癸 Gui — Yin Water
Gui is the tenth Heavenly Stem, Yin Water. If it's your day stem, BaZi sees you as rain and dew: intuition, gentleness and imagination.
Image
In the Di Tian Sui, the verse on the Gui stem begins: “癸水至弱，達於天津” — “Gui water is the weakest of all, yet it reaches the Heavenly Ford.”
Gui is rain, dew, mist: the finest of waters. It seeps into places that big water never reaches.
Personality
Gui means intuition, gentleness and imagination. Gui people quietly find their way into everything, sense moods and understand what's hidden. They are inventive, can find a non-obvious solution, and often know more than they say.
Strengths: intuition and sensitivity, imagination and inventiveness, gentleness and patience, the ability to understand what's hidden.
Weak points: absent-mindedness, a tendency to withdraw into themselves, insecurity and being at the mercy of their moods.
What Supports Gui
Rain needs something to nourish and somewhere to come from: wood gives it a purpose, metal a source. The Di Tian Sui says that Gui “comes alive with the Dragon” (the branch 辰) and “is troubled neither by fire and earth nor by metal”; combining with Wu earth when fire is present, it becomes fire itself.
Each element has its own season: wood is strongest in spring, fire in summer, metal in autumn, water in winter, and earth in the transitional months between the seasons. Tradition sees a Day Master born in its own season as confident, and one born out of season as needing support; how much this matters is decided by an analysis of the whole chart.
At Work and in Relationships
At work, Gui does well where intuition and subtlety matter: research, psychology, the arts, strategy, working with information. In relationships, Gui brings gentleness and understanding and values trust and quiet.
This is an image, not a verdict: the rest of the chart — the Ten Gods, the Luck Pillars, the balance of elements — can shift the picture considerably.
Frequently asked questions
Which stem does Gui combine with?
With Wu (戊, Yang Earth). This pair produces the Fire element. In a chart, it's a sign of attraction and alliance; if the Day Masters of two people form this pair, tradition sees a natural attraction between them.
Which stem does Gui clash with?
With Ding (丁, Yin Fire): the two stems stand opposite each other in the cycle, and the element of one suppresses the element of the other. In a chart, this is a conflict of goals between the areas of life of the two pillars.
Where can I find out what my Day Master is?
In the BaZi calculator: the Day Master is the stem of the day pillar, and it's marked separately in the chart table. You need your exact date of birth, and if you were born around midnight, your birth time as well.