Four Pillars
Enter your birth date and time to see your four pillars, five elements and luck cycles.
The sun sits differently depending on where you were born, which changes the hour pillar.
What the Four Pillars (BaZi) are
The Four Pillars of Destiny (Saju, or BaZi) turn your birth year, month, day and hour into eight characters — each pillar pairs one heavenly stem from the sky with one earthly branch from the earth. Four pillars with two characters each make up the eight. This free birth chart calculator reads the balance of the five elements — Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water — held in those eight characters to describe the direction of your natural energy.
How to read your chart — the four pillars and five elements
The year pillar points to your roots and ancestors, the month pillar to society and parents, the day pillar to yourself and your partner, and the hour pillar to children and later life. The heavenly stem of the day pillar is your Day Master, the main character of the chart, and whether the other characters support or restrain it sets the strength of each of the five elements. This calculator actually works out the solar terms and true solar time to build the four pillars.
Luck cycles — the ten-year flow
The ten-year luck cycles are the larger direction of fortune that shifts every ten years. Starting from your month pillar, they run forward or backward and line up a stem-and-branch pair for each stage of life. Seeing whether the element of the cycle you are passing through fills in what your chart lacks gives you a sense of the timing.
Frequently asked questions
What do I need to read my Four Pillars?
Just your birth year, month and day, and if possible the time and place you were born. If you don’t know the time, you can still read the other three pillars without the hour pillar.
Is it really free? Do I need to sign up?
It’s completely free and there is no sign-in. The birth date you enter is never sent to a server — it is calculated only inside your browser.
What if I don’t know my birth time?
Check “I don’t know the time” and the hour pillar is worked out provisionally from noon and marked as reference only. The year, month and day pillars, the five elements and the luck cycles stay exactly right.
Why do you ask where I was born?
The hour pillar depends on the sun’s real position, or true solar time. We adjust the time by the longitude of your birthplace to build a more accurate hour pillar.
Where are my results saved?
Nowhere. Every calculation happens only inside your browser and disappears when you close the window.
Fortune telling is for fun. What you see here is a calculation from traditional calendar rules and card symbolism — it does not tell you what will actually happen. For decisions about health, legal matters or money, please talk to a qualified professional.