Double stars at the sitting

Meaning

“Double stars at the sitting” is one of the Flying Stars’ formations that Ulune names, a pattern that runs through the whole of a home’s chart: the period’s own number stands both as the mountain star and as the water star in the sitting palace, at the back of the home.

雙星到坐, shuāng xīng dào zuò, the double stars come to the sitting. The back counts twice: the mountain star is at home there, in the quiet of the rooms behind, while the water star, which wants openness and movement, asks for a little space where the home allows it.

Of the 216 main charts, the twenty-four facings of each of the nine periods, 60 carry this formation, in Periods 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 and 9.

In practice

• What practitioners suggest: a steady, quiet back for the mountain star and, where the home allows it, some open space or a view behind for the water star, a garden, a terrace, a window kept clear.
• In the Home lens: the chart’s reading names its formations. Built in Period 9, a home facing Ren, Chou, Jia, Xun, Si, Wu, Ding, Kun, Shen, You, Xin or Xu carries this one; built in Period 8, a home facing Zi, Gui, Mao, Yi, Bing or Geng.
• Near an edge: the replacement chart, which Ulune shows beside the main one for a facing close to the edge of its mountain, has formations of its own, named the same way; it may keep this one or not.

Across traditions

• In the landscape the Form School wants a mountain behind; the double stars at the sitting ask for that support and for a little water too, which is why a garden or a courtyard behind is the practitioners’ classic answer.
• The Eight Mansions read the same back for a person: the Home lens names the mansion a home sits in for each Kua it shows, a second, separate reading of the same side.

Origin and history

With double stars at the facing it fills Periods 1 and 9, where every main chart brings the period’s stars together. The present Period 9 gives the double stars at the sitting to the other twelve facings, so that the main chart of every home built now has its two 9s in one palace, at the front or at the back.

How Ulune calculates it

Ulune casts each home’s chart, then checks it against every formation it knows. For this one the rule is: the period’s own number stands both as the mountain star and as the water star in the sitting palace, at the back of the home. It is read on the main chart and on the replacement chart alike, each on its own. Ulune’s tests check its formations against charts worked by hand.

An example: a home facing Ren, built in Period 9. The period chart sets 9 in the centre; the mountain star goes to the centre as a 4 and flies backward, the water star as a 5 and flies forward. At the back, in the palace of the south, stand mountain star 9 and water star 9; at the front, in the palace of the north, mountain star 8 and water star 1.

Correspondences