The 12 Stages of Life Cycle
Five Elements have their life cycle from birth to death. Each Element could meet 12 different zodiac animals during different periods. That derives each of Five Elements has 12 phases of life from the Chinese astrology perspective. That means the cycle of life has 12 stages from conception, fetus, birth ... to death, tomb and extinction. The name of each stage indicates the strength of the relationship between Five Elements and animals. It's easier to understand if you know Each animal contains different weights of the Five Elements.
Five Elements at the upper row of the Chinese astrology birth chart are called Heavenly Stem. Animal Signs at the lower row of the birth chart are called Earthly Branch. The Stem of the Day Column in the Birth Chart is called Day Master. Therefore, the strength of Day Master can breaks down into 12 stages - Conception, Breeding, Birth, Childhood, Adulthood, Career, Summit, Decline, Sickness, Death, Tomb, and Extinction. They just like the cycle of human life. You can see the 12 stages of the Life at 10-God Chinese Astrology Birth Chart. You might see them at 10-Year Major Cycles. Below are their names and symbols using on our website.
| Begin of a life - something just happen (Conception) | |
| Raise the fetus (Breeding) | |
| Give birth the new life (Birth) | |
| Go to school (Childhood) | |
| Become an adult (Adulthood) | |
| Find job and earn money (Career) | |
| Reach career highest position (Summit) | |
| Getting weak (Decline) | |
| Get sick (Sickness) | |
| Die (Death) | |
| The final home - Tomb (Grave) | |
| Become Nothing - Vanish (Extinction) |
These stage names come from the relationship between Stems and Branches in the following.
The 12 Branches can be the names of 12 months. It's a cycle of a year. Each stem has a different power level each month.
The 12 Branches can be the names of Chinese astrological cycles. The Day Master has different strengths in different cycles.
Therefore, the main purpose of 12 stages is to identify the power level of an element under the territory of an animal.
The sequence of the power level is . The first three are considered as a powerful group. The last four are the weakest group.
However, we don't have to count on 12 Life Cycle Stages, if you know what elements hiding inside the animals. It's more important to remember what stems in branches than 12 stages.
Where Do Chinese 12-Branch Symbols Come From?