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Mastering The 9 Ki Stars

Everything is in your hand

There are several nice ways by which you can use your fingers in your calculations and we will explore a few. You will rely on your fingers especially when you need find Nine Star Ki month Stars. First look at the four fingers in your hand and note that each finger on your hand can represent a season, while each finger can be furthermore divided into three sections, each to represent a month.

Solar months

Note that the start of seasons is at the base of your fingers. These months signify the Earthly Branches of Tiger, Snake, Monkey and Pig that are considered the Birth Places, i.e. containing the first Life Stage for the Five Transformations. Considered from 9 Stars, these months are also always Earth in nature, i.e. 2, 5 or 8, signifying the digestive system and therefore hinting times that would necessitate for certain alterations in food intake and activity so as to keep your personal magnetism in phase with ever changing (Heaven and Earth) environmental currents.

The middle sections of your fingers then mark the Equinoxes and Solstices. The monthly Branches at the tip of your fingers represent the so-called Earth Branches, i.e. April is a Dragon month and Earth in nature although still within the Wood domain.

You can project months and seasons on your fingers, although we particularly do not mention the seasons by name, but rather than Spring, Summer, Autumn or Winter use Wood months, Fire months, Metal months and Water months. Using seasons by name would imply that the basic techniques pertaining to our Qi studies should be practiced differently for the Hemispheres, which they are pertinently not.

Your four fingers can signify the domain of Wood-, Fire-, Metal- and Water months. Because a year is defined as to start on 4 or 5 February - with the sun reaching 15 degrees into the zodiac of Aquarius - you may count February as the first month. This is valid for Chinese Feng Shui, Four Pillars of Destiny and Nine Star Ki, whereas only the astrology system of Zi Wei Dou Shu would use the Lunar calendar.

Projecting months on your fingers, you can use you thumb to go by any section of your fingers, and either count forward or backward, depending on point of reference.

Starting with the lower section of your index finger - and using your thumb - count months from February to January a few times, until you feel comfortable with this.

Also, start at the tip of your pinky in January and count back all the way to February, because in this method you will be counting backward also.

Once we know how to use our fingers in time calculation, we can allocate Nine Star Ki Stars or the Twelve Earthly Branches and the Ten Heavenly Stems.