The Calamity Star

Five Yellow occupies the centre of the base Lo Shu grid and is treated in Xuan Kong flying star practice as the single most inauspicious of the nine stars in nearly every reading, associated with accident, financial loss, illness and general misfortune wherever its annual or monthly flight carries it. Unlike stars whose reputation depends heavily on which period is currently active, Five Yellow's difficult reputation is treated as close to constant, which is why guidance to avoid digging, renovation or major disturbance in its current sector is among the most widely repeated pieces of practical flying star advice, popular and classical alike.

The star's centrality in the base chart, rather than any specific period's rulership, is usually offered as the reason for its unusual severity: a star that starts at the pivot of the whole grid before flying outward is read as carrying a concentrated, undiluted form of earth energy that the system's other earth stars, which start from other positions, do not carry to the same degree.