| Day pillar | 庚午 (geng wu) |
|---|---|
| Heavenly stem | 庚 (geng) |
| Earthly branch | 午 (wu) |
| Day element | Metal 金 (jin) |
| Polarity | Yang |
| Month pillar | 甲辰 (jia chen), governed by 清明 (qingming) |
Today's day pillar is 庚午 (geng wu), a yang Metal day in the sixty-day cycle. The month pillar is 甲辰 (jia chen), governed by the term 清明 (qingming).
午 is the horse branch, midday and midsummer, the hottest point the twelve reach.
午 is Fire, yang by position, horse by animal. Its hours are 11:00 to 13:00 and its month opens at 芒种 (mangzhong) in early June, with the summer solstice inside it. It sits directly opposite 子 (zi) in the circle of twelve, midday against midnight.
Its hidden stems are 丁 (ding, yin Fire) and 己 (ji, yin Earth), so like 巳 (si) it reverses its outer polarity on the inside. And the same pinyin trap applies here as with the stem 戊: 午 and 戊 both write as wu without tones, which is why the pillar 戊午 looks like a stutter and is not.
A 午 day is a horse day. If you were born in a horse year, a horse day is not your year returning, only the same animal counted on a faster wheel.