot afford to be anything which is not in all ways true and fine. Therefore those under its law should live persistently and undeviatingly a non-resistant life, which is not, as some conclude, an unstable, yielding existence, but is simply obeying the Scriptural injunction to let the tares grow with the wheat until the harvest, while the individual goes on planting and maturing the wheat. This accords with the teaching of Froebel, who was a great philosopher, although as an educator he is so much more considered. He contended that all that is necessary is to sow the seed of good and there will be no need to combat evil. When one thinks of it, most of the bother in life comes from an effort to root out what seems to be evil, and is by reason of the fact that good is not planted in sufficient quantity that evil flourishes. Let those then who discover that 11 or any numbers which added make 11 or 22 are lucky for them, act according to Froebel and the law of eleven of the Aso-Neith system. As has been said, the author of this system says that all things are controlled by a mathematical law and that each part of the body has its own vibration. This is quite in accord with the fact that it has been found that different currents of electricity and also different light rays must be used in treating the several parts of the body. The many small differences to be taken into account in this system tend to be somewhat distracting, but the author comes to the rescue when she says: "Scientists are agreed that all things are differentiations of one thing, and in considering the differences in this system it is necessary to bear this in mind. The idea of unity must be maintained, as it is pivotal. The further we drift from unity the nearer we draw to dissolution, to disintegration. And as it is with a nation, so it is with an individual; harmony is the bond of unity, of continuance; inharmony of the disunion which is death.

CRYTOGRAM

19

"How are we to distinguish the difference? By learning the law which governs them. Each individual is one note in the great scale of the universe. To understand one's concord is to be in direct union and rhythm with the creative force. To be out of concord is to lack life in the degree one is out of rhythm. Life is in circles, death in straight lines; rhythm is circular. "To gain a thorough knowledge of the Aso-Neith system, that one may know himself and reach the fullest understanding of the law of life, there are three sciences with which one should be conversant. These three sciences are mathematics, chemistry and music. "Mathematics is fundamental and holds the other two. Through the study of the spirit of mathematics in music is gained a knowledge of the larger law. "First of all, I would say learn mathematics as you would learn German or any language, for through mathematics one can reach the truth more nearly than in any other way. A single stroke of the pen and we have a number, as 1 or 8, the meaning of which it would take several words to express; two or three strokes of the pen and we have a geometrical figure, which often signifies more than can be explained by pages of print. "You ask if considering material matters, as stocks and other things connected with the stress of business life, is not distasteful, does not seem to me trivial in view of the vast vista which this system reveals. "By no means. It is all important, or it would not exist. "I defy a man in a starving state to attain soul growth while that condition continues. No more can one who is disturbed, uncertain or distressed as to business matters make gains in highest realms. "As I have stated, harmony, circling rhythm, puts all things in their legitimate place, while discord breaks and destroys, and to be disturbed about vital matters — and business is vital — is discord. It is therefore plain that to set the things right in a life is not trivial, but important. "The truth is, when a person understands his concord, sees what it means and what he can accomplish when he lives within it his mind unfolds from within, and as a flower reaches toward the light he reaches for higher truths. "Not long ago a mine owner came to me. I found his concord, and taking it in connection with the name of his mine, was able to tell him much which no one knew save himself and those immediately connected with him. I was also able accurately to describe the personality of one whose name and birth dates he gave me. With such proof of the efficacy of this system, persons naturally are ready to give sympathetic hearing to higher truths, as was this man."

20

THE ASO-NEITH

When questioned as to the higher truths to which she referred, Mrs. Cochran said that the number cryptogram not only makes prophecy plain, but holds the key to the future; and state[s] with a positiveness which leaves no doubt as to her own convictions, that the twentieth century marks the great day — the epoch prophesied in the sacred books of all nations. "Before the end of this century all the work of the world will be done by means of musical vibration," said Mrs. Cochran. "It is the power which operates the universe, and man will learn how to utilize it, as he has learned to utilize steam and electricity. "Being a finer force than either of these, it will do much more. For example, it will, in addition to becoming the motive power of the age, be the educator and healer, though there will be little healing to do, as when there is harmony there is health, and when musical vibrations are understood harmony will be the rule, not the exception." Another prophecy founded on this system of numbers is this: That the earth is coming into new regions. Traveling in the present direction, before 1917 it will, Mrs. Cochran avers, come into a new constellation, and two new planets will be added to the solar system. This, it is asserted, may be called the homecoming of the earth, as it is simply coming back to its starting point. A further prophetic assertion is that two new letters will be added to the alphabet, the language of all nations will be reconstructed into a universal language, and, delectable state to be hoped for, color and musical vibration will so rule pronunciation that no word will be mispronounced. When all this happens the publishers of dictionaries must needs seek other fields of effort, since there will be no further use for their books, as the letters of which a word is composed will reflect its meaning. The present time, according to the number cryptogram, is the dawn of the day of seven. Day signifies cycle, and the law of seven, operating universally, unifies and establishes peace, not with quiescence with present conditions, but by demanding a new code of ethics which will include all the nations of the earth. While claiming for the Aso-Neith system of numbers the same scientific foundation as music, Mrs. Cochran makes the assertion that one who has mastered it can be consciously in two places at the same time. Asked to explain this, she said: "With the eternal spirit there is no future or past, no near or far; and when in perfect harmony with that spirit it is possible to partake of its attributes. There are those who reach the fulfillment of this law at times without understanding it, just as primitive man used the laws of harmony long before those laws were sufficiently understood to lay the first foundation stone of the structure of musical expression."

CRYTOGRAM

21

Asked if it was necessary to know the three sciences she had named to get a working knowledge of the Aso-Neith system, Mrs. Cochran said that while to understand it fully such knowledge was essential, enough could be gained without this to be of great value in the ordinary affairs of life, just as a limited knowledge of mathematics enables ones to transact business, but not to calculate the course of the stars or to tunnel the earth successfully. *******

The Syracuse Journal, Thursday Feb. 15, 1906, p. 3 WHAT THE MYSTIC NUMBERS FORETELL FOR ALICE'S FUTURE Her Life's Numbers and Symbol Read by a Famous Cryptographer Especially for This Newspaper. Copyright, 1906, by the Newspaper Enterprise Association. Nothing but good is to come to Miss Alice Roosevelt in her married life, according to the occult prediction of Mrs. Aso-Neith W. Cochran. This delver into the mysterious future is famous in New York for her predictions, based upon mathematical calculations. President Roosevelt's future has been revealed to him by this remarkable seer. Those who apply to her for readings are among the most prominent men in the world of finance. Mrs. Cochran's cryptogram of numbers, which she calls the "Aso-Neith system," is based upon numerical science. She makes her computations by comparing figures taken from the name of the person and the date of birth with those of the musical octave and the seven primary colors, and all based upon the mystic number of the ages. The subject of this reading was given to Mrs. Cochran by the New York correspondent of this newspaper, and Mrs. Cochran in writing her findings, addressed the subject, Miss Roosevelt. BY MRS. ASO-NEITH W. COCHRAN Cryptographic Reading According to the Aso-Neith System of Numbers. ALICE LEE ROOSEVELT. BORN FEB. 12, 1884. The symbol of your life is the triangle and your ruling numbers are 3, 6, 9. These constitute the environment of your life and give you your characteristics. You

22

THE ASO-NEITH

are idealistic and aspiring, and you build your air castles on a magnificent scale and live in the realization of them. You are a great lover of nature, kind and considerate of the inferior creatures. You are naturally of a happy, hopeful disposition. You are faithful and true to your friends. You are ardent in your love nature, have decided views, strong likes and dislikes, though in the latter you would not be aggressive, but indifferent to things and people that you do not like. You have a code of moral ethics quite your own, and measure humanity with the yardstick of your own generous nature, and you would see more good in the world than otherwise. You will make a faithful wife and a devoted mother, and your numbers promise you not less than three children nor more than nine. Your children will be beautiful in form and feature, with progressive minds, that will lead them more into the professional than into the mechanical or business life. You have great love of the beautiful in art and nature. Your symbol, the triangle gives you versatility, and you are capable in many directions. Whatever you undertake you do with all your might. You are artistic and sensitive to color vibrations and should have your own home decorations in your own color as indicated by the number of your life vibrations, which is light blue or blue in all its shades and tints. You have good intuitions and feel events before they transpire, and as you advance in life this sixth sense which is indicated in the keystone of your concord (6) will become more developed. This will be a safe guidance in your life. Your ruling number, 9, is universal in its nature, gives you the love for travel and will cause you to search in all directions for truth and inquire into all religions. In your religion you are broad and take better to the universal brotherhood than to dogmas or creeds. You should do a great work for the betterment and uplifting of humanity. You will achieve distinction through your philanthropy and through authorship. In your 37th year a decided change will come into your life and you will become the founder and promulgator of a movement for the uplifting and betterment of humanity, through organization and encouraging the young to associate the practical with the ideal. For this you will merit and receive the love of many peoples in different nations. You will travel at periods, extensively, throughout your life. Your musical or life vibration is "E" minor. This causes you to dread disagreements, gives you your love of harmony and long life. It also gives you great reserve force of vitality. You would recuperate quickly from illness.

CRYTOGRAM

23

"Three" belongs to the liver and the breath. "Six" to the intuition. "Nine" to the nervous organization. You have a sympathetic dark quality in your voice. A soprano with mezzo quality. You have great love for music. You will be sympathetic with people in your own concord — 3, 6, 9. For instance, Nicholas — whose name number is 9 — is sympathetic with you, as shown in his symbol, which is the triangle within a square. You have just entered the cycle of "I," the third letter in your name, which is "9," and which is a marriage letter, and Nicholas is entering the "L," which is "3" in his name, and this is responsible for that attachment that is to result in a happy union. Your fortunate numbers are 3, 6, 9. Your color vibration light blue. Your musical or life vibration is "E" minor. Nicholas, 9, is the capstone of your concord — 3, 6, 9. You are the cornerstone — 3 — of Nicholas — 9. 1908 will be a fortunate and eventful year for both of you. *******

The New York Herald Magazine, Sunday, Aug. 2, 1908, p. 8 NAME VALUES. "WHAT'S in a name?" Everything that makes for success or failure, weal or woe, answers Mrs. Aso-Neith Cochran, who is the author of a system whereby the advantages of a good name may be obtained by those who are handicapped by an ill chosen one. In her opinion this is an exact science. There need be no failure in life and there will be none if her advice is followed. Mrs. Cochran has classes in New York, and so enthusiastic are some of her disciples that an attempt is to be made to have a chair established in Columbia University for the diffusion of information in regard to the subject.

24

THE ASO-NEITH

The Aso-Neith cryptogram deals with the hidden meaning in numbers and letters. Every letter in the alphabet has a fixed value and numbers bristle with vital significance. It is the relation existing between letters and numbers that determines the individual allotment of fame and fortune. If mothers understood the importance of naming their children, according to this system there would be no mediocrity in the world, to say nothing of stupidity and blundering. However, maternal mistakes made through ignorance are not irreparable. Renaming is simple and effective. By the use of the Aso-Neith cryptogram the correct name may be found for each individual, and he has only to accept it personally to enjoy the most beneficent results. That is, it is not necessary for Frederick to become illegally Robert, or Dorothy Elizabeth. It is only necessary for Frederick to think of himself as Robert, and for Dorothy to say to herself, "I am Elizabeth," and the whole current of their lives will be changed, although to their friends and to all the world besides they may be known still as Frederick and Dorothy. "There are three concords," explained Mrs. Cochran. "One, five and seven, for example, are in harmony, three, six and nine and two, four and eight. The date of one's birth gives certain musical vibrations. Now each letter has its value, and the key number is the number of the name in the aggregate. The three groups have differing characteristics. Five is a vital number and controls the nerve centres and the stomach. Other numbers have a direct bearing upon the head, the liver and other parts of the body. If the birth and the name numbers are not in harmony there is bound to be suffering in some part of the body, the character of the derangement depending upon the number that is at fault. You see, the two vibrations conflict." It is the Christian or given name that is the ruling influence. The surname may be plebeian or aristocratic, euphonious or harsh. It has nothing to do with our fate. The middle name, if there be one, is also lacking in significance. What is of vital importance is whether a child in christened John, Harold, Theodore or William. Mothers who have heard of this system consult Mrs. Cochran before deciding upon a name for their offspring. Even family pride must go down before the insistence of the Aso-Neith cryptograms. The father and grandfather may have borne a certain name so honorably that it is a matter of course that the third generation should carry it on, but if the son of that generation be not born on a date that will polarize with his name he will not achieve the success that his father and grandfather did with the same name on different birthdays. Still, it is not so serious a matter as if the name could not be changed and the beneficial result become immediately effective. Last year Mrs. Cochran was in Europe, and in several cities of Germany and Austria she was called into consultation by physicians who wished her assistance in diagnosis. When she finds that a patient named Charles who is being treated for typhoid fever was born on a certain day of the month she insists that the trouble must be with his liver, because the lack of harmony between his birth number and name number indicates that. By bestowing upon him a name which will effect a polarization with his birth number harmonious vibrations are established and the patient begins to get well. Mrs. Cochran has a list of successful

CRYTOGRAM

25

treatments of that kind which reputable physicians will vouch for. *******

The Plain Dealer of Cleveland OH, Sunday, March 14, 1909, p. 52 The Newest Way of Marrying Happily First, See That Your Names Are Harmonious, Even if You Have to Change Your Own (Privately), Then Adjust the "Vibrations" of Your "Birth Numbers," and Save All The Danger of Being Married to the Wrong One, According to the Astonishing Mating System of Mrs. Cochran. Marriage is no longer to be a lottery, but a sure thing. There need be no blanks. Every one may draw a capital prize. The element of chance in choosing a life partner may be wholly eliminated. Furthermore, two uncongenial souls united legally in the matrimonial state, but being in discord one with the other, may become as one and continue to vibrate in perfect harmony to the end of the chapter. All that is necessary to bring about this matrimonial millennium is for every one to obey the laws of the Cryptogram, as set forth by a woman who calls herself the High Priestess of that cult — Mrs. Aso-Neith Cochran. If these laws are obeyed and the rules followed, cobwebs will grow over the doorways of the divorce courts, and all men and women will find their affinities and soul-mates in those to whom they are legally bound in matrimony. So says Mrs. Cochran, and she has made a deep study of the subject — a study covering, by her own confession, forty-five years of her life. The curious part of this is that Mrs. Cochran does not look to be forty-five years old. She seems, even upon close observation, to be a woman of not more than thirty-five years, but she says with a smile that she is nearer sixty than fifty. "But," she adds, "I am, in my happily preserved youthful appearance, a living exemplification of the wonders of the Aso-Neith Cryptogram. This science — for such it is — is an enemy to care and worry and unhappiness, and if one would remain young in thought and spirits and looks, one must be care-free and happy." Put as concisely as may be, the Cryptogram is the science of choosing Christian or "given" names whose vibratory sounds shall be in harmony with the vibrations of one's birth number. Mrs. Cochran believes, with the authors of this Cryptogram, that the day of the month upon which a person is born exercises an allimportant influence upon that person's whole life. She believes that there are certain vibratory forces set in motion by the birth date very similar in some respects to the electrical vibrations of wireless telegraphy. She also believes that each letter of a person's name sends out these vibrations, and that if the vibrations of the birth

26

THE ASO-NEITH

number and the vibrations of the name be not in harmony misery will result. The person will be out of harmony with himself. He will not succeed in life, except in certain cycles, when some particular letter of his name vibrates harmoniously with his birth-number vibrations. So, if a person has had given to him a wrong name by his fond but ignorant parents, Mrs. Cochran wishes them to take a new name that will make everything right. She says that thousands of persons in various parts of the world have taken new names, and always, she says, with beneficial results. To her own daughter, a pretty, charming girl of sixteen, she has given the names Olea Wanda La Fayetta Cochran. The daughter is a fine violinist, the picture of health, and happy as the day is long — all due, she and her mother believe, to the mysterious vibrations of numbers selected in accordance with the Cryptogram. This new-old fad has many devotees in many parts of the world and there are said to be hundreds of men and women in New York City who are secretly bearing the names Mrs. Cochran or other exponents of the art have given them, and who firmly believe that they own their prosperity and happiness to the acquired cognomens. "It is not necessary," says Mrs. Cochran, "to change one's name publicly. "It is an old, old science. It was known to the ancients. Mention of it is made in the Bible. Sara's name was changed to Sarah. Joseph [sic] became Israel. Saul was changed to Paul. And all these changes resulted beneficially to the persons mentioned." When asked to explain this Cryptogram Mrs. Cochran refuses, saying it is her secret. But there are other exponents of it who are not so secretive, and anyone who cares to take the trouble can find out all about it in a little book written by Leo Clement and published by Roger Brothers. [Luo Clement's The Ancient Science of Numbers (1908) http://www.archive.org/details/ancientscienceof00clemiala ] This will tell you the vibrations of your birth numbers, what scale of music you respond to, what are your harmonious months and colors, and a lot of other interesting things. You have to start with your birthday, not the year, just the date. Say you were born on the 17th; 7 and 1 being 8, make you an 8, for you do not count beyond 9, but always add up until you get a number lower than 10. Being born on the 17th then, you birth number is 8. Had you been born on the 23d your number would be 5; on the 10th it would be 1, and so on. The nine numbers from 1 to 9 are arranged in three triads thus: 1, 5, 7; 2, 4, 8; 3, 6, 9. Persons are sympathetic to each other when they are of the same triad. So far for the birth numbers, now for the names. Beginning with the letter A, which is of a single vibration and counts 1, you go

CRYTOGRAM

27

down to I, which is the ninth, B being second, C third, &c. Then you start over again with J, which counts ten (or one); K counting twenty (or two); down to R, which counts ninety (or nine), the ciphers going for nothing. With S you go into the hundreds, 100 (or one), the ciphers again counting for nothing. Now, if you want to get your name number, you must set it down letter by letter and add up the numbers corresponding to these letters. Suppose your name is MARY. According to the table M = 4; A = 1; R = 9; Y = 7; 4 + 1 + 9 + 7 = 21 = 3. So Mary is a No. 3. Suppose your name is Charles. C = 3; H = 8; A = 1; R = 9; L = 3; E = 5; S = 1; 3 + 8 + 1 + 9 + 3 + 5 + 1 = 30 = 3. So Charles is also a No. 3. Margaret is a 2. Grace is a 7. You can easily figure out any name in this way. "Numbers in the birth and letters in the name," says Mrs. Cochran, "must balance each other in their sex attributes, as well as in form and color, in order to create the perfect union between a man and a woman. "William, born on the 1st, and Gloria, born on the 7th, would become as it were, one soul in the two bodies, and constitute that ideal union which is the keystone of the social arch. This marriage would be spiritual, and productive of the highest good. "In the case of William and Gloria there is guaranteed fifty-four years of harmonious travelling through the letters of their name that are as one tone and one soul. Gloria would absorb and reflect the entire wisdom of William, and her intellectual faculties would equal his. William would rise to the loftiest heights of Gloria's love and reflect that spirituality which is the refining and spiritualizing agent of the world. This would be a mathematical and chemical union. "Olive, born on the 6th, and Oliver, born on the 9th, would furnish another example of perfect harmony. These names are composed of letters which agree in number and color with the birthdays. "Mary, born on the 4th, would attract John, born on the 9th, and life would be a checkered existence of trials and tribulations, until the divorce court separated the chemical elements that would not unite, however strong the legal tie. "Between David and Margaret there exists a mathematical harmony that trials and tribulations only enhance, but David and Grace could not agree as one, and neither would take dictation from the other. "Charles (3) should not choose Virginia (8); there is little or no reciprocity represented in these numbers. "Charles and Mary would meet on the intellectual plane. Frances and Frank would stand by each other through many trials. "Louis (4) and Elizabeth (7) would never stoop to be conquered. Both are born

28

THE ASO-NEITH

to lead (the birthday being equal) and one could not be subject to the other. These names represent Fire and Water, and this tells the tale of combustion. "We will draw a number picture of Charles, whose name vibrates to 3, born on the 6th, who would probably marry in his 28th or 29th year, in the letter 'R' in his name. To complete a picture of discord, we will take the name Cora, with the third letter in the name 'R,' but who is 1 in name vibration, and whose birth we will make 4. Charles and Cora would live semi-harmoniously for nine years, after which they would exist as an 'armed neutrality' if they could remain in the same household. The only point of sympathy between Charles and Cora is in the first letter of the names and the letter 'R' under which they would marry. Cora would begin the cycle of 'R' in the nineteenth year, and leave it at her twenty-eighth year. Charles would enter the cycle of 'R' in the twenty-eighth and finish it when he was thirty-six years old. We have in Charles and his vibration the element of Air, and in Cora, born on the 4th, the elements of Fire and Water. There would be more or less combustion in this union. "The picture is reversed in the names of Walter, 7 in vibration, with birth 25 — 7, — and Ethel, 5 in name and 5 in birth. Here is an attraction which would overcome all obstacles to a union and assimilate through life. John, born on the 8th, finds the 'peace which passeth understanding' with Helen, born on the 4th. "John (born on the 4th) would, like Job, 'regret the day of his birth' if he were through the initial letter J, which is 1, united in matrimony with Grace, born on the 7th. The concord of John represents the element of fire and that of Grace water, and there is no reciprocity in this union. "Elizabeth, which represents the vibration of a second degree 7, born active and operative, a master-builder, would be completely submerged by a birth on the 2d day of the month, and feel that life was a series of struggles, and yet the masterful spirit of this Elizabeth (7) could never be obliterated, and would assert itself at times and feel every inch a victor. William and Elizabeth, with a birth date in the concord of 1-5-7, would make an ideal pair, and the world would be benefited by this far reaching harmony." Mrs. Cochran says this Cryptogram will teach parents how to bring out the highest and best attributes in their offsprings by giving the children the mathematically correct name and color, asserting that every number and letter has a color and musical tone peculiarly its own, and disease, which is discord is the result of discordant elements in the name. The science furnishes to its disciples signets or talismans, constructed from the geometry of the letters in the name and the birth number combined, which preserves a record of the same and is said to be a protection to the wearer. The other day three girls were discussing the new science at luncheon. Each one had been to a professor of the number faith.

CRYTOGRAM

29

"He told me that my name was all wrong," said Agnes, "and he gave me a new one." "He told me my name was the cause of all my trouble," said Berenice, who had never known a care in her life, "and he gave me a new name." "As for me, he just said that if I was called 'Aurora' any longer I would probably suffer from severe chills. So I have a new name, too!" "Well, and what are the new names, girls?" asked a man. All three exclaimed ecstatically with one accord — "Luro!" {TABLE ACCOMPANYING THE ARTICLE:] MAN.

BIRTH DATE

John

th nd

8

WOMAN.

BIRTH DATE

and

Helen

th

RESULT

4

John

2

and

Margaret

8th

John

4th

and

Grace

7th

John

9th

and

Mary

4th

William

1st

and

Gloria

7th

William

5th

and

Elizabeth

7th

Oliver

6th

and

Olive

9th

Louis

4th

and

Elizabeth

7th

Charles

3rd

and

Cora

4th

Walter

25th

and

Ethel

5th

Rollo

9th

and

Clio

6th

Frank

14th

and

Gertrude

4th

Robert

9th

and

Lilo

9th

WITHOUT REGARD TO BIRTH DATES: David

and

Margaret

Enduring love and happiness

David

and

Grace

Discord

Charles

and

Mary

Highly sympathetic intellectual union

Charles

and

Virginia

Disagreement and unhappiness

Frank

and

Frances

Fidelity and lasting love

30

THE ASO-NEITH ******* The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Sunday, December 4, 1910, p. 4 NEW CULT SOLVES SECRETS OF UNIVERSE Mrs. Aso-Neith-Neypa Cochran, Inventor of Cryptogram, Has Many Brooklyn Followers. USES MAZY FIGURES AS KEY. Names Influence Human Destinies, She Declares — Harmonizing Discordant Vibrations.

Mrs. Aso-Neith-Neypa Cochran, who lives at 514 West One Hundred and Fourteenth street, Manhattan, is the founder of a new cult which has many Brooklyn followers. The "Aso-Neith Cryptogram," is the key by which the mysteries of the thing are unlocked, and at the address given exists the "School of Universal Vibration," Mrs. Cochran presiding. The basic idea of the system — Mrs. Cochran says it is a science, and not a creed or a religion — is that the universe is controlled and governed by a law of vibrations. Vibrations vibrate, and that is what makes everything happen that does happen. If you get your ego into tune with these vibrations, your life will be harmonious. If you persist in living in the wrong pitch, or the wrong key, or dancing to the wrong measure, the result is inharmonious discord, and the sacred symphony of life turns into a ridiculous ragtime. That is what is behind it all. But there is much more to it than merely that. The rate at which all these vibrations vibrate, and the kind of vibrations which you personally should get into tune with can be detected by a mathematical system, says Mrs. Cochran, just as easily as a pound of cheese can be weighed or the length of a bolt of crepe de chine determined by application of a tape measure. In short, there is a mathematical key to the secret of the universe, and Mrs. Cochran has that key. She told an Eagle reporter that she got it out of much study of the Bible. The Ancient Egyptians — Mrs. Cochran is named after one of the goddesss who used to be on duty a few thousand years ago in the temple of Neith — the ancient Egyptians had something, very like the same system, but Mrs. Cochran has improved on it. Mrs. Aso-Neith-Neypa Cochran Makes Numerals Do Stunts. Every letter in everybody's name corresponds to a number, and that number is a key which, if properly used in conjunction with other numbers, unlocks the closed room of destiny.

CRYTOGRAM

31

Mrs. Cochran has these numbers and numerical combinations so trained that they will stand without hitching, eat out of her hand, jump through rings and over bars when she speaks to them, and stand upon their hind legs and bark for scraps. Plunging without further circumlocution into the cryptogramatic heart of the matter let the following table be flashed before the eyes of the reader, with the promise that things about it will be elucidated further on. Behold, therefore, the cryptogram which unlocks anything and everything that needs unlocking — which ties down and binds and gags all the vibration, that vibrate from the heart of the Universal Mystery: 1

A

1

J

1

S

2

B

2

K

2

T

3

C

3

L

3

U

4

D

4

M

4

V

5

E

5

N

5

W

6

F

6

O

6

X

7

G

7

P

7

Y

8

H

8

Q

8

Z

9

I

9

R

9

-

To find out the secrets of your life — past, present and future — from your given name, figure out the numbers indicated by your name from the row of figures. For instance: Your name is George. You were born March 21, long enough ago to make you 35 years old. Then the number which concerns you are the numbers 21, indicating the day of the month: 35, indicating the years of your age and 756, 975. The 756,975 is obtained by tracing the letters used in spelling the name George through the lists above. But before getting busy with the 756,975, the 21, and the 35, in order to find out why George is George, please pass on to the next cage and remark this mystic combination: Here Are the Numbers That Control Fire, Water and Air. The numbers which control the forces of fire, in the universe are 2, 4 and 8. Water, 1, 5, 7. Air, 3, 6, 9.

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Keeping all these numbers carefully tucked away in separate compartments in his mind, the reader will please to return to George. Adding the digits 7 plus 5 plus 6 plus 9 plus 7 plus 5 all together brings a total of 39. Add the 3 and the 9 together and 12 is the result. Add the 1 and the 2 together and three is the grand sum total of the addition. Set down the number 3 for George, as exhibit the first. Don't forget that 3. It is important. Now take the 21 — George, you remember, was born on the 21 of the month, and that is how the 21 is obtained. Add the 2 and the 1 to each other and another 3 results. Please remember that 3. It is just as important as any other number. Let's see, George was 35 years old, wasn't he? He was when this explanation was begun, anyhow, though he has likely aged perceptibly with anxiety since then. Take that 35 — it will be strange if something can't be done with it. Ah, here it is — 5 plus 3 makes 8! Set down 8. There is now charged against it the destiny of George, the mystic combination 3-3-8. Add it. It makes 14. Add the 4 and the 1. That makes 5. How George's Name Affects his Destiny. Thus evolves the first real fact about George. He is in the 1-5-7 combination. He is what you might call a water baby. Do you catch the point? Add him all together, wherever he has a number of the slightest excuse for a number sticking out on him anywhere, and George is 3. And that makes him a part of the water combination. He will be lymphatic in temperament. He will be apt to grieve easily. He will be melancholy, like Hamlet. He wants to watch out for fires all his life; they are dangerous for him. He will never drown. He will be a good sailor. For, years ago, he took a sea journey which brought him luck. Every five years he will have a change of some sort in his life which will bring him either good luck or bad luck. He will be susceptible to sun strokes. Easy, isn't it, once you know how? But that isn't the half that can be said about George, nor the third nor the tenth. Mrs. Cochran can tell anything about anything by her numerical system. And

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the beauty of it is that when you want a number by this system, you just add one of the numbers you have to any number you want and get whatever number you need. "But," said the interviewer a bit puzzled, "if George had been named something else — Jim, for instance — this numerical lineup wouldn't have worked on him at all." Mrs. Cochran explained. George was bound to be named George whether he wanted to be or not. There were subtle vibratory influences, vibrating from the center of all vibrations, working on the minds of his parents and grandparents, from times past, compelling, and impelling them to name him George. He couldn't have been named anything else but that. His folks thought they called him that just because they wanted to. But they didn't — they had to. And so it is with everything — if its name doesn't truly represent its qualities, it's in a bad way. Mrs. Cochran's Numbers Prove That T. R. Was President. Theodore Roosevelt is one of the great men of the age whom Mrs. Cochran's system has been tried on. It worked fine on Mr. Roosevelt. If you know how to use the letters and, numbers, and the years old he is, and the day of the month he was born on, you will discover that Mr. Roosevelt is of an impulsive, outspoken nature; that he has not only been President of the United States a couple of times, but will be again. "There's no stopping this man Roosevelt," said Mrs. Cochran. "There's no use in anyone trying it. He is going farther and farther ahead all the time." If the gentle reader doesn't understand this cryptogram business after all this explanation, he had better go and ask Mrs. Cochran herself. She discovered it and put it into practice, and she has it patented. And what has been given here is only the very briefest and most sketchy indication of what it will do. For instance: If you have a name inharmonious, Mrs. Cochran will consult the numbers and the vibrations and things, and give you a new one. She names plays and companies and books for people. She named a book for the present interviewer, and now he intends to write a book to fit that name under the certainty that it will be accepted by some publisher — it seems like a low-down trick on some unsuspecting publisher, too. Once there was woman with a cancer, who came to Mrs. Cochran. Mrs. Cochran discovered that all that was the matter with her was that the letters of which her name was composed were not tacked on to numbers that fitted with the right vibrations, all the time vibrating from the point that vibrations come from, and so she changed her name. In a short time that woman, using her new name, didn't have any more cancer than a rabbit.

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Here are some of the things that Mrs. Cochran herself says about her system, which will no doubt help to a clearer understanding of it: Some of the Things the Aso-Neith Cryptogram Teaches. "The Aso-Neith cryptogram is a complete science, teaching the secret meaning in numbers, letters, colors, musical tones, geometrical forms, symbols, gems, etc. "The principal of harmonious combinations, caused by the attraction of two complementary forms or forces, underlies every object, every fact, every movement in the world. "Every phase of spiritual, mental, emotional and physical manifestation can be studied, understood and applied successfully through the knowledge of this science." "The Aso-Neith cryptogram is the key to the law of universal vibration. It opens the door to the great possibilities of nature, and it will assist one to adjust one's life to fundamental forces in the universe, and thus enable one to develop along the lines of one's destiny, and fulfill one's spiritual, mental and physical purposes in life. "Every letter, number, geometrical form, color and musical tone is a center of creative energy. Letters are symbols of vibratory forces in the inner soul-world. Every letter is a medium or vehicle through which subtle forces act upon the individual life. "In the geometrical formation of letters and numbers, the angles, curves, etc., are not due to any accident, but brought about by the operation of a perfect divine plan, so as to enable the human mind to learn and properly understand all forms of truths. The Aso-Neith cryptogram teaches: The divine law of mathematical vibration of each letter of the alphabet. "The color of each letter and number, and the relation each individual bears to the universal chromatic spectrum of being. The geometrical symbol to which every person corresponds in the universal Temple of God. "The application of the law of concord and harmony, in the attunement of names of persons to dates of their birth. "The days, months and years to which one responds in the attainment of health, happiness, success, unfoldment and promise. "The physiological, biological and functional relationship of each organ and part of the human body, to numbers, letters, musical tones, etc. "Through the proper understanding of the law of vibration, correct diagnosis of

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organic and functional disturbances can be located, and adjusted in the human organism." *******

The Rockford [IL] Register-Gazette, Thursday, July 31, 1913, p. 6 UNHAPPY? YOUR NUMBER IS WRONG. Might have happened because your mathematical vibrations are wrong. Unhappy marriages are said to have been occasioned by the mating of wrong numbers, if you can figure that out. The authority for this statement is Mrs. Aso-Neith Neypa Cochran, the author of "Aso-Neith Cryptogram." The system is supposed to cover everything, for by a series of numbers added or superadded the author can deftly tell you anything you want to know. She says: "A person's environment is his name and the letters which compose it. The name conferred gives a definition to the being. It also binds him to the occult and elemental forces which make for good or ill. "When a name is given, the geometrical angles, both fluent and straight, which represent the letters, are registered on the subjective plane. They become the highways and byways upon which the individual travels through life. "This is why we have so many 'ups and down[s].' We fight against our deformed lives, never knowing the cause of our errors and punishments, thankful when things go right, discouraged when things go wrong, but blindly stumbling on our paths, made so hard by our misapplied names. "Every letter, number, geometrical form, color and musical tone is a center of creative energy. Love is purely a mathematical calculation. "Unhappy marriages come from the mating of wrong numbers. Perhaps your mathematical vibrations are wrong?" The more you think about this the more mixed you become. *******

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The Utica Sunday Tribune, April 19, 1914, p. 14 NAMING BABIES AN EXACT SCIENCE A New York Woman Says She Has Discovered the Correct Method. ... (By Gotham Knickerbocker) New York, April 10. — Names are no longer to be applied by chance. Mother and father should not argue whether the little "what is it" is to be plain "John" or "Clarence De Puyster." Mrs. Aso-Neith-Neypa Cochran has it all reduced to an exact science. She is: "The author, founder and teacher of the Aso-Neith Cryptogram — a science of numbers and letters." So her business cards read. To me in her University Heights flat, Mrs. Cochran explained it all. The sexes are suspended between the nebulous peaks of the two extremities by a certain geometrical sign or symbol. This sign is expressed by a digit number. The digit number excludes nine, said Mrs. Cochran, for nine is simply a number one with a zero riding on its back. Nine begins and ends a cycle. You see? My, how stupid! Every digit has its own individuality, characteristic and temperamental musical vibration. Each number has its own peculiar musical tone. Find the tone and learn your being. Life harmony consists in adjusting one's being, one's cosmic urges to vibrations which give forth a concord instead of a discord. If the vibration numbers of your name and your birth date form a harmony — if they coalesce — you'll be happy. If they form a discord you will be wretched while others are gay. Mrs. Cochran looked fairly happy — and prosperous. She evidently was in harmony. She said she could find a name for anybody and was naming thousands of children every year. "Calls come to me over the phone. I get telegrams begging for names. I get letters by every mail, all seeking names." ... *******

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The Phrenological Journal and Science of Health, August 1905, pp. 248-252 MRS. A. N. COCHRAN. DISCOVERER OF THE SCIENCE OF NUMBERS AND LETTERS, AS EXPLAINED BY THE ASO-NEITH CRYPTOGRAM. From the remotest ages mankind has been striving to solve the mystery underlying principle, which remained shrouded in primordial darkness, nestling close to the principles of magnetism and electricity, which science is at present endeavoring to unveil. Pythagoras, whose discoveries in mathematics alone will make his name live as long as the world stands, made long strides toward the coveted goal, and taught a system of "correspondences" as applied to numbers, letters, etc., which contained much truth and was far ahead of his time. The Bible, and many other ancient religious books of the Oriental nations have frequent reference to the influence of numbers and names on the human life. Abram and Sarai had their names changed — the letter "H" had to be added to both names before they could become the parents of a great nation; "H" or 8 being the number and letter of God the Creator. To this day it is the custom among the Jewish people in the Orient to change the name of a child if it does not appear to thrive, and while no one seems to be able to give the reason for the existence of this custom, decided changes are said to be brought about through its observance. These mysteries have at last been unravelled by an American lady, who has tested and proved her discovery for the past thirty years, and thousands of people throughout the world have been enlightened and benefited by her teachings. Unsuccessful business men have made marked changed for the better. Mismated couples have been brought into perfect harmony. Many diseases vanish as soon as her teachings are applied, and even insanity has been cured by the use of her system. The science, for if has been reduced to a science, is called the "Aso-Neith Cryptogram of Numbers and Letters." The theory is that life is a form of vibration, or rather that we are all under some vibration of the Infinite, differing from each other as the tones and chords in music differ from each other in pitch and key. Our life vibration is imparted to us at birth and is constant and unvarying; for instance, one who is born on the ninth day of any month will come under the vibration or rhythm of "9"; for him to have harmony in his life the number of his name and the letters of his name should be in harmony (not necessarily unison) with the vibration of "9." If the vibrations under which he lives form a perfect concord he will be strongly attracted toward people whose concords are harmonious with his own and repelled by people whose concords are out of harmony with his. This is what, for lack of a better name, has been called "Magnetic Attraction."

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The more firmly established our concord is, the better able we are to repel inharmonious influences and people, who would bring discord into our lives. As in music, if we have a number of strings tuned in unison and we strike one, all will vibrate and strengthen the original tone; so in life, the more harmonious vibrations we can bring to bear upon ourselves the better equipped we will be for the battle. These vibrations reach us through letter, number, color, and musical pitch. We all have our color and musical pitch, and many people recognize their own, intuitively, and unconsciously apply the law; such persons' lives are a continuous song, and their very presence is a benediction on all who come in contact with them. One often wonders why life for a time seems to flow as smoothly as a mighty river, and then comes a change and for a period of years everything goes wrong, and we search in vain for the disturbing element, but when once the law is understood and applied we foresee the discordant member, substitute a harmonious one for it, or add another note to the chord making it a transitional one, thus modulating to a higher key, and instead of being controlled by persons and circumstances we become the masters of our own destinies. To make this a little clearer: one may have a name whose total vibration is in harmony or unison with his life vibration, and at first thought we would say that if he keeps within his concord all must be well; but we live a certain number of years under each letter of our names, and each letter has its own vibration, so that a man whose life vibration is "9" and his name James (number 3), would be in harmony with his name as a whole, yet not one letter of the name is in harmony with 3 and 9, so that there would be an element of discord running through his entire life; but as has been intimated before it is possible to transpose all discord in our lives into harmony. The possibilities of the science are infinite, and can only be touched upon here. Take an infant, place him in his own concord, and surround him with only harmonious influences, and he will be a good child, will avoid the ills that childhood is heir to, will instinctively avoid evil and choose the good, will intuitively select the avocation in life for which he is best fitted, will have a decided individuality, will be a leader instead of a follower, and in fact will inherit the whole of his birthright. In the selection of his life companion, he will not be guided by animal passion, but will be unerringly drawn to her who is his soul's mate, and their unison will make one great swelling chord — the climax of a grand crescendo in God's never-ending symphony. A word now about the lady who has evolved or discovered this law and brought it into such shape that a child can use it, although the greatest minds reel when they look into the vistas that a study of this science opens up. She is not a sensationalist or a faddist, a clairvoyant or psychic, although many of her readings of the lives of entire strangers border on the marvelous, and some of those who seek her advice can hardly believe that the wonderful results obtained do not come from some power other than from a positive science that is as capable of demonstration as any problem in mathematics. Mrs. A. N. Cochran has a marked personality and character; more especially is

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this fact noticeable in her mental caliber. As we have already said, the average woman's head to-day is developing in size and strength, as she is increasing her physical and athletic powers, hence it is not so much a wonder to us to meet a lady whose head measures 22 inches in circumference by 14 inches in length and 14 1/2 inches in height, who has a corresponding weight of 154 pounds and a height of 5 feet 8 1/2 inches. Therefore she is one of the advanced type of womankind, not only in size, and proportion of brain caliber, but also in attainment, energy, executive force, spiritual insight, availability of talent, power of resource from within, and capacity to give advice to others on advanced subjects. One power that she possesses in preeminence is her endurance, her power to overcome fatigue, and ability to continue in her work long after others have been overcome and given up their work. Her forehead indicates her wonderful power of research into things uncommon to women, at least they were uncommon to women when she first studied them. Among these subjects are law, the mathematics of music and the mathematics of names and numbers that pertain to the moral, physical, and spiritual problems of life. The logical and philosophic faculties are strongly developed, and are largely called into active service through her scientific qualities, which form a crown to her eyes. The latter faculties incline her to look into the subjects that entertain and interest the other parts of her brain; thus social problems, ethical topics, spiritual matters, and philanthropic movements touch her very deeply, and will continue to do so as long as she lives, and no knowledge appears to come amiss to her if she can by any means make use of the knowledge. Her basilar brain gives her energy; she is tempted to burn the midnight oil in order to accomplish all she wants to do, and were it not for her strong recuperative powers, she would more frequently become exhausted. Nature is, however, very kind to her industrious nature, when she blocks out a long programme for herself and mentally does the work before she has worked out the details. Seeing so many people, one might think she would forget the countenances of people whom she met, but she has large Individuality, Order, and Conscientiousness, hence she is systematic, conscientious, and accurate in recalling the individual features of her friends, acquaintances, and others. For a tonic to her mind she has cultivated the organ of wit or mirthfulness; hence she sees the humorous side of a situation to advantage. Her features are regular and expressive. Strength of character is seen in her nose, sympathy and pathos in her eyes, firmness and control in her lips, vitality and longevity in her chin, and hospitality and generosity in the curves around her nose. Such a person cannot help being a benefactress, not only to her own sex. but to the race, for she carries with her that dignified self-composure and sympathetic interest which are sure to arouse in others a desire to know much concerning the truths and principles that she has studied so long and so well. No one who has consulted her has come away empty, and without a desire to know more about the

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Science of Numbers and Letters, which, when properly understood, interpret the daily life spiritually and materially. Although her scientific and philosophic faculties are large and influential, her moral qualities dominate and rule her life. She has had a wide experience and is of thoughtful presence, and possessed of good sound common sense and keen wit. As a young woman in 1872 she took up the study of law and later drifted into politics and was for a number of years extremely active in this line, and will be long remembered by the older politicians of the West. Later she studied medicine, and it was in connection with this latter study that she became interested in the mystery of life in the abstract and life in the individual, and with what results only those who know her best can begin to appreciate. Her great object in life is to help others, and certainly she has done this already for hundreds who have come to her bearing their burdens and anxieties. She is always willing to talk or write to those whose lives seem fettered or discordant, and help them to establish within their souls their own true concord, and none leave her presence without feeling refreshed and encouraged. As a young girl she took up the study of music and painting, and in the latter made portrait work a special study, with which she identified geometry and mathematics, and associated the human figure with the various orders of architecture, which she claims are revealed in the lines and formation of the body, and mathematically expressed in the letters and numbers of the name. It is in the arcana of music that her life work has thus far been associated and for over thirty years she has been a teacher of music in its various branches, in which she has tested and proven the science which she is now giving to the world, the Aso-Neith Cryptogram of Numbers and Letters. As a prominent author once wrote of her, "She puts music on the basis of Newton, Keppler, and Columbus, and discovers and heals all manner of ills spiritually, physically, and financially." Mrs. Cochran is the daughter of Cephas Parker Woodcock and Elizabeth Pearson Woodcock, both of Scotch ancestry. Oliver Cromwell Woodcock, father of C. P. Woodcock, traced his lineage to Sir Oliver Cromwell. The Woodcocks emigrated from Scotland to America at the time of the usurpation, and played a prominent part in the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812-14. Three uncles fell at the battle of Bunker Hill. Mr. Woodcock's mother, Asenath Williams-Woodcock, belonged to the family of Roger Williams, and Mrs. Cochran to the sixth generation in the ancestral line from Roger Williams. Her ancestors, like herself, have always stood for broad principles of

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freedom and right. *******

The [NY] Sun, Thursday, Jan. 7, 1909, p. 7 EVERYTHING'S IN A NAME IF IT DOESN'T FIT YOUR BIRTH DATE FORTUNE'LL SWAT YOU. Don't Believe It? — Well, Ask the Priestess of Aso-Neith — Or Homer Davenport, Who's Found His Name is Zahad and is Now in Harmony With Himself. If you bet and go broke, if you stutter, if you lie down with a sickness, if your wife is a shrew and your son a ninny, if your business goes to pot and your best friends pass by on the other side, don't give up hope. It's 4 to 5 and no place betting that you've got the wrong name. Change John to Bukadelphas, Alice to Mehitabel, burn two bits worth of incense to Aso-Neith, and you will have the shoulders of calamity flat on the mat. Your parents may have wronged you all unwittingly in your infancy, tacking on to you, when you couldn't resist, a name that was a hoodoo from the jump because it jibbered and made faces at your birth date. You may have been walloped by trouble since you tumbled out of the cradle all because the horrible conflict between name and date set up a war of vibrations and put you out of kilter with fortune. Take it from Aso-Neith in the flowered princesse, switch names, establish harmony, iron out the wrinkling vibrations and all may yet be well. There was the case of Homer Davenport's son, Homer, a little boy who stuttered, exhibited nervousness frequently, lacked the gayety of childhood and seemed to grow worse instead of better. Mr. Davenport was advised to consult the priestess of Aso-Neith in her temple in Harlem. He did so. Now little Homer has ceased to stutter. His nerves are equable and composed. He is merry and laughs from the day's beginning to its end. He is no longer little Homer, but little Rolf. Rolf harmonizes beautifully with 15, his birth date. Homer had stirred up fearful commotions in the child's vibrations. Take Mr. Davenport himself. Everybody knows Mr. Davenport the artist [who was a famed political cartoonist]. When Aso Neith first told him about the ancient philosophy of numbers and vibrations which she has brought to a science so fine that there isn't an ailment or worry she can't put out with a punch Mr. Davenport said simply: "Madame, you make me laugh."

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Mr. Davenport was wrong, he confessed. His own vibrations were sending up no sweet song. He didn't notice it, but the trained ear of Aso Neith caught the wrangling and the jangling. She spoke to him in simple earnestness and demonstrated that he was seriously affected himself. Mr. Davenport is no longer to be addressed as Homer, but as Zahad the Devotee. In sweetest harmony with himself, Zahad thought of a cousin who needed treatment. She was more than pretty, extraordinarily intelligent, fascinating to a degree, widely popular, but somehow she never got married. Every time a match was arranged some trivial matter came up between fiancé and fiancée which spoiled the understanding. Aso Neith was called in. She figured it out in a jiff. Simplest thing you ever saw. The girl's name and the date of her birth were irreconcilably at war. The young lady's vibrations were in a terrible state. Aso Neith changed her name to Musa. Now all is well. Wedding bells pretty soon. Now after one listened to the words of Zahad, the Devotee, as Zahad was beating it to Morris Plains to watch the little Rolf at play, there was nothing left to do but to hike up to Harlem to the temple of Aso-Neith and find out what all this was about. The temple is high up in an apartment house in West 115th street. In the hall, which was indifferently lighted, a young thing all in red, very easy to follow with the eye, swished past hurriedly. It was not Aso-Neith, but Lilith. She was in harmony with her vibrations. A little laugh, very musical, proved it as Lilith welcomed Zebadah, once James. Then came Aso-Neith herself. The name on her card reads Mrs. Aso-Neith W. Cochran. The priestess is tall. Her hair is somewhat interlined with gray. The eyes are gray. Her face is pale. Her robe was a princesse of large red flowers upon a ground of black. Every flower was as big as a saucer. She wore a sunburst of diamonds and rings. The name of the sunburst was Neah. When Aso-Neith spoke it was in a firm, rather heavy voice. It appears that her gift of prophecy, of inspirational curativeness, was the merest freak of chance. Her parents, quite undistinguished for occultism, happened to call her Aso-Neith, coupling the names of a pair of very ancient Egyptian minor deities. They didn't know that the very coupling of Aso and Neith meant harmony and wisdom: that one with such a name could dope out anything. Something in her formulated the philosophy. She evolved a system. Given a name and the corresponding birth date, she could figure out any problem pertaining to that person. She knew instanter whether the name was a hoodoo or a luck piece. She understood what name should be substituted to recapture luck if an inharmonious name had been slapped on the person. "All the world and the things that are in it are ruled by vibrations," said the priestess positively. "In the universe of vibrations there are three concords. One-

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Five-Seven, Two-Four-Eight and Three-Six-Nine. Your name must fit the concord which should rule you or you will be cursed by misfortune. If you were born on the 23d of April, say, you are in the One-Five-Seven concord because you obtain your place by adding the digits of your birth date. Your name must harmonize with this concord or trouble will certainly follow." It is only Aso-Neith who holds the secret of making the name fit the concord. Aso-Neith deals in new and second hand names manufactured in all parts of the world, from Persia to Pernambuco. The mysterious power somewhere inside the flowered princesse does the trick. You have to buy a new name; Aso-Neith has a schedule of prices. If you are in very bad it may be expensive to switch — maybe not. It all depends on the diagnosis of your vibrations. "Not only people," said Aso-Neith hastily, "but anything at all may be benefited by my advice as to a change of name. Business men have had me change the names of their corporations, and prosperity always follows. I have changed the names of horses, dogs, actresses, minerals, gamblers, plays, books, birds, chorus girls, corporations, houses, babies. I gave Augustus Thomas a name for his play 'The Witching Hour.' Mr. Thomas is soon to put out a new play which will deal with the vibrations of color. I furnished him with much data on the subject. Mr. Thomas is tremendously interested in my work. I get letters every day from abroad from people who want me to name their children. In thousands of cases I have never had a complaint." Aso-Neith said that she explained her theories to a party at the apartment of Mrs. James Dunlop Smith at 34 Gramercy Park this week, among whom were Lee De Forest of the wireless concern, Ethel Newcombe, the pianist, Mrs. Hugh Pentecost, Mrs. Elizabeth Lindsay and Paulding Farnum. She handed out a bunch of new names to fit the various concords. ******* Grand Forks [ND] Herald, Friday, Jan. 8, 1909, p. 3 FINDS REASON FOR JOHN D.'S SUCCESS Due Says Preceptress of New Cult to Prominent Part Figure Eight Played in Life History. New York, Jan. 7. — There's a new and strange cult in town. It numbers among its disciples well known society folk and the chief apostle is Mrs. Aso Neith Cochran, founder of the Aso Neith cryptogram, which by the mere changing of a person's name to accord with the date of his or her birth enables anyone to be or do anything. The Aso Neith Neithy crypogram clinches a disciple fast to success, like a double spring steel trap. It also cures disease, makes bad figures good, and assures

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happy and productive marriages. The new system was expounded by its founder at the home of Mrs. J. Dunlop Smith, 34 Gramercy Park, yesterday, and among those present were: Lee de Forest, inventor of the de Forest wireless; Paulding Farnum, of Tiffany & Co.; Lady Gridley, of the English court; Mrs. Elizabeth Lindsay, Miss Florence Kea, and Lieutenant and Mrs. John Howard, son-in-law and daughter of General Chaffee. With hardly an exception the given names of those present were found not in accord by Mrs. Cochran and were altered to suit. For instance, Mrs. Elizabeth Lindsay is no longer Elizabeth, but Ovada, and Miss Florence Kea's name is now Velma. Mrs. Cochran explained that each number, up to nine, was represented by a vibration and each number corresponded to a letter in the alphabet. "And vibration is life," declared Mrs. Cochran emphatically. "Then of course, when the vibrations emanating from a person's name are not in harmony with the number signifying the date of their birth they are not in harmony with themselves. That is mathematics. "We can't change our last name, but we can change our given ones. If your names are out of harmony, things must be adjusted. Life and health and happiness are mathematics. Therefore we can be successful if we adjust our names. "The figure eight is the most harmonious one of all," she said. "The success of John D. Rockefeller was due to the prominent part that the figure eight or its multiples had played in his career. He was born on the 8th of the month, started business on $4,000 borrowed capital; does business at No. 26 Broadway, the number of which, added together, makes eight; and all the principle events of his life have been on the 2nd, 4th or 8th of the month. "I've tried my method successfully on a great many people," Mrs. Cochran continued. "Faith isn't necessary in this science. if your names are out of accord with your birth date, make them in accord; take a new name and all will be well. Persons become successful and beautiful by this method. Hartman, the violinist is an example. He was beset with difficulties and obstacles until I gave him a new name. There are prominent business men who come to me before every venture for advice, and I tell them if the vibrations are right.["] [Around this date, the Democrat Argus of Auburn NY ran essentially the above article, with this Cochran quote at the end: "One of the great things about this science is that you don't have to believe it. If your names are out of accord with your birth date make them in accord, and with complete harmony there will be no

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limit to attainments."] *******

The Denver [CO] Post, Sunday, Jan. 10, 1909, p. 8 PRIESTESS WILL CHANGE SOCIETY GIRLS' NAMES TO SUIT CONDITIONS (By LEOLA ALLARD.) It makes a lot of difference whether you are named Rachel and are a coquette, or whether you are a husky, red-cheeked country girl and called Phillys. The priestess of Aso-Neith in Harlem, New York, has names to burn, only instead of burning them she's dishing them up to society as they befit the individuals. Now that there is such a thing as good luck in appropriate names, society women of New York are accused of consulting the good priestess of the queer belief and taking on new first names. It is easy. If you stutter or stammer, it may be that it is because you aren't named rightly. Change your name and your difficulties cease. If you have the big head or underrate your value, Aso-Neith balances you with a name befitting your birth date. Parents, it appears, have been very silly in giving wrong names to children, never considering that it made any difference so long as two in the family were not named alike. Aso-Neith says it makes "a heap o' difference." Miss Eleanor McMurtrie is petite. She is thin as can be, and coquettish. She should have the name of Trixey or Bonnie. Her fortune, according to Aso-Neith, would be better from the moment she assumed the fitting name. Miss Aliene Buck, according to this theory, should be known as Lillith, or Beth. Miss Cecil Monarch would do splendidly as Mehitable and would get everything she wanted. She is too staid and too decided a personality to be called Cecil, which somehow indicates a fluffy little thing with blond tresses. Mrs. Aso-Neith W. Cochran, as the priestess signs herself, thinks she has discovered something worth knowing, and she may have an agent out here some day asking you to change your first name, so it would be well if you knew before hand what a lot of good luck was going to be promised. It's a new something to interest those with little to do, and it may take.

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*******

The Republic of Rockford IL, Thursday, Feb. 4, 1909, p. 5 Mrs. Aso-Neith Cochran, the woman who claims that by changing your name to be in harmony with your birth date you can attain to any height, has thought of a new one. Her latest freak is that she can grow hair on the baldest pate by subjecting the patient to piano or violin music. She cited Paderewski as a testimonial of what the vibrations emanating from a Beethoven sonata will do for the vegetation of one's cranium. On the other hand she declares the vibrations from the bass horn, the trombone and other wind instruments tend to destroy the hair. She attributes the traditional baldness of fat men who blow the horns in German bands to the unfavorable vibrations issuing from their pet instruments. *******

The [NY] Sun, Thursday April 15, 1909, p. 3 MAGIC AMID THE COCOANUTS TYRANNOUS L. SCHEPP REFUSED TO BECOME DAVID AT 70 And Elred the Disciple of Aso-Neith, Whom He Had Made Vice-President But Louis Became Payne, Bridget, Mercy, and Maude, Clarice. Ever since Louis Kretzmer, then vice-president of the cocoanut importing company of L. Schepp & Co. learned from Mme. Aso-Neith that he wasn't vibrating happily as Louis and received from the priestess a new label — Payne — there has been trouble in the cocoanut business. Charles E. Rushmore, counsel for Leopold Schepp, the founder and president of the cocoanut concern told Justice Dowling yesterday that Kretzmer became a different man after accepting the cult of AsoNeith, exclaiming that he was a prophet, that he could cure physical and mental diseases and that he was immune from the consequences of evil. [Compiler's note: It should come as no great shock to the reader that, in 1933, nearly a quarter of a century after this report, Kretzmer was found to be "in an advanced state of dementia … [in] a private sanatorium". Joyce Milton, Loss of Eden: A Biography of Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh.] Mr. Schepp, whose first name has been Leopold for seventy years and who has made a lot of money as Leopold, put in an affidavit that the rechristened Kretzmer, who began with him as a clerk twenty-two years ago as a boy of 17, advised him to change his name from Leopold to David in order to become more powerful and acquire much merit. Mr. Schepp thereafter fired out Vice-President Kretzmer and

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Secretary Herman Obertubbesing, who are now suing for a receivership and an accounting. Mr. Rushmore arguing yesterday that the application for a receiver and an accounting should not be granted laid much stress on the influence of Mrs. Cochran's or Aso-Neith's magic cryptogram in the affairs of L. Schepp & Co. He explained first to the Court what Mr. Schepp had done to advance the fortunes of Kretzmer and Obertubbesing. Both, said he, had been clerks in the employ of Leopold Schepp until the formation of the company, in 1901. Kretzmer was getting $18 a week and Obertubbesing $14. Mr. Schepp recognized the business ability of the young men, said Mr. Rushmore, and gave them the opportunity of making a lot of money by becoming stockholders in the corporation. He let Kretzmer have 100 shares of stock, which was worth at that time 200, and let Obertubbesing have 25 shares. Their stock was to be paid for out of its dividends, and they were not to be responsible for the payment of one cent. "Since 1901," said Mr. Rushmore, "Kretzmer has drawn between $80,000 and $100,000 from the business, while Obertubbesing has got between $20,000 and $30,000. Mr. Schepp found things were running smoothly for a long period, but eventually he discovered that they were not going as well. He made inquiries and learned that Kretzmer was the leader in a new cult which advocated the change of the given name, the theory being that any person who changed his or her name became immune from the consequences of any act committed by him or her. "Not only did he change his own names," said the lawyer, "but he started in to proselytize all his fellow employees and induced most of them to change their names. They all became much taken with the new theory that once they had changed their names they could not be held responsible for anything they did. Kretzmer even had the audacity to tell Schepp that if he changed his name from Leopold to David he could control the cocoanut trade of the world. Then he went on until one of the employees who had changed his name was found stealing from the company. He told the District Attorney that he had been an honest boy until he joined the new cult and changed his name. "Even the young women employees were brought into the cult by the chief apostle, Kretzmer, and changed their names from Maude to Clarice, and from Bridget to Mercy. One young man changed his name from Charles to Eugene on the ground that he would then be no longer responsible for his acts." Mr. Schepp's affidavit, after denying the truth of Kretzmer's and Obertubbesing's allegations that he loaned the company's money out in Wall Street on call in 1907 for his own profit, that he was forcing the company to pay an exorbitant price for the property at 165 Duane street, that he was a business tyrant and had forced the young men out of office unjustly, had a good deal to say about the effect of the Aso-Neith cryptogram in the cocoanut world.

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"While Kretzer had previously been a man of intelligence and reasonable mind," Mr. Schepp stated, "within the last year and a half and at various times he has claimed that he is no common man — not a follower, but a leader; that he has power to foretell the future and power to cure any person of physical or mental ills. The said plaintiff Kretzer claimed to the said Schepp and others that he was the originator of a cult whereby one who followed the tenets of the cult could benefit or injure any one he pleased, and whereby the follower of the cult would be protected from harm. The said Kretzmer suggested to the said Schepp that he change his name from Leopold to David, and told him that if he did so he would become a much more powerful man and would thereby acquire other powers much greater than he possessed at the present time under the name Leopold." The affidavit described how Mr. Schepp discovered that Kretzmer was not the originator of the cult, but that it was the invention of a Mrs. Cochran. It [illegible word probably similar to "attributed"] the downfall of the clerk who went to jail to Kretzmer's influence and the effects of the cult. For more than two years before the election of directors last January which turned Kretmzer and Obertubbesing out of the company, Mr. Schepp stated Kretzmer had negleted his duties and his mind had become obsessed by the theories and practices of the cult. [At this point, several paragraphs are illegible, but in one of them it is stated that a man named John S. Wise “appeared for” Kretmzer and Obertubbesing. The article continues in a new column to say:] Mr. Wise contended that Kretzmer had been a faithful, efficient manager of the business and that Schepp had treated him very badly. While Kretzmer was absent in the West Indies, whither Schepp had sent him on the pretext of business, said Mr. Wise, Schepp called a meeting for the election of new directors and turned out both Kretzmer and Obertubbesing. Justice Dowling took the papers in the case and reserved decision. Mrs. Aso-Neith Cochran, the priestess of Aso-Neith, presides in a flowered wrapper over a flourishing business at 403 West 115th street. It was she who gave Homer Davenport, the cartoonist, a name — Zahad — to harmonize with his vibrations, and she offered to make Augustus Thomas's new plays positively successful by naming them herself. Louis Kretzmer, she said yesterday, came to her about eighteen months ago. She saw instantly that the name Louis didn't gee at all with the Kretzmer vibrations and she picked a name that did — Payne. "But, oh!" said Aso-Neith, dramatically, "never shall it be said that the sacred doctrines of the Aso-Neith cryptogram permit anybody to be lawless or ungrateful, or to set at naught the laws of God or man! They who embrace the cult come into sweet commune with the very spirit and heart of nature." The Daily People took up the defense of Aso-Neith's “cult” in an editorial on April

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20, 1909: http://www.marxists.org/archive/deleon/pdf/1909/apr20_1909.pdf . *******

The Washington Times, Wednesday, April 6, 1910, p. 1 MARITAL WARFARE OF THE MILLERS ENDED Wife Accepts $500,000 From the General, and Promises Peace. NEW YORK, April 6. — The marital warfare between Gen. Charles F. Miller, the wealthy Standard Oil man of Franklin, Pa., and his wife Emma Bullen Miller, is at an end. Mrs. Miller has accepted $500,000 from her husband, and has shaken the dust of New York from her feet. She is supposed to have joined members of her family in Ohio. The money was given to Mrs. Miller, one of her friends said yesterday, upon her agreement to live away from General Miller and withdraw her suit for divorce. In addition to the half million, Mrs. Miller has received from her husband assurances that he will drop his suit against her. The preliminary hearing in the suit and countersuit was to have been on April 25. Maurice B. Dean, of 20 Broadway, Mrs. Miller's attorney, said yesterday he would not discuss the case, except to admit that the troubles of the Millers were ended as far as he was concerned. For some months Mrs. Miller had been dodging the general's process servers, flitting about in New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio to do it. Recently she joined the "New Name" cult, which is headed by Mrs. Aso Neith Neypa Cochran. The idea of the members of this cult is that persons are not usually named according to their new characteristics, and that they should take new names to suit them. Mrs. Cochran, when seen, said she did not know what Mrs. Miller's new name would be. *******

The Philadelphia [PA] Inquirer, Thursday, April 7, 1910, p. 5 GETS $500,000 TO STOP DIVORCE SUIT Wife of General Charles Miller Also Agrees to Live Apart From Him NEW YORK, April 6. — A cash payment of $500,000 has put an end to the marital warfare of General Charles F. Miller, the multi-millionaire Standard Oil man, of Franklin, Pa., and his wife, Emma Bullen Miller, who until recently has been making her home in this city. General Miller, it is said, gave her the half-million (which is about one-

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twentieth of his fortune) in consideration of her agreeing to live apart from him, to abandon the divorce action which she has been preparing for months, and to relinquish all claims upon him. Besides the $500,000 Mrs. Miller also got the assurance from the general that he will abandon his divorce suit against her, and never would institute another one. Mrs. Miller has left the city and is living with relatives somewhere in Ohio. Joins New Cult The money was handed to Mrs. Miller in a hotel in this city by a Pennsylvania man who is a friend both of Mrs. Miller and of the General. Soon after receiving it she went West. Before leaving New York Mrs. Miller joined the queer "name-changing cult" which was organized a couple of years ago by Mrs. Aso Neith Neypa Cochran, of 514 West One Hundred and Fourteenth street. Mrs. Cochran and her followers believe that the ordinary names given to mortals are not "en rapport" with their mental and physical characteristics, and so they adopt weird titles like those preceding the surname of the high priestess. Affair Will Be Dropped For several years detectives employed by General Miller have been trying in vain to serve subpenas upon his wife, summoning her to court as defendant in his suit. He charged her with cruel and inhuman treatment. Both sides have called off their detectives, and when the day comes upon which the court will be ready to hear the complaint — April 25 — the matter will be quietly dropped. There is no prospect, however, of a reconciliation. *******

The New York Herald, Tuesday, April 23, 1912, p. 6 "Aso Neith" Cult Explained by Founder in Supreme Court Mrs. Asoneith Haypa Cochran Tells of the "Harmony in Names" While Testifying in Girl's Suit Against a Real Estate Company The science of "Aso Neith" was partly expounded yesterday before Justice Giegerich in the Supreme Court, where the suit brought by Miss Veda E. Snyder, a school teacher, to prevent the Frank L. Fisher Company, a real estate concern, from representing that it is Miss Snyder's agent in the purchase of houses, is on trial.

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Miss Snyder is a pupil of Mrs. Aso-Neith Naypa Cochran, of No. 514 West 114th street, who says she is the founder of the cult, which, Mrs. Cochran said, has spread all over the world. The principles of the cult were explained by Mrs. Cochran in this fashion: — "I expound principles taken from the Bible and well known to learned scientists," said Mrs. Cochran. "But to a modern court room the ignorant laugh at them as though they were a joke. The science is extremely simple, as each letter has a numerical value. If the sum of the value of the letters in your Christian name equals the value of your birth date, then your life is harmonious and all is well with you. If not, then you are not in harmony. The difficulty is overcome by changing your name." The real estate company asserts that the firm bought houses which Miss Snyder declared were "in harmony" with her own name. This is denied by Miss Snyder, who asserts that the principles of the cult are not to be applied business dealings. The case will be continued to-day. *******

The San Francisco [CA] Call, Friday May 3, 1912, p. 9 NOTED CARTOONIST DIES IN NEW YORK Homer Davenport, Stricken with Pneumonia, Had a Worldwide Reputation [Special Dispatch to The Call] NEW YORK, May 2. — Homer Davenport, one of the most famous of latter day cartoonists, died a 7 o'clock this morning from pneumonia in the apartments of Mrs. Aso Neith N. Cochran, founder of the Aso Neith cryptogram, at No. 514 West One Hundred and Fourteenth street. Davenport was stricken while calling there a few days ago, and his condition was so serious from the first that he could not be removed. Eight physicians were in almost constant attendance upon him. The body has been removed to an undertaking establishment, where it will be held until Mrs. Davenport, from whom the artist was separated, can be communicated with. She is expected to take charge of the funeral arrangements. At the time of his death Davenport was making his home in the Hotel Albert. He was employed on the Hearst publications. Davenport was calling on Mrs.

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Cochran, whom he had known from childhood, two weeks ago today, when he became suddenly ill with an affection of the throat. His condition became so critical that he was put to bed and physicians summoned. They refused to permit him to be moved. He was conscious only during a few intervals when his suffering was great. In his delirium Davenport insisted upon sitting up and went through the motions of drawing pictures. Davenport was considered a worthy successor to Nast. Colonel Roosevelt said tonight: "He was the ablest cartoonist of his day." *******

The [NY] Sun, Sunday, June 2, 1912, p. 3 TRADED ON HER BELIEF IN MAGICAL NUMBERS Justice Giegerich Finds Fraud in Selling Realty to Veda Snyder. WAS IN ASO-NEITH CULT Supreme Court Justice Giegerich signed a judgment yesterday for Miss Veda E. Snyder, a school teacher, in a suit she brought against the Frank L. Fisher Company, William H. Peckham and Charles W. Mix to set aside the purchase by her of the property at 122 West Eighty-fifth street, for which she paid $8,000 in cash and gave a mortgage for $20,000. One of the court's findings states: "That in the foregoing transaction the plaintiff was actuated and influenced in part by her reliance and belief in a system or theory or cult to the effect that there are certain one or more numbers or key numbers in respect of her life and undertakings, which numbers are arrived at by consideration of the letters of her given name or otherwise, and that such transactions as might be consummated upon dates or in respect of amounts or numbers that should synchronize or harmonize or vibrate in accordance with such numbers or key numbers would more likely have a favorable outcome." The court also found that "the defendants knew of such theory and belief upon the plaintiff's part and although they had entire disbelief in any such theory or system or cult themselves they none the less invited and induced the plaintiff to operate in accordance with such theory and they knew that certain of the property offered by them, notably the Eighty-fifth street property, would coincide as to the price asked, and at which it was conveyed to her, and as to its house and street numbers with the numerals to which she attached potency as aforesaid, and they

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understood that she was to some extent influenced in her selection by such numbers and considerations." The theory to which the court refers is that practised by Mrs. William Cochran, known to the cult as Aso-Neith. of 514 West 114th street. The late Homer Davenport was a believer in the theory and it was at the home of Mrs. Cochran that he died. On the trial of Miss Snyder's suit she said she was led to buy the property because of her belief in the theory that the price and number of the house synchronized with her key number, and with her name, Veda. Mrs. Cochran testified that Miss Snyder was never a pupil of hers, but that the defendant Peckham was, and he had made great fortunes through her numerical advice. Both Peckham and Mix testified that while they knew Miss Snyder had some peculiar ideas about numbers, they had no confidence in the theory and did not attempt to foster them upon their client. Justice Geigerich said in his findings that Miss Snyder first had dealings with the Frank L. Fisher Company, a real estate concern, on November 20. 1909, when she bought through them the property at 273 West Seventieth street for $17,000. The court said the firm represented that the price was advantageous and that it was being sold for another client, whereas the price was not advantageous, and was sold by the firm in the name of a dummy, Sarah E. Crowell, who was janitress of the property, and had been bought by the firm for $16,000 two days before it was sold. The court found that the firm made a secret profit of $1,000. The plaintiff subsequently sold the Seventieth street property through the firm and on September 7. 1910, bought the Eighty-fifth street property. Justice Geigerich finds that the title to this property was in the Stronghold Realty Company, which was owned by the defendants and of which Peckham and Mix were officers although the defendants represented that the property was owned by a third party unknown to them. The defendants fixed the price of the property themselves to suit Miss Snyder's belief in the theory of numbers, the court says, and pretended to give her disinterested advice to buy it. They also persuaded her that she didn't need counsel and that her interests would be safeguarded. The court directs that the defendants return $9,000 to Miss Snyder and take back the property. If they refuse to do so the plaintiff may have the property sold at auction and have judgment for $9,000 out of the price received for the property.

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*******

The Springfield [MA] Republican, Monday, April 21, 1913, p. 2 MAGIC NUMBERS IN BUSINESS. New York Court Annuls Transactions in Which a Woman was Victimized. [Report in the New York Sun.] The appellate division of the supreme court expressed its belief yesterday in the theory of magical numbers and annulled a transaction in which Miss Veda E. Snyder, a school teacher, was induced to invest $8000 of her earnings in a house at 122 West Eighty-fifth street and to give a mortgage for $20,000 on the property. Miss Snyder sued the Frank L. Fisher company, William H. Peckham and Charles W. Mix to set aside her purchase of the property. In one of the findings in the case, approved by the appellate division, the court said: — "That in the foregoing transaction the plaintiff was actuated and influenced in part by her reliance and belief in a system or theory or cult to the effect that there are certain one or more numbers or key numbers in respect of her life and undertakings, which numbers are arrived at by consideration of the letters of her given name or otherwise, and that such transactions as might be consummated upon dates or in respect of amounts or numbers that should synchronize or harmonize or vibrate in accordance with such numbers or key numbers would more likely have a favorable outcome." The court found that the defendants "knew of such theory and belief upon the plaintiff's part and, although they had entire disbelief in any such theory or system or cult themselves, they none the less invited and induced the plaintiff to operate in accordance with such theory and they knew that certain of the property offered by them, notably the Eighty-fifth street property, would coincide as to the price asked, and at which it was conveyed to her, and as to its house and street numbers with the numerals to which she attached potency as aforesaid, and they understood that she was to some extent influenced in her selections by such numbers and considerations." The theory referred to by the court is that under which Mrs. William Cochran, known to the cult as Aso-Neith of 514 West One Hundred and Fourteenth street, practices. The late Homer Davenport was a believer in the theory, and it was at Mrs Cochran's home that he died. Miss Snyder testified in her suit that she was led to buy the Eighty-fifth-street house because she was persuaded that the price and number of the house

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synchronized with her key number and with her name, Veda. Mrs Cochran testified in behalf of Miss Snyder that the defendant, Peckham, who engineered the sale to Miss Snyder, was a pupil of hers and that he had made a fortune through her advice. The appellate division found that Miss Snyder first had dealings with the Fisher company, a real estate concern, in 1909, when she bought a house at 278 West Seventieth street for $17,000. The court said that the firm pretended to be acting for a client, but was the actual owner, and sold her the property in the name of the janitress of the house. The first made a secret profit of $1000. Miss Snyder sold this property later through the firm, and was then induced to take the Eigthyfifth-street house for $28,000, the price of which was fixed in accordance with Miss Snyder's belief in the cult's theory of numbers. Under the court's decision the defendants must take back the property, cancel the $20,000 mortgage and return the $9000 cash to Miss Snyder. *******

The New York Times, Monday, November 30, 1914 C. M. POND SUED BY WIFE. Daughter of Disciple of Vibratory Theory Seeks Separation. Mrs. Adelaide Cockran Pond has sued Charles M. Pond here for a separation. She is the daughter of Mrs. Aso-Neith Cockran, who attracted attention once by her faith in the potency of harmonious nomenclature. She held that everything was in the name and that "life harmony consists of adjusting one's being to a number of vibrations which will give forth a concord instead of a discord." Mr. Pond is employed by the Safety Car Heating Company. he and the complainant eloped and then returned to live with his parents. Mrs. Pond alleged her husband did not work for two years after the marriage and that Mrs. Cockran supplied him with enough money to buy cigarettes. Finally his parents tired of supporting her, Mrs. Pond said, and treated her so cruelly that she would not join them at their meals and she fell ill from hunger. Mrs. Cockran in 1902 got Mr. Pond his first employment and later found him his present work, according to the complaint. Mrs. Pond also asserts that she rented a house at Little Falls, took boarders, and added to her slender earnings by giving music lessons. She said that once her husband accused her in the presence of the Rev. Dr. Robert J. Thompson of Little Falls of being too intimate with a Mr. Collett. Justice Gavegan ordered Mr. Pond to pay his wife $7.50 a week pending the trial of her suit.

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*******

The New York Tribune, Monday, November 30, 1914, p. 14 NAME OUT OF TUNE, WIFE QUIT Household Harmony Disrupted by Husband's Acts, Is Charge. Mrs. Aso-Neith Cockran, of 403 West 115th st., is the high priestess of a cult that believes in the psychology of appropriate nomenclature. Her cult teaches that the taking of a name that harmonizes with one's vibrations insures happiness and prosperity. She had nothing to do with the action of her daughter Adelaide in marrying Charles M. Pond and thus changing her name. Apparently the married name did not harmonize, and the result has been a separation suit. Mrs. Cockran has another daughter whose name is Olea Wanda Lafayetta. Mrs. Pond alleged in her suit that Pond abandoned her and their daughter Beatrice. Justice Gavegan has ordered Pond to pay his wife $7.50 a week alimony. The husband, in opposing the alimony application, said that his wife left him without cause and Mrs. Pond was able to support herself. Miss Cockran and Pond lived on the same floor of an apartment house. They eloped, and for some time after their marriage, when the Pond family moved, they lived with the family of the husband. Mrs. Pond said that she was treated cruelly, and when this treatment became unbearable she refused to go to the table to eat. She became ill and the physician said that she was suffering from starvation. Then her mother took her home, where she remained for some time. Mrs. Pond asserted that her husband did no work for two years, and she was compelled to supply him with cigarette money. The wife said that her mother got Pond a job with the New Haven Railroad, and later obtained for him the job he now holds. Besides, she alleged that for the greater part of her married life her mother had supported the family. Mrs. Cockran has added an affidavit in support of the statements made by her daughter. The teaching of Mrs. Cockran with regard to the harmony of nomenclature has been described by her. "My teaching is that life harmony consists of adjusting one's being to a number of vibrations which will give forth a concord instead of a discord. Everybody knows that certain musical notes sound well together, while others are discordant. It is the same with one's life. I can find a name for anybody which will harmonize with

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that person's birth number, and his fate will change immediately from misery to happiness of all sorts.'' *******

The New York Herald, Monday, November 30, 1914 Discordant Name Disrupts Home Mrs. Cockran's Teachings Suggest Blame for Separation Action Begun by Her Daughter. The inharmonious name of Adelaide, which belongs to Mrs. Charles M. Pond, may have been responsible for the marital trouble which followed her elopement, according to the teachings of her mother, Mrs. Aso-Neith Cockran, of No. 403 West 115th street, leader of the cult of appropriate nomenclature. The fact that trouble and the name of Mrs. Pond have become affiliated is disclosed through her action for a separation just begun in the Supreme Court. Mr. Pond is employed by the Safety Car Heating Company, No. 2 Rector street. He eloped with Miss Adelaide Cockran several years ago when living with his family across a hall way from her apartment. Justice Gavegan has directed Mr. Pond to pay $7 a week in alimony pending trial. According to the story of Mrs. Pond, she and her daughter, Beatrice, ten years old, have lived with Mrs. Cockran since 1911, when, it is said, her husband abandoned her. While Mrs. Pond taught music and helped all she was able, she said, she despaired of finding happiness when her husband accused her, in the presence of the Rev. Robert J. Thompson, of Little Falls, N. J., of improper conduct. Mr. Pond denies his wife's allegations. The teachings of Mrs. Cockran she once described, saying: — "I show that life harmony consists in adjusting one's being to a number of vibrations which will give forth a concord instead of a discord. Everybody knows that certain musical notes sound well together while others are discordant. It is the same with one's life. I take the letters from your name and resolve a note from it. If the vibration obtained is C major and that of your birth date is E flat, you will have a discordant life and you must change your name. I can find a name for anybody which will harmonize with that person's birth date, and his fate will change at once from misery to all kinds of happiness." *******

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The New York Tribune, Thursday, May 2, 1918, p. 18 Detectives Seek Mystic Teacher Following Raid "Class" of "Oom, the Omnipotent," Seized in West End Avenue House A house at 662 West End Avenue, believed to be one of the headquarters of "Oom, the Omnipotent," as Pierre A. Bernard, forty-three years old, is known to the secret and mystical "Tantrik Order in America," was raided early yesterday morning by Inspector Dominick Henry and Assistant District Attorney James E. Smith. "Oom," however, was not in the house. Mr. Smith said he afterward discovered "Oom" was conducting a session of the "Crystal Gazers" at which, for $50, he said, relatives of soldiers in France were permitted to peer into a glass and catch glimpses of the battlefront and also receive assurances from clairvoyants that their loved ones would be returned safely. Detectives, acting under orders of District Attorney Swann, were scouring the city last night for Bernard. It was reported that he had gone to New Jersey. Mr. Swann said Bernard conducts five establishments where the various "degrees" of initiation into the cult are practiced and also a summer "retreat" known as the school of instruction, at Nyack, N. Y. Woman Obtained Evidence Bernard was indicted in October, 1910, on the charge of abduction. Three young girls, who were the complainants, disappeared several months later. The indictment, however, was not dismissed. Evidence warranting the raid yesterday was obtained by Mrs. Ada Brady, of the personal staff of Ellen O'Grady, Deputy Commissioner. She worked under the instructions of Assistant District Attorney Alfred J. Talley. Posing as "Mrs. Alice Shaw," a widow, she became acquainted with a Mrs. "Wandeyne" Offutt, who styled herself an "Inspirational Psychologist and Success Engineer." Mrs. Brady said "Burgess" paved the way for her introduction to "Oom" after she had taken the second degree. He told her his fee was $150 for each person. She paid the fee and later donned a one-piece pair of tights and went through the first two degrees in the West End house. The first degree consisted of "definition of terms." The second degree was the "Yogi" test. Then she appealed to "Burgess" to get "Oom's" permission for her initiation into the "Lectures on the Mysteries" and studies on "Imagination." "Burgess" was examined yesterday by Assistant District Attorney Smith. She gave up a notebook in which were found the following excerpts:

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"The kingdom of heaven is not to be had for the asking; it must be taken by violence." "Supreme and lordly pleasures can only be approached by means of the Yogi." "Only knowledge of the Yogi imparted through the lips of the Garu is powerful and useful; otherwise it becomes fruitless, weak and very painful." Swann Plans Clean Up Those examined by District Attorney Swann were Morton L. Hergis, of 662 West End Avenue; Marjorie Thompson, of Los Angeles; Harriet Ayres Seymour, of 57 East Seventy-eighth Street; Albert C. Bauer, of 2022 Stanhope Street, Brooklyn, and Dr. William T. Jenkin, former Health Officer of the Port, whose sign hung in the window of "Oom's" place in West End Avenue. Dr. Jenkins indignantly denounced the raid as an imposition. He said all Bernard was doing was teaching a highly scientific system of calesthentics. Warrants were issued yesterday for the arrest of a Mrs. Aso-Neith-Neypa Cochran, a soothsayer living at 514 West 114th Street. Mrs. Brady patronized Mrs. Cochran, posing as the mother of a member of the aero forces in France. She paid $5 and was told that her son would be spared. The charge against her will be taking money under false pretences. As a result of the investigation of Mrs. Brady, District Attorney Swann will make a round-up of clairvoyants and fortune tellers who are preying on relatives of soldiers in France. Federal authorities are expected to investigate literature Bernard is believed to have sent through the mails, Mr. Talley said. *******

The [NY] Sun, Tuesday, May 14, 1918, p. 14 POLICE STILL HUNT 'OMNIPOTENT OOM' Assistant District Attorney Talley Expects 'High Priest' Will Be Caught; HAS MASS OF EVIDENCE Also Names of Prominent Persons Who Were About to Fall Victims. The Omnipotent Oom, son of an Iowa barber and the high priest of Eleusinian mysteries, denounced by the District Attorney as unspeakably vile, is still at liberty, having evaded the police since his temple at 662 West End avenue was raided and his assistant priests and priestesses were rounded up. But Alfred J. Talley, the

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Assistant District Attorney who has taken up the job of ridding the town of blackmailing fortune tellers and charlatans, said yesterday that he has no doubt that he will be able to lay Oom by the heels when all the evidence is ready for submission to the courts. "The difficulty in the case of this man, who is the most dangerous individual that has appeared in New York in ten years, is to get men and women, especially women, to testify against him," said Mr. Talley yesterday. "His methods have been so cunning that excellent people have become enmeshed in his tolls and have been placed through their own folly in circumstances so humiliating and degrading that they are most reluctant to appear against him. "His method is to interest well to do people in physical culture. As they proceed in training he binds them by oaths not to reveal the secrets of the cult. Presently they are advanced to the real 'mysteries' of the Tantric cult — practices which are truly unspeakable. No matter how shocked or horrified they may be, they are usually afraid to give information because they themselves are more or less involved. Talley has Names. "I have the names of several prominent persons in this city who were about to fall into the power of this man, Pierre A. Bernard, or Oom, as he calls himself, and some of them were so thoroughly hoodwinked by the fellow that they have attempted to defend him." Mr. Talley exhibited a mass of documents, including the "official" publications of the Tantric order and typewritten instructions to devotees as to how the physical demonstrations of the cult must be practised, which are of a nature that cannot be hinted at in print. These documents would have caused the hair of the late Anthony Comstock, who was not easily shocked, to stand straight up upon his head. The frankness of the animalism expressed in the "instructions" and "guides to believers" passes belief, as Mr. Talley observed in sorting them out. "District Attorney Whitman indicted this fellow in 1910 for abducting a young girl," continued Mr. Talley, "but the disappearance of witnesses made the prosecution abortive. I believe that we shall be more successful. Meanwhile Oom is being watched and at the proper time we will throw our evidence against him." The prosecution of Oom is part only of a crusade which has been begun by District Attorney Swann against the crew of fortune tellers, spiritualistic fakers and clairvoyants. Mme. Aso-Neith Cochran was arrested a few nights ago as this crusade got under way and is out on bail. A woman detective, Mr. Talley said yesterday, was sent to get evidence against Aso-Neith. This woman pretended that she has a son in the American army in France, telling Aso-Neith that the son was in the Aviation Corps and that she was anxious to know if he was safe and well.

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THE ASO-NEITH Her Mind Picture.

"Aso-Neith said to the woman detective," Mr. Talley revealed yesterday, "that she could see the boy as she concentrated her mind and cast it across the ocean. 'He is a fine young fellow, this boy of yours,' said Aso-Neith. 'I can see him now. He goes up in the air, but he will never be placed on the firing line. Nothing will happen to him over there. You will never have a blood sacrifice in your life. If you could only see him now as I do! Five dollars, please.' The detective, of course, has no son in France. "Hundreds of these charlatans are now plying their miserable trade in this city and are operating among, or against, I should say, the parents of lads in the army and navy. These creatures pretend to be able to throw their minds across the sea and to see the boys in their daily work. They pretend also that by concentration they can divert German bullets and protect the lives of soldier boys. "It is astonishing how many credulous fathers and mothers believe this stuff. Only the other day, when I pointed out to a mother how criminally foolish it was to place confidence in such fakers she said to me: 'But how do you know? It might be true, might it not? It might be possible that they know more than we do.' "The other night a woman detective in our employment was sent to visit John J. Hill, who runs a spiritualist 'church' at Columbus avenue and Ninety-first street. This woman told Hill that she had a son at the front and wanted news of him. 'Oh, all right,' he said, 'if this is what is bothering you you will get quick action. Act without delay!' The woman detective promptly blew a whistle and Detective Joe Rousseau of this office provided the action. I have issued warrants for three others in this fortune telling swindle and the arrests will be made within a few hours. "Recently there has been a remarkable revival in the whole fortune telling business. Many fakers have come to New York to employ their cunning at swindling the families of soldiers. We are going to break up the business if there is any virtue in energy and persistence." *******

The [NY] Sun, Thursday, May 16, 1918, p. 16 FORTUNE TELLER FINED. Woman, 60, Ordered to Workhouse but Sentence is Suspended. Mme. Aso-Neith-Neypa Cochran, one of a growing tribe of self-styled spiritualists and fortune tellers which just now the Police Department and the District Attorney's office are trying to suppress, was fined $250 yesterday and

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sentenced to three months in the workhouse by Magistrate Cobb in the Washington Heights Court. The workhouse sentence was subsequently suspended on account of the woman's advanced age. She is 60 years old. Fashionably gowned women who had seen Mme. Aso-Neith-Neypa engage in small talk with the spirits packed the court room. Many of them testified as to the Madame's ability to commune with spiritland through the medium of signs, names, letters, ciphers and most any other thing. She was arrested May 2 by Ada Brady, a member of the detective squad in charge of Deputy Police Commissioner Ellen A. O'Grady. After reading the woman a lecture about her profession Magistrate Cobb put her on probation for three months instead of sending her to the workhouse. *******

The New York Evening Post, Thursday, May 6, 1926 $50,000 WILLED TO CULTIST Mrs. McCullough, Her Disciple, Leaves Trust to Mme. Cochran Madame Aso-Neith-Neypa Cochran, a cultist who adopted her hyphenated name in accordance with her belief names should be in harmony with the bearer's inner being, and who was arrested for fortune telling eight years ago, has inherited $50,000 in trust under the terms of the will of her disciple, Mrs. Anna Dodge McCullough, it became known today. Mrs. McCullough, a granddaughter of William Earl Dodge, and a niece of Mrs. Anne Harriman Vanderbilt, was known as "Vahdah" in the Cochran circle. She died suddenly at Radlett, England, on June 26, leaving an estate appraised at $1,126,111. *******

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Thursday, May 6, 1926, p. 4 $50,000 FUND LEFT TO FORTUNE TELLER A trust fund of $50,000 was established for a fortune-teller in the will of the late Mrs. Anna Dodge McCullough, granddaughter of William Earl Dodge and of Oliver Harriman and niece of Mrs. Anne Harriman Vanderbilt, widow of W. K. Vanderbilt, it was learned yesterday, when an appraisal of the estate was filed in Manhattan Surrogate's Court. She left more than $1,000,000. Mrs. McCullough was a devotee of the cult headed by Mme. Aso-Neith-Neypa

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Cochran, who taught believers to assume names to harmonize with their inner beings. Mrs. McCullough adopted the name "Vahdah" and left $50,000 in trust to Mme. Cochran, who lives at 514 W. 114th st., Manhattan. In 1915 Mme. Cochran was arrested on a charge of fortune-telling and sentenced to three months in the workhouse and fined $200. Because of her age, then 60, and the intervention of many fashionably dressed women, the workhouse sentence was suspended later. ******* Our heroine died on March 21, 1931. See http://www.findagrave.com/cgibin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=23070042 .