Meaning
The left column joins character, energy and interest, and the school reads its total as self-esteem: how a person values their own ability. Its bands differ from the other lines: up to three digits is read as low, doubting one's ability despite flashes of resolve; four as well-founded confidence; five as confidence blind to its limits; and six or more as appearance taking the place of substance.
In our own words, the column describes how a person weighs themselves, cautiously or generously. A low total is not a diagnosis, and a high one is not vanity.
Every band, in our words
The line is read by the number of digits in its three cells, on thresholds of its own. Our reading of each band follows, with the share of dates that fall in it over every day of the twentieth century and of the twenty-first.
- 0–3, low. Low: doubts about one's own ability, despite flashes of resolve. Dates: 2.3 percent of 1900 to 1999, 3.5 percent of 2000 to 2099.
- 4, strong. Well-founded confidence. Dates: 4.4 percent of 1900 to 1999, 7.0 percent of 2000 to 2099.
- 5, maximal. Confidence blind to its limits. Dates: 13.9 percent of 1900 to 1999, 16.9 percent of 2000 to 2099.
- 6+, overload. Appearance taking the place of substance. Dates: 79.3 percent of 1900 to 1999, 72.5 percent of 2000 to 2099.
What fills the line
The 1s and 2s of every date and working number land here, which makes this the fullest line: its total averages 6.66 for the 1900s and 6.39 since 2000. The tradition raises the thresholds for that reason, but not far enough. On the thresholds the Russian tools use, 79.3 percent of twentieth-century dates and 72.5 percent of twenty-first-century dates fall in the top band, the one read as appearance over substance. A band that three people in four fall into describes the arithmetic, not them; this is our own observation, not a practitioner's.
What this page leaves out
The school compares two people's lines for compatibility and teaches transitions between cells; we compute neither. Births from 2000 are read on the classic formula, with the "+19" variant as a labelled option.
Correspondences
Each item with how it stands: “sourced” is in the work cited, “our construction” is EsoTerrier’s own, and “disputed” means the sources disagree.
- Line name (Alexandrov school)
- Self-esteem (самооценка); the English name is ours sourced
- Thresholds
- 0–3 low; 4 strong; 5 maximal; 6+ overload: the common Russian scheme; whether they match Alexandrov's own in every band is open disputed
- Readings of each band (EsoTerrier)
- Written fresh in our own words; the Russian sites' readings repeat Alexandrov's books and are not translated our construction
- Arrow in the Western birth chart (Phillips, as summarised)
- "Planner": the same three cells in a grid flipped top to bottom, date digits only sourced
How the schools read it
- Alexandrov's school and the Russian tools
- Add the digits in cells 1, 2, 3 and read the total on the line's own thresholds; the line is Self-esteem.
- Afisha and a few others
- The same cells, drawn with 1 2 3 across the top, so that this column is drawn as a row.
- Practitioners of "+19"
- For births from 2000 the digits counted change, and with them the total. A convention, offered by us only as a labelled option.
- Templeton and Phillips
- The "arrow of Planner": a strength when all three cells hold date digits, a weakness when all three are empty; no bands.
- EsoTerrier
- The column describes how a person weighs themselves, cautiously or generously. A low total is not a diagnosis, and a high one is not vanity.
Claims about it
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The self-esteem line is Pythagorean.
falseWhat the record shows: Pythagoras wrote nothing and no early source has a digit square. The eight lines are the Alexandrov school's addition to the Russian square, in print from 1999.
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The square's lines add up like those of a magic square.
falseWhat the record shows: In a magic square, such as the Lo Shu or Dürer's of 1514, every line makes the same sum. Here a line is the number of digits in three cells, and its total varies from date to date.
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Phillips's "arrow of Planner" for these cells is an arrow of Pythagoras.
falseWhat the record shows: The grid of date digits with its arrows comes from Hettie Templeton in Sydney, 1940, carried on by David Phillips. Pythagoras is the brand, not the source.
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Comparing two people's left columns shows which partner will dominate.
unverifiedWhat the record shows: A compatibility reading that has never been tested. We compare no squares.
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A difference of 0 or 1 between two people's totals on this line means good compatibility.
unverifiedWhat the record shows: A practitioners' rule of thumb across Russian compatibility sites, not traced to Alexandrov's text and never tested. We compare no squares.
