Sydney Sweeney's SajuAn Autumn-Night Lamp, Putting Its Name on the Board It Built with Its Own Hands (Fire Snake)Hollywood · September 12, 1997

용신: 土

You are not someone whose fire simply overflows. You are someone who can breathe easy only once you have decided where that overflowing fire will go to bake something into shape. Born a Fire Snake Day Pillar in the middle of autumn, you came into a cool season, yet in your own seat a fire as hot as midday has taken deep root. Not a single drop of the water that could cool that fire shows on the surface, while the earth that takes the heat and shapes it into a vessel rises clearly on your month stem. The world sees only your light, that is, your face, your body and your ad campaigns. But across your year, month and day branches the Snake, the Rooster and the Ox have all gathered into a solid board of metal, so a board for counting and dealing is already complete inside you. You have said that you can only rest easy once you have made a plan. As I see it, that plan is not a cord for tying down anxiety. It is a hearth you have built in advance for the overflowing fire.

I remember the mistress of a publishing house in Shanghai after the treaty ports opened, a shop on the edge of the foreign concessions that printed books from lithographic stones. She was a Fire Snake Day Pillar like you, someone who chose the next book only at night, alone, sorting through the plates after the workers had gone home. The workshop had been left to her by her husband, but it was an age when a woman’s name could hardly open dealings with the paper merchants, and the big publishing houses held the display stands along the streets. Even so, the books she chose were the first to leave in customers’ hands. I will tell you how it ended later on.

Fire Snake — An Autumn-Night Lamp, Putting Its Name on the Board It Built with Its Own Hands

A Fire Snake Day Pillar is a lamp that turns its back to the wind and burns for a long time. Your lamp sits where it burns fiercest, on top of the Snake Fire in your day branch. Born in autumn, you lost the help of the season. Instead, you have driven a main root deep into the Yang Fire inside the Snake Fire of your day branch, and the same Yin Fire on your year stem lends you its shoulder, so I judge this a strong Day Master. That is why you suffocate inside a frame someone else has built, and your energy begins to flow only when you build your own board. When you shot back that annoying you would only make you take an even bolder role next time, that temper came from here too. It is the nature of a strong fire guarding its own seat.

The center of this chart is the Creative Structure. The Yin Earth on your month stem shows on the surface and is rooted in the Ox Earth of your year branch, while the Metal of the Snake, the Rooster and the Ox carries what that earth makes on into wealth. The Creative is the star that steadily draws out what you love doing and turns it into real skill. The child who laid out a five-year plan in front of her parents at eleven woke this star early. In the single seat of your month branch, the Commanding Star, the Heavenly Noble Star, the Literary Star and the Scholar Star have gathered together. The Commanding Star lets you take hold of the board where you work, the Heavenly Noble Star sends helpers your way in urgent moments, and the Literary and Scholar Stars give you a mind for organizing and learning. The mind that played in the math club and on the robotics team most likely came from this very month branch.

On your year branch sits the Canopy Star. It is a sign that even if you shine within a crowd, the time that actually builds your strength is time spent alone. This is why fixing up the old truck your grandfather gave you with your own hands, and shutting yourself in the garage to work with metal, is rest for you. This nature has its shadow too. As strong as the fire is, your words easily turn sharp first, and when the wish not to lose gets ahead of you, you end up standing against others on boards where there was no need to fight.

Let me give you the conclusion first. The place to put your strength is not one or the other of acting and business. It is the seat that makes a work from beginning to end. The Creative is the power to make things, and the Rooster Metal of your month branch is Dynamic Wealth, which widens the board and does the counting. On top of that the Snake–Rooster–Ox Three Harmony of Metal is complete, so this is a structure in which the Creative Generates Wealth, with what you make flowing straight onto the board of wealth. A vessel like this leans heavily toward the entrepreneur, so it will be hard for you to remain an actor who is called in for other people’s works. But there is an order to it. Acting is the root and business is the fruit that root bears, so if you abandon the root and multiply only the fruit, the tree dries out first.

Put in terms of how to use them in life, it goes like this. Earth is the work of choosing scripts, deciding on productions and carrying a work through to completion. This is the foremost energy that brings you to life. Metal is the road that links what you make to money, such as distribution deals and equity structures, and Water is the distance that cools a heated judgment overnight. For Yin Fire in autumn, the old texts sometimes name Yang Wood first, the kindling. But this chart already has fire enough, so instead of kindling it takes the work of Yang Water, which governs heat, as its Climate Element. Wood is the energy of learning and protection. If it comes in and takes root, it binds with the Yin Earth in a combination and holds back your outlet, so you could end up only preparing and never putting out a work.

There are two places where you get stuck. One is a tendency to fight partners over shares, since the Companion and Rival stars pile on top of a strong Day Master. The other is a structure in which money leaks more easily the wider you spread the board. The criticism that came when an ad from a company you hold a stake in dragged your name along with it touches this tendency as well. A board where you have only lent your name catches fire in places you cannot choose. The Water Rat Decade Luck now arriving is ten years of the Authority stars, when the weight of name and responsibility grows, so the seat of head of a production company fits you like your own clothes.

Your money comes from talent. It is a structure in which the Creative gives birth to Dynamic Wealth, so what you make with your body, your face and your name turns straight into wealth. The Dynamic Wealth of your month branch is money that turns over big at once and moves big. Rather than a salary piling up month after month, it flows so that a single contract, a single work, a single product line changes the board. A big board like your first-look deal with Sony comes to you because the Heavenly Noble Star and Dynamic Wealth share one seat in your month branch.

Where it leaks is plain too. Just as water that comes in cannot stay and dries up when there is too much fire, the wealth and bonds that come to you also tend to flow out rather than pool for long. On top of that, the Fire Horse year of 2026 and the Fire Goat year of 2027 bring in fire like your own one after another, so the terms on which you split shares with the people you work with easily blur. That is why the right prescription for this chart is to tie things down. You should put it in vessels that do not dry out even when fire touches them, such as real estate or long-term assets you cannot easily pull out, or equity protected in writing. What to buy and what to sell is yours to choose.

The year your wealth stands up is the Earth Monkey year of 2028. Earth, your Vital Element, and metal, your Support Element, come in together that year, so it opens widest. The Metal Dog year of 2030 and the Water Ox year of 2033 are supporting years too. The years to guard are 2026 and 2027, the Metal Pig year of 2031 when your day branch takes a clash, the Water Rat year of 2032 when your Day Master is bound in the Fire–Water Combination, and the Wood Rabbit year of 2035. In 2035 above all, Rabbit Wood strikes the Rooster Metal of your month branch head-on, so the boards of your work and your money shake all at once.

One thing to do starting this month. Within November, write on a single page in what order the income from your production company and your brand is tied up and in what order it is spent, and line that order up with the people you work with.

For you, the star that stands for a partner is Water. Yet that water does not show on the surface. It hides as a single Yin Water inside the Ox Earth of your year branch. This is a bond that comes without showing itself and finds its place only late. In your day branch, the palace of the spouse, fire like your own burns at its strongest, and the Lonely Swan Star sits there too, a seat where the time spent standing alone grows long. On top of that, the Snake Fire of your day branch is bound into the Snake–Rooster–Ox Three Harmony of Metal, so the seat of relationships easily ends up resting on the board of work and money. In the Earth Dog year of 2018, a year when expression and work rose high, the bond you formed with a producer grew up on the board of work, and that matches this seat exactly. Why that bond ended belongs to the two of you. I have not seen that person’s chart, so I will not assign blame to anyone.

You asked whether you can trust in love again. You can. If anything, from now on is the time when the star of your bonds rises to the surface. The Water Rat Decade Luck that began at twenty-nine is ten years in which water, the star of your partner, comes in through both stem and branch, so the hidden seat of your bonds is finally revealed. The best year is the Earth Monkey year of 2028. The year’s Monkey Metal forms the Snake–Monkey Combination with the Snake Fire of your day branch, bringing a combination into the palace of the spouse, so within these ten years it is the foremost year for a bond to be tied. In the Metal Pig year of 2031 the Snake–Pig Clash strikes your day branch, so close relationships and the rhythm of daily life easily shake. In the Water Rat year of 2032 the year’s Yang Water holds your Day Master, Yin Fire, in a combination, but an unsettling energy comes in with it, so it would be better not to rush big decisions.

The chart of the person said to be by your side now is not before me, so I will not speak of what is in his heart. The partner this chart points to is someone who cools your heat like water. Calm, with clear boundaries, someone who keeps promises through actions rather than words. But as strong as your fire is, know that even in a relationship you easily clash over who holds the board. In this chart, the line that separates public places like premieres from the place that belongs to the two of you alone is the fence that protects love.

One thing to do starting today. Set aside one evening on the same day every week with no talk of work and no cameras, and for that time leave your phone in another room.

Though you were born in autumn, fire shows again and again in this chart, so yours is a constitution with narrow paths for cooling once the heat rises. You tend to work in a rush and then run out of energy all at once, and on nights when your head is overheated your sleep easily turns shallow. The Fire Horse year of 2026 and the Fire Goat year of 2027 bring in fire like your own one after another, and every summer is the season when that fire climbs highest, so you should put time to rest and cool down at the front of your schedule. This year is also one in which the year’s Horse Fire meets the Ox Earth of your year branch and sets off the Scalding Star. Built-up pressure in your heart easily surges all at once, so lay down a way to let it off before it bursts.

Yours is a body that has played all kinds of sports since childhood, and you have even endured mixed martial arts training. Using the body is a good way to send overflowing fire outward. But pushing on even on tired days is like adding fire to fire, so the way to preserve your body is to set lighter days into your schedule in advance. Time walking by the water, plenty of sleep, and calm handwork alone in the garage with metal are the care that cools your heat. If discomfort continues, do not hesitate to see a doctor. Matters of the body are for someone who has examined the body directly to judge.

The Fire Horse year of 2026 is a year when caution comes first. If I name this year in one word, it is endurance. The year’s Yang Fire and Horse Fire are both fire like your own, so matters of competition and of shares carried with others pile up for you to watch. Around September your Decade Luck passed from Metal Pig to Water Rat, and the Yang Water of the new Decade Luck collides with the year’s Yang Fire in a stem clash, while the Rat Water of the Decade Luck faces off against the year’s Horse Fire in the Rat–Horse Clash. So it is a year when your will is easily bent and decisions easily overturned. On top of that, the year’s Horse Fire tangles with the Ox Earth of your year branch in the Ox–Horse Resentment, so in the seat of your ties with society, words from outside scrape sharply at your heart.

There is a tailwind as well. The Horse Fire strikes and wakes the Rat seat that had stood empty, so the release of a blocked place comes in alongside. The water of the new Decade Luck begins, for the first time, to open the cooling road your chart never had. Of the months left, November brings in earth, your Vital Element, so it is a good month to use for choosing and sorting out your next works and contracts. December is a month to guard and watch, so rather than starting something new, firm up what you have already agreed to.

You asked when the controversy will die down. This year Resentment and the Scalding Star overlap, so words easily catch fire, and in the Fire Goat year of 2027 too, Goat Earth strikes the Ox Earth of your year branch in the Ox–Goat Clash, so your ties with the outside shake once more. The turn comes from the Beginning of Spring in the Earth Monkey year of 2028, that is, from around early February. Earth, your Vital Element, and metal, your Support Element, come in together, so it is a year when works and results stand in front instead of words. Until then, words that hit back only add fire to your fire, so give your answer through your work.

The Metal Dog Decade Luck, from around age nine to eighteen, was a good stretch in which metal, your Support Element, and earth, your Vital Element, came in together. The Earth Ox year of 2009 brought in Yin Earth and Ox Earth, the same as your month stem and year branch, twice over and completed the Snake–Rooster–Ox Three Harmony of Metal once more. That you first began acting around then was surely no coincidence. The Metal Pig Decade Luck from nineteen to twenty-eight was a stretch that brought metal and water, and though your name rose high, it was an even period in which help and burden were mixed about equally. That is likely why your heart was not at ease even after you had made it big.

The Water Rat Decade Luck you stand in now began at twenty-nine and runs until around September 2036. It is ten years in which help and caution are about even. It is a stretch of the Authority stars, when name, responsibility and the star of your bonds come in together, and also the time when water to govern your heat enters for the first time. But know clearly that five caution years are set within these ten. They are 2026, 2027, 2031, 2032 and 2035. Between them, 2028, 2030 and 2033 stand as supporting years. The Earth Rooster year of 2029 brings the help of the Metal Three Harmony opening together with the burden of the Rooster–Rooster Self-Punishment, so rather than chasing perfection, you must first set the point at which a thing counts as done. The Wood Tiger year of 2034 is a neutral year in which Yang Wood tangles with the Yin Earth on your month stem in a stem combination. The heaviest year is the Wood Rabbit year of 2035. The Rabbit–Rooster Clash strikes your month branch and shakes your work and social life greatly, so in that year you must guard rather than expand.

Next is the Water Ox Decade Luck that arrives at thirty-nine, a good stretch running until around September 2046. Its Yin Water cools the heat, and its Ox Earth is your Vital Element as well as the link of the Snake–Rooster–Ox Three Harmony of Metal, so it is ten years of reaping results as an entrepreneur. The Wood Tiger Decade Luck that arrives at forty-nine brings in Wood, the Avoid Element, a mixed stretch that can tie up your outlet, so move toward a seat of teaching and handing down, but do not let go of making things with your own hands. After that the Wood Rabbit Decade Luck continues in the same vein, and in the Fire Dragon Decade Luck at sixty-nine, fire and earth come alive again and making things grows easier. What you have to do now is set up your board in the good years of these ten and guard that board in the caution years.

About that mistress in Shanghai. The paper was held by the merchants at the docks and the display stands by the big publishing houses, so she printed cheap books in a small format and sent them into the back lanes on peddlers’ backs. Thanks to the Canopy Star’s eye with which she chose books alone, she kept the workshop to the very end, but she never did hang her own name on the signboard. Today you have founded a production company under your own name and even won a distribution deal that puts the materials and the channel in your hands. You were born with the same eye into a world where you can now hold the materials and the road yourself. Before 2028 is out, put out into the world one work that you chose and made from the very start, under the name of your production company.

First, in work and money, bind acting and producing onto a single axis. Opening moves, such as a first day of shooting or signing a contract, take less effort on supporting days. Close at hand, November 10, an Earth Rat day, and December 14, a Water Dog day, are good. Before 2027 is over, look again one by one at the stakes and endorsements where you have only lent your name, and put off spreading the board wide until 2028.

Second, in people, keep those with the nature of earth beside you. They are people like a pillar, who keep their promises and show through actions rather than words. You can find them among the production crew who have long been with you, the people who take responsibility for the practical work to the end, and the finance and legal partners who guard the numbers and the contracts. If you set one such person in charge of practical matters beside your production company within 2027, you will not have to carry the big board of 2028 alone.

Third, guard body and mind through the fire years by deciding your days of rest first. Within this year, pin one day a week on the calendar with nothing scheduled. In the home where you stay, settle the center with ochre tones and earthy textures and make it the place you always return to. Set one bowl shaped from clay by the entrance, and each day, at the moment you put down your keys, call to mind one thing you made that day.

Fourth, prepare in advance for the coming Decade Luck in the Water Ox year of 2033. If you rework the structure, the stakes and the roles of your business that year, you can weather the shaking of the Wood Rabbit year of 2035 and receive in full the harvest of the Water Ox Decade Luck that arrives around September 2036.

In the Earth Monkey year of 2028, the year’s Monkey Metal forms a combination with your day branch, and earth, your Vital Element, and metal, your Support Element, knock at the door together. Watch whether the person who draws near you that year keeps promises, and whether the work you put out that year stands on its own under your name. Come back once you have crossed that year, carrying the road you chose.