Tian Xiang in the Friends Palace: What Kind of Friends Surround You

Tian Xiang in the Friends Palace means your friends play by the rules and value goodwill; they know where the lines are and are glad to help each other out.

Friends, colleagues and team

People with Tian Xiang here have a fair, friendly circle, and there is often someone smoothing things over in the middle. The lesson is caring too much about surface harmony, so real grievances get pushed down.

• Your circle: Courteous friends who value goodwill.
• Colleagues and team: Colleagues and team members who follow the rules and are easy to work with.
• Network and mutual help: Friends help each other out, and favours are traded with a sense of proportion.

You and your circle: the Life and Friends Palaces

With Tian Xiang in the Friends Palace, the Life Palace star is not fixed: it can be Tian Ji, Tian Tong or Tai Yang, or the Life Palace can be empty.

With Tian Xiang in the Friends Palace, the Life Palace star changes with the branch; the table below lists it for each one.

Your work network: the Career and Friends Palaces

Counting one palace backward from Tian Xiang always lands on Ju Men, and the Career Palace always sits one palace backward from the Friends Palace, so with Tian Xiang in the Friends Palace the Career Palace always holds Ju Men: your circle sits right next to your work, and many of your connections grow out of it. Further reading: Ju Men in the Career Palace.

With Tian Xiang in the Friends Palace, the Siblings Palace always holds Po Jun and the Travel Palace always holds Tian Liang: the people closest to you are strong-willed and life with them keeps changing, while friends from outside know where the lines are.

Bright and fallen positions

When bright, friends are dependable and support each other. When fallen, you often find yourself caught between friends. Brightness by branch, from the table of the Complete Book this site uses: Exalted: Zi, Chou, Yin, Wu, Shen; Favorable: Chen, Si, Wei, Xu, Hai; Fallen: Mao, You.

Opposite the Friends Palace is the Siblings Palace (the Siblings–Friends axis: outsiders and your own people), and its trine is the Children and Parents Palaces; on either side sit the Career and Travel Palaces. The table shows the major stars of the Siblings, Life, Career and Travel Palaces for each of the twelve branches Tian Xiang can occupy in the Friends 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.

The six combinations

Lian Zhen with Tian Xiang (Zi or Wu)

Zi: Tian Xiang exalted, Lian Zhen neutral; Wu: Tian Xiang exalted, Lian Zhen neutral. Opposite Siblings: Po Jun; Life: Tian Ji; Career: Ju Men. About 18.0% of charts with Tian Xiang in the Friends Palace fall into this group.

Friends value principle and follow the rules. Watch for Tian Xiang being squeezed between a punishment star and a Ji: your relationships can be pulled around by outside events. Further reading: Lian Zhen in the Friends Palace.

Tian Xiang alone, facing Zi Wei and Po Jun (Chou or Wei)

Chou: Tian Xiang exalted; Wei: Tian Xiang favorable. Opposite Siblings: Zi Wei and Po Jun; Life: empty palace; Career: Ju Men. About 15.7% of charts with Tian Xiang in the Friends Palace fall into this group.

Friends from outside play by the rules; with Zi Wei and Po Jun in the Siblings Palace opposite, the people closest to you have firm views and are ready to change things. In Chou, Tian Xiang is exalted and friends are even more dependable.

Wu Qu with Tian Xiang (Yin or Shen)

Yin: Tian Xiang exalted, Wu Qu favorable; Shen: Tian Xiang exalted, Wu Qu favorable. Opposite Siblings: Po Jun; Life: empty palace; Career: Tian Tong and Ju Men. About 15.6% of charts with Tian Xiang in the Friends Palace fall into this group.

Friends are practical and principled, and working together is reliable; a very good combination for getting things done together. Further reading: Wu Qu in the Friends Palace.

Tian Xiang alone, facing Lian Zhen and Po Jun (Mao or You)

Mao: Tian Xiang fallen; You: Tian Xiang fallen. Opposite Siblings: Lian Zhen and Po Jun; Life: empty palace; Career: Tai Yang and Ju Men. About 17.1% of charts with Tian Xiang in the Friends Palace fall into this group.

Tian Xiang is fallen in Mao and You, so your relationships are easily disrupted by outside forces; with Lian Zhen and Po Jun in the Siblings Palace opposite, the people closest to you are strong-willed and changeable.

Zi Wei with Tian Xiang (Chen or Xu)

Chen: Tian Xiang favorable, Zi Wei favorable; Xu: Tian Xiang favorable, Zi Wei favorable. Opposite Siblings: Po Jun; Life: Tian Tong; Career: Tian Ji and Ju Men. About 17.1% of charts with Tian Xiang in the Friends Palace fall into this group.

Friends value rules and appearances, and things are done properly. In Chen and Xu, Heaven's Net and Earth's Snare, your network feels confined early on and becomes more mutually supportive over time. Further reading: Zi Wei in the Friends Palace.

Tian Xiang alone, facing Wu Qu and Po Jun (Si or Hai)

Si: Tian Xiang favorable; Hai: Tian Xiang favorable. Opposite Siblings: Wu Qu and Po Jun; Life: Tai Yang; Career: Ju Men. About 16.5% of charts with Tian Xiang in the Friends Palace fall into this group.

Friends from outside know where the lines are; with Wu Qu and Po Jun in the Siblings Palace opposite, the people closest to you are bold risk-takers and life with them changes more.

Birth-year transformations in the Friends Palace

Under the Four Transformations table of the Complete Book of Zi Wei Dou Shu, Tian Xiang never transforms, so Tian Xiang in the Friends Palace never carries a birth-year Hua Lu, Hua Quan, Hua Ke or Hua Ji of its own. For transformations in your friendships, look at any other star sharing the palace, at Lu Cun, and at the Siblings Palace opposite.

Friendship advice

Beyond keeping the peace, leave room for disagreement.

About 40.9% of charts with Tian Xiang in the Friends 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 Friends Palace usually show up as more friction and more differing opinions in your circle, which calls for firmer boundaries and more talking things through; they do not mean your friends are bad.

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 popularity or how reliable their friends are.

Other major stars in the Friends Palace