1 and 8 · Water held by the mountain
The 1 White and the 8 White: the mountain that holds the stream, steady gains kept in check, two of the three white stars.
Meaning
Kan and Gen, the north and the north-east, neighbours on the compass: two of the three white stars the verses welcome, the middle son and the youngest. With the 1 timely and the 8 just past its time, the classics read slow, kept gains rather than quick ones.
The 8’s earth contains the 1’s water, the mountain holding back the stream: the classics read steady gains kept in check. In season, wealth built patiently and plans that take root; out of season, plans held back and progress slower than hoped.
In practice
- In a home’s chart: a palace whose mountain star and water star are the 1 and the 8, in either order, holds this pairing; the palace’s reading names it and gives the text above, then how the two phases meet and which face applies.
- The 1 as mountain star, the 8 as water star: the water star checks the mountain star, as earth checks water: what comes in presses on the people of the home.
- The 8 as mountain star, the 1 as water star: the mountain star checks the water star, as earth checks water: the people hold back what flows in, a restraint that can steady or slow.
- In Period 9 (2024–2043), the 1 is in season and the 8 has just passed its time: read “in season” for what the 1 speaks for and “out of season”, more gently, for what the 8 speaks for, the people of the home when a star is the mountain’s, what comes in when it is the water’s.
Correspondences
- The stars: the 1 White (Tan Lang) and the 8 White (Zuo Fu)
- Their phases: Water and Earth
- Their trigrams and homes in the Lo Shu: Kan ☵, in the north; Gen ☶, in the north-east
- The 1 with the other stars: 1 and 1, 1 and 2, 1 and 3, 1 and 4, 1 and 5, 1 and 6, 1 and 7, 1 and 9
- The 8 with the other stars: 2 and 8, 3 and 8, 4 and 8, 5 and 8, 6 and 8, 7 and 8, 8 and 8, 8 and 9
Related
- 1 White starThe first of the nine stars, Water and the trigram Kan, at home in the north: study, careers and journeys, and timely again in Period 9.
- 8 White starThe eighth of the nine stars, Earth and the trigram Gen, the mountain, at home in the north-east: steadiness and lasting gains, waning in Period 9.
- Pairs of starsThe 45 meetings of a mountain star and a water star in one palace of a Flying Star chart, each with the reading the classics give it, in season and out.
- WaterThe phase of depth, rest and stored strength, of winter and the north: still on the surface, moving underneath, preparing the next spring.
- EarthThe phase of the centre and of every turning point: the ground that steadies, nourishes and gathers the other four together.
- Flying Star chartA home’s chart in the Flying Stars: nine palaces, each with a mountain star, a water star and a period star, cast from the home’s period and facing.
Sources
- Zi Bai Jue (Verse of the Purple and White), Xuan Kong school
- Xuan Kong Mi Zhi (Secret Meaning of the Profound Void), Xuan Kong school
- Fei Xing Fu (Rhapsody of the Flying Stars), Xuan Kong school
- Shen Zhureng, Shen shi Xuankong xue, published after 1906