Why You Should Know About Your 8 Chinese Characters

I’ve touched a lot on compatibility testing and 8 characters, but I have yet to clearly explain what 8 characters are and why they matter.

By the end of this article, you should have gained some basic knowledge about 8 Characters and understand how 8 Characters affects you.

In Chinese astrology, the 8 characters actually refer to a person’s date and time of birth. There are 4 pillars viz. . .

1. The prop of the year

2. Pillar of the month

3. The Pillar of the Day

4. The Pillar of the Hour

These 4 pillars form the 8 characters as each pillar is made up of a heavenly stem and an earthly branch.

I can hear you ask, what is a heavenly stem and an earthly branch?

Heavenly stems and earthly branches are used to represent each year. As you probably know, there are 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac and for each element, there is a different element. The 5 elements and the 12 animals form 60 combinations.

After every 60 years, the cycle repeats itself.

The 5 elements actually represent the 10 heavenly stems. There are 2 Celestial Stems for each item. One for the “yin” version of that element and the other for the “yang” version.

There are 12 Earth Branches, representing each of the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac.

For each year, there is a heavenly stem and an earthly branch. Similarly, for each month, each day and each hour, there is also a heavenly stem and an earthly branch.

This is how the 8 characters are derived.

Next, there is something called the pillars of luck. The pillars of luck are derived from the pillar of your month, either backwards or forwards. Depending on whether you are male or female and the year you were born.

The lucky pillar is very important as it determines your lucky cycle for a period of 5 to 10 years.

So how do you determine if your luck cycle is good?

From your 8 characters, you will be able to determine which elements favor you and which ones do not.

When you find favorable items in your lucky pillar, your luck cycles become good and vice versa.

From your pillar of the day, you will determine which element represents you. Next is your month of birth. Is the month in which you are born favorable to your element?

I’m going to simplify the process here for you. Let’s say you are born on a Wood day, Metal month.

You probably know that Metal destroys Wood. Therefore, his Wood is weak. You will need more wood or water (water produces wood) for your luck cycle to be good.

Whenever you find Wood or Water in your lucky pillars, your lucky cycle turns good. If you meet Metal or Fire, your luck cycle turns bad. As Metal destroys Wood and Fire burns Wood.

Do you know why people die?

Based on 8 characters, you can determine whether a person will survive a serious illness. Let me explain with a real life story.

I have a friend whose relative suffered from cancer. I was curious, so I asked for the relative’s date of birth.

This relative’s element was Water, and he was born in Summer, a month of Fire. Now, when Water is born in a month of Fire, what happens?

Water evaporates right?

Therefore, this relative must have Water and Metal (Metal produces Water) in their luck pillars to have a smooth cycle of luck. I checked his lucky pillars to see if he would survive the disease.

I was shocked.

He was going through a period of fire for 5 years. From 2003 to 2007, everything was Fire in the pillars of his luck. He found out that he had cancer in 2006 (year of the Fire Dog, a year of double fire). He somehow knew that he wouldn’t survive due to the “intense fire” he was going through.

But I kept quiet because I didn’t want my friend to get mad.

In fact, he passed away in June 2007, which happened to be Fire Horse month (Double Fire again).

Before that, I tried to advise my friend to help his relative improve his luck cycle. But my friend, being a Christian, did not believe in all this.

Things could have been better if he had increased Water and Metal in his daily life. But this is where fate comes into play. As much as I would like to “save” him, but I can’t. It saddens me.

Let me share another case study. This time it’s my brother.

My brother is from Earth born in a Metal month. The favorable elements of it are Fire (Fire produces Earth) and Earth.

I checked his lucky pillars, he was passing by a Fire lucky pillar. In fact, he started going through the Fire period from the age of 16, and he had 25 years of Fire luck pillar. Before the age of 16, he did not do well in his studies.

The 16 years was his turning point. She has done well in all areas of her life ever since.

So from here, you can see that by knowing your 8 characters, you can tell when your good and bad times are. You will not be caught off guard and you will be able to take steps to reduce the effect of unfavorable elements.

I will share with you how to do it in another article.