Travelling Horse驛馬

Travelling Horse refers to the horses once kept at relay stations to carry news and people along the post roads. The picture of a horse that keeps moving instead of staying put was borrowed for charts, naming a nature marked by frequent motion and change of scene. Many present-day commentaries widen it from physical travel to a quick ease in new surroundings and a role that links several places together. This service follows that broader sense and uses the term to look at the range of your movement and the pace at which you move.

• 驛relay station (Korean reading: yeok)
• 馬horse (Korean reading: ma)

A post-station horse: movement that keeps running from one stage of a long road to the next.

As with Peach Blossom, both the year branch and the day branch act as bases, and the triple combination group of each is found. Travelling Horse is the branch squarely opposite the seat where that group's yang stem reaches Sprouting. That places it among the Tiger, Monkey, Snake, and Pig branches. It is sought in seats other than the base, and with no birth hour the hour branch is skipped.

A chart with Travelling Horse is read as a current that makes openings by moving rather than staying in one place. Many commentaries see a quick ease with unfamiliar people and places, and a talent for linking tasks as you go between them. Without it, your strength may lie in putting down roots and building depth. If Peach Blossom or Canopy shares the chart, the reading also asks where that movement leans.

Take 丁巳 (Ding Si) year, 癸卯 (Gui Mao) month, 辛未 (Xin Wei) day, and 壬辰 (Ren Chen) hour. The day branch 未 (Wei) belongs to the 亥卯未 (Hai Mao Wei) group, whose Travelling Horse branch is 巳 (Si). The year branch holds 巳, so the mark lands there, counted from the day branch.

• A common idea

  Travelling Horse means drifting from place to place all your life.

  How we read it

  The worry is left over from old readings that tied the mark to living far from home. This service does not say where you live or whether that changes; it describes a knack for catching change early.

• A common idea

  Travelling Horse means moving abroad.

  How we read it

  That is a comparison modern commentary likes, nothing more. The mark sets no direction or destination, so this service does not name places such as other countries.

The twelve-mark system keeps the same name and seat for Travelling Horse. A charting tool that uses only one of the year and day branches as a base, though, can differ from this service. A tool that checks the day branch alone drops any mark found from the year branch.