The mewas (Tibetan sme ba, "mark" or "mole") are the nine numbers of the Lo Shu magic square as used in Tibetan elemental astrology — the system called Jungtsi ('byung rtsis, "element calculation"), which Tibet adapted from Chinese sources and wove into its own Buddhist astrology alongside the year animals, elements, and the eight parkha trigrams. Every row, column and diagonal of the square sums to fifteen, and the nine numbers wander through it in a fixed pattern, one taking the centre each year.

Each mewa has a colour and an element drawn from that colour: 1, 6 and 8 White are Iron; 2 Black and 3 Blue are Water; 4 Green is Wood; 5 Yellow is Earth; 7 Red and 9 Maroon are Fire — this is why the Tibetan elements differ from the Chinese feng shui attributions of the same square. Your birth year's mewa is read as a karmic signature: the temperament you carry, the pattern your life tends to follow, and the practices that protect you. Because the Tibetan year begins at Losar, the lunar new year falling between early February and early March, January and many February births belong to the previous year's mewa.

What this calculator shows

• Your birth mewa with its colour, element, home direction and parkha trigram
• Your personal magic square — your mewa at the centre, the other eight flown around it
• A personality portrait, the traditional karmic pattern, and practical guidance
• The current year's mewa and its five-element harmony with yours, plus the coming nine-year round

In full Tibetan practice the mewa is one strand of a larger reading that weaves in the year animal and element, the parkhas, and the lunar day of birth — and specific remedial recitations are set by a lama or astrologer. Enjoy your mewa as a doorway into that world alongside your Vedic janma rashi.