The floor plan of a home stays the same; the energies flowing through it do not. They shift with each passing year and month, bringing a new set of opportunities and cautions with them, and this section tracks those shifts and shows how to work with them rather than against them.

The annual layer

The heart of the section is the annual movement of the nine stars. Each Chinese year they rotate to new positions, so a sector that was quiet and supportive last year can become active or problematic this year, and the reverse. The guides show how to read the annual chart, which sectors to activate for wealth, health and recognition, and which deserve extra care — while the character and meaning of each star as it appears in the annual cycle is set out in the Flying Stars section.

The annual afflictions

Close to the stars sit the annual afflictions, the classic problem positions that shift from year to year. The complete guide to annual afflictions introduces all of them together; each then has its own article. The Grand Duke, or Tai Sui, defines where the year's energy is strongest and where it is considered most dangerous to disturb. The Three Killings, or San Sha, is a sector best left quiet. The Year Breaker, or Sui Po, sits opposite the Grand Duke and is the most volatile of the four. The Five Yellow, the star of misfortune, is treated with the stars, where its mechanics and its cures belong.

For each affliction the guides set out how its position is determined for any given year, what kind of disturbance to avoid, and which remedies are safe to use — metal, salt water, or simply keeping the area calm and unaltered.

Periods, calendar and dates

The longer rhythms that frame the yearly changes are here as well: the twenty-year periods of the Xuan Kong cycle, and the Chinese calendar with its solar terms — including the question of when the year actually begins, which decides the year pillar of a Ba Zi chart. The section closes with the classical practice of choosing a date for a wedding, a move or an opening, so that a decision is taken at a moment that supports it.

Because these positions change every year, the section is a reference you come back to: it explains how each influence is located and how to handle it, while the current position is read from the affliction zones and the Flying Stars calculator.