While the natal chart is the permanent “DNA” of a house, it does not tell the whole story. Just as the weather changes over the landscape, the Flying Stars move with time, bringing fresh layers of influence each year, month, day, and even every two hours. These visiting stars overlay the natal pattern, creating constant cycles of opportunity and challenge. Learning to read them allows us to live in rhythm with time itself.
Annual Stars
Each year, on or around February 4th (the start of the Chinese solar year), the nine stars “fly” into new palaces of the Lo Shu grid. These annual stars set the general tone for the year ahead. They explain why one sector feels lively and fortunate in one year but tense or heavy in another. Practically, they are the stars we consider when deciding where to sleep, work, or place important activity for that year.
Monthly Stars
On top of the annual pattern, the monthly stars shift every lunar month, further refining the quality of each palace. A bedroom that carries the annual Star 9 may glow with joy, but if the monthly Star 2 flies in, it may temporarily bring health concerns that need a Metal cure. These monthly changes are invaluable for timing projects, moves, or business launches — they show the best windows of opportunity within the year.
Daily Stars
Going deeper still, the daily stars provide a fine-grained rhythm of influence. Advanced practitioners check these when choosing a date for important events — signing contracts, traveling, or holding ceremonies. A sector that is neutral on the yearly chart may suddenly glow with auspicious energy on a certain day, making it perfect for targeted use.
Bi-Hourly Stars
Every day is divided into twelve double hours (each lasting two modern hours), and each period carries its own visiting star. These bi-hourly stars give the finest level of timing. They are especially used for activations: the deliberate stimulation of a sector to awaken its Qi. For example, if the wealth star 8 or the prosperous star 9 visits a favorable palace at a certain two-hour window, a practitioner might activate that area with movement, light, or even a water feature to call forth opportunity. Likewise, auspicious stars visiting a door sector can be harnessed simply by walking through that door with intention during that time.
These layers work together like nested rhythms: natal stars are permanent, annual stars provide the year’s climate, monthly stars refine the tone, and daily and bi-hourly stars give precise moments for action. By aligning important activities — from placing a desk to signing a contract — with these shifting influences, one can harmonize daily life with the greater tides of time.
In the hands of a skilled practitioner, this time-based reading becomes a powerful tool: not just a diagnosis of the environment, but a calendar of opportunity. It shows when to remain quiet, when to make a move, and when to seize a fleeting window of luck. In this way, Flying Stars is more than a spatial art — it is a living partnership with time itself.
