Twelve Stages of Qi — Born Hour
The Twelve Stages describe Day Master vitality across the twelve earthly branches. Reading language — not lifespan or fate verdicts.
What it names
Relative to the Day stem, the twelve branches map to: Birth, Bath, Cap & Sash, Coming of Age, Peak, Decline, Illness, Death, Tomb, Extinction, Conception, and Nurture. Classical life metaphors — read qi strength, not literal biography.
Born Hour labels each pillar’s stage on the chart. The month command often weighs more than remote pillars.
A compact map
Birth through Peak lean toward rising and command; Decline through Death toward retreat; Tomb and Extinction toward storage and pause; Conception and Nurture toward renewal. Excess or lack is structural bias only.
Qi emerging: beginnings and opening.
Qi at fullest seasonal command.
Storage and consolidation.
A pause or empty interval — not doom.
How to read / how not to
Pair with month command, roots, and Ten Gods. Do not read Death or Extinction as medical or calamity forecasts.
Stages are a lookup table. On compares and annual overlays they mark relative tone, not event scripts.