One of twenty crossings
The Tempered Blade
Steel taken glowing from the fire and put straight into cold water. The shock is the whole point — that is what makes it hold an edge.
Pressure early, precision after. The shock that should have cracked you is the reason you hold an edge.
Who lands here
This crossing belongs to anyone whose BaZi day master is metal and whose Sun stands in a sign of water. That is two day masters and three Sun signs — a narrow enough door that most people never walk through it, and a wide enough one that you are not alone in here.
- Day master
- 庚 Yang Metal · 辛 Yin Metal
- Crossing the bridge
- water → water
What the two skies do to each other
Your metal feeds the water it stands next to. You spend yourself on it.
That is two skies out of four. The other two — the main star of your Purple Star life palace, and the planet-star of the Thai day you were born into — are decided by the hour you were born, so neither is fixed by this crossing. They can nod, and they can argue. Most of the time at least one argues, and that is the part of a reading worth paying for.
How the crossing is decidedTwo ways to be the Tempered Blade
The crossing is decided by your day master's element, and that element arrives as one of two stems. Same device, two ways to stand in it.
Yang Metal (庚) is heavy steel in the quench, where the shock is violent and the shape holds for a lifetime. What happened early to you was not gentle and did not need to be.
Yin Metal (辛) takes the same quench thin. You came out with an edge that cuts cleaner than the axe and chips where the axe would only dent.
Which door you came through
Three Sun signs carry water across the bridge, and they do not arrive the same way.
Cancer Sun
A Cancer Sun was quenched by something at home. The shock came from the place that was supposed to be warm, and the edge held anyway.
Scorpio Sun
A Scorpio Sun took the deepest quench there is. Nothing surprises you now, and very little gets in.
Pisces Sun
A Pisces Sun was quenched slowly, in water that did not feel like water at the time. You hardened without ever locating the moment.
Asked about the Tempered Blade
- What is the quench in the Tempered Blade?
- Metal feeds water, so the skies agree — but agreement here is a shock rather than a comfort. Steel taken glowing and put straight into cold is how an edge is made to hold.
- Does early pressure damage a Tempered Blade?
- It hardens one. The reading is that the shock which should have cracked you is the same event that made the edge — and it does not ask you to be grateful for it.
The other metal crossings
Where else a water Sun lands
The Sun is only half of it. The same water Sun meets a different day master in each of these, and the device changes with it.
This is two skies. You have four.
Your birth date and place decide this much for free. The other two need your hour — the Purple Star chart and the day you were born into — and what all four of them add up to is the reading.
Find your crossing