The day pillar for Saturday, 29 May 2027
| Day pillar | 戊申 (wu shen) |
|---|---|
| Heavenly stem | 戊 (wu) |
| Earthly branch | 申 (shen) |
| Day element | Earth 土 (tu) |
| Polarity | Yang |
| Month pillar | 乙巳 (yi si), governed by 立夏 (lixia) |
Today's day pillar is 戊申 (wu shen), a yang Earth day in the sixty-day cycle. The month pillar is 乙巳 (yi si), governed by the term 立夏 (lixia).
申 (shen), the ninth earthly branch
申 is the monkey branch, the start of autumn and the mid afternoon, where metal first shows up in the year.
申 is Metal, yang by position, monkey by animal. Its hours are 15:00 to 17:00 and its month begins at 立秋 (liqiu) in early August, which is the calendar declaring autumn while the weather is still hot.
Its hidden stems are 庚 (geng, yang Metal), 壬 (ren, yang Water) and 戊 (wu, yang Earth). Metal generating water is the standard cycle at work: autumn is where the year starts making the winter it will need.
On a 申 day the branch is Metal, and if the stem above it is 庚 or 壬 you get 庚申 or 壬申 (ren shen), two of the more unmixed pillars in the sixty.