Ba Zi/Luck Pillar

Luck Pillar
The Luck Pillar (大运, Ta Yun) of a person's Ba Zi chart gives an indication of a person's luck in periods of 10 years each. The Luck Pillar is plotted based on the following:

Earthly Branch of the Month Pillar
There are 12 Earthly Branches as follows:

Using the Monthly Pillar of a Ba Zi chart, the first luck pillar will be the next Stem & Branch of the above charts, in either the forward or reverse cycle.

For example, a male born in a Yang year (or a female born in a Yin year) will follow the forward cycle, and if his Month Pillar is HS8 and EB6, then his first Luck Pillar will be HS9 and EB7.

Similarly, if a female is born in a Yang year (or a male born in a Yin year), her luck will follow the reverse cycle, and her first Luck Pillar will be HS7 and EB5, if her Monthly Pillar is HS8 and EB6.

Starting Age of the First Luck Pillar
Each Luck Pillar lasts 10 years. The first five years are covered by a Heavenly Stem, and the next five years by an Earthly Branch, and this is repeated for each subsequent Luck Pillar. The starting age of the Luck Pillar is based on the date of birth in the Hsia Calendar. The following variables are used to derive the Luck Pillar:


 * 1) The gender of the person
 * 2) The Yin or Yang of the Heavenly Stem of the year of birth
 * 3) The Monthly Pillar of the Ba Zi of the person
 * 4) The number of days to the preceding or following Hsia Season, from the date of birth

There are two possibilities, (A) and (B), as given below:

(A)

For a male born in a Yang year (that is, the Heavenly Stem of the Year Pillar is Yang), the method is to look up his date of birth in the Hsia Calendar, count forward, and obtain the number of days from his date of birth to the next Hsia Season, where Early Spring is represented by 1, Mid Spring by 2, Late Spring by 3, ... etc. For example, if Joe is born on 28th August 2000 (where the Monthly Pillar is HS1 and EB9), then the first day of the following Hsia Season is 7th Sep 2000, and the number of days is 10.

The starting age will be 10 divided by 3, rounded to the nearest integer, which is 3. The Heavenly Stem of Joe's first five years will be from 3 to 7, and the Earthly Branch of his next five years will be from age 8 to age 12. The Luck Cycle or Luck Pillar is plotted from right to left, as the age increases, beginning from the next (in increasing order) Heavenly Stem and Earthly Branch of his Monthly Pillar. The above calculation also applies for a female born in a Yin year.

The Luck Cycle :  H2-E10, Age 3, Forward

(B)

However, for a male born in a Yin year, or a female born in a Yang year , the counting is in a backward sequence. The counting starts from the date of birth backwards to the preceding Hsia Season. For example, if Joe is born in a Yin year, the counting will start from 28th August 2000 backwards to 6th August 2000, giving a total of 22 days. In this case, the starting age will be 22 divided by 3, which is 7 (rounded to the nearest integer). The Heavenly Stem of Joe's first five years will be from 7 to 11, and the Earthly Branch of his next five years will be from age 12 to age 16.

The Luck Cycle or Luck Pillar is plotted from right to left, as the age increases, beginning from the next (in decreasing order, since Joe is a male born in a Yin year) Heavenly Stem and Earthly Branch of his Monthly Pillar.

The Luck Cycle : H10-E8, Age 7, Reverse