Lo Shu grid missing numbers: what they mean, and remedies that cost nothing

How to build your Lo Shu grid

The Lo Shu is a three-by-three square with the digits 1 to 9 in a fixed order.

4	9	2
3	5	7
8	1	6

To fill it for yourself:

1. Write the digits of your birth day, month and year. Count every one.
2. Add your conductor (bhagyank). It is your whole date reduced to one digit.
3. Add your driver (mulank) if your birth day has two digits. The exceptions are the 10th, 20th and 30th, where the day already carries it. The 31st adds a 4.
4. Put each digit in its cell, repeated as many times as it appears. A digit that never appears is missing.

If you want the two numbers worked out first, they are in our guide to mulank, bhagyank and life path.

A worked example: 14 March 1992

The date gives the digits 1, 4, 3, 1, 9, 9, 2. The conductor is 2, and the 14th has two digits, so the driver, 1 + 4 = 5, is added too.

Counting: 1 appears twice, 2 twice, 9 twice, and 3, 4 and 5 once each. Now the grid.

4	99	22
3	5	missing
missing	11	missing

The missing numbers are 6, 7 and 8. We ran this date through the same function NumeroGyan uses.

Missing numbers are normal

Fear around missing numbers is mostly a misunderstanding. We ran the grid for every date from 1950 to 2025, 27,759 dates in all. Not one had all nine digits.

Born	Average missing	Never missing	Most often missing
1950 to 1999	3.5	1 and 9	4 (60% of dates), 3 (58%)
2000 to 2025	4.5	2	6, 7, 8 and 9 (63% each)

The pattern comes from the year. Every year in the 1900s contains a 1 and a 9, so those two are never missing. Every year in the 2000s contains a 2. That is why a missing 9 is often generational rather than personal, and why a missing 1, almost impossible for anyone born in the 1900s, appears in about 18% of dates since 2000.

A missing number is a way of seeing what you do not do automatically. It is not a diagnosis.

What each missing number asks of you

Each one is read as a skill to practise. Here is a one-line version and a free habit for each.

• No 1. Putting yourself forward takes effort. Make something of your own each week and show it to one person.
• No 2. Intuition and patience are learned, not automatic. Pause for a breath before you answer, and ask one more question before you decide.
• No 3. Confidence and self-expression grow with use. Say one idea out loud in every meeting, even half formed.
• No 4. Routine and organisation do not come by themselves. Fix one wake-up time and write one plan for the week.
• No 5. Focus and adapting to change take extra effort. A missing 5 is very common. Finish one goal before you start the next.
• No 6. Giving to yourself as freely as you give to others. Tell someone close one thing you feel or need, once a week.
• No 7. Quiet reflection and inner order. Spend fifteen minutes a day alone with no screen.
• No 8. Steady money habits and follow-through. Write down what you spend for a month, and finish what you start.
• No 9. Attention to other people and the bigger picture. Do one small act of service a week.

For our example, 6, 7 and 8, the habits ask for openness about feelings, time alone and a simple money record. Whether any of it fits you is for you to judge.

Planes: the lines in the grid

The grid contains eight lines of three cells, and each is called a plane. When all three digits of a line are present, the plane is complete.

Digits	Plane	Reads across the grid as
4-9-2	Mental	top row
3-5-7	Emotional	middle row
8-1-6	Business	bottom row
4-3-8	Thought	left column
9-5-1	Will	middle column
2-7-6	Action	right column
4-5-6	Golden	one diagonal
2-5-8	Property	the other diagonal

In our example, 4, 9 and 2 are all present, so the Mental plane is complete. So are 9, 5 and 1, for the Will plane. The other six need a digit that is missing.

Where Kua comes in

NumeroGyan adds one more number to the grid in a particular case. Kua is a Feng Shui number worked out from your birth year and gender, counted from the solar new year, which falls around 4 February. If it is missing from your grid, and adding it would complete at least one more plane, it is added.

For 14 March 1992, a male Kua of 8 is added, completing the Property plane (2-5-8) and the Thought plane (4-3-8). A female Kua of 7 is added instead, completing the Emotional plane (3-5-7). When no gender is given, there is no Kua.

This is one of the places where sites differ. Some build the grid from the digits of the date alone, others add the driver and conductor, and others add Kua too. If your missing numbers differ from another site’s, check which digits it counted.

Remedies that cost nothing

Traditional remedy lists mix several things: colours, directions in the house, gemstones, metal chimes, yantras, charity and habits. Some of those cost money, and none is proven. A remedy is a nudge, not a transaction, so start with the ones that are free.

• Practise the missing quality in the one-line habits above. That is the point of the remedy.
• Keep your home and your surroundings tidy. A traditional suggestion for a missing 4, and sensible anyway.
• Respect the people around you. Traditions pair this with several numbers: elders and teachers with 3, the women in your life with 6, and people whose labour you depend on with 8.
• Wear light colours for a missing 7. It costs nothing if they are already in your wardrobe.
• Look after a stray animal for a missing 7, if you are able to.
• Keep Saturdays simple for a missing 8, with a lighter meal or a short fast, if that suits your health.

Never buy something because a seller says your grid demands it. If a remedy is a stone, a metal ornament or a ritual with a price, it is optional, and your grid is no worse without it.

A limit worth stating

The Lo Shu grid is a tradition for reflecting on yourself, not a test. Nothing about a missing number says what will happen in your life, and nothing here is advice on health or money.