In 2006, three pupils from a Dutch secondary school created the "most magical magic square in 5,000 years", according to maths experts from Radboud University in Nijmegen, in the Netherlands.

Jess Hoekstra and Willem Schilte, both 17, and Petra Alkema, 15, created the massive 12 x 12 magic square during a masterclass the previous year.

A magic square is a mathematical "trick" in which horizontal, vertical, diagonal and sometimes even circular rows of figures add up to the same number (sometimes called the "magic total").

"These three are super brilliant - you don’t work this out by chance," Radboud’s Arno van Essen was quoted as saying.

The square they created consists of 144 boxes (12 rows and 12 columns) containing the numbers 1 to 144 inclusive. The sum of each row and each column totals 870 (which is this square’s "magic total"), as do the diagonals as well as the parallel broken diagonals.

"We were just playing with the square by dividing it up into little ones - it was only later we realised all its magic elements," said Jesse.

"This is the most magical magic square in 5,000 years," said Van Essen.

Jesse and Willem submitted this magic squares project for their final school maths project. "Normally, you can score poor, average or good, but our teacher is going to try to get us a very good," the boys said.

ANP reported that the new magic square will be known as the HSA square, after the trio’s initials.

The square will be shown on current affairs show Nova on Thursday night.

(This article is kindly reprinted courtesy of DutchNews.nl.)

This magic square is, in fact, very similar to one of the famous Benjamin Franklin Squares, although these pupils have managed to make the two corner diagonals sum to the magic total, which Franklin was unable to achieve.

An almost-identical square to the one shown above was created by Donald Morris in 2005, although there is no suggestion that these pupils did anything other than create theirs by themselves.

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The Sator Square is probably one of the oldest magic squares in the the western world (but probably not as old as the Chinese Loh Shu).

Types Of Magic Squares

Most people think of magic squares as containing only numbers, but there are also plenty of alphabetic squares in existence too, and the Sator Square is the best known example.

There are two types of alphabetic square - Latin Squares, which I’ll talk about at a later date in another article, and Word Squares.

Word Squares

In a Word Square, a number of words are written horizontally, one per row, and the same words are also written vertically, one per column.

If this is hard to visualize, then let’s take a look at the famous Sator Square:

Here, you can see that the five words used are: Sator Arepo Tenet Opera Rotas and that these same five words run both horizontally and vertically.

You will also note, perhaps, that the words are in Latin, which gives a clue as to how old this square actually is.

History

In fact, this square was first seen in the ruins of Herculaneum, which was buried under the ash of the Mount Vesuvius eruption in 79AD.

It can be found in many places other than Italy, however, and these include England, France, Portugal and Syria.

Meaning

So, are these just made-up words, or do they actually mean anything?

Well, four of the words can easily be translated:

1. "sator" means "sower" or "planter"
2. "tenet" means "he holds"
3. "opera" means "works" (or "cares" or "efforts")
4. "rotas" means "wheels"

The second word, Arepo, is the one that is uncertain, and it may be that this is simply a proper name, made-up or otherwise, to complete the square.

There are, consequently, several possible translations of the words in this square:

1. Arepo, the sower, holds the wheels with effort.
2. The sower, Arepo, leads with his hand (work) the plough (wheels).

Christianity

There is another theory about this square, and that is that it has Christian significance.

Why do people think this?

Well, if you take all 25 letters from this square, you can rearrange them into two interlocking occurrences of the words "Pater Noster", which is Latin for "Our Father".

(Pater Noster is also the assumed origin of the word "patter", as used by magicians today for their "spiel".)

There are, then four letters left over after you’ve formed the two interlocking Pater Nosters - two A’s and two O’s, which are then assumed to represent the Alpha and the Omega, which are an appellation of God (from the Book Of Revelation).

Conclusion

The Sator Square has as much mystery as the Chinese Loh Shu, even though it comes from a very different culture.

And yet all this talk about its meaning and possible religious significance belies the fact that creating word squares like this, especially with five-letter words, is not easy at all.

Perhaps you could try creating one yourself - start with a three-letter square, and see if you can work up to a five-letter one (or more).

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Sator Arepo Tenet Opera Rotas

Photo of a Sator Square

Sator Square Information

It’s the only four way sentence square in any language, and translates to "The sower Arepo holds the wheels at work." As graffiti it’s been found as far afield as Herculaneum and London, but seems to be of Mithraic origin.

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I was once asked whether Magic Squares had any practical purpose, and although you may not believe in numerology, this article shows that in the form of a Yantra, some people use them for very serious purposes:

Magic Squares make a potent talisman or charm for enhancing certain talents and abilities of their bearer. Numerology provides us with a powerful way to construct a personal money charm just for you. Let’s see how this can be done.

Date of Birth as a Sigil

In numerology and astrology, your Date of birth is a defining signature element for you. Your entire reading in both disciplines is built around this number. So, if I wish to construct a magic talisman using numbers and associate it’s power with you, using your date of birth in the charm is a natural way to build this association.

There are other means, such as using your name or signature in the talisman, but since I’m using numbers to construct the charm anyway, your date of birth makes a perfect sigil to represent you.

Yantra Magic Squares

Yantra magic squares are magic squares built using your date of birth, and your Life Path number as the top row of the square. They are powerful good luck charms for the person they are constructed for. But, they don’t necessarily attract wealth and riches to the person.

Eight - The Money Number

In numerology as well as other physic disciplines, eight is associated with money and riches. To specifically attract more money to a person, I can construct a magic square talisman where the rows and columns sum to a number which reduces to (8) using fadic addition. The numbers: 26, 35, 44, 53, 62, 71, 80, 98, and 107 all have this properity.

So, in order to create my talisman, I start with someone’s Yantra magic square, and then change the last box in the top row from their Life Path number, to a number which produces a square where the rows sum to (8).

Let’s look at an example to see my meaning.

Johnny Depp’s Money Talisman

Actor Johnny Depp was born on June 9th, 1963; so his Life Path number would be (7) as shown below.

Life Path = (06 + 09 + 1963) = (1978) = ( 1 + 9 + 7 + 8 ) = (25) = (7)

The first row of his Yantra Magic square we be his Month, Day, Year (less century) and his Life Path number, and would look like this:

( 6 )( 9 )( 63 )( 7 )

The row totals (85) which reduces to (4) by fadic addition. If I substitute a (2) in the last box on the row for his Life Path number of (7), then the resulting row will sum to (80) which will reduce to and (8) using fadic addition.

Making the substitution, and then calculating the rest of the Magic square by formula, I get the following:

( 6 )( 9 )( 63 )( 2 )

( 61 )( 4 )( 4 )( 11 )

( 3 )( 64 )( 8 )( 5 )

( 10 )( 3 )( 5 )( 62 )

Summary

So with a little work, I can create a (4 x 4) Yantra magic square focused on a particular person, and targeted to draw money and financial success to them.

Author: Keith Abbott

Keith Abbott is the developer and owner of ‘Numerology 4 You’ where you can order your own Numerology reading, including your Yantra Magic Square chart.

Visit him on the web today at http://www.numerology4you.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Keith_Abbott

If you want to learn a lot more about Yantras, then I highly recommend "Talisman Magic" by Richard Webster.

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The earliest known Magic Square dates back as far as 2,800BC and, as is often the case, it was the Chinese who devised this very first example.

It’s known as the Lo Shu Magic Square (which roughly translates as "scroll of the River Loh") and is the one of the most well-known 3 x 3 Magic Squares.

The Loh-Shu was reputedly invented by a person named Fuh-Hi, who is regarded as the founder of Chinese civilization.

Although this is the earliest recorded Magic Square, there were undoubtedly others who found instances of these fascinating mathematical curiosities.

For example, the ancient Greeks documented similar squares in 1,300BC or so.

Now, the Loh-Shu square embodies the oriental concept of Yin and Yang, where the odd numbers are represented by white dots, which are Yang, while the even numbers are represented by black dots, which are Yin.

To the Chinese, Yang, or odd numbers, are the emblem of heaven, while Yin, or even numbers, are the emblem of earth.

What’s interesting, therefore, is that, many thousands of miles to the west of China, the Greeks also associated odd numbers with heaven, and even numbers with earth.

Magic Squares were later used by Arabian astrologers, around the ninth century AD, when drawing up horoscopes, although little more is known about these.

It wasn’t until the year 1514AD that the Magic Square became well known, when the German artist and engraver, Albrecht Dürer, created a work called "Melencolia".

In Melencolia, Durer was very clever as he managed to infuse the date he created this work, i.e. 1514AD, in the centre two squares of the bottom row.

However, this isn’t the first 4 x 4 Magic Square to be found.

The first fourth order Magic Square was actually discovered in Khajuraho, in India, some time around the eleventh or twelfth century.

In more recent years, mathematicians the world over have been creating ever more complex Magic Squares (and other shapes too, such as Magic Cubes), with perhaps the most famous such person being Benjamin Franklin.

Benjamin Franklin is perhaps better known for his other prodigious works, which include being a founding father of the USA, and inventor of devices such as the lightning rod and bifocal glasses, but he was also a talented mathematician too, and his Franklin Squares are some of the most intricate squares ever devised.

Today, they are as popular as ever, even though they have little practical use: they are used as a form of entertainment, within the world of both speed maths and magic, as an educational tool, and, on the darker side, within the black arts, but we’ll leave that particular topic alone as that is well outside the scope of this website.

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