The day pillar for Thursday, 1 April 2027

Day pillar	庚戌 (geng xu)
Heavenly stem	庚 (geng)
Earthly branch	戌 (xu)
Day element	Metal 金 (jin)
Polarity	Yang
Month pillar	癸卯 (gui mao), governed by 惊蛰 (jingzhe)

Today's day pillar is 庚戌 (geng xu), a yang Metal day in the sixty-day cycle. The month pillar is 癸卯 (gui mao), governed by the term 惊蛰 (jingzhe).

戌 (xu), the eleventh earthly branch

戌 is the dog branch, dry autumn earth at dusk, the season closing and putting its fire away.

戌 is Earth, yang by position, dog by animal. Its hours are 19:00 to 21:00 and its month begins at 寒露 (hanlu) in early October, the last month of autumn.

As the autumn seam it stores what autumn made. Its hidden stems are 戊 (wu, yang Earth), 辛 (xin, yin Metal) and 丁 (ding, yin Fire), so it holds both the season's metal and a last ember of summer's fire.

戌 sits opposite 辰 (chen) in the twelve, dry earth against wet earth, dusk against morning. Both are Earth branches and the tradition does not treat them as interchangeable.