Nurturing養

Nurturing is the last of the twelve stages, the time of being raised in the mother's arms while getting ready to enter the world. In Korean the stage is read yang, but its character means to raise and feed, so it is a different word from the yang of yin and yang. The strength that formed in Conceiving takes shape under care, and in the next seat it is born again as Sprouting, closing the circle. The stage is consulted for the patience to build skill while sheltered, gratitude for help received, and a willingness to wait for the right moment.

• 養to raise, to nourish (Korean reading: yang)

Feeding and caring for someone as they grow: the time spent in the arms before birth.

Nurturing is eleven seats from Sprouting, which makes it the seat right before Sprouting comes round again and the circle closes. A yang stem, moving in branch order, meets it one branch earlier than its Sprouting seat, while a yin stem, moving in reverse, meets it one branch later. Along with Dressing, Easing, and Storing, Nurturing is found on one of the four Earth branches for every stem. So yang Wood meets it at the Dog, just before the Pig, and yin Wood at the Goat, just after the Horse.

From a Nurturing seat the reading draws a picture of accepting support while building skill calmly. It is seen as the patience to allow a long season of learning, with the added note that once you feel ready, stepping forward boldly is worth it. Several Nurturing seats suggest easing reliance on others' help bit by bit. A chart without the stage points to an independence that clears its own path from the start.

A 庚 (Geng) Day Master meets Nurturing at 辰 (Chen), the branch just before its Sprouting seat 巳 (Si). The yin stem 癸 (Gui) runs backward and reaches the same 辰 just after its Sprouting branch 卯 (Mao).

• A common idea

  Nurturing is the yang of yin and yang, so it is a bright, lively seat.

  How we read it

  The mix-up comes from the matching sound of the Korean reading. The yang of this stage means to raise, so it has no link to polarity; as this service counts them, yin stems and yang stems alike each have one Nurturing seat.

• A common idea

  As the last stage, Nurturing stands for wrapping things up.

  How we read it

  It sits last in the table only by position. Sprouting follows right after it in the sequence, so this service reads it as the stage of getting ready to step out, not as a finish.