Reference · the 24 mountains

Twenty-four sectors of fifteen degrees.

The eight directions are what a reader needs; the twenty-four are what a practitioner reads. Each of the eight is cut into three, and every compass method — the facing of a house, the sitting, the annual afflictions, the Flying Star chart — is taken on this ring and not on the eight.

The names come from three older sets and none of them was made for a compass: the twelve earthly branches, which are also the twelve animals and the double hours; eight of the ten heavenly stems, the two earth stems being held back for the centre; and the four corner trigrams. Order and elements as Skinner gives them. The luopan essay draws the ring and explains how a bearing is taken; the eight directions are the same circle read more coarsely. Which of these sectors the current year sits in, and which three the year’s killings cover, is on the year page.

Print this page