What does the Gap-Ja day pillar mean?

Gap-Ja (甲子) is Yang Wood over the Rat: the first pillar of the sixty: an upright, idealistic nature that learns easily and is well supported.

How do I know if Gap-Ja is my day pillar?

The day pillar comes from a sixty-day cycle and from true solar time at your birthplace, so it cannot be worked out from your birth year or zodiac animal. Calculate your chart: if the Day column shows 甲子, this is your pillar.

What is 甲子 called in Chinese BaZi?

Jia Zi. It is the same pillar. Korean Saju reads the characters as Gap-Ja and calls it Gapja ilju (갑자일주); BaZi sources write Jia Zi in pinyin.

Which life stage and void branches go with Gap-Ja?

On its own seat the Day Master is at the Bath stage (沐浴). The infant is washed: exposure, charm, instability. Associated with attraction and with youthful mistakes. The void branches for this pillar are 戌 Sul (Dog) and 亥 Hae (Pig). The strength of the whole chart depends mostly on the birth month, not on this stage alone.

甲子 Gap-Ja day pillar (Yang Wood Rat): meaning in Saju

The picture

Gap-Ja opens the cycle, and it has a beginner’s energy: curious, principled, eager to start. Yang Wood stands on Water, the element that feeds it, so this is a tree with its roots in a stream. Learning comes readily and so does help, often from the mother or a teacher. The water is winter water, though, and cold. Gap-Ja people can be slow to warm up, and they do their best when something, a goal or a person, brings warmth and gets them moving.

What the pillar is made of

Part	In Gap-Ja
Day Master	甲 Gap, Yang Wood
Day branch	子 Ja, the Rat
Hidden stems	癸 Gye: Direct Resource
Life stage	Bath 沐浴
Void branches	戌 Sul (Dog), 亥 Hae (Pig)
Stars it carries	Hyeonchim

The Day Master sits on the element that produces it, in the opposite polarity. Support is underfoot: a nurturing home, a caring partner, and a habit of thinking before acting.

These are the facts every Gap-Ja chart shares, whatever the other three pillars hold. They are taken from the same engine that calculates your chart.

Strengths

A quick, clean mind that absorbs what it is taught.
Principle: a clear sense of how things ought to be done.
The nerve to go first.

What to watch

Relying on support that has always been there.
Starting more than gets finished.
Sensitivity that is hidden behind a composed face.

In relationships

Gap-Ja looks for a partner who is steady and caring, someone to come home to. Affection is sincere but not showy, and it grows with time and familiarity.

At work

Study, teaching, research, planning and public roles suit this pillar. It is at its best opening a new field or a new project, with others to help carry it through.

A day pillar is one of four. Two people born on a Gap-Ja day in different months and hours have different charts: the season decides how strong the Day Master is, and the other pillars add their own ten gods and interactions. Read this page as the starting point, then look at the whole chart.

Gap-Ja day pillar