DAY PILLAR · TWELVE DAY OFFICERS · TWELVE DAY GODS
The Almanac
What the Chinese tradition of date selection says about today — and what it says about you.
Today
8
Sunday, November 8, 2026
Lunar month 9, day 30
九月三十
DAY PILLAR
Yang Fire Dog
丙戌
Yang Fire Horse yearYin Earth Pig month
Solar month · Start of Winter
Days to the next solar term, Minor Snow: 14
Day officer
Close · Hold back
Day god
Golden Chest
Clashes
Dragon
Direction to avoid
North
Sound element
Earth on the Roof
Lunar mansion
Star · Sun Horse
Shutting. Read as sealing something so it holds.
Record yourself in your account, and this sheet also marks the days that concern you: those that clash with your own animal, and those whose branch agrees with yours.
Suits
- Sealing and repair
- Building embankments and walls
- 1 more for subscribers
Avoid
- Opening for business
- Seeking treatment
Yellow Path. Associated with wealth kept rather than spent.
This month's new moon fell within minutes of midnight in Beijing, so the day it belongs to — and every lunar date after it this month — could be off by one. We would rather say so than print a date we cannot stand behind.
The month at a glance
Every day of the month with its officer and its god, so you can see the shape of the weeks rather than check one day at a time.
The other undertakings come with a subscription. About the subscription →
The rest of the month is part of the subscription · Today is free, always.
The word on each day is its grade, from the old rhyme that sorts the twelve day officers into four: Good (Remove, Danger, Settle, Hold), Fair (Complete, Open), Poor (Establish, Full, Level, Receive) and Avoid (Break, Close). On a wider screen, the day's officer is printed under its grade. With an undertaking chosen, each day answers that instead: Yes, OK or No.
- Yellow Path day: the god in charge is one of the six favorable ones
- Black Path day: one of the other six
The twelve hours
Open this sectionCloseThe Chinese day has twelve two-hour periods, each named for an animal. The same twelve gods that govern the days govern these hours, counted from the day's own branch instead of the month's. Six hours are Yellow Path and six Black Path every day; that split is built into the system, not a judgment about your afternoon.
The twelve hours
Open this sectionClose17:00–18:59
Heavenly Virtue
Clashes Rabbit
The hour it is now is free. The other eleven — each with its god, its verdict and the animal it clashes with — come with a subscription.
The day's portents
Open this sectionClosePortents are the named spirits, favorable and unfavorable, that an almanac lists against each day. We give six, each worked out by a rule we can state and have checked. A printed almanac carries dozens more; the rest are missing because we could not find a way to derive them that we could verify, and a portent we cannot show our work for is only a confident-sounding guess. This page does not make those.
The day's portents
Open this sectionClosePortents on this day: 0 of the six we calculate. Which ones they are, and what each means, come with a subscription.
Peng Zu's cautions, and the fetal spirit
Open this sectionCloseThe two oldest layers on this sheet: Peng Zu's cautions, one line for the day's stem and one for its branch, quoted rather than rewritten; and the two objects the fetal spirit, which watches over an unborn child, is said to occupy today. They are traditional cautions, not medical advice: medicine, treatment and care never wait for a date.
Peng Zu's cautions, and the fetal spirit
Open this sectionClosePeng Zu's cautions
On a Yang Fire day, do not rebuild the stove — trouble follows it.
On a Dog day, do not eat dog — it comes back to haunt the bed.
One line for the day's stem and one for its branch, quoted as they stand. They are the oldest and bluntest layer here, and we have not modernized the wording.
Fetal spirit
the kitchen stove · the roost
In a house where somebody is pregnant, tradition asks that nothing be struck or moved where the fetal spirit sits. Printed almanacs add a compass position to this from a sixty-day table we have not verified, so we give the two objects and stop there.
Share today's sheet
A square picture of the sheet above, to post wherever you like. It shows the date, the lunar date, the day pillar, the day officer, the clash and the directions of the three gods — all worked out from the calendar, with nothing about you on it.
Opens your phone's share sheet with the picture attached — WeChat, Instagram, Messages, whatever you have installed.
The rest of the almanac, read for you personally, comes with a subscription
A printed almanac tells everyone the same thing. This one already knows your Kua number, your four good directions and your animal sign, so it can tell you which of these days clash with you.
- The whole month, not just today
- Whether the day clashes with you
- Matched to your own good directions
- Choosing a date for something specific
- Your clash days, seen in advance
DAY PILLAR · TWELVE DAY OFFICERS · TWELVE DAY GODS
Every line above is calculated, not copied. The day pillar comes from the sixty-day cycle, counted without a break. The day officer, one of twelve in a fixed cycle, comes from the day's branch set against the branch of the solar month. The day god, one of twelve, comes from the classical rule for where the Green Dragon starts; six of the twelve are Yellow Path gods, which are favorable, and six are Black Path. What the day suits and what it should avoid are what the officer and the god traditionally indicate, in our own words. A printed almanac works from several hundred portent rules that we do not reproduce, so where it differs from us, it is using more layers, not better arithmetic.
This is a record of what the tradition prescribes. It is not a forecast, and nothing here can tell you how a day will go.
Haven't worked out your Kua number yet? Start with the personal reading →