Cast & Chart

Horse and Horse

These are traditional rules about the twelve signs. No chart decides a relationship.

The traditional relations

  • 自刑 Self-Punishment

    A branch the old tables list as punishing itself when doubled. The name is a label, not a forecast.

What tradition says

午 is on the short list of 自刑, Self-Punishment, so two Horses fall under it. The Sanming Tonghui stacks the fire group 寅午戌 on the row 巳午未, and the middle column pairs 午 with 午. Its other explanation observes that among 子, 午, 卯 and 酉 only 子 and 卯 punish each other, and 午 and 酉 are left unmatched. The Wuxing Dayi, citing Yi Feng in the Han history, files this under the saying that metal is hard and fire strong and each goes back to its home.

Energy and independence are what popular zodiac books give these two Horses, who love a good start and dislike being fenced in. Popular writers sometimes ask who stays home when both want to leave. The image of a branch punishing itself has no part in that question.

Independence works differently when both people want it at the same moment. How much time alone, and how much notice about plans, would each of you call reasonable? Numbers help here more than adjectives.

自刑 is technical vocabulary for the sign 午 meeting itself, and any two Horses will differ in ways a doubled branch cannot register.

Where this text comes from

The relation tables follow 五行大義 volume 2 and 三命通會 volumes 2 and 3 on Wikisource. The popular readings are modern and come from neither.

The English here is our own plain wording, not a translation of a single source.