Four Pillars

사주 · 四柱

The four column-pairs of your chart — one each for your birth year, month, day and hour.

Each pillar carries a plain meaning. The year pillar is what you were born into: family, era, inheritance. The month pillar is the world that was handed to you — environment, career, the season that shaped you. The day pillar is you, and your closest partnership. The hour pillar is what you are becoming: later life, children, what you leave behind.

A pillar is read top and bottom. The upper character (a heavenly stem) shows what is visible and expressed; the lower character (an earthly branch) shows what is underneath and slower to move.