The monthly star — how it differs from the principal star, and how to find it
updated · 5 min read
Nine Star Ki takes the principal star from the year of birth and the monthly star from the month. Where the principal star shows the nature you were born with, the monthly star is taken to show the nature that appears in everyday behaviour.
Looking at the principal star alone, people sometimes feel that the character described does not match how they experience themselves. Looking at the monthly star in such cases often settles it.
The two stars have different parts
| Principal star | Monthly star | |
|---|---|---|
| What fixes it | The year of birth | The month of birth and the principal star |
| What it is taken to show | The nature you were born with | The nature that appears in daily behaviour |
| Weight | Taken as the basis | Taken as support |
| Does it change? | Never over a lifetime | Never over a lifetime |
As to which carries more weight, the principal star is generally taken as the basis. Think of the monthly star as adding to it. For some people the two come out the same.
The monthly star depends on the principal star too
The monthly star is not fixed by the month alone. The principal stars are sorted into three groups, each group has its own starting star, and you count back month by month from there.
The three groups are One, Four and Seven; Two, Five and Eight; and Three, Six and Nine. Each has a different origin. You need not learn the table, and this is why the month alone does not settle it.
So two people born in the same month with different principal stars have different monthly stars. That is the great difference from the principal star, and the reason a table of birth months on its own will not give you the answer.
The month does not begin on the first
This is the thing to watch. A month in Nine Star Ki does not start on the first of the calendar month but at a solar term. The terms fall roughly between the fourth and the eighth, and move from year to year.
Anyone born early in a month may find their monthly star belongs to the month before. Someone born on 3 March, for instance, falls before the Awakening of Insects that year and counts as born in February by this calendar.
This service calculates the date and time of each term from the position of the Sun. It is not looking anything up in a table, so it can decide for any year. The month pillar of the Four Pillars uses the same calculation, so the two methods never disagree.
Reading the two together
Where the principal and monthly stars fall in the same group, the inner nature and the behaviour are said to line up easily. Where they fall in different groups, the reading is that what you think and how you actually act come apart more readily.
A gap is not a bad thing. Cautious inside and quick to act outside is a combination that becomes a strength depending on the situation.
Common questions
- Can I read with the monthly star alone?
- Generally the principal star is taken as the basis and the monthly star used as support. Reading from the monthly star alone is not much practised.
- Can the principal and monthly stars be the same?
- They can. In that case the reading is that inner nature and behaviour line up easily. It is not unusual.
- Where can I check the month boundaries?
- A reading on this service works out the preceding term from your date of birth and shows it in the result. To look it up yourself you would need a list of the twenty-four solar terms for that year.