Five Element Balance
How the four heavenly stems of your chart fall across Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water — plus the ten-year luck cycles that follow.
The hour you enter is local clock time; the timezone converts it. If you do not know the hour, 12:00 gives a correct year, month and day pillar — only the hour pillar will be wrong.
What the count does and does not tell you
A count of the four stems is the simplest reading available and the one most often over-interpreted. Two or three of one element and none of another looks decisive; in the classical method it is the least of the inputs, because the relationships between the elements matter more than the tally.
Wood generates Fire, Fire generates Earth, Earth generates Metal, Metal generates Water, Water generates Wood. Wood overcomes Earth, Earth overcomes Water, Water overcomes Fire, Fire overcomes Metal, Metal overcomes Wood. The five elements →
Why this counts stems only
Each earthly branch also contains hidden stems, counted by a separate set of rules. Sites that mix the two produce different numbers for the same chart — which is why one calculator says you are short on Water and another says you are full of it. This one counts the four stems and says so.