The Special Guide To Bazi Symbolic Stars And What They Mean

When you have had your bazi plotted out, the 8 characters which consist of heavenly stems and earthly branches can give you a good idea of your astrological make-up.

This in turn allows one to manage it by nudging life subtly towards a desired direction.

It can be very powerful indeed especially when the 10 gods have been properly identified and competently analyzed.

However, there are also special stars that can make their presence felt in a bazi. These are called symbolic stars, or shen sha (神煞), that can often tell of certain life attributes that would be a dominant factor in life for a certain individual.

Sometimes also referred to as compound stars, they are not the gist of what tells the story of someone. But are rather like the things that add color to life.

Sort of like the cherry on top of a birthday cake, the candy toppings on a spiraling ice-cream, or the various special features that come with your latest smart phone.

They are not the chief reason that influenced your decision to buy, but are great to have and could make the product better when you desire them.

These are not good metaphors. But I’m sure that you get what I mean.

Symbolic stars on their own would not be able to tell how successful a person would be in life. Instead, they can foretell which areas of life one can potentially thrive in.

How symbolic stars are recognized

To determine whether a particular symbolic star is present in a bazi, one or two characters are used as a point of reference to identify what characters represent what stars.

For example, a reference point might be the day master which turns out to be H1. With this information, it can be determined that the sword star would be represented by E4. So if E4 is present in the bazi of this individual, he would be deemed to have the sword star.

This nugget of information can be used in advanced bazi analysis to find more details and make deeper readings.

They can be particularly useful when deciphering the luck pillars.

The legend of symbols which represent heavenly stems and earthly branches can be found here.

Types of symbolic stars

There are various symbolic stars that carry different meanings.

And while different feng shui experts might segment them by life aspects, the most common way of categorizing them is by identifying what is the reference point that is used to identify them.

This is not for no particular reason.

Because when we take a look at the most common symbolic stars that are discussed in the feng shui community, those who are sharp-eyed should be able to tell that the reference points to identify symbolic stars follow a pattern.

They would usually be identified either by the reference star of:

  • Self element; or
  • Earthly branch on day and year pillar

Special stars that are determined by the self element include:

More details about them can be found by clicking on their links.

All the above symbolic stars can be identified simply by knowing what is the character which take up the place of heavenly stem on day pillar, which is the self-element (day master).

This can be further simplified by using a table.

Self-element
Academic Star
Nobleman Star Sword Star Peach Blossom Prospects Star
H1 E6 E2, E8 E4 E7 E3
H2 E7 E1, E9 E3, E5 E7 E4
H3 E9 E12, E10 E7 E3 E6
H4 E10 E12, E10 E6, E8 E8 E7
H5 E9 E2, E8 E7 E5 E6
H6 E10 E1, E9 E6, E8 E5 E7
H7 E12 E2, E8 E10 E11 E9
H8 E1 E7, E3 E9, E11 E10 E10
H9 E3 E6, E4 E1 E1 E12
H10 E4 E6, E4 E12, E2 E9 E1

Legend of symbols can be found here.

The second category of symbolic stars that are determined by the reference characters of day and year branch can be overviewed with the below table.

These include:

More details about them can be found by clicking on their links.

Day or Year Branch Arts Star General Star Traveling Horse Death Star Robbery Star Flower of Romance
E1 E5 E1 E3 E12 E6 E10
E2 E2 E10 E12 E9 E3 E7
E3 E11 E7 E9 E6 E12 E4
E4 E8 E4 E6 E3 E9 E1
E5 E5 E1 E3 E12 E6 E10
E6 E2 E10 E12 E9 E3 E7
E7 E11 E7 E9 E6 E12 E4
E8 E8 E4 E6 E3 E9 E1
E9 E5 E1 E3 E12 E6 E10
E10 E2 E10 E12 E9 E3 E7
E11 E11 E7 E9 E6 E12 E4
E12 E8 E4 E6 E3 E9 E1

Legend of the symbols can be found here.

What symbolic stars mean

It must be noted that for symbolic stars, just because they are present in a bazi does not mean that they would make an impact on one’s life.

This is because it must be determined whether the configuration of the bazi allows a symbolic star to be usable or unusable.

On top of that, when it becomes active, it can either cause a positive impact on the particular life aspect it represents or a negative impact.

For example, a favorable flower of romance can mean a steady stream of good suitors that can add a lot of value to your life. While an unfavorable one could mean that you would constantly run into relationships that go nowhere. In worse cases, romance partners can lead to some of the biggest mistakes one can make in life.

Whether one such star is a favorable or unfavorable character in a bazi depends very much on it’s relationships with other characters in the 4 pillars.

Some possible relationships could be harmony, supportive, clash, conflict, etc.

In advanced bazi, shen sha can be used as a method of identifying other aspects of life that are not obvious on the surface. For example, if you are able to identify your best nobleman as Yin tiger, then it implies that your worst nemesis would be Shen monkey as monkey clashes with tiger.

Lastly, it must be mentioned that we have barely scratched the surface of what symbolic stars mean in bazi. However, after reading this, you should find it a breeze to identify them and be aware of their presence in a bazi.

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Manifestation Fengshui Bazi Symbols


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