Quick answer
Start with your Day Master, which represents you. Then see how the other seven characters support or pressure it through the Five Elements. Work out whether your chart is strong or weak, find your favourable element, and finally check your luck pillars for timing.
Step 1: Get your chart
Enter your birth date, time and place into our BaZi calculator. You'll see four pillars, each with a stem on top and a branch below.
Step 2: Find your Day Master
It's the top character of the day pillar. See the 10 Day Masters.
Step 3: Count the elements
List the element of each character. Branches also hold "hidden stems", so a careful count includes those as well. Notice which elements are plentiful and which are missing.
Step 4: Judge strength
Ask whether your Day Master is born in a supportive season, and whether it's helped by its own element or by the one that feeds it. Lots of support makes it strong. Lots of pressure makes it weak.
Step 5: Find your favourable element
A strong chart is balanced by elements that drain or control it. A weak chart is balanced by elements that support it. See favourable element.
Step 6: Read the Ten Gods
Each element's relationship to your Day Master has a name, such as Wealth, Officer or Resource. These link the chart to money, career, people and learning. See the Ten Gods.
Step 7: Check timing
Look at your luck pillars and the current year to see when your favourable elements arrive.
Questions
Can I read my own chart?
You can learn the basics yourself. Judging strength and hidden stems takes practice, which is why a full written reading helps.
See your own chart
Start with your Four Pillars.
See your chart, then read it in full in The Comprehensive BaZi Report.