Annual Forecast

Annual Forecast (流年) is not a single chart but a composite reading of one year, layered from three sources: the Annual Advancement palace, which sets what the year is about; the twelve Monthly Advancement palaces, which locate events within the year; and the transiting Seven Regulators and Four Shadows moving through those palaces.

The forecast year turns over at Start of Spring (立春) — the solar term at which the Sun reaches 315 degrees of tropical longitude, falling on 3–5 February. This is a shared boundary: every native's forecast year begins at the same instant. The advancement layers beneath it are anchored to the individual instead, so the three layers do not all turn over together.

Because the monthly layer is included, an Annual Forecast can say which month a matter is likely to fall in, not merely that it falls somewhere in the year. That specificity is what makes the reading checkable after the fact.

The Annual Forecast is read against the natal chart, never instead of it. Where the two disagree — a natal chart unsuited to a line of work, a timing layer that supports it anyway — the answer is usually an adjustment rather than a refusal.