Six White

Six White, the metal element star, is read as governing authority, leadership and institutional power, and is traditionally associated more strongly with men and with figures holding formal positions of command than the system's other broadly auspicious stars. Its position in an annual chart is a common recommendation for the location of an executive's office or a household head's primary work space, on the reasoning that occupying a Six White sector supports the exercise of legitimate authority rather than merely general prosperity.

The star ruled Period 6 under the standard twentieth century dating, and its influence is read as having been at its most direct and unmixed during that twenty year span, a pattern common to every numbered star in the system: strongest during its own ruling period, favourable but somewhat diminished immediately after, and progressively less central to practical readings as later periods and their own ruling stars take precedence in current forecasting.

Sources The Living Earth Manual of Feng-Shui: Chinese GeomancyStephen Skinner with Chinese Mathematical Astrology: Reaching Out to the StarsHo Peng Yoke

Six White's metal element places it in a productive relationship with the earth stars, Two Black, Five Yellow and Eight White, since earth produces metal in the Five Phase generative cycle, though the reading differs sharply depending on which earth star is involved: a pairing with the generally inauspicious Two Black or Five Yellow is read cautiously even though the elemental relationship is technically productive, while a pairing with Eight White, the recent period's prosperity star, is read as one of the more favourable combinations available in a contemporary chart.

This distinction, that a productive elemental relationship does not automatically mean a favourable combined reading once each star's own separate reputation is factored in, is one of the clearer illustrations of how Xuan Kong practice layers the Five Phase relationships between elements on top of, rather than in place of, each individual star's own established character.