Nine Star Ki — the nine stars and your birth star

Today's Nine Star · 2026-07-28

Today's day star and direction board

Today's day star (nichimeisei) — Six White Metal Star occupies the center palace (yin cycle · descending).

As is traditional for Nine Star boards, south is at the top.

Today's unfavorable directions — for everyone, regardless of birth star: Five Yellow curse = Southeast · Hidden-sword curse = Northwest

Today's favorable direction, by birth star

Find your birth star's row (how to compute it is covered in the three steps below). Best direction on today's day board.

• 一白 One White Water StarSouthwest · Receding Qi
• 二黒 Two Black Earth StarWest · Same-element harmony
• 三碧 Three Jade Wood StarSouth · Vital Qi
• 四緑 Four Green Wood StarSouth · Vital Qi
• 五黄 Five Yellow Earth StarWest · Same-element harmony
• 六白 Six White Metal StarWest · Vital Qi
• 七赤 Seven Red Metal StarWest · Vital Qi
• 八白 Eight White Earth StarNortheast · Vital Qi
• 九紫 Nine Purple Fire StarEast · Vital Qi

The day star follows the yang cycle (ascending from the kōshi/甲子 day near the winter solstice) and the yin cycle (descending from the one near the summer solstice). We use the common simplified rule — switch on the 甲子 day nearest each solstice. Leap-cycle corrections differ between schools and almanacs, so published calendars may place the switch differently, so the day star can differ around that window.

The nine stars

Each star carries an element and a home palace on the Luoshu square. Compatible stars follow the generating cycle — elements that feed yours, or that yours feeds.

• 一白水星One White Water StarWater · home North

  The Water star. It takes the shape of whatever holds it — supple, adaptable, and patient enough to wear through stone drop by drop. Calm and soft-spoken on the surface, One White runs deep and rarely shows its full hand. Tradition reads it as a late bloomer whose hardships slowly compound into fortune.

  In love it starts cautious and, once committed, gives deeply. Work suits planning, research and counsel — anything that reads currents. For health, the classical advice is simple: keep warm, and mind the kidneys and bladder.

  Compatible stars (generating cycle): Six White Metal Star · Seven Red Metal Star · Three Jade Wood Star · Four Green Wood Star

• 二黒土星Two Black Earth StarEarth · home Southwest

  The Earth-mother star. Like farmland that receives and raises all things, Two Black is devoted, diligent and happiest supporting from behind rather than starring out front. Its weapon is steadiness — trust compounds around it year after year. The classical caveat: it tends to put everyone else first and itself last.

  Love warms slowly and aims at home and permanence. Work favors support roles, real estate and agriculture — fields where things are grown and accumulated. Health-wise, tradition says: be kind to your stomach.

  Compatible stars (generating cycle): Nine Purple Fire Star · Six White Metal Star · Seven Red Metal Star

• 三碧木星Three Jade Wood StarWood · home East

  The Thunder star. Like a storm at spring daybreak it starts things fast and loud, announcing itself to the world through voice and word. Curiosity and drive overflow — as do impatience and bluntness. Tradition calls it the best starter of the nine, and the one most in need of allies to finish.

  In love it ignites at first sight and says so plainly. Work suits broadcasting, music, sales and tech — fields with sound and speed. For health, watch the liver and the nerves: overwork and lost sleep are its classic pitfalls.

  Compatible stars (generating cycle): One White Water Star · Nine Purple Fire Star

• 四緑木星Four Green Wood StarWood · home Southeast

  The Wind star. Like a breeze that slips in anywhere, Four Green connects easily — person to person, here to far away. Traditionally the star of marriage offers, travel and trade, its credit is its capital. Its weakness, fittingly, is drift: the wind has trouble picking one direction.

  In love it is quietly popular, favored by introductions and well-timed encounters. Work suits trade, logistics, service and publicity — connecting and conveying. Health-wise the old texts point to the breath and the gut.

  Compatible stars (generating cycle): One White Water Star · Nine Purple Fire Star

• 五黄土星Five Yellow Earth StarEarth · home Center

  The sovereign star that sits at the center of the nine palaces. Its energy is large-scale in both rise and ruin, with the strongest powers of recovery of all nine. It comes alive holding its own board rather than serving under others. The same force, projected onto the compass, becomes the Five Yellow curse — the one direction everyone avoids.

  In love it is all or nothing, fiercely protective and possessive. Work favors running the show — management, one's own business, turnarounds. For health, the danger is accumulation: strain stored quietly until it breaks out large.

  Compatible stars (generating cycle): Nine Purple Fire Star · Six White Metal Star · Seven Red Metal Star

• 六白金星Six White Metal StarMetal · home Northwest

  The Heaven star. Standing for completion and responsibility, Six White is proud, principled and a natural authority. Effort reliably returns to it as position and rank. Its shadow: it never learned to bow, and unbent pride can be lonely.

  In love it is awkward at expression — brusque outside, constant inside. Work suits management, finance, law and machinery: precision plus decision. Health-wise, the head, the heart and overwork are the classic watch-points.

  Compatible stars (generating cycle): Two Black Earth Star · Five Yellow Earth Star · Eight White Earth Star · One White Water Star

• 七赤金星Seven Red Metal StarMetal · home West

  The Lake star — joy and eloquence. Seven Red charms a room, quick with words and quicker with laughter, and carries the classic blessings of plenty: good food, good company, good times. Its homework is equally classic: mind the purse strings, and mind how sentences end.

  In love it plays gracefully and is drawn to whoever brings delight. Work suits hospitality, entertainment, finance and dining — anywhere words and money circulate. For health, the old texts point to mouth, teeth and chest.

  Compatible stars (generating cycle): Two Black Earth Star · Five Yellow Earth Star · Eight White Earth Star · One White Water Star

• 八白土星Eight White Earth StarEarth · home Northeast

  The Mountain star — weight, patience, accumulation. Eight White builds slowly and keeps what it builds; and since the mountain palace is the palace of turning points, it holds both stillness and change. Quiet outside, ambitious within, with a classical affinity for property and inheritance.

  Love starts slow and then does not move — mountain-grade constancy. Work suits real estate, savings, succession and reform: accumulating, inheriting, converting. Health: back, joints and nose, say the old books.

  Compatible stars (generating cycle): Nine Purple Fire Star · Six White Metal Star · Seven Red Metal Star

• 九紫火星Nine Purple Fire StarFire · home South

  The Fire star. Nine Purple shines like the midday sun — the most brilliant aesthetic sense, intuition and expressiveness of the nine. It draws honor and popularity, and burns exactly like fire: fast up, fast down. Regulating its own flame is its lifelong assignment.

  Love is dramatic, ignited at first impression, expressed in full color. Work suits art, beauty, education and media — fields that illuminate and display. For health, the classics name the eyes, the heart, and the need to cool an overheated feeling before acting on it.

  Compatible stars (generating cycle): Three Jade Wood Star · Four Green Wood Star · Two Black Earth Star · Five Yellow Earth Star · Eight White Earth Star

How to find your birth star (honmeisei)

Your principal star is fixed by your birth year in three short steps — the same year always yields the same star.

1. 1. Fix the base year — the year starts at Risshun

   In Nine Star Ki the year begins not on January 1 but at Risshun (立春, around February 4). If you were born before it — January 1 through about February 3 — you count as born in the previous year. MYEONG's calculator uses February 4 as a fixed boundary (the astronomical Risshun drifts between February 3 and 5).

2. 2. Sum the year's digits down to one digit

   Add all four digits of the base year; if the sum has two digits, add them again until one remains. Example: 1985 → 1+9+8+5=23 → 2+3=5.

3. 3. Subtract from 11 — that number is your star

   11 minus the single-digit sum is your star number; if the result exceeds 9, subtract 9. Example: 11−5=6 → Six White Metal. Numbers 1 through 9 map straight onto One White Water through Nine Purple Fire.

There is no male/female split in this calculation. Some Chinese feng shui systems (like Eight Mansions) use a separate formula for women, but standard Japanese Nine Star Ki — and MYEONG's calculator — apply the single 11−n formula to everyone.

Your monthly star (getsumeisei) comes from your birth month. Months also follow the solar terms: the month beginning at Risshun is month 1, and a birth between January 1 and February 3 belongs to the previous year's last month. The month-1 star depends on your birth star's group — 8 for stars 1·4·7, 2 for 2·5·8, 5 for 3·6·9 — then descends by one each month. Example: a One White person born in March (month 2) gets 8 minus one step, Seven Red Metal.

Favorable & unfavorable directions

Every year, month and day the nine stars rotate around the board. Each direction's fortune follows from the element relation between the occupying star and your birth star — plus where Five Yellow and your own star happen to sit.

• 生氣Vital Qi (Sheng Qi)Most auspicious

  The star occupying this direction carries the element that generates your birth star's element. The classic best direction — the first one checked when choosing where to move or travel.

• 比和Same-element harmony (Bi He)Auspicious

  A star of the same element as your birth star sits here, in harmony with you. Read as favorable for stability and continuity rather than big leaps.

• 退氣Receding Qi (Tui Qi)Mildly draining

  Here your element spends itself generating the occupying star, so energy leaks outward. Not inauspicious, but considered weak for ventures that demand your full strength.

• 殺氣Hostile Qi (Sha Qi)Inauspicious

  The occupying star's element conquers yours. Read as a direction of outside pressure and friction bearing down on you.

• 死氣Dead Qi (Si Qi)Inauspicious

  Here you conquer the occupying star. It looks like winning, but tradition reads it as a direction that grinds your own energy down.

• 本命殺Birth-star affliction (Honmei-satsu)Inauspicious

  The direction where your own birth star sits on the current board. Moving that way is read as wearing you down from the inside — body and mind.

• 本命的殺Opposite birth-star affliction (Honmeiteki-satsu)Inauspicious

  The direction directly opposite your birth star's seat. Read as a place where judgment blurs and plans slip out of joint.

• 五黄殺Five Yellow curse (Goō-satsu)Most inauspicious

  The direction where Five Yellow Earth sits on the current board. The gravest of the afflicted directions — things are said to collapse from within — and it is unfavorable for everyone, regardless of birth star.

• 暗剣殺Hidden-sword curse (Anken-satsu)Most inauspicious

  The direction directly opposite the Five Yellow. Trouble here is said to arrive unannounced and from others — an accident, a betrayal — and, like the Five Yellow, it applies to everyone.

In a year, month or day when Five Yellow occupies the center palace, neither the Five Yellow curse nor the hidden-sword curse exists — both grave afflictions drop off all eight directions for that period.