Tap the picture to turn it over to the classic side.
Seasonal stage
Gestating — The Snowmelt
Snowmelt seeps down toward the buried seed. As a stage in your chart or in the turning year, it tends towards stabilisation: a good window for groundwork, funding and gathering what growth will need.
Classical equivalent · Earthly Branch (地支)
丑 Chou (Ox) — Jan – early Feb
Function in the cycle: Stabilisation
Strengths
- Grounded and nourishing
- Steady preparation
- Good at foundations
Blind spots
- Heaviness, slow to move
- Over-prepares
- Feels stuck when nothing shows
The classic side · 地支 Earthly Branch
丑 Chou · The Ox
丑 is frozen, wet earth at the end of winter — the field that rests before ploughing. It carries the last of winter’s water (癸) and quietly stores Metal (辛) in its vault, so it is the tomb and treasury of Metal (金庫). Patient, enduring and hard-working; slow to start, very hard to stop.
The spirit animal: A pale golden ox standing in frozen, furrowed fields.
- Element
- Yin Earth — Cold Earth storage
- Season
- Deep winter · 12th month · 小寒 to 立春 (about 6 Jan – 3 Feb)
- Hours
- 01:00 – 03:00
- Direction
- North-northeast
- Family
- 四庫 storage · the Metal store
藏干 Hidden elements
- Yin Earth — fields and soft soil本氣 main qi60%
- Yin Water — rain, mist and dew餘氣 residual qi30%
- Yin Metal — gold and jewels庫氣 stored10%
Relationships
- 六沖 Clash: 丑未
- 六合 Harmony: 丑子 → Earth
- 三合 Frame: 巳酉丑 → Metal
Hidden-element shares are the usual teaching approximation.
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