I don't believe in Numerology, so when I opened up my most recent issue of House Beautiful magazine and found an article intent on using it to find my "color personality", my inner skeptic perked up.  How fun to see just how wrong they could be-- or how hysterically generic the descriptions would be.  I always enjoy the ones that say things like, "you enjoy being the center of attention, but sometimes you prefer to be by yourself".  Is there anyone on the planet that doesn't describe?!?!?
    To start off, I'll supply the background on the person that put this together as listed in the magazine:  "Interior Designer Ellen Kennon, a color expert, analyzes each color personality."  Okay, so this person is so good at this that they have to have a day job as an interior designer.  Fantastic.  This is going to be even better than I expected!
    Next step:  instructions.  Quoting page 94 again, "Here's how it works:  Take each letter in your name and find its corresponding number in the guide at right.  Add all the numbers, then reduce the total to a single digit."  Immediately, I found a possible flaw.  Each letter in my name?  My first name?  First and last? Entire given name?  Married or maiden?  The example name given, Mimi Read, suggests using first and last... but that still doesn't answer what the numerologists would consider my true name:  The one I had for two decades before I got married or the one I've had nearly my entire adult life?  Then I came up with some fun questions that would be fascinating if this stuff had any basis in reality:  Would I get two different personality colors with the two different last names, implying a major shift from my single self to my married self?  Or, even more eerie, would I get one master number no matter which form of my name I used?  I had to find out.  So I began.
    My methodology:  to follow the instructions carefully for each of the eight forms of my name I thought they could be interested in, from my first name only to my first-middle-maiden-married with all other options in between.  This way I would have indisputable evidence of who Ellen Kennon really thinks I am.  I then prescreened the results to see what number/color personality description suited me most by how I feel like people who really know me perceive me.
    Here is where the fun begins.  My preliminary evaluation of the possible answers put me most accurately at a number 6: INDIGO  "A brilliant old soul who is intuitive, sensitive, impulsive, curious, and ambitious, with a great lust for life."  I have been called an old soul many times in my life, and the rest just describes the passionately unbalanced person I am.
    Now for the math.  As expected, I did not get one number for each of the eight incarnations of my name I considered valid.  As a matter of fact, I got eight different numbers: 8, 3, 5, 7, 9, 1, 2 and 4.  Which number is missing??  That's right!!  Number 6!  So apparently I am everywoman-- except the woman I think I am!  Maybe I need to change my name to Cybil...
    If you want to try this experiment for yourself-- or would just like to know who else this publication thinks I am by reading all eight other personality types (none of which are negative or depressed, by the way)-- check out  http://www.housebeautiful.com/decorating/colors/color-personality-2. 

CL