Refining the Magic Square

The magic square is a diagram designed by Nevine Michaan and illustrated by Susan Fierro. It is one of the most intriguing and revealing diagrams in the collection of glyphs and maps available to Katonah Yoga teachers.


It's purpose is you give the yoga practitioner a map or diagram revealing the bodies' capacity to give its owner signals, which, given a map or translation eventually leads to insight.


The realization is that the world is literally revolving around us; the universe is contained within us. The trick is, to realize the responsibility of taking care of your own magic square, your own sphere of influence, as well as your Axis Mundi, because all spheres are interconnected.



"the Axis Mundi, .. is the central point where the movement of time and the stillness of eternity come together at the soul of each individual" - J Campbell





The living centre of the magic square is nourished by its four corners. The east gives us peace and light, the south gives warmth, the west rain, and the north with its cold and mighty wind gives us strength and endurance.


Although the Magic Square represents time as a movement from birth in the East around to old age and death in the North (for the Northern Hemisphere), it also represents time in one year (the four seasons), one day, and down to one split second of thought, where all aspects of the Magic Square are considered and thus balanced so as to bring a balance to any given thought.


We balance emotion in the South with conscious knowledge and wisdom (the Mind) in the North and balance Spirit or ideas in the East with matter or manifestation in the West. This balance brings us to the centre of our circumstances (life, or self), which is the Axis Mundi, or the source.


Every next moment, every thought, is affected again and again by the different aspects of the Magic Square. It can never be the same moment, day, year or lifetime, however, as we have, conceivable by our previous choices, made a step, had a revelation or experienced a lesson. The “Sphere" or "Circumference”, in the Magic Square represents this continuously moving moment.