About fengshui.mom
A free card, a plain-language guide, and no catch.
Who we are
fengshui.mom is made by Napoleon Beltran, a writer and BaZi practitioner in Manila, Philippines, who publishes as Call Me Napoleon.
Feng Shui Mom is the name and the voice of the site: the relative who has read the almanac and tells you what it says without the drama. She is a voice, not a real person, and the site doesn't pretend otherwise.
We put Feng Shui on the front door because that is the word most people know. The card itself comes from BaZi, also called the Four Pillars, the part of Chinese metaphysics that starts from your birth date.
Why we made this
Ask around about Chinese astrology and most people can tell you their animal. Monkey. Rabbit. Dragon. For a lot of people, that is where it stops.
The animal is only a small part of a chart, and there is a much more personal part that takes ten seconds to look up: your Day Master. We wanted to give that away properly, with the calculation done right, and without a form to fill, a paywall, or a sales call.
The card is a gift, and it will stay one. It will not move behind a payment, and it will not change to sell you something else. I also do BaZi work elsewhere, and a small circle of supporters helps keep that work independent. If you'd like to hear about it, say hello. If not, nothing changes.
What you get
- A name for how you tend to work. One of ten Day Masters, worked out from your birth date, with a plain description of what it is like.
- A card to keep. Print it at 4 × 6, take a screenshot, or have a copy emailed. Put it in a wallet, on a desk, or on the fridge.
- A starting point. If you ever want to go further, you will know which question to ask and what a fuller reading looks at.
It won't predict your year, tell you who to marry, or replace a full reading.
Your animal is one of eight
In a BaZi chart, a birth is written as four pairs of characters, eight in all: year, month, day, and hour. The animal you know from the Chinese zodiac is one of those eight, the branch of the year pillar. It is a real part of the picture, and it is the part most people know because it is the part everyone can see.
Your Day Master is a different character: the top of the day pillar. Traditionally it stands for you, and the rest of the chart is read in relation to it. The animal belongs to the year you were born in. The Day Master belongs to you.
Knowing both gives a fuller picture than knowing either one alone.
One small catch. Most BaZi readers change the year at Li Chun, the start of spring in early February, and not at Lunar New Year. If you were born in January or early February, your BaZi animal may not be the one you grew up with. A full chart sorts that out.
A worked example: someone born February 9, 2021 grew up calling themselves a Rat, since Lunar New Year that year did not arrive until February 12. In BaZi terms they are already an Ox, since Li Chun had come on February 3. The card shows the BaZi year, and says so, right on it. If your birth date falls within a day of Li Chun, the exact time decides it, and the card tells you that instead of guessing.
How your card is worked out
Your Day Master comes from the day you were born. The Chinese calendar counts days in a repeating cycle of 60, and each day carries one of ten Heavenly Stems. The stem of your birth day is your Day Master.
The calculation runs in your browser, which is why your birth date never reaches us. We checked it against an established Chinese calendar library across every day from 1900 to 2100, 73,414 days, and it matched every time.
The "supporting element" on the card is a simple first look: the element that feeds yours in the five-element cycle. A full chart also weighs the season you were born in and the other pillars, so a full reading can land somewhere different.
What this isn't
It isn't fortune telling and it doesn't predict anything. It isn't medical, legal, or financial advice. It is a traditional way of describing temperament and habits, offered for reflection, and a starting point, not a full reading.
Get in touch
Questions, corrections, or something in the guide that doesn't sound right? Write to hello@fengshui.mom. Corrections from people who know the tradition are welcome.