Tan Lang in the Mind Palace: What You Really Need Inside

With Tan Lang in the Mind Palace, your inner self is full of desires and wide-ranging interests; you know how to enjoy yourself and you need novelty. Your happiness comes from experience: eating, playing, learning, loving.

Your inner world

With Tan Lang in the Mind Palace, the Life Palace always holds Tian Fu: steady and security-minded on the outside, yet full of things you want to try on the inside. Call it "steady outside, restless inside": people think you play it safe, but there is a fire burning in you the whole time.

• What you need inside: You need novelty, experiences and fun.
• How you enjoy life: Good food, travel, art, socialising, trying all kinds of new things.
• Under pressure: Under pressure you tend to relieve stress through pleasure or spending.

Outside and inside: the Life and Mind Palaces

When Tan Lang is in the Mind Palace, the Life Palace always holds Tian Fu: steady and cautious on the outside, yet inside you crave experience and novelty.

This is built into the chart: counting two palaces backward from Tan Lang always lands on Tian Fu, and the Life Palace always sits two palaces backward from the Mind Palace. Further reading: Tian Fu in the Life Palace.

The Wealth–Mind axis and the Travel–Spouse–Mind triad

Opposite the Mind Palace is the Wealth Palace: the Wealth Palace shows how you earn, the Mind Palace shows your state of mind and what you enjoy, and that is what decides how the money gets spent. Its triad is the Travel and Spouse Palaces, so your inner needs are tied to how you come across in the world and how you love. When Tan Lang is in the Mind Palace, the Travel Palace always holds Qi Sha and the Spouse Palace always holds Po Jun, because the Sha-Po-Lang trio always forms a triad. Out in the world you are driven, in love you want change, and inside you want fun.

Bright and fallen positions

When bright, you know how to enjoy yourself, your interests are varied and your life is colourful. When fallen, your desires are hard to rein in and you can overindulge. Brightness by branch, from the table of the Complete Book this site uses: Exalted: Chou, Chen, Wei, Xu; Strong: Zi, Wu; Fair: Mao, You; Neutral: Yin, Shen; Fallen: Si, Hai.

"Empty palace" means the palace has none of the fourteen major stars; in that case you read it through the stars of the opposite palace.

The six combinations

Tan Lang alone, facing Zi Wei (Zi or Wu)

Zi: Tan Lang strong; Wu: Tan Lang strong. Opposite (Wealth): Zi Wei; Life: Lian Zhen and Tian Fu. About 13.1% of charts with Tan Lang in the Mind Palace fall into this group.

Full of desires and fond of enjoyment; with Zi Wei opposite in the Wealth Palace, you spend on taste and a bit of show.

Wu Qu with Tan Lang (Chou or Wei)

Chou: Tan Lang exalted, Wu Qu exalted; Wei: Tan Lang exalted, Wu Qu exalted. Opposite (Wealth): empty palace; Life: Tian Fu. About 16.9% of charts with Tan Lang in the Mind Palace fall into this group.

You have desire and ambition inside, and you enjoy achievement and material pleasures. Classical texts say this pairing "does not bloom in youth": the feeling of contentment tends to arrive after middle age. Further reading: Wu Qu in the Mind Palace.

Tan Lang alone, facing Lian Zhen (Yin or Shen)

Yin: Tan Lang neutral; Shen: Tan Lang neutral. Opposite (Wealth): Lian Zhen; Life: Wu Qu and Tian Fu. About 17.2% of charts with Tan Lang in the Mind Palace fall into this group.

Full of desires and interests; with Lian Zhen opposite in the Wealth Palace, money often goes on social obligations and matters of the heart.

Zi Wei with Tan Lang (Mao or You)

Mao: Tan Lang fair, Zi Wei strong; You: Tan Lang fair, Zi Wei strong. Opposite (Wealth): empty palace; Life: Tian Fu. About 17.7% of charts with Tan Lang in the Mind Palace fall into this group.

Inside you are full of desires and know how to enjoy yourself, seeking pleasures and social life with taste. Classical texts call this pairing "romance troubling the ruler"; in the Mind Palace it is a reminder to enjoy yourself in moderation. Further reading: Zi Wei in the Mind Palace.

Tan Lang alone, facing Wu Qu (Chen or Xu)

Chen: Tan Lang exalted; Xu: Tan Lang exalted. Opposite (Wealth): Wu Qu; Life: Zi Wei and Tian Fu. About 18.0% of charts with Tan Lang in the Mind Palace fall into this group.

Tan Lang is bright in Chen and Xu, so you are passionate and full of wants; with Wu Qu opposite in the Wealth Palace, you earn practically and hold on to money, so you can afford your pleasures.

Lian Zhen with Tan Lang (Si or Hai)

Si: Tan Lang fallen, Lian Zhen fallen; Hai: Tan Lang fallen, Lian Zhen fallen. Opposite (Wealth): empty palace; Life: Tian Fu. About 17.2% of charts with Tan Lang in the Mind Palace fall into this group.

Both your desires and your feelings run very strong: you enjoy life and can also overindulge. Both stars are fallen in Si and Hai, so self-discipline is the key to inner calm. Further reading: Lian Zhen in the Mind Palace.

Birth-year transformations in the Mind Palace

• Tan Lang with Hua Lu (born in a Wu year): For people born in a Wu year, Tan Lang takes Hua Lu in the Mind Palace: you know how to enjoy life and get plenty of chances to, so your life is colourful. In our sample, about 9.4% of charts with Tan Lang in the Mind Palace carry the birth-year Hua Lu.
• Tan Lang with Hua Quan (born in a Ji year): For people born in a Ji year, Tan Lang takes Hua Quan in the Mind Palace: you go after what you want with ambition and actively seek out enjoyment. In our sample, about 8.6% of charts with Tan Lang in the Mind Palace carry the birth-year Hua Quan.
• Tan Lang with Hua Ji (born in a Gui year): For people born in a Gui year, Tan Lang takes Hua Ji in the Mind Palace: your desires and attachments settle on pleasure, and you can overindulge. Set clear limits for yourself. In our sample, about 11.8% of charts with Tan Lang in the Mind Palace carry the birth-year Hua Ji.

Finding your balance

Give your enjoyment a rhythm: put the things you want to do in your calendar instead of acting on every whim.

About 40.8% of charts with Tan Lang in the Mind Palace also have at least one of the six Sha stars in that palace, about the same as the 42.1% across all charts. Malefic stars in the Mind Palace usually show up as a busy mind that finds it hard to switch off, so you need a few more ways of looking after yourself; they do not mean you are unhappy.

What our sample shows

How we counted: this site’s engine cast one Zi Wei chart for every day from 1960 to 2005 (birth hour drawn by a fixed-seed random sample), 16,802 charts in all. These figures describe how chart structures are distributed; they do not measure anyone’s good fortune.

Other major stars in the Mind Palace