It is the figure of a red loess mountain, soaked with spring rain, quietly revealing itself in the mist. On the outside it carries the steady, unshaken weight of earth, yet this is a chart that hides, in a cleft of rock deep within the breast, a cool blade not yet fully honed and a clear spring. The people of the world will see you only as a great sunlit mountain that rose without hindrance, but to my eyes it is the trembling of that sharp raw ore hidden beneath the dust that comes to hand first. The reason that, even when you stood on the stage bathed in a thousand strands of light, the pebble in your chest trembled finely once you stood alone behind the curtain is engraved whole in the grain of these six characters.
I am reminded of a young woman of a travelling troupe of performers whom I met long ago at an inn in Yanjing, in the days of the Yuan. That child too, like you, was born an Earth Dragon of spring, and while on the outside she walked the high rope more composedly than anyone, in the darkness behind the stage she would steady her breath with her fingertips trembling finely. That woman, who wandered the realm carving out with her own body the grain of metal hidden in the earth, in the end made her name ring loudly through the marketplaces, yet the nights she wept in secret under the weight of it were not few. Let us set aside for a moment how the path of that person of old ran on, and first go through, one by one, the grain of the six characters you carry.
Earth Dragon — A great spring mountain that carves its hidden ore by dancing
Your day pillar is the Earth Dragon, a vast mountain that also holds fertile mud. The energy of Earth is thick and has put down firm roots at the base, so the heart you were born with is steady and holds a staying power that does not readily get up and leave its seat for any ordinary storm. In your month branch sits Rabbit wood, Noble Authority, which signifies upright discipline and a sense of responsibility, so the very frame has taken the form of the Noble Authority Structure, which permits no disorder. Though you may seem playful and able to laugh things off lightly, your true face is one that holds your own people and your own place of work to a surprisingly strict standard.
That you have drawn every eye since your name became known to the world is owed in part to the quiet fragrance of Red Romance seated in your day branch, yet look within and one can see that the Needle Star sits in your month branch and your nerves stand on end, as sensitive as the tip of a hair. Did you ask whether your road opened because your name was changed when you were young? The good energy of a name may have lit a spark in your heart, but that fierce tenacity with which you crossed alone to a strange land and endured long years would never have flowered had it not been held up by Ox earth and Dragon earth, the pillars of your chart, the thick roots of the Companion and Rival stars.
Only, because of the nature of Earth, which digests things inwardly, even when anxiety and fear come to you, you are apt to laugh them off with a show of calm and to overwork your body. The whip of Noble Authority, which binds you with a strict measuring stick, will at times leave you gasping for breath, so there is need to loosen the knots of your heart, lest the compulsion to do everything perfectly become a spear that stabs you.
The fundamental frame that leads your life is the Noble Authority Structure, which springs from the Rabbit wood of your month branch. The Noble Authority Structure is the energy of a scholar who, within self-imposed discipline and the order of an organization, builds up trust step by step and at last rises to a high seat. Yet your chart does not rest in the uprightness of Noble Authority alone, and it holds the sharp blade of the Performer concealed among its hidden stems. To dance, to give voice, and to shape forms with your own body as the tool is like an instinctive gesture that seeks to pour out the energy of Metal hidden within the mound of earth and so to open a way to breathe.
Applied Element: Metal — The central function used for this chart.
Balance Element: Metal — Selected by comparing the Day Master with support, drain and control.
Climate Element: Fire — Adds warmth.
Support Element: Water — Helps Metal expression lead to results.
Avoid Element: Conditional — Fire blocks the needed Metal supply. Other support or mediation can change the burden.
You asked whether, having begun to act, it would be well to go on. Your Vital Element is the energy of Metal, which pares down the thick earth within you and vents it outward, that is, the Expression stars. If dance was a venting done with the body, acting is another blade of the Expression stars, one that borrows the soul of another to pour out the suppressed grain of your own inner self. Beneath the firm control of the Noble Authority Structure the expressive power of the hidden Performer is added, so acting can become a fine way out that widens your room to breathe. The more deeply you sink into a role, the more naturally the keen-edged energies within, which you could not show until now, will be released into the world, so do not be afraid, and go on widening that territory.
Only, when you lead your company yourself, the fastidiousness of Noble Authority can catch you by the ankle. If you try to hold every practical task, every contract, and every outside negotiation alone and make them perfect, the frame of Noble Authority is apt to crack, unable to bear its own weight. Keep the planning and the artistic decisions in your own hand, but only when you pass the chores of administration and contracts to a representative you can trust will your clear energy remain unharmed.
Your chart, thick with the energy of Earth, forms a strong structure that can bear wealth with room to spare. In your month stem Yin Water, Steady Wealth, stands clearly revealed, and within the Ox earth of your year branch and the Dragon earth of your day branch lies hidden the waterway that is the source of wealth, so the picture is of a storehouse of wealth locked fast deep under the ground. Rather than chasing a sudden fortune, as one grasps at drifting clouds, yours is a destiny that holds solid wealth, built up layer by layer through skill earned with your own blood and sweat and through strict contracts.
Yet the point to heed is that in the heavenly stems Yin Fire and Yin Water face each other and collide in a stem clash, and the Dragon-Ox Break between your day branch and year branch shakes the storehouse of earth. This does not mean a difficulty born of a lack of wealth, but that, as people and documents become entangled, your share can leak away through a gap you had not foreseen. In particular, the luck cycle now flowing is filled with the energy of Fire, so even while on the surface things appear to flourish splendidly, matters that set your nerves on edge arise easily, over operating costs, outside expenses, or the settling of accounts with those you trusted.
Going independent and founding a company was an inevitable step toward keeping your share whole, but in partnerships, the division of equity, and the disbursing of funds, you must not be swayed by feeling and must raise a wall made thoroughly of documents. What to do from this month is to entrust the company's flow of funds and the keeping of its books to a professional accounting firm you can trust, and so set up a system of double oversight. Your kind and gentle heart must not hand an opening to those who work their way into the gaps of a contract.
In your chart the Authority stars, which signify a match, stand clearly as Noble Authority in the Rabbit wood of your month branch, and that energy also lies quietly hidden within the Dragon earth of your day branch. This shows that by instinct your heart is drawn not to someone light or fickle but to an upright person who carries weighty authority and responsibility in their own field. You hold Red Romance in your day branch, so even when you do nothing you receive the gaze and the goodwill of many, yet your day branch, the spouse palace, lies under the Day Pillar White Tiger and forms Rabbit-Dragon harm with your month branch, so it is a structure in which the closer the bond, the more easily each one's stubbornness collides.
The one who is to be your match is very likely a person who looks gentle and steady on the outside yet carries great pride and firm views within. But your own Earth stubbornness is no small thing either, so under one roof a quiet contest of wills may arise over trifling habits of daily life or over who takes the lead in work. If you cannot fully respect each other's territory and try to bind each other too tightly, the keen-edged energy of the White Tiger can leave wounds, so a sense of distance that acknowledges each one's own stage is essential.
There is no need at all to hurry toward the threshold of marriage or a deep commitment. Now is the time for building up your own citadel, so only in the latter half of the Fire Goat luck cycle, as you enter your mid-thirties, or around the age of thirty-four, will there at last be the ease to settle deeply in your feelings. What to do from today is this: even if there is someone you hold in your heart or a bond drawing near, look first not at that person's dazzling surface but at the way they keep their promises and at the character that shows in the face of a crisis.
This chart is the figure of spring earth that holds moisture below, yet whose surface easily dries hard because above it takes the pouring energy of Fire with its whole body. The stamina and endurance you were born with are as persistent as a great mountain, and you hold out to the end even when others fall, but once the bottom shows, there is a danger that you will not admit your own limit and your nerves will wear away first. In particular, when psychological pressure grows, heat rises within and it easily shows as sleeplessness or a tightness in the chest.
It is good to range across the stage with passion and to direct the work on site, but after you have burned your energy, a still rest that cools the heat must always follow. To take time alone and steady your breath in a quiet space where no noise is heard is the best tonic for you. Make a habit of keeping near water, taking the cool breeze, and cooling your head. When you feel something amiss in your body or fatigue does not readily lift, do not put it down only to the energy of your chart, for the right course is to be examined by a medical professional without hesitation and have the balance of your body checked.
This year, the Fire Horse year, is for you a year like a proving ground, exceedingly hot and demanding. It is a year of the Luck Cycle Echo, in which the Fire Horse luck cycle, the great 10-year current you now dwell in, and the stem and branch of this year's yearly luck overlap exactly, character for character, so what you go through in this period does not brush lightly past but remains as a bold line in the course of your life. Moreover, the Ox earth of your year branch meets this year's Horse fire and the hot fire energy of Ox-Horse collides, so the swings of feeling may surge and the pressure in your chest may shoot up all at once, and you must hold the reins of your heart firmly.
The luck cycle and the yearly luck are filled entirely with strong flames and set about melting the energy of Metal that you need most keenly, so this is a time to guard above all against the overwork that drives you on and against hasty decisions. In the course of running your company and venturing on new challenges you will receive all the public attention, but the pressure and stress coming in from inside and outside will be just as formidable. October, the Earth Dog month, is a month in which the energy of Earth doubles, stubbornness hardens, and things easily stall, so devote yourself to firming up what is within rather than to overreaching expansion. Fortunately, in the coming December the energy of the Expression stars that you need gains strength, so the work you have prepared will meet a warm response from the world and you will be able to catch your breath.
Today, a Fire Dragon day, is a day when the inspiration of the Mystic and the root of your Day Master both receive strength. Intuition flashes and unusual ideas come easily, yet on the other hand you may sink deep into your own thoughts and your communication with those around you may close. Rather than pushing matters through on your own judgment alone, lend an ear to the advice of the colleagues beside you, and toward evening it would be well to shake off the tangled thoughts in your head with a light walk.
Measure the road you have walked and the road you will walk in joints of 10 years, and it can be seen that the first half of your life was a process of digging out rough ore and tempering it in the fire.
Current luck cycle: ages 23 to 32, the Fire Horse luck cycle
These 10 years you are now passing through are the time when the hottest flames in your life beat down. As a vast blaze fires clay into hard porcelain, you laid your foundations under the world's tremendous spotlight, yet behind it you had to bear the weariness of having your personal freedom and your room to breathe pressed down. Founding your own company and going independent was a courageous choice, one that leapt up in search of your own way to live amid these stifling flames.
Next luck cycle: ages 33 to 42, the Fire Goat luck cycle
The next 10 years, which open from thirty-three, are likewise a time of transition in which the energy of fire and dry earth still continues. Yet its grain will be far more even and calm than the fierce flames of the Fire Horse luck cycle, so it will be a time to gather inward the energy that was racing outward and to secure what is of real substance. In the yearly luck from 2031 to 2033, your mid-thirties, a welcome waterway flows in and your wealth and honor will grow much more stable, but in the stretch where Goat earth, the branch of the luck cycle, collides with your year branch, you may become the subject of talk unless you draw clear boundaries with people, so take care.
The luck cycle after that: ages 43 to 52, the Earth Monkey luck cycle
As you enter forty-three, the true golden age of your life at last unfolds in grandeur. The energy of Metal you so longed for, that is, the Creative, comes in rooted in the earthly branch like a vast rock, so it is as though the ore long shut within the earth were at last finished into a dazzling treasured sword that commands the realm. From this time on you will go beyond the actor or singer on the stage and, as a producer and businesswoman who holds and moves a vast cultural current, reap an unhindered harvest, so there is no reason at all to be impatient.
Set ISFP, which you named as the frame through which you understand yourself, beside the grain of the chart you were born with, and the secret energy that turns inward and the feelers of the senses agree to a surprising degree. The weighty inwardness of the Earth Dragon day pillar and the keen five senses of the Needle Star in your month branch run on exactly the same track as the animal instinct of the ISFP, which reads the flow of the air with the skin before the head has calculated. The power to split a rhythm on stage without an inch of error and to seize the eye comes from this very absorption in the senses.
On the other hand, the strict sense of responsibility of the Noble Authority Structure, which forms the frame of your chart, often brews a quiet conflict in your heart with the ISFP's inclination to live freely, as water flows. Inwardly you wish simply to rest at ease wherever the current takes you, and yet the Authority stars of the chart you were born with tie you to the practice room floor and will not let you stop whipping yourself on. Though you appear mild and compliant, when your inner values or a line that must be kept is trespassed upon, the White Tiger of your day branch lifts its head and you turn your back with resolve, and that mettle too is a face that appears at the point where these two lenses cross.
To make the most of the grain of this type and use fully the energy of Metal, your Vital Element, you must concentrate on sensory action led by your fingertips and the movement of your body rather than forcing yourself into plans and frames. Whether in acting or in running a business, rather than growing anxious as you run countless simulations in your head, it is when you meet one small scene directly with your body and carry it through to completion that your trembling will at last turn into conviction.
Looking back over a thousand years, those who, like you, were born holding a sharp piece of metal within thick mud could not, under the strict order of the old days, fully unfold their talents, and were all too often stifled. That young performer I saw earlier at the inn in Yanjing was likewise one whose destiny would have sickened under a rule that kept her shut in the inner rooms like the daughters of noble houses, yet because she ran out onto the wide stage of the marketplace and threw her body like a blade, she could at last receive the applause of the realm. One who holds Noble Authority, which signifies discipline, and yet carries within it the rebellious temper of the Expression stars might have been pointed at in the old world as a dangerous performer, but in the world of today such a one becomes a peerless star who holds and moves the hearts of ten million people.
So do not doubt yourself, and engrave on your heart the four paths I tell you of, for the tending of the days ahead.
First, on the road of work and money, guard the transparency of your contracts as you would your life. 2028, the Earth Monkey year, and 2029, the Earth Rooster year, are years in which the Companion and Rival stars come in on the surface and discord easily arises over the sharing of portions with those around you or over competition, so across this year and next you must have every contract of the company and its structure of settlements notarized without a gap.
Second, on the road of people and relationships, keep beside you a solid person of few words and firm principles. The bond that gives you energy is not one who lifts your mood with glossy talk but an architect type of person who, cold and clear as metal, points out the real gains and losses and the rules. When you entrust the practical work to such people, your shoulders will grow lighter.
Third, for the seat of body and mind, keep near you the color white and the energy of cool metal. Place a metal object without ornament or a neat clock on the west side of your studio or the place where you stay, and toward evening, when the day closes, it is right to hold without fail a ritual of silence in which you turn off every electronic device and drink a glass of cold water alone.
Fourth, as wisdom for preparing for the luck cycle ahead, firm up step by step your stride in producing and acting before 2030. The trial and error you go through now will settle into a system of real substance in the Fire Goat luck cycle that unfolds after thirty-three, so do not rejoice or despair over each immediate success or failure at the box office, and approach it with the long view of widening your body of work.
You need not wait for some far-off day to know whether this counsel is flowing rightly. Some two to four weeks from now, among the many decisions you face at work, if you firmly cut away an offer that ought to be refused and lightness rather than guilt rises in your heart, that will be the clear sign that you are walking the right road.
Listen now, dear lady. The one word I seal away for you reaches to a day far off, around forty-three, some day in 2040 when the vast rock of the Earth Monkey you have so longed for is set whole beneath your feet. When that ore, which hid in the earth and quivered, at last stands tall as a solid golden mountain that throws back all the light of the world, come to this place again, bringing the world you will by then have built by meeting it with your whole body and the quiet road you chose for yourself. For when that time comes, I will at last be able to open and show you even the final trace that lay hidden in the hour of your birth. You have taken pains to come a long way, so pray do not let the cold wind harm your body, and walk your road with your head high.