Glossary

A pair of characters for one part of your birth: the year, the month, the day or the hour. The stem sits on top and the branch below.

Learn more : Pillar

The stems each branch carries inside, like seeds under the soil. You can't see them at first glance, but they count in the reading too.

Learn more : Hidden stems

The stem of your Day pillar. It stands for you. Everything else in the chart is read by how it gets along with it.

Learn more : Day Master

Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water. The tradition uses them to tell how the forces in your chart help or hold each other back.

Learn more : The five elements

The ten parts each character can play next to your Day Master: it backs you, keeps you company, you express it, you handle it, or it asks something of you. Classical books call them the ten gods.

Ten roles in detail Learn more : Ten roles

A poetic name for each of the sixty character pairs, like “Metal in the sea.” It's an image from the tradition, not a measure of strength.

Na Yin in detail

Markers from the tradition that show up when certain characters meet in your chart. Each one hints at a theme, like help, study or travel. They aren't stars in the sky.

Symbolic stars in detail

An extra pillar worked out from your birth month and hour. The tradition reads it as your character deep down. Each school works it out its own way.

An extra pillar taken from your Month pillar that points, roughly, to the time of conception. The tradition reads it as your roots.

A number that comes from your birth year and the male or female formula. In feng shui, it marks your four favorable directions.

Kua number in detail

The branch of the current year, seen as the one who rules it. The tradition advises care with its direction and pays attention when it clashes with your chart.

Twelve stages, from birth through rest and seed, that tell how much strength a stem has over each branch. It's like a plant's cycle through the year.

Stage in detail