Tian Fu in the Travel Palace: Who You Are Once You Step Out the Door

Tian Fu in the Travel Palace means that out in the world you are steady, dependable and measured, and you come across as trustworthy. Away from home you are good at holding a situation together, and you tend to build up resources in other places.

How you come across out in the world

With Tian Fu in the Travel Palace, the Life Palace opposite is always Qi Sha: by nature you are driven and ready to fight for things, yet out in the world you come across as steady and cautious. It is a classic "hard inside, steady outside": outsiders see Tian Fu, and only the people close to you know there is Qi Sha underneath.

• Public image: Out in the world you come across as steady, dependable and gracious.
• Life away from home: You suit running, managing and consolidating things away from home, or building a career in a large organisation's regional branch.
• Opportunities and lessons: Opportunities come from your credibility and what you have built up; the lesson is being too cautious in the world and missing opportunities that come with change.

Life and Travel on one line: the Life Palace always holds Qi Sha

With Tian Fu in the Travel Palace, the Life Palace opposite always holds Qi Sha (Tian Fu and Qi Sha always sit opposite each other), so the situation of an empty Life Palace borrowing from the Travel Palace never arises. Further reading: Qi Sha in the Life Palace.

Travel, Spouse and Mind: the outer you, love and your inner life are tied together

With Tian Fu in the Travel Palace, the Life Palace always holds Qi Sha and the Spouse Palace always holds Tian Xiang: driven by nature, steady in the world, and in love you value rules and trust. The Mind Palace star is not fixed.

Bright and fallen positions

When bright, you are trusted out in the world, build up resources, and life away from home is secure. In a favorable position you are just as steady but the stage is smaller; with Di Kong or Di Jie, things look steady from outside but are tight in reality. Brightness by branch, from the table of the Complete Book this site uses: Exalted: Zi, Chou, Yin, Chen, Wei, Xu; Strong: Wu, You; Favorable: Mao, Si, Shen, Hai.

The Travel Palace's four-way set is the Life Palace (opposite), the Spouse Palace and the Mind Palace: who you are out in the world is the other face of your nature, and it is tied to love and to inner contentment. The table shows the major stars of these palaces for each of the twelve branches Tian Fu can occupy in the Travel Palace.

"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. People with an empty Life Palace borrow the Travel Palace.

The six combinations

Wu Qu with Tian Fu (Zi or Wu)

Zi: Tian Fu exalted, Wu Qu strong; Wu: Tian Fu strong, Wu Qu strong. Opposite Life: Qi Sha; Spouse: Zi Wei and Tian Xiang; Mind: Lian Zhen. About 17.2% of charts with Tian Fu in the Travel Palace fall into this group.

Out in the world you are practical and steady, good at earning and at keeping, and money comes to you away from home. The Life Palace opposite holds Qi Sha: driven by nature, yet very steady in public. Further reading: Wu Qu in the Travel Palace.

Tian Fu alone, facing Lian Zhen and Qi Sha (Chou or Wei)

Chou: Tian Fu exalted; Wei: Tian Fu exalted. Opposite Life: Lian Zhen and Qi Sha; Spouse: Tian Xiang; Mind: empty palace. About 16.6% of charts with Tian Fu in the Travel Palace fall into this group.

Tian Fu is exalted in Chou and Wei, so out in the world you are steady and trusted; by nature (Life Palace) you are Lian Zhen with Qi Sha, fierce and driven.

Zi Wei with Tian Fu (Yin or Shen)

Yin: Tian Fu exalted, Zi Wei strong; Shen: Tian Fu favorable, Zi Wei strong. Opposite Life: Qi Sha; Spouse: Lian Zhen and Tian Xiang; Mind: Wu Qu. About 18.3% of charts with Tian Fu in the Travel Palace fall into this group.

Out in the world you have presence and weight, and people see you as someone who can hold things together. The Life Palace opposite holds Qi Sha: driven by nature yet rock-steady on the outside, the classic "hard inside, steady outside". Further reading: Zi Wei in the Travel Palace.

Tian Fu alone, facing Wu Qu and Qi Sha (Mao or You)

Mao: Tian Fu favorable; You: Tian Fu strong. Opposite Life: Wu Qu and Qi Sha; Spouse: Tian Xiang; Mind: empty palace. About 16.9% of charts with Tian Fu in the Travel Palace fall into this group.

Out in the world you are steady and dependable; by nature (Life Palace) you are Wu Qu with Qi Sha, fierce and decisive. Hard inside, steady outside; in You, Tian Fu is strong and you are even more effective out in the world.

Lian Zhen with Tian Fu (Chen or Xu)

Chen: Tian Fu exalted, Lian Zhen fair; Xu: Tian Fu exalted, Lian Zhen fair. Opposite Life: Qi Sha; Spouse: Wu Qu and Tian Xiang; Mind: Zi Wei. About 15.0% of charts with Tian Fu in the Travel Palace fall into this group.

Out in the world you are shrewd, steady and skilful, and come across as dependable. The Life Palace opposite holds Qi Sha: driven by nature, yet good at holding back in public. Further reading: Lian Zhen in the Travel Palace.

Tian Fu alone, facing Zi Wei and Qi Sha (Si or Hai)

Si: Tian Fu favorable; Hai: Tian Fu favorable. Opposite Life: Zi Wei and Qi Sha; Spouse: Tian Xiang; Mind: empty palace. About 16.0% of charts with Tian Fu in the Travel Palace fall into this group.

Out in the world you have the air of a general and can carry the load; by nature (Life Palace) you are Zi Wei with Qi Sha, forceful and bold.

Birth-year transformations in the Travel Palace

Under the Four Transformations table of the Complete Book of Zi Wei Dou Shu, Tian Fu never transforms, so Tian Fu in the Travel Palace never carries a birth-year Hua Lu, Hua Quan, Hua Ke or Hua Ji of its own. For transformations in how you fare out in the world, look at any other star sharing the palace, at the Life Palace opposite, and at the Spouse and Mind Palaces in its trine.

Advice for life away from home

Steady outside and hard inside is a strength, but let the people close to you know what you really think, so your outward calm does not turn into distance.

About 39.7% of charts with Tian Fu in the Travel Palace also have at least one of the six Sha stars in that palace, about the same as the 42.4% across all charts. Malefic stars in the Travel Palace usually show up as more competition, more rushing around or more friction with people out in the world; they do not mean something will go wrong when you go out.

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 luck away from home.

Other major stars in the Travel Palace