5 and 5 · The 5 twice

Meaning

The Lo Shu’s centre on itself, the emperor’s star on its own throne: the image is of a power with nowhere to go. Ulune keeps the classics’ counsel, quiet and no works, as a matter of timing and calm, never of fear.

The 5 twice, the strongest star on itself: of all sectors, the classics ask for the most quiet here. In season (around Period 5 alone), power and command; out of season, no heavy works, no digging, nothing stirred up, and the sector kept simple.

In practice

• In a home’s chart: a palace whose mountain star and water star are both the 5 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 5 as both mountain and water star: mountain star and water star share their phase, earth: what holds the people of the home and what flows in pull the same way.
• In Period 9 (2024–2043), the 5 is out of its time: read “out of season”, for the people of the home and for what comes in.

Correspondences

• The star: the 5 Yellow (Lian Zhen), twice
• Its phase: Earth
• Its trigram and home in the Lo Shu: the centre, with no trigram
• Ten: the two add up to ten, as the numbers facing each other across the square’s centre do
• The 5 with the other stars: 1 and 5, 2 and 5, 3 and 5, 4 and 5, 5 and 6, 5 and 7, 5 and 8, 5 and 9