Meaning
The middle row joins energy, logic and duty, and the school reads its total as family: how much a person's life turns on a home and a partner. Up to one digit is read as family not being the first priority, with work and the world outside coming first; two as family mattering when it is there; three as a strong but flexible pull toward home; four as family at the centre; five as family dominating, with high demands on a partner; and six or more as a standard no one can meet.
In our own words, the row describes where a person tends to put their weight, at home or outside it.
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. Family is not the first priority; work and the world outside come first. Dates: 7.3 percent of 1900 to 1999, 1.4 percent of 2000 to 2099.
- 2, normal. Family matters when it is there. Dates: 13.7 percent of 1900 to 1999, 7.7 percent of 2000 to 2099.
- 3, strong but unstable. A strong but flexible pull toward home. Dates: 23.4 percent of 1900 to 1999, 17.5 percent of 2000 to 2099.
- 4, strong. Family at the centre. Dates: 24.8 percent of 1900 to 1999, 21.5 percent of 2000 to 2099.
- 5, maximal. Family dominates, with high demands on a partner. Dates: 18.2 percent of 1900 to 1999, 23.2 percent of 2000 to 2099.
- 6+, overload. A standard no one can meet. Dates: 12.7 percent of 1900 to 1999, 28.8 percent of 2000 to 2099.
What fills the line
Every date from 2000 to 2099 puts a 2 into the square, so this row, alone of the three, fills more in the twenty-first century: its average rises from 3.74 to 4.58, and the share of dates at six or more from 12.7 to 28.8 percent. On the tradition's scale a whole generation would read as more family-minded than its parents, which shows again that the counts follow the calendar.
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)
- Family (семья); the English name is ours sourced
- Thresholds
- 0–1 weak; 2 normal; 3 strong but unstable; 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)
- "Emotional Balance": 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 2, 5, 8 and read the total on the line's own thresholds; the line is Family.
- Afisha and a few others
- The same cells, drawn with 1 2 3 across the top, so that this row is drawn as a column.
- 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 Emotional Balance": a strength when all three cells hold date digits, a weakness when all three are empty; no bands.
- EsoTerrier
- The row describes where a person tends to put their weight, at home or outside it.
Claims about it
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The family 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 Emotional Balance" 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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In a couple the woman should have the stronger family row.
unverifiedWhat the record shows: A gendered rule of web calculators, not traced to Alexandrov. We use no rule by sex.
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Comparing two people's family rows shows whether a marriage will last.
unverifiedWhat the record shows: Compatibility readings of the square have never been tested; personality similarity itself adds little to how satisfied couples are. We compare no squares.
