How Energy Archetype calculates a Four Pillars chart

Local civil time to UTC

The entered wall-clock time is resolved through the supplied IANA time-zone identifier. JavaScript’s historical time-zone data handles the applicable UTC offset and daylight-saving rule. Nonexistent DST times are rejected; repeated times expose an earlier/later choice.

UTC to true solar time

The calculator adds approximately four minutes for every degree of birthplace longitude east of Greenwich and subtracts for west longitude. It then applies an equation-of-time approximation based on the date. In equivalent form:

apparent solar time = UTC + longitude × 4 minutes + equation of time

Solar year and month boundaries

The year changes at Li Chun, not Lunar New Year. The month pillar changes at the twelve Jie solar terms, computed from the Sun’s apparent ecliptic longitude. Charts close to a boundary receive a visible warning.

Day and hour pillars

The day pillar uses a Julian-day anchor checked against known sexagenary-cycle dates. The default day-boundary convention changes the day at the beginning of Zi hour (23:00); users may instead select civil midnight. The hour pillar is omitted when birth time is unknown.

Element balance and Day Master support

Visible stems and branch hidden stems receive disclosed editorial weights. Seasonal support is included. The resulting percentages make the report readable, but they are not presented as a universally standardized classical strength score.

Interpretation and timing

The report translates the Day Master, Ten Gods, selected branch interactions and major luck cycles into English reflection prompts. The Annual Blueprint adds the selected year pillar and twelve solar-month prompts. These are traditional symbolic interpretations, not statistical forecasts.