I'm confused on personal element. I'm born in 1972, one of the FS practitioner said I'm water life and is used for FS analysis. If i use the 4 pillar, I find my personal element is weak fire. What presonal element should I use?

Dear Anon,
It is very common for FS practitioners to apply basic Ba Zi.
Most commonly, depending on the FS practitioners and their methods, usually, out of convenience or simplicity, some may simply use:-
1. Year of birth
2. Month of birth
It depends on the practitioner. Some look at Year only, some look at month only some look at year, month, day and time.
It is always prudent to ask the FS practitioner what level of analysis are doing for you.
Some practitioners may apply Year, Month, Day and Time but this does not mean that all practise or sue same methods.
The better FS practitioners would apply Year, Month, Day, Time and House of Life and House of Conception.
This is becase each `pillar' e.g. Year has an additonal two elements each e.g. Heavenly stem and earthly branch.
When 1 pillar = 2 variables, and if there are 6 pillars (Year, month, day, time, Life and Conception) the variables analysed will come out to 12 variables.
When this is provided, a more accurate analysis can be done as concepts like double, triple combinations can be compared. The more variables there are, the more, double, triple combinations.
However, as mentioned, 1972 is the considered as the Year of the Water-Rat. This is very very basic Ba zi or kindergarten Ba Zi.
Overall, here, one is also concerned about element and it's strength. And a Year analysis as `Water-rat' does no help for a person.
In your example, the `Year pillar' consist of Water (Heavenly stem variable) and Rat (Earthly branch variable).
In my opinion, it does not tell anything but pure basic information of just the Year element.
In my opinion, this type of Ba zi, should not considered as it is unaccurate and misleading.
Warmest Regards,
Cecil

Quote

On 4/30/2002 2:19:00 AM, Anonymous wrote:
I'm confused on personal
element. I'm born in 1972, one
of the FS practitioner said
I'm water life and is used for
FS analysis. If i use the 4
pillar, I find my personal
element is weak fire. What
presonal element should I use?