Luck Cycles and Yearly Luck: The Flow of Time

Luck Cycles: the big flow in 10-year units

A Luck Cycle (대운) is an energy that changes every 10 years. It is decided by moving one step at a time forward (순행) or backward (역행) from the month pillar (월주), the pillar of the birth month, in the order of the 60 gapja. If your birth chart is a car, a Luck Cycle can be likened to the road that car enters anew every 10 years.

Forward and backward

Men born in a yang year (the year stem is 甲 gap, 丙 byeong, 戊 mu, 庚 gyeong or 壬 im) and women born in a yin year (the year stem is 乙 eul, 丁 jeong, 己 gi, 辛 sin or 癸 gye) go forward, and the opposite go backward. This is why Halmeoni asks for gender. If gender is not chosen, the direction of the Luck Cycles cannot be set, so no Luck Cycle reading is given.

The age at which Luck Cycles begin

Count the days from the birth day to the next solar term (going forward) or the solar term just before (going backward), and divide by 3: this gives the age at which the first Luck Cycle starts. Three days count as one year. So the age at which the Luck Cycle changes differs from person to person, and even people born in the same year can have different Luck Cycle timing.

Yearly Luck: the energy that comes in each year

Each year the characters of that year come in, and this is called Yearly Luck (세운). For example, 2026 is the year of 丙午 (byeong-o) and 2027 the year of 丁未 (jeong-mi). If a Luck Cycle is the big season, Yearly Luck is closer to the weather within that season. The energy that comes in each month (monthly luck, 월운) can be looked at in the same way.

How is it read?

You look at whether the characters of the Luck Cycle and Yearly Luck combine with or clash with the characters of the birth chart, and whether the favourable element comes in. A time when the favourable element comes in is read as a time when things tend to go well, and a time with many clashes as a time of much change and movement.