The Ten Gods: Which Group Each Reading Uses

Once the chart is cast, how do eight characters become a reading? Through the Ten Gods.

They are not deities. They are the ten possible relationships between the other characters and the day stem. The day stem stands for "me"; everything else is classified by the five-element relation and by whether the polarity matches.

The day stem is "me"; everything else is a relation

Five basic relations, each splitting in two:

• Same as me — Friend (same polarity), Rob Wealth (opposite)
• What I generate — Eating God (same), Hurting Officer (opposite)
• What I control — Indirect Wealth (same), Direct Wealth (opposite)
• What controls me — Seven Killings (same), Direct Officer (opposite)
• What generates me — Indirect Resource (same), Direct Resource (opposite)

An example: the day stem is Jia (yang Wood). Wood controls Earth, so Earth is Jia's wealth — Wu (yang Earth) matches polarity and is Indirect Wealth; Ji (yin Earth) does not and is Direct Wealth. Metal controls Wood, so Metal is the officer group: Geng is Seven Killings, Xin is Direct Officer.

Like repels like, so the opposite-polarity set (Direct Wealth, Direct Officer, Direct Resource) is traditionally read as the gentler one, while the matching set (Indirect Wealth, Seven Killings, Indirect Resource) is stronger and rougher.

Which group each reading uses

This site maps the Ten Gods onto six readings like this:

• Career reads Officer and Killings — the force that constrains you is also the force that can give you a position
• Wealth reads the Wealth star — what you can control and hold
• Love reads Wealth for a male chart, Officer for a female one, following the traditional assignment
• Health reads the Resource star — what generates you, what supports you
• People reads Friend and Rob Wealth — peers, and competitors
• Mind reads the Output stars — expression, talent, whatever you put out

So "how is my career tomorrow" is really asking: does tomorrow's pillar generate or control my officer group.

No god is good or bad in itself

This is the most common misreading. The same god means opposite things in different charts.

Plenty of Wealth does not mean money. In a weak chart it is a burden — there is nothing to carry it with. Seven Killings is not automatically bad either: with a strong day master and something to check it, Killings is authority; in a weak chart with nothing to check it, it is pressure.

What decides the reading is strength and balance, not the god itself. That is why this site does not simply count gods — it judges strength first, then asks whether the day's forces help or hurt the element the chart actually needs. See the five elements and day-master strength.

See it on your own chart

Enter your birth details and each of the six readings will name the Ten God group and element it drew on, so you can trace it against the table above.