Chinese Magic Square
Better known as the Lo Shu Square
The origins of the Chinese Lo Shu square are in astronomy and numerology. It’s an ancient map of the stars and a numerical diagram of the Bagua grid used in Feng Shui. The Lo Shu square is divided into 9 smaller squares; 3 on the top, 3 in the middle and 3 on the bottom. This grid can be seen in the I Ching ‘The Book of Changes’. The numbers in the Lo Shu square add up to a total of 15, in any direction; horizontal, vertical and diagonal. This is also the number of days in a lunar cycle.
Each number in the Lo Shu represents one of the Chinese Trigrams and is related to an Element, Family Member, Cardinal, Colour, Time of Day, Season, Organ, Ailments and so on. These numbers are used in a Compass School analysis of your property during a Feng Shui survey. Each number relates to a cardinal direction, each position can be analysed and suggestions made to compliment their position.
Each part of the property will be located in a different sector representing one of the nine Lo Shu numbers. Going onto a deeper level, each room is then divided into the Lo Shu grid, where each area represents one of the nine Lo Shu numbers. One further layer is year by year.
I hope this helps dispel the myth that the Lo Shu is not a mystical Chinese magic square. Alongside its use in Classical Feng Shui, the Lo Shu also has roots in Chinese/Japanese Astrology.
Yearly Lo Shu
There are visiting Lo Shu numbers also known as the Annual Flying Stars for the current year. These add another layer for analysis. The Lo Shu numbers move in sequence at the start of the new year – they fly around the square, each number moving on one position. The start of this depends on whether you look use the winter solstice around the 21st December, the lunar calendar around the 10th February or the Chinese calendar which is solar/lunar combined around the 4th February.
For 2012, the 6 Metal Star moves into the central palace of the Lo Shu square.
Click here to read more about the Lo Shu & the Flying Stars
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