Resting病

Resting is the seventh stage, where strength grows gentler still after Easing. The name comes from the part of the life story where old age leaves someone ailing, but what the stage depicts in this tradition is outward-reaching strength turning inward. What was gathered out in the world is now mulled over within, so the stage is consulted for empathy with other people's circumstances, a fine sensitivity, and knowing when to pause. It helps to think of it as a time when, with less strength to spend, the inner voice is heard more clearly than the noise outside.

• 病to fall sick, to ail (Korean reading: byeong)

A character for ailing: in the life story, the point where strength ebbs and someone takes to bed.

Resting is six seats from Sprouting, right after Easing, and the direction rule is the same as for every stage: forward for yang stems, backward for yin stems. Six seats around a ring of twelve lands on the far side, so the Resting branch sits directly opposite the Sprouting branch, a pair that pushes apart. Once you know a stem's Sprouting seat, its Resting seat is simply the branch across from it. For yang Water that means the Tiger, across from its Sprouting at the Monkey, and for yin Water the Rooster, across from the Rabbit.

This service does not treat a Resting seat as a marker of the body; it reads it as the place where the mind turns inward. It points to a gift for sensing what others are going through and to finding strength while sorting out thoughts somewhere quiet. Several Resting seats are taken as a hint to write rest into your schedule rather than carry everything alone. Without Resting, the first thing noticed is a push outward that does not tire easily.

A 壬 (Ren) Day Master reaches Resting at 寅 (Yin), which stands opposite its Sprouting branch 申 (Shen), and the two push apart. The same 寅 is the Standing seat for a 甲 (Jia) Day Master, so one branch can hold different stages for different stems.

• A common idea

  A Resting stage means a frail body or falling ill often.

  How we read it

  Some traditional readings do tie stages such as Resting and Stilling to health, which is where the worry comes from. This service does not read them that way; it separates Resting from the body and describes only a mind that turns inward.

• A common idea

  Many Resting seats make the whole chart low on strength.

  How we read it

  The Twelve Life Stages are only one of several references for gauging strength. Strength readings also weigh how many of each element there are and the month branch's season, so this service does not rate a chart by its count of Resting seats.