The Four Transformations

The Four Transformations are four energy shifts triggered by your birth-year stem: Hua Lu (wealth and ease), Hua Quan (power and command), Hua Ke (reputation and benefactors), and Hua Ji (obstruction and the lesson). They 'light up' four main stars and are the key to reading a chart as a living, moving thing rather than a static one.

By your birth-year heavenly stem. Each of the ten stems carries a fixed set — a 甲 year, for instance, gives Lian Zhen in Lu, Po Jun in Quan, Wu Qu in Ke, and Tai Yang in Ji. Find your birth-year stem and you know which star carries each of your transformations.

Traditionally, Hua Ji. Lu, Quan, and Ke are mostly tailwinds, but Hua Ji names — precisely — what you hold onto hardest and most need to face. Understand the Hua Ji and you often understand the core tension of a whole chart.

Not entirely. This covers birth-year sihua — the four transformations set by your birth-year stem that follow you for life. There are also advanced techniques like flying-star sihua (transformations flown from each palace's stem) and self-transformation; the principle is the same, the layering finer.