THE BASICS
Take a look at the picture above, for it displays a little of the cultural thinking behind Kumulak. The square-of-nine symbolizes a rider of the steppe on horseback, reflecting the inquirer’s progress through life. The reading shows the state of the rider’s mind, heart and horse; that is, the vehicle on which he arrives at his destination. Sometimes the ride will be easy, and sometimes the ride will be challenging. Sometimes the ride will result in the successful achievement of the rider’s aims, and sometimes success will elude the rider. Quite often, an attitude adjustment is needed. Kumulak shows the inquirer how their journey to a certain destination will fare, in the spirit of the adage that ‘forewarned is forearmed.’
There are certain numbers used in Kumulak which hold an almost-sacred numerological significance for the Kazakh people, and the PDF below goes into this in detail:
Suffice it to say, everything, from the square of nine to the number of Kumulak used (forty-one) has been well-thought-out. The meanings of these numbers can be taken into account when performing a reading, and indeed, the process of synthesizing the element represented by the number of Kumulak in a given square, with the meaning of the number of that square can help make the assessment of the inquirer’s fortune more understandable. For example, one is the Kazakh number for the element of fire, but if you have two kumulak in the number one square, it speaks to the fire being tamped-down a bit. If you have three Kumulak in the number one square, that speaks of whatever the rider has his eye on being stirred-up. Though eight isn’t one of these numerologically-significant numbers in Kazakh cosmology, eight is the number of success, and I find it fitting that it is the box in the square-of-nine assigned to the horse; the success of your endeavor depends heavily on the nature of your vehicle.
Each line configuration has a particular name for it which refers back to the idea of a rider on horseback. Each line’s name is based on the number of Kumulak in the right-hand and center boxes of that particular line. Thus you get vivid names like ‘Fire in the Eyes, Wind in the Head’ or ‘Sand in the Hands, Water in the Heart.’ There are sixteen different Kumulak configurations for each line, for a total of 48 different predictions for the three horizontal rows. There are also nine additional special figures which can be derived from the square of nine, and which will add nuance to the reading, but none of these special figures involve the left-hand column as a whole. The left-hand column in the Kumulak square-of-nine appears to be regarded as being of little importance.