Queen Elizabeth II’s BaZi: Geng Metal Born on a Kui Gang Day, Handed an Over-Heavy Seal

Elizabeth II reigned for seventy years, longer than any other British monarch. Her birth time is on official record, and the chart comes out as Bing-Yin, Ren-Chen, Geng-Chen, Ding-Chou. Her day pillar Geng-Chen and month pillar Ren-Chen are both “Kui Gang” (魁罡) in the traditional symbolic stars, and Resource (Earth) is so heavy that it fills nearly 40% of the chart and turns into the chart’s problem. In Chinese the word for Resource, yin, is also the word for an official seal, and an over-heavy seal is about as apt a metaphor for a crown as you could find.

Birth data

British Summer Time began on 18 April in 1926, so the clocks had already gone forward an hour when she was born. Taking off 60 minutes gives a true solar time of about 1:41. Even without the correction it would be 2:41; both fall in the Chou hour (1:00–3:00), so there is no dispute over the hour in this chart.

It is worth remembering that she was not born heir to the throne. Her father was the King’s second son, and the crown was not expected to reach her. Only when she was 10, when her uncle Edward VIII abdicated and her father became king, did she become first in line.

The Four Pillars and the Ten Gods

Our engine reads the chart as balanced, with a score of 0.419. What makes it unusual is how the favorable elements are chosen. Under ordinary support-and-restrain logic, a balanced-to-weak Geng Metal would want Earth (Resource) to feed it. But Earth already makes up about 39% of this chart, so much that it has become a burden. The tradition calls this “heavy Earth buries Metal”: when the soil is too thick the metal is buried and cannot shine. So the engine applies its “illness and remedy” rule, moving Earth from favorable to unfavorable and taking Wood to break up the soil. The favorable elements become Wood and Metal, and the unfavorable ones Fire and Earth.

Too much Resource: a seal that is too heavy

In BaZi, Resource (印, which also means “seal”) stands for protection, support, standing and responsibility, and traditionally it maps straight onto the official seal, the token of office and authority. For most people some Resource in the chart is a good thing: someone to back you, something to lean on. But too much of it becomes a weight: responsibility, rules, position and other people’s expectations, piled layer on layer.

The metaphor fits her remarkably well. She came to the throne at 25 and spent her whole life inside a role defined for her, with almost no room to choose. The qualities most often attributed to her are a sense of duty and a restraint that did not waver in seventy years. The seal gave her the position, and it also fixed her in place.

Kui Gang: two unyielding pillars

The four day pillars Geng-Chen, Ren-Chen, Geng-Xu and Ren-Xu are called Kui Gang in the traditional symbolic stars. The old books say people born on a Kui Gang day are tough, decisive and able to hold power, and they often add that Kui Gang “does not like to meet Wealth or Officer”. Her day pillar is Geng-Chen, and her month pillar Ren-Chen is Kui Gang too. Symbolic stars carry very little weight in this site’s readings and serve only as supporting reference (see the symbolic stars overview), but teachers of the art often use this match as an example, so we note it.

Luck pillars: taking the throne in a Direct Resource pillar

For a woman born in a yang year (the year stem Bing is yang), the luck pillars run backwards, starting at about age 6.

“fav / unfav” reads the stem first, then the branch: whether each one’s element is favorable (useful), unfavorable, or neither (neutral) for this chart.

1. From 1931 to 1950, the first two luck pillars are favorable in both stem and branch. In Xin-Mao and Geng-Yin, Metal is the companion that props up the Day Master and Wood is the remedy that loosens the Earth. In these twenty years she went from a princess not expected to reign to first in line, wife and mother; it was the stretch of her life in which she could still be herself. She married in 1947, a Ding-Hai year whose stem Ding Fire is her Direct Officer; in a woman’s chart tradition treats the Direct Officer as the husband star, so a wedding that year fits the classical rule.
2. The Ji-Chou luck pillar from 1951 is a Direct Resource pillar, unfavorable in both stem and branch. She took the throne in its second year. For a chart already overloaded with Resource, a Direct Resource pillar adds one more seal: what she was handed was precisely an over-heavy seal. It was also when she was youngest and least prepared to be pushed onto the throne.

Where it does not fit: an “annus horribilis” in a favorable pillar

In 1992 Windsor Castle caught fire, and in the same year the marriages of three of her children broke down or ended in separation. In her speech at the end of the year she called it, in Latin, her “annus horribilis”, the horrible year. By rights it ought to fall in an unfavorable pillar. In fact the opposite is true:

In 1992 her luck pillar, Yi-You, is favorable in both stem and branch, and the year pillar Ren-Shen carries nothing unfavorable either. 1997, a Ding-Chou year, is unfavorable in both stem and branch; that was the year Princess Diana died and the royal family was fiercely criticized for its slow response, so that year fits better.

For 1992 there are two possible readings. One is that the misfortunes of that year fell mainly on her children and hit the Day Master herself less hard than it seemed. The other is that a favorable luck pillar never promised every single year would go smoothly. We set out both, and admit plainly that by her own chart, this year does not fit.

Elizabeth II died in September 2022 at the age of 96. We do not use BaZi to discuss lifespan, and that holds for every chart in this series.

Compared with Marilyn Monroe: two Metals born the same year

The Bing-Yin year of 1926 produced another defining figure of the twentieth century: Marilyn Monroe, born on 1 June that year in Los Angeles (9:30 a.m. on her birth certificate). Both women happen to have a Metal Day Master:

In traditional imagery, Geng Metal is unpolished blades and ore, while Xin Metal is jewelry that has already been cut and polished. One was a monarch who wore the uniform and stood for the nation all her life; the other was a star surrounded by cameras and flashbulbs all her life. Two Metals, one hard and one soft, born in the same year. This is a comparison for interest, not a verdict on character.

Where does the chart miss her real life?

Zi Wei Dou Shu chart

The same birth time, cast in Zi Wei Dou Shu (San He school, the same engine as our Zi Wei chart tool, using the same true solar time as the BaZi chart above). BaZi weighs the five elements and what the chart favors; Zi Wei looks at which stars fall in which palace. The two systems ask different questions, so the Zi Wei chart is shown on its own first, followed by where it agrees and disagrees with the BaZi reading.

The gold frame is the Life Palace; the shaded palaces are its three-sides-and-four-directions (Wealth, Career, Travel). Solid badges are the birth-year transformations (Lu, Quan, Ke, Ji), red names are the six malefic stars, and the small word after a major star is its brightness.

Elizabeth II’s Life Palace holds Wu Qu and Qi Sha together (in the Mao palace): resolute, dutiful and decisive, the pairing of a wealth star with a general star. Interestingly, Zi Wei, the emperor star, is not in her Life Palace but in her Career Palace, alongside Po Jun. In Zi Wei’s own language: the throne was her job, not her personality. Set beside a balanced Geng Metal BaZi that favors Wood and Metal, both systems point to someone framed by duty and rules and held up by discipline. Where it does not fit is the Wealth Palace: Lian Zhen and Tan Lang, with Lian Zhen carrying the Ji transformation and both stars fallen, a combination the classics view cautiously for money. But her wealth belonged mostly to the Crown and the institution rather than coming from anything she ran herself, so this palace is hard to set against her real circumstances.

For school, leap-month and Zi-hour settings see the Zi Wei chart page; for how the two systems differ see BaZi vs Zi Wei Dou Shu. The hindsight warning applies here too: once you know the outcome, any star can be made to explain it.

Western astrology chart

The same moment of birth, cast as a Western natal chart (tropical zodiac, Placidus houses, the same engine as our natal chart tool). A natal chart uses the sky at the moment of birth, so it needs no true-solar-time correction, but it does need the latitude of the birthplace to fix the Ascendant and the houses. BaZi and Zi Wei are both derived from the Chinese calendar, while a natal chart computes planetary positions directly. Because the three systems start from different places, the chart is listed on its own below, followed by where it agrees with the BaZi and Zi Wei readings.

Capricorn rising, with Saturn as chart ruler. Saturn stands for responsibility, discipline and long-term burdens, so this is a chart that puts duty first; for a woman who took the throne at 25 and reigned for seventy years, it is hard to think of a closer fit. The Sun is at 0° Taurus, having crossed over from Aries only about 5 hours before she was born. Taurus values stability, tradition, land and tangible things. The Moon is in Leo in the 7th house: emotions that need dignity, placed in the house of relationships and the public. BaZi reads her as Geng Metal on a Kui Gang day, handed a Resource that is too heavy, which also describes a life boxed in by position. It agrees quite closely with the reading of a Capricorn Ascendant ruled by Saturn.

Domicile, exaltation, fall and detriment in brackets are the classical categories for how comfortably a planet works in a sign; they are not verdicts of good or bad. For how to read the big three, the ten planets and aspects, see rising sign, Moon sign, the ten planets and aspects. The hindsight warning applies here too: once you know the outcome, any sign can be made to explain it.

Do you have too little Resource, or too much?

The four pillars, Ten Gods, strength score and luck pillars on this page all come from the same engine as the chart on our home page. Enter your birth date to see how much Resource your chart holds, and whether it is support you can lean on or responsibility weighing you down.