8 and 9 · Celebration
The 8 White and the 9 Purple: fire feeding earth, celebrations, weddings and wealth together, among the happiest pairings.
Meaning
The period just past and the present one side by side, the 8 and the 9: fire under the mountain is the hexagram Bi, grace, the beauty that adorns. In Period 9 the 9 is timely and the 8 just past, so the joy leads and the spending is what to watch.
The 9’s fire feeds the 8’s earth: the classics read celebrations, weddings and wealth together, among the happiest pairings. In season, joyful news and gains; out of season, spending on celebrations that outruns the means.
In practice
- In a home’s chart: a palace whose mountain star and water star are the 8 and the 9, 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 8 as mountain star, the 9 as water star: the water star feeds the mountain star, as fire feeds earth: what comes in supports the people of the home.
- The 9 as mountain star, the 8 as water star: the mountain star feeds the water star, as fire feeds earth: the people’s effort goes into what comes in.
- In Period 9 (2024–2043), the 9 is in season and the 8 has just passed its time: read “in season” for what the 9 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 8 White (Zuo Fu) and the 9 Purple (You Bi)
- Their phases: Earth and Fire
- Their trigrams and homes in the Lo Shu: Gen ☶, in the north-east; Li ☲, in the south
- The 8 with the other stars: 1 and 8, 2 and 8, 3 and 8, 4 and 8, 5 and 8, 6 and 8, 7 and 8, 8 and 8
- The 9 with the other stars: 1 and 9, 2 and 9, 3 and 9, 4 and 9, 5 and 9, 6 and 9, 7 and 9, 9 and 9
Related
- 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.
- 9 Purple starThe ninth of the nine stars, Fire and the trigram Li, at home in the south: celebration, recognition and joy, the star of the present period.
- 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.
- EarthThe phase of the centre and of every turning point: the ground that steadies, nourishes and gathers the other four together.
- FireThe phase of warmth, light and full expression, of summer and the south: growth at its height, everything most visible.
- 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