Meaning
The diagonal from the top-left cell to the bottom-right joins character, logic and memory, and the school reads its total as spirituality: interest in meaning and the inner life. Up to one digit is read as little interest; two or three as a normal, integrated interest; four as a strong pull; five as spirituality ruling the personality; and six or more as a loss of proportion. Alexandrov's books set this diagonal against the other, temperament, when matching partners; we do not.
In our own words, the diagonal describes how much attention a person gives to questions of meaning. It does not say whether anyone is religious or not, and a high count does not make a mystic.
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.
- 0–1, weak. Little interest in the inner life or in meaning. Dates: no date of 1900 to 1999, 7.0 percent of 2000 to 2099.
- 2–3, normal. A normal, integrated interest in meaning. Dates: 8.8 percent of 1900 to 1999, 31.2 percent of 2000 to 2099.
- 4, strong. A strong pull toward meaning. Dates: 16.8 percent of 1900 to 1999, 20.4 percent of 2000 to 2099.
- 5, maximal. Spirituality rules the personality. Dates: 22.6 percent of 1900 to 1999, 19.3 percent of 2000 to 2099.
- 6+, overload. A loss of proportion. Dates: 51.8 percent of 1900 to 1999, 22.1 percent of 2000 to 2099.
What fills the line
Both ends of this diagonal are filled by a twentieth-century year: its 1 and its 9. So 51.8 percent of dates from 1900 to 1999 total six or more, the band the tradition reads as a loss of proportion. From 2000 the 9 goes and the 1s thin: the average falls from 5.69 to 4.08, the top band to 22.1 percent, and two or three becomes the commonest total.
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)
- Spirituality (духовность); the English name is ours sourced
- Thresholds
- 0–1 weak; 2–3 normal; 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)
- "Determination": 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, 5, 9 and read the total on the line's own thresholds; the line is Spirituality.
- Afisha and a few others
- The same cells, drawn with 1 2 3 across the top, so that this diagonal is drawn as a diagonal.
- 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 Determination": a strength when all three cells hold date digits, a weakness when all three are empty; no bands.
- EsoTerrier
- The diagonal describes how much attention a person gives to questions of meaning. It does not say whether anyone is religious or not, and a high count does not make a mystic.
Claims about it
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The spirituality 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 Determination" 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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The ratio of this diagonal to the other shows which partner suits whom.
unverifiedWhat the record shows: Alexandrov's scheme for matching partners, from his 2016 big book; never tested. We keep the diagonals' names and 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.
