It is the shape of a great tree of early spring that has forced its way up through a cleft in the rock and splits its own body to carve a keen stringed instrument. People who see the cold, cool energy pouring from you on stage will take you for someone tough and steely by nature, but to my eyes what shows first is the sawdust pared from your own body and the tears you let fall each time you were carved. Outwardly you wear the edge of a sharp steel blade, yet inside you hold a tender green energy, so how could I fail to see that the very effort to look strong was in truth a shield against being hurt?
In the days when Sultan Suleiman ruled the Ottoman Empire, in a market of Istanbul looking down on the waters of the Bosphorus, there was the master of a workshop that made clothes. That person, too, was just like you, with a truly outstanding gift for spotting the faintest flaw in the grain of silk that others could not see and for stitching embroidery like no one else's. But because that gift ran too far ahead, the strict rules of the merchant guild and the channels for obtaining materials were blocked again and again, and night after night beneath the oil lamp, the master tore cloth alone and swallowed tears.
Wood Monkey — The Tree That Holds a Thorn at Its Root and Blooms Red on Clear Water
Your chart is that of Yang Wood born in the Tiger Wood month, the breath of early spring, rooted in the month branch and standing up on its own, so it carries the frame of a Prosperity structure. Yet your Day Master sits upon Monkey Metal, the energy of steel, like a tree rooted atop a rocky mountain, and overall the chart is judged a weak-self chart, because the restraint of Fierce Authority and the draining of Fire take strength away from the Day Master. Outwardly the firmness and cool sense of responsibility peculiar to the Wood Monkey day pillar, a tree that grows while taking the blows of an axe, show plainly, so to others you may easily seem like someone who would not shed a drop of blood if pricked. But beneath that axe blade a clear spring hides, running through the cracks in the rock, so inwardly you are astonishingly tender and deep in affection, and your own heart aches first at another's sorrow.
On top of this, Yang Water, the Mystic, in your month stem meshes with the Fierce Authority in your day branch to give off a keen, intuitive sensitivity, and the Hanging Needle Star stretching across your Day Master and day branch has raised the ends of your nerves sharp as needles. So you sense with your whole body the trembling of a sound or the temperature of a single word that others simply pass by. The habit of caring so much that you worry first about the other person's hurt while quietly swallowing your own pain also comes from the self-restraint pressed inward by the Exposure Star and the White Tiger Star in your day branch. The charisma others see is only the result of training, wood shaped and trimmed by metal, while your original grain is closer to pure innocence, full of tears and quick to blush.
The reason you feel most alive when you stay up all night writing music and lose yourself in new creation is that the Fire of the Creative and the Performer, which pours your born talent outward, burns with great intensity. Yang Fire, the Creative, held within Tiger Wood, the Companion, in your month branch, connects with Yin Fire, the Performer, in your year stem, so the channel that draws your inner thoughts out into art without hesitation stands wide open. The deep inspiration of the Mystic in your month stem and the expressive power of the Performer in your year stem form the union of Yin Fire and Yang Water, so beyond any doubt it is your born nature to have a writer's gift, one that does not stop at imitating others' songs but shapes the lack and the emotions within you, just as they are, into lyrics.
Still, your great tree is pared by the metal of your day branch and gives away much of its strength kindling fire to make sound, so your body leans to the weaker side. That is why I judge Water, which receives the energy of Metal and passes it on to Wood, to be the central Vital Element of this chart — Metal gives birth to Water and Water nourishes Wood, so the blade once aimed at the tree instead moistens its roots, the path of the Nurturer Bridging Authority. Fire, which warms the cold still lingering from your birth in early spring, is kept separately at your side as the Climate Element, and Earth, which blocks the watercourse, must be seen as the Avoid Element to be kept in check. Rather than the path of an office worker who must endure alone within the discipline of an organization, the stage of a professional artist, where you stake your own name and unfold an original grain, suits you a hundred times better. Authority and the Creative and Performer stand taut against each other, so on stage you become a craftsman who strives for perfection, but once the creating is done your energy runs dry and you easily sink into the mire of burnout, so you must always set aside gaps to refill your strength.
Vital Element: Water — Central function for this chart
Balance Element: Water — Element for balancing Day Master strength
Climate Element: Fire — Added warmth
Support Element: Wood — Support alongside Wood
Avoid Element: Earth — Caution with Earth blocking needed Water flow · Earth blocking needed Water support · Fire draining Wood. Burden variable with other support or mediation
The Earth energy that stands for wealth is centered on Ox Earth, Steady Wealth, in your year branch, yet your chart's capacity to carry wealth as a whole is judged to be at a middle level. This does not mean the vessel or the chances for earning money are small. It means that taking hold of that wealth demands no small toll of stamina and spirit poured out by your Yang Wood Day Master. With the Creative and the Performer well developed, great riches and fruit spring from your own talent and fingertips, but when Earth, the Avoid Element, grows thick, it easily blocks the precious watercourse and puts a strain on body and mind.
So for you, wealth should not take the form of spreading your grip like octopus arms over real estate or rough business ventures out in the world. The most beneficial way is to bind it in safe, clean forms like water, such as documents and copyrights, credit and brand value. The Rest-Saddle Star and the Heavenly Noble Star in your year branch hold you up, so you will enjoy stable treatment and a firm base on great stages, but if you cannot refuse others' requests and end up standing as guarantor or tangled in needless money ties, wealth may leak away, so you must learn how to draw the line.
What to do starting this month: check the spending items that flow out needlessly, carefully put contracts and settlement documents in order, and keep the management of your accounts simple and tidy.
The spouse star that marks your partner is Fierce Authority, seated on Monkey Metal in your day branch. This shows that the bonds you are drawn to are people with very clear standards and professional skill, or figures who look weighty and overflow with charisma. But your spouse palace in the day branch sets off the Tiger-Monkey clash with the Tiger Wood of your month branch, so the closer someone becomes, the more easily you collide over differences in thinking or the waves of feeling surge high. Your gift for keeping romance thoroughly hidden from others also arises because the Exposure Star and the hidden energies in your day branch try to keep your private life locked away in a secret room.
The true bond who can embrace the sensitivity you carry must not be someone who tries to lecture you with a sharp yardstick, but a deep, warm person who can silently take in your tears. As you yourself have said, a partner whose voice is calm and gentle, with the generosity to step back and watch over your complex inner world, is best. With a clash hanging over your day branch, whether in love or in marriage, you surely need the wisdom to secure a physical distance in which neither intrudes on the other's independent workspace and private time. Around 2027, the Fire Goat year, the place that was bound will loosen gently and the current of a good bond will begin to circle around you.
What to do starting today: begin practicing bringing out the one word you held back for fear the other person would be hurt, not swallowing it alone, but through gentle writing or plain, simple conversation.
Wood is being pared by Metal and burned by Fire, so when your body's energy tilts to one side, the imbalance of heat above and cold below easily sets in. Especially in a year like 2026, when Fire grows fierce, it joins the Ox Earth of your year branch and stirs the workings of the Scalding Fire Star, so you must be especially wary of heat rising up in your chest and the sudden exhaustion of emotion. The Hanging Needle Star, which governs the sharpness of your nerves, overlaps here, so the quality of your sleep may drop, or your digestive system may stiffen and indigestion may come often.
The hearty rice you eat before a stage is an instinctive way of filling dry earth, but when all-night work breaks your body's rhythm, your digestion and nervous system will send signals first. When energy shoots up to your head, do not force yourself to hold on. Take care of your health by warming your toes to draw the heat down. If strange pains or lasting fatigue continue, do not blame your Saju. It is only right to see a doctor at once and have your pulse read.
2026, the Fire Horse year, is a year when the Creative and the Performer blaze fiercely for you, and the key words running through this year are 'self-expression at its fullest, and the drain that comes with it.' As the Fire of the yearly luck is added on top of the Wood-Fire flow of your major luck, your stage presence and the reach of your creation ride a fair wind, spreading freely with the whole world as your stage. Yet in this process the headwind is no small one either, as the watercourse of your chart evaporates and the vital sap of your Day Master drains away, so you must watch for the stamina drain lurking behind the splendor. This year in particular, you fall within the reach of the Scalding Fire Star, where the Ox Earth of your year branch meets the Horse Fire of the yearly luck, so this is a time to slow the pace of your heart, lest impatience drive you to cram your schedule until the dam of your emotions bursts.
Today, October 24, is a Metal Goat day, when the energy of Noble Authority stays with you, a day well suited to reconfirming outside rules or promises already made. The energy of the Storehouse, which gathers things quietly inward rather than pouring them out, is at work, so rather than starting something new, it is better to carefully check the terms of delayed contracts or the details of your work. Turn for a moment toward the north, the direction of your Vital Element, and steady your breath, and if you calmly sort out your thoughts in the quiet time between 9 and 11 at night, your scattered energy will find its place again in full.
In your early teens, in the Water Rabbit cycle, your life met clear water and sturdy wood and laid early the stepping stone for growing your roots firm. In 2012, the Water Dragon year, at 15, you broke through a competition of 700 to 1 and crossed the sea all on your own, and that too was because the Yang Water of the yearly luck drew the Yin Fire of your year stem into the union of Yin Fire and Yang Water and opened the gate toward a great dream. The Wood Dragon cycle that followed, from ages 17 to 26, held the Water hidden within the earth and was a field of bone-paring training, where you endured the harsh trainee years and the upheavals of your early debut and achieved independence on a world scale. The memory of standing before the world's judgment in floods of tears amid the rough waves of the Tiger-Monkey clash, when your month branch and the yearly luck struck hard against each other at your debut in 2016, the Fire Monkey year, at 19, must also have been one scene of that harsh breaking of the shell.
The Wood Snake cycle you are now in, from ages 27 to 36 (February 2024 to February 2034), is a stretch where the Rival feeds the Creative, a time when help and caution stand taut against each other. While going solo and expanding onto the global stage unfold dazzlingly, these are ten years in which you must guard against unclear division of roles with colleagues and partners and against an excessive pace of activity that pours out all of your body's strength. Within them, 2028, the Earth Monkey year, is the heaviest year of the decade, so look once more over big contracts and overstretched schedules.
The Fire Horse cycle ahead, from ages 37 to 46 (February 2034 to February 2044), is a time when Fire reaches its peak, and your fame and originality as an artist will reach their height, but unless your Day Master's strength is replenished the overheating of body and mind may grow severe, so at that time the seasoned skill to pace your activity is sorely needed. Then, when you reach the Fire Goat cycle from ages 47 to 56 (February 2044 to February 2054), you will enter the ripe season of life, tending dry land and storing great harvests in a stable granary. Yet help and caution also come together in this stretch, so do not slacken the reckoning that guards what you have gathered.
When I set ENFP (the Campaigner), the type publicly known as yours, against the grain of your chart, on all four axes it points in a remarkably similar direction to the original energy your Saju indicates. First, on the E/I axis dividing extraversion from introversion, the Five Elements and the ten-gods calculation cross each other, so in your Saju it shows only a very slight lean toward extraversion. This clearly explains your two-sided nature, giving off outgoing energy that captivates crowds on stage while in private you are extremely quiet and shy, longing to slip away into a room of your own. On the other hand, the intuition (N) and feeling (F) axes show a very distinct match, as Yang Water, the Mystic, and Yin Fire of the Creative and the Performer in your chart answer each other perfectly, showing the artist's heart you were born with, one that moves after inspiration that stirs the chest and warmth between people rather than practical gain and loss before your eyes.
The perceiving (P) axis is a direction drawn from only one of the ten-gods calculations, but it supports a free way of creating that gives itself to the flow of momentary feeling and intuition rather than being bound by strictly set rules. The episode when, in burnout, a friend's single warm word made your piled-up emotions come crashing down must have been bound to happen at the point where the heart of a feeling type with deep empathy crossed the loneliness of Fierce Authority that tried to bear every burden alone.
To keep that overflowing ENFP sensitivity and intuition without wearing down your body, you must actively borrow the energy of Water, your Overall Vital Element. Burning the flame through the night when inspiration strikes is fine, but when thoughts chase one another and gnaw at you, you must make a routine of putting down your pen at once and cooling your overheated mind through quiet reflection or a walk by the water, so that your sparkling talent does not run dry and can last a long time.
Call to mind once more the workshop master of old Istanbul I spoke of earlier. That person was blocked by the worn walls of the guild and limits on obtaining fabric, could not fully unfold that singular embroidery skill, and suffered heartache, but is today's world not throwing wide open for you a vast global stage with neither borders nor rigid rules? Your Hanging Needle Star and keen sensitivity, which pare your own body to make sound, might have made a weary chart that brought hidden illness in the old world, but in this age they are your finest weapon, rising into an irreplaceable voice and feeling that stirs the hearts of hundreds of millions around the world. So there is no reason to wear a mask and pretend to be hard as steel to suit others' eyes. Cherish your own original grain, tender and full of tears, and walk the path that follows.
First, in work and wealth, by 2027, the Fire Goat year, document more firmly the independent intellectual property and musical rights you hold in your own name. So that the creations you poured out like sparks do not scatter but gather in the safe form of water, putting the fences of settlement and contract in flawless order with an expert within this year will become a sturdy granary for your whole life.
Second, in people and relationships, do not lock your pain away tightly. Before this winter passes, begin practicing telling the gentle, thoughtful advisers beside you honestly when things are hard. You must keep the temperature of your heart steady beside a bond who is deep-hearted and unhurried in thought, one who can listen silently without judging your tears.
Third, in your body and the spaces you dwell in, make a place of stillness, even just thirty minutes a day, where you turn off every electronic device and quietly listen to the sound of water in the dark or breathe deeply. Place a clear water tank or deep blue objects in a corner of your studio, and make a habit of foot baths each night that draw down the heat risen to your head, wisely easing the fatigue brought by the hot energy of 2026.
Fourth, to prepare for the blazing prime of the coming 2030s, take special care with aerobic exercise and care of your voice to build up your reserves of stamina until the great waterways of 2031, the Metal Pig year, and 2032, the Water Rat year, arrive. Only when the instrument that is your body holds up firmly can you fully enjoy the fierce firepower of your late thirties as your own glory.
A talisman, heaven's energy inscribed in ink, is the sign of a firm faith that you will not go against the lack within you but treat it as precious. The sensitive tears and gentle warmth you carry are not flaws but the strings of the most sublime instrument heaven has granted, so when you trust your own grain and walk on, every wave in the world will roll on as your song.
When the summer of 2027, the Fire Goat year, has passed and the autumn wind begins to blow, you will see the place that held you bound loosen gently and a clear watercourse come to wet your feet. Around then, once you have shaken off the unease within you and sent a deeper song up into the world, bring that lightened heart and knock on this door once more.