Pillars in five minutes

Think of Pillars as a small notebook about one person at a time. Most days, that person is you. Along the bottom there are five tabs, and each one answers a different question.

Today: what kind of day is it?

At the top you'll see the date, your city and the pillar of the day, read from your Day Master. Tap it and the calendar opens on today.

Further down, What surrounds you now shows the month, the year and the decade you're living in. Tap any of them and the Timeline opens on that view. Then come The five elements and you, The sun and the months, the next solar term and a question To reflect on. You can write a private note under it. It stays on this phone.

Chart: who are you, in BaZi terms?

Here are your four pillars, drawn as four arches. Tap an arch to see what's inside it.

Below them you'll find your Day Master, the Full reading and your elements. Then a few doors to go deeper: Ten roles, Symbols, Compass (Kua) and How we calculated it. Once you've added other people, See together and See as a group put your chart next to theirs.

Timeline: what shape do the years have?

Switch between Decades, Years, Months and Calendar. The switcher stays at the top while you scroll. In the calendar, tap any day to read about it.

People: who's around you?

Add family, friends and colleagues, link them to each other and share your code. If your own chart is already on someone else's phone, you can start from it: on the first screen, tap Scan a QR code. Tap someone and they become "you" for the whole app, until you switch back.

Learn: where you are now

Short articles like this one, in sections, with a search box at the top.

The three buttons up top

• The avatar, on the left: switch person. Whoever you pick becomes "you" on every tab.
• Export: makes a PDF report, right on your phone.
• Settings: language, terminology, calculation conventions, notifications, appearance, tutorial, backups and privacy.

With the phone sideways, the tabs move to a column on the left. The avatar (or the back button on inner pages), Export and Settings move to a column on the right, and the page title shows small at the top.

On a tablet or an unfolded foldable, the tabs sit in a column on the left and text keeps a comfortable reading width. On a wide screen, People, Learn and the Full reading show the list and what you pick side by side; on a half-open foldable, they split right at the fold.

Two small habits

• Look for Why?. Almost every reading has one. It shows the pillars and the rule behind the sentence.
• Look at the labels. From your chart is calculation. Traditional reading is what the tradition says. App model is a choice the app made. You told us is something you entered.

The first time you reach each part of the app, a short guide shows it to you. In Settings, Tutorial plays it again.

Want to try it without your own data?

On the first screen, tap Explore with sample people, or in Settings, under Sample data, tap Load sample people. You'll get five made-up people, Julian, Clara, Rosa, Lucía and Elena, with every kind of chart. Poke around, switch between them, and delete them whenever you like.

Nothing here predicts your life. It's a language for noticing patterns and asking yourself good questions.