The 5 in your Lo Shu grid: the centre box and the lines it completes

A Lo Shu grid is a count of the digits in a birth date, one box per digit, arranged in the old magic square. The 5 sits in the middle of that square, and in this app's engine more lines run through it than through any other box. This page is about that box: how it fills, how often it does not, what a 5 completes, and what the books say. The essay Missing numbers in your Lo Shu grid covers all nine digits together.

How the count of 5 is worked out

generateLoShuGrid() writes the date as day, month and year with no leading zeros, discards the zeros and counts each digit. A 5 can come from:

• Days: the 5th, the 15th and the 25th.
• Months: May only.
• Years: those with a 5 in the last two digits, such as 1955, 1965, 1975, 1985, 1995 and 2005, and every year of the 1950s.

An empty box is listed as missing and a box with two or more marks as "dominant". The Lo Shu Grid calculator gives the counts and the Numerology Profile the lists, planes and arrows.

Where the 5 sits and what it belongs to

In the displayed square (4 9 2 / 3 5 7 / 8 1 6) the 5 is the centre. Every row, column and diagonal of the square adds to 15, and four of those eight lines pass through the centre.

What a single 5 completes, and what an empty 5 box rules out

For anyone born from 1900 to 1999 the year supplies a 1 and a 9. One 5 anywhere else in the date then completes the Will plane (9, 5, 1) and, through the same three digits, the Arrow of Determination. That is why the two appear together on 7,505 of the 22,280 dates from 1950 to 2010, more than any other plane or arrow, and why the Will plane is absent on only 581.

• With no 5, the Emotional and Will planes cannot be complete.
• With no 5, four arrows cannot appear: Willpower, Determination, Emotions and Compassion.
• The 5 goes on the missing list read by the Health Tendencies card.

The other lines through the 5 need rarer partners. The Emotions arrow (2, 5, 8) appears on 1,322 dates; the Emotional plane and the Compassion arrow, which are the same three digits (3, 5, 7), on 504; the Willpower arrow (4, 5, 6) on 421.

How often the 5 box is empty, single or crowded

A missing 5 is the majority case: 13,859 of 22,280 dates, a little over six in ten. The share is higher after 2000 (3,013 of 4,018) than before (10,846 of 18,262), because the 1950s, all of which contain a 5, sit in the first half. Four 5s occur on just three dates, 5, 15 and 25 May 1955. The counts for the 7 are identical, row for row, because each digit appears in three days of the month, one month and the same pattern of years across this range.

Worked example: 25 January 1970 and 1 January 1970

The first dates the engine finds with and without a 5:

1. 1.25 January 1970 is written 25, 1, 1970. Digits: 2, 5, 1, 1, 9, 7, 0. Dropping the 0 leaves 2, 5, two 1s, 9 and 7.
2. 2.Grid: 1 twice; 2, 5, 7 and 9 once each. Missing: 3, 4, 6 and 8. Dominant: 1.
3. 3.The 1, 5 and 9 are all present, so the Will plane is complete and the Arrow of Determination is reported. The Thought plane (4, 3, 8) is absent.
4. 4.Mulank: 2 + 5 = 7. Bhagyank: 2 + 5 + 1 + 1 + 9 + 7 + 0 = 25, then 2 + 5 = 7.
5. 5.1 January 1970: digits 1, 1, 1, 9, 7, 0, no 5. Grid: 1 three times, 7 and 9 once. The 1 and the 9 are there, but without the 5 neither the Will plane nor the Determination arrow appears.

The Vedic Grid for 25 January 1970 keeps the 5 but loses the 9 (it drops the 19 of the year) and adds the Bhagyank 7 and the Moolank 7, so it shows three 7s. The Vedic grid never loses a 5 the Lo Shu grid has; on 2,452 of the 22,280 dates it gains one, and the two counts differ on 3,778.

What the books say about the 5 in the grid

• Numerology Masters Notes (Rrachita Gupta) puts the 5 at the Centre with the Earth element, and lists strength and stability (p.136) and planning, good fortune, mediation and communication (p.137). Its checklist for analysing a grid (p.156) includes a separate line: look specifically for number 5, whether present or not. Both of its diagonal planes, the 4-5-6 "Golden" and the 2-5-8 "Silver", run through it.
• Numerology Professional Course Notes, by the same author, calls the 5 the "Centre Most Powerful Square of Fortune" in the Lo Shu grid (p.117). The passage is about choosing mobile numbers; the choice it recommends is not carried by this app.
• The recurring table in Masters Notes (p.165) reads one 5 as caring and "excellent in chart", two as persistent, three as determined and four as instantaneous action. Metaphysical Secrets, Ch. 2, prints the same four readings in almost the same words. On the 5 the two books agree on all four readings.
• Metaphysical Secrets lists the 5 as "always the dead center". The Lo Shu square the app displays and the 3-6-9 / 2-5-8 / 1-4-7 arrangement behind the engine's arrows disagree on every box except this one: both put the 5 in the centre. The Vedic Grid (3-1-9 / 6-7-5 / 2-8-4) moves the 5 to the middle-right and puts the 7 in the centre.
• For a missing 5 (p.171) Masters Notes lists difficulty putting views and feelings into words, a lack of drive, and a dislike of change, ending with a need to learn flexibility. Several lines of that slide are harsher than this summary; its p.166 introduction frames all missing numbers as lessons. The disease column is not reproduced here, and the remedies heading is blank.

On the Health Tendencies calculator a missing 5 reads: "Saying it out loud, and moving. The lesson is to put what you think into words, and to step into change rather than wait for it to pass." The lesson framing is the book's, the wording the app's.

What the 5 box cannot tell you

Whether the centre box is filled depends on the date, and it is shared by everyone born that day. The extra weight some books give the centre is their interpretation of the square, not a measurement. Nothing here is medical. The 5 as a Mulank or Bhagyank is a different number, on Number 5 in numerology. Neighbouring digits are on Lo Shu number 4 and Lo Shu number 6; the planes are defined under Lo Shu planes.

Why does one 5 make such a difference to my grid?

Because four of the engine's arrows and two of its planes run through the 5, and for a 1900s birth the year already gives the 1 and the 9. A single 5 then completes both the Will plane and the Arrow of Determination.

My Mulank is 5 but my grid has no 5.

The 14th and the 23rd give Mulank 5 (1 + 4, 2 + 3) without writing a 5. The grid counts written digits only. The Life Path calculator shows your Mulank.

How common is a missing 5?

In the engine's run over 1950 to 2010 it was missing on 13,859 of 22,280 dates, a little over six in ten.

Does the app report the Golden and Silver planes?

No. Numerology Masters Notes adds the two diagonals through the 5 (4-5-6 and 2-5-8) as extra planes; the engine's plane list has only rows and columns. The same digits are tested as the Willpower and Emotions arrows, which appeared on 421 and 1,322 of the 22,280 dates from 1950 to 2010.

What do two 5s mean?

Both books read two 5s as persistent. That is their reading of a count, not a measurement.

Does the app suggest a remedy for a missing 5?

No. The book leaves the remedies blank on that slide, and this app prescribes none; its card gives a lesson line and ordinary suggestions labelled as its own.