Jia Wood Day Master (甲木)

Jia is the first of the ten Heavenly Stems: yang Wood, pictured as a tree growing straight toward the light. If the stem of your day pillar is Jia, this is the character that stands for you in a BaZi chart.

Personality

Jia people tend to be upright and principled, with a strong sense of direction. They like to grow steadily rather than in bursts, and they would rather stand firm than bend to please.

Strengths

• Steady, dependable and willing to take responsibility
• A natural pull toward growth, learning and long-term goals
• Straightforward — people usually know where they stand

Things to watch

• Can be stubborn once a course is set
• Finds it hard to ask for help or change direction
• A tree needs warmth: without some 'fire' (expression, outlet) Jia can feel stuck

What helps a Jia Wood chart

What helps a Jia chart depends on the birth month: spring Jia usually already has enough water and needs fire; summer Jia needs water; autumn Jia needs roots and support; winter Jia needs warmth first.

Classical imagery

甲木参天，脱胎要火。春不容金，秋不容土。

“Jia Wood reaches for the sky; to come into its own it needs fire. In spring it will not suffer metal, in autumn it cannot bear earth.” Read: a strong tree needs an outlet to flourish, and what helps it depends on the season. — Di Tian Sui (滴天髓), “On the Heavenly Stems”; translation and gloss are our own.

A Day Master is only the starting point: two people with the same Day Master can read very differently depending on their birth month and the other seven characters in the chart.