癸亥 gui hai

癸 above, 亥 below

The stem and the branch carry the same element (Water), which is the most single-minded pairing in the cycle. Nothing here pulls in two directions.

Where 癸亥 sits in the five elements

Fire, Earth and Metal do not appear anywhere in this pillar.

Water leads at 87.5%, then wood at 12.5%.

What is buried inside 亥

亥 hides 2 stems. The primary is 壬 (Water), the same element as the stem; behind it sit 甲 (Wood, what the stem produces).

癸 meeting 亥: the 帝旺 stage

The twelve stages (十二長生): yang stems run forward, yin stems backward.

癸 meets 亥 at the 帝旺 stage — peak.

亥 against 巳, with 寅

Opposite across the cycle (六沖), and paired with (六合):

Clashes with

巳 (Snake) — 己巳

Combines with

寅 (Tiger) — 丙寅

Nayin: 大海水

Nayin (納音) groups the cycle in pairs, each with an image. This one shares its image with 壬戌: 大海水, “water of the great sea.”

How 癸亥 is conventionally read

癸 is water that arrives quietly: rain, mist, groundwater. 亥 is the water that gathers at the end and starts the next turn.

A water-element day master on a water footing — one of eight characters, which colours a chart and does not fix the person.

When the next 癸亥 days fall

The sixty-cycle repeats every sixty days, so this pillar returns roughly every two months. The next one is 15 December 2026 (Tuesday). Each is calculated at midday Beijing time; a birth in the hour before midnight can still belong to the previous 癸亥 day, because the day rolls at 23:00 true solar time.

Showing up to eight of the 6 occurrences in the next twelve months, from 2026-10-31.

癸 on six different footings

Six pillars carry this stem. It is the same day master every time, so everything that differs below is caused by the branch underneath it:

Here the footing is Water — the same element as the stem. The other five branches this stem sits on are 酉 (Metal), 未 (Earth), 巳 (Fire), 卯 (Wood), 丑 (Earth).