BaZi Essentials – Master Elements (Day Masters)

This is the second post in our BaZi Essentials series. The first one is here.

When it comes to BaZi, Master Elements (also known as ME or Day Masters) are the most known, and probably the easiest way to start analyzing a person. Master Elements are essential because they represent the central point of reference for analyzing the rest of the chart.

The basic character traits of Master Elements

We often hear people saying that they are unable to recognize themselves in the description of their Master Element; therefore they start to think that BaZi analysis is flawed. The thing is, human beings are extremely complex, and assuming that we could categorize each of us in one of those ten Master Elements is wrong right from the start.

For example, a Yang Fire Master Element is often described as a magnanimous type of person who likes to be in the center of attention. This description is correct if the Yang Fire is balanced and there are no excessive elements which could push chart towards extreme. If this Yang Fire person has an inordinate amount of Water element, public life might be quite hard for them, and they might act submissive, self-deprecating, which is quite the opposite of being magnanimous and craving for attention. In this case, a Yang Fire person might show a lot of Yang Water or Yin Water character traits, so those have to be incorporated as well.

When one reads the description of each Master Element, we have to take this information with a grain of salt and combine it with other layers of information, like Five Elements, Character Components, Talents, and Supertalents. Once we put these layers on top of each other, the picture gets more complex. These layers often contradict each other, and that is the beauty of BaZi. Humans are not black and white or two-dimensional, we often have character traits which are in total contradiction, all within one person. Understanding these contradictions and how they play out in real life is the key to successful chart analysis.

What we do at Talent Hero, we present all these information and then it’s up to each user to put the puzzle together, because no software can analyze the complexity of human character in its fullness, although, our goal is to bring it rather close 🙂

Weak vs strong Master Element

Another confusion which we often see is the emphasis on the strength of the Master Element. People naturally believe that Master Element should be strong and that a weak Master Element is not good. This kind of logic is not applicable to all Charts, and it often fails the reality test. Again, we have to look at the entire Chart and see is there good flow between Elements. We saw many great Charts where Master Element was fragile, but the rest of the Chart performed well, so the strength of ME became irrelevant. For example, Yang Metal and Yin Metal often work rather well without any support from Earth Element, because too much Earth might bury them, so they become useless.

A strong Master Element usually represents strong physical characteristics and ability to handle Wealth and Power, but if Master Element is unable to do this on its own, another part of the Chart might act as a replacement.

What we also have to consider are the combinations. If Master Element creates, for example, a direct combination with Wealth or Power Character Component, it might need less power to utilize it.

Combinations are a more elegant way to reach Wealth and Power because it usually means that the person has good connections, so people do things for them, without them being directly involved. For those people in high positions of power, chart connections are the key, without them, they might have a weak impact on people.

But that is another topic, combinations between Components will be covered in some other post.

Also published on Medium.