The Lo Shu Matrix
In the last few months I’ve been researching legends surrounding the last Emperor of China’s mythical period, the Great Emperor Yu. This research is for another writing project I’ve undertaken, but there’s something I want to share that I think will be of interest to readers here…
Have you heard of the Lo Shu Square? I was pretty sure I hadn’t until I saw it in its modern, simplified form. A 3×3 magic square composed of the numbers 1 to 9, with 5 forever in the center, and the four even numbers always in the corners. I have known it as the magic square of the number 15, also called The Square of Saturn:
As soon as I understood what I was looking at, I knew it was so much more than what I had give it credit for!
The Chinese word Lo is often generically translated as ‘river’, but in this case specifically implies the river Lo. The word Shu means ‘scroll’. Legend says that the Great Emperor Yu walked along the river Lo during a time of great flooding to analyze why the river god was refusing the people’s sacrifices to stop the flood. However, as Yu is most remembered for the engineering feats that gave China control of their waters, his famous walk along the river Lo probably had more to do with analysis and less to do with appeasing a river god. At any rate, all stories congeal that it was the back of a turtle shell that provided Yu with his answers. Presumably, what was drawn would have been something like this image that first introduced me to the Lo Shu Square:
Note that the black square-dots in the corners represent even numbers. Because they are black and square-shaped they represent Yin energy. As such, the four corners are called “the numbers of the earth.” Just like earth has its four cardinal points. The white circles represent odd numbers and Yang energy. They are called, “the numbers of Heaven.” The whole thing together is also called the Nine Hall Diagram. It is said to explain the relationships between earth and Heaven. It is strongly connected to the nine directions (8 compass points, plus the center), the nine “pure colors” (3 primary, 4 secondary, plus black and white) and the nine temperaments (correlated to the interactions of Hot and Cold). There are plenty of modern sources which connect the diagram to the most profound mysteries of time and space.
It seems that Emperor Yu devised a system from this diagram that allowed the region to control their river. My guess is that it worked with his irrigation canals in a time-based fashion, being used to track the opening and closing of the spillways. This comes to mind because there are eight planes in which we can arrive at the sum of 15 (3 vertical, 3 horizontal, 2 diagonal) and in the traditional Chinese calendar each month is 15 days, with the 24-month year being mystically divided into three, eight-month periods (called Existence, Different and Same; the three that produce all things according to the Tao). Thus during each of these three periods it would be easy enough to have associated one of the eight ternary groups to a month. It is also worth noting that, like the square, this traditional calendar wheel was conceived of as an expression of Yin-Yang:
The first of the three mystical periods starts at the bottom-center of the wheel with New Year’s Day, marked by the New Moon (this is a lunisolar calendar), and moves left toward the Vernal (Spring) Equinox. This period is associated to Existence or what the Greeks called ‘Harmony’ or the “preferable middle.” The next 8 month period is associated to ‘Different’ or, in Greek Philosophies, ‘Proportion’. Then comes ‘Same’ or, ‘Symmetry.’
In the texts of the Bible, these 24 stations of the Sun are called the “24 Elders,” originally alternating between male and female pairs or “four twins” per 8 month period. These four divisions or twins roughly align with four zodiac signs, so that each sign is ruled by a male and female “Elder.” They are said to reflect the original four cell-divisions of Human gestation, among other things to do with your existence within time and space, and orientating yourself therein. (Interestingly, the number 15 belongs to Saturn, who is Lord our existence within time-space.)
The center of the Lo Shu Square is called the undivided and the ultimate, containing within itself all elements and therefore, all things. And indeed, we find the center symbolized by the number 5, which is the number of elements. More than symbolized, I guess, as when all numbers are connected in their numeric order, 5 is the central number of the sequence and right where it belongs in the center! As the zero-point of the diagram, imagine that the undivided center was instead assigned ‘0’. Unfold from the center the four directions of space. Now you have five-spaces accounted for, the five Halls of Heaven where odd or Yang numbers would be placed. This is the cross of the five elements within the square (four around the original one) and defines the “Wheel of Space.” In each corner, at the four diagonals belonging to the even numbers, fix a pillar or stone of Yin. These are the posts which turn the “Wheel of Time.”
It is these 8 directions around the center that are said to give birth to the 8 trigrams of the I Ching or “Book of Changes.” Even so, these 8 trigrams were mystically revealed to the Emperor Fu Xi and actually predate the specific formulation of the Lo Shu Square itself; or more accurately probably presents the original way in which the Square was perceived. I say this because the 8 trigrams are composed of 24 lines, half are broken and symbolize Yin and half are unbroken and symbolize Yang. These lines are then stacked in groups of three (hence the word trigram), comprising the 8 symbols, which represent the four basic elements (fire, water, earth and heaven) and the four phenomenon (wind, lake, thunder-storm and mountain). This calls to mind the eight ternary groups of the Lo Shu that sum to 15, which in essence are 24 digits, half Yin, half Yang, grouped into eight 3 digit arrangements, no differently than the construction of the I Ching. From here we can arrive at the DNA code and all sorts of other wonders. Indeed, great mysteries of astrology, astronomy, geography, biology and anatomy can be explained through this specific way of organizing and examining the numbers 1 to 9!
Given the concept of symbolic representation or “As Above, So Below;” it is no wonder that in the time of Emperor Yu everything from the nine provinces of the empire, to the layout of the temples, to the management of time, to the methods of divination, to the arrangement of the “Nine Wells” that dictate how rice is planted and maintained – came to be ruled by the Lo Shu matrix.
Bring into this correlations to the Solfeggio and the Rodin Vortex and what you have is the work of this brilliant site, appropriately called The Lo Shu Matrix!
