BaZi Six Relations: One Thread for the Stars, One for the Palaces
"Can my chart show my bond with my parents?" "Will I harm my partner?" Family is the part of Chinese astrology most often used to frighten people. The classical method is actually two clear threads. The Ten Gods tell you in what form each relative appears in your chart, and the four pillar palaces tell you where in your life they sit. Read the two together and you see the shape of a relationship.
Thread one: the Ten Gods as family
Your Day Master (the Heavenly Stem of your birth day) stands for you. Each relative is matched to a Ten God through the producing and controlling cycles of the five elements. Parents and siblings are the same for men and women; spouse and children differ.
| Relative | Man's chart | Woman's chart | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mother | Direct Resource | Direct Resource | What produces me is Resource, and my mother gave birth to me |
| Father | Indirect Wealth | Indirect Wealth | The father is the mother's partner; what controls Resource is Wealth, so the father takes Indirect Wealth |
| Siblings | Friend, Rob Wealth | Friend, Rob Wealth | What shares my element is Peers |
| Spouse | Direct Wealth, Indirect Wealth | Direct Officer, Seven Killings | For a man, what I control is the wife; for a woman, what controls me is the husband |
| Children | Seven Killings, Direct Officer | Eating God, Hurting Officer | Man: what the wife (Wealth) produces is the Officer; woman: what I produce is Output |
Classical texts go further and separate brothers from sisters and sons from daughters, but the schools disagree on how, so we do not make that split.
Thread two: the four pillar palaces
| Palace | Who it stands for | Stage of life |
|---|---|---|
| Year pillar | Ancestors and elders; parents too | Childhood |
| Month pillar | Parents and siblings, the home you grew up in | Youth |
| Day branch | Spouse (the Day Stem is you) | Middle age |
| Hour pillar | Children and the younger generation | Later life |
The star says how a person shows up; the palace says where they sit. If the mother star, Direct Resource, appears in the month pillar, the mother's star is sitting in the Parents Palace, and her influence is usually easy to see. Clashes and combinations between the Spouse Palace (the Day Branch) and the other palaces are often used to read how the members of a family get along. More in the pillar palaces.
How we counted: our engine cast one chart for every day from 1960 to 2005, with the birth hour drawn by a fixed-seed random sample, 16,802 charts in all. This describes how chart structures are distributed; it says nothing about anyone's family.
Close to three people in ten have no Direct Resource in their chart, and one in four has no Indirect Wealth. If "no mother star means no bond with your mother" were true, one person in three would have no bond with their mother, which plainly does not hold. Whether a star is there speaks to how present that role is in the chart, not to whether the bond exists.
One chart, start to finish
A Bing Fire man: mother star out in the open, father star absent
Born March 18, 1985, You hour (5–7 p.m.)
- Mother: Direct Resource, Yi Wood, shows on the year stem, and Yi Wood also hides in the month branch Mao and the day branch Chen. Wood is one of his favorable elements. With the mother star visible on a stem and sitting in the month pillar, the Parents Palace, his mother is a very "visible" figure in his upbringing and most likely a source of support.
- Father: Indirect Wealth, Geng Metal, appears nowhere in the four pillars (the Metal in this chart is Xin, Direct Wealth, which is the spouse star). That does not mean he has no bond with his father. The father simply has a lighter presence in the chart: he may have been busy, or less expressive, or his role may only come to the fore in a particular luck pillar.
- Siblings: Rob Wealth, Ding Fire, shows on the hour stem, and Fire is also favorable, so siblings or friends are most likely a help.
- Palaces: the day branch Chen combines with the hour branch You, so the Spouse Palace and the Children Palace pull toward each other; a common reading is that after marriage the family's center of gravity tends to settle on the children. The month branch Mao and the day branch Chen form a harm, so small frictions between the family he grew up in and the family he makes are best talked through openly.
Look up your six relations: where each star sits, how the palaces interact
Enter your Gregorian birth date and sex (the spouse and children stars differ for men and women) to see where the stars for your parents, siblings, spouse and children sit in the Four Pillars, whether each is favorable, and how the pillar palaces clash or combine with your Spouse Palace. Everything is calculated in your browser; nothing is uploaded.
Uses your Gregorian birth date, with the day changing at 11 p.m. Without a birth hour, the hour pillar (the Children Palace) cannot be read.
Three common misunderstandings
No mother star (or father star) in my chart means no bond with that parent.
In our sample about 28.6% of people have no Direct Resource and 25.6% have no Indirect Wealth. Whether a star appears speaks to how present that role is in the chart, not to whether the bond exists; the palaces, luck pillars and annual pillars all bring that person back into the picture.
If a chart says it "harms the father," "harms the wife" or "harms the children," it will hurt my family.
The "harm" (ke) in classical texts is the controlling cycle of the five elements, a word for tension between two forces, such as Wealth controlling Resource or Peers controlling Wealth. Reading it as "who will get hurt" is the most common folk misreading and also the most hurtful one. We do not make claims of that kind.
To read family, one star is enough.
The same star reads differently depending on whether it shows on a stem or only hides in a branch, whether it is favorable or unfavorable, and which palace it sits in. Reading star, palace and favorability together gets much closer to real life.
Read on
A straight word: the six relations show the shape of a bond, not a verdict
In BaZi, the six relations describe how present a family member is in your chart, how the two of you tend to interact, and which issues that relationship is more likely to run into. A chart cannot tell you what kind of people your parents are, and it cannot decide whether you and your family will get along; that comes down to choices and effort on both sides. If you are facing a hard family situation, turn first to people you trust or to professional help. Everything on this site is for reference and entertainment.
Want an in-depth reading of each family bond?
The in-depth reading covers how you relate to your parents, siblings, spouse and children, what to watch for in each relationship, and which luck pillars bring family matters to the fore.
Six relations FAQ
How do you read family in a BaZi chart?
Read two threads together. The Ten Gods stand for each relative: Direct Resource is the mother, Indirect Wealth the father, Friend and Rob Wealth the siblings, and spouse and children differ for men and women. The four pillar palaces show where they sit: the year pillar for ancestors, the month pillar for parents and siblings, the day branch for the spouse, and the hour pillar for children.
Why is the father Indirect Wealth in BaZi?
Your mother gave birth to you, so she is Resource. Your father is your mother's partner, and in the five elements he is the side that controls Resource, which is Wealth. The classical rule assigns Indirect Wealth to the father.
Does having no mother star mean a weak bond with my mother?
No. In our sample close to three people in ten have no Direct Resource. Whether a star appears only reflects how present that role is in the chart; the palaces, luck pillars and annual pillars all bring that bond into play.
Is it true that a chart can "harm" parents or a spouse?
The "harm" (ke) in classical texts is the controlling cycle of the five elements, describing tension between forces, not someone getting hurt. Reading it as harm to family is a common misreading, and we do not make claims of that kind.
How do a man's and a woman's chart differ for family?
Parents and siblings are the same. Spouse and children differ: a man reads Wealth as his wife and the Officer stars as his children; a woman reads the Officer stars as her husband and the Output stars as her children.