The Ten Gods in BaZi

The Ten Gods are the ten relationships between the Day Master and the other stems, set by element and polarity: the same element gives Friend and Rob Wealth, the element you produce gives Eating God and Hurting Officer, the element you control gives Wealth, the element that controls you gives Officer and Seven Killings, and the element that produces you gives Resource. Each is described below, with the traditional reading when it appears in a luck cycle or a year.

Friend

Rule: Same element, same polarity

Nature: Heavy Friend means a strong mind of one’s own and real independence — the habit of relying on oneself, disliking both owing favours and being managed. In partnership, watch for the deadlock where nobody yields, and keep money boundaries explicit with friends and siblings.

In a luck cycle: A decade of standing on your own among peers. Most calls will be yours to make, and situations involving collaboration, shared work and divided labour come up often; contact with friends and siblings is close. Set money boundaries with people in advance — joint capital and standing surety especially deserve something in writing.

In an annual year: Self-reliance and peers: your own calls, close contact with friends and siblings, and money boundaries worth stating plainly.

Rob Wealth

Rule: Same element, opposite polarity

Nature: Strong Rob Wealth means drive and a competitive streak — willing to fight for an opening, and widely connected. The recurring lesson is money that comes and goes, and a soft ear where loyalty is involved. Standing surety or putting capital into a partnership deserves particular care.

In a luck cycle: A competitive decade with plenty of drive, willingness to go after an opening, and a widening circle. Spending widens with it, and money proves hard to hold. Paying out or taking work on for the sake of loyalty is the recurring scene here, and it wants deliberate restraint.

In an annual year: Competition and outlay together — drive is there but so is spending; be careful with surety and joint capital.

Eating God

Rule: Produced by the Day Master, same polarity

Nature: Eating God governs good food, craft, and expression that comes easily. This person is broad-tempered, knows how to enjoy living, and shows talent without seeming to try, so goodwill follows naturally. The thing to guard against is comfort — too little push when push is needed.

In a luck cycle: A relatively unhurried decade, with room for talent and interest to find an outlet — good food, texture in daily life, and a good period for building on a specialism, writing, teaching or anything that gets performed outward. The risk is settling in too comfortably and moving a beat slow when push is called for.

In an annual year: A year of craft and good living, suited to showing a specialism and enjoying an interest; the pace is relatively easy.

Hurting Officer

Rule: Produced by the Day Master, opposite polarity

Nature: Strong Hurting Officer means visible cleverness, abundant talent and real expressive force, with no patience for mediocrity or being boxed in by rules. The same quality brings arrogance about ability and words that wound; relationships with superiors and elders need deliberate tending.

In a luck cycle: Talent shows, ideas multiply, and mediocrity grates — the decade most likely to produce real work and most likely to produce upheaval. Friction with superiors, elders and established rules increases, and words can turn against you. Spend the edge on the work rather than on the argument and the decade pays.

In an annual year: Ideas run fast and the edge shows; expect change and sharp words. Put the force into the work, not the argument.

Indirect Wealth

Rule: Controlled by the Day Master, same polarity

Nature: Indirect Wealth governs money in motion and a wide network. This person is generous, well-informed, quick to spot an opening and instinctive with numbers. The caution is frequent flow in and out: once the speculative impulse takes over, holding on gets forgotten.

In a luck cycle: A decade of live money, plentiful openings and a broad network — suited to work that moves: sales, trade, investment, cross-field collaboration. But flow runs both ways and gathers as easily as it scatters; once speculation takes hold, principal follows profit out the door. Holding needs more attention than getting.

In an annual year: Live money, plentiful openings, wide contact — take the moving opportunities, avoid speculating for a quick turn.

Direct Wealth

Rule: Controlled by the Day Master, opposite polarity

Nature: Direct Wealth governs steady income and a practical nature. This person is grounded, lives within means, takes family and duty seriously, and builds a solid life. Taken too far it becomes cautious and calculating, and the moment that called for risk goes by.

In a luck cycle: A decade on the practical, accumulating path — income steadies, and it suits buying property, saving, laying groundwork and settling life down. The pace is unhurried but solid. Do not spend this stretch waiting for an overnight turn.

In an annual year: A year of practical accumulation; income steadies, good for saving, property, and doing what is in hand thoroughly.

Seven Killings

Rule: Controls the Day Master, same polarity

Nature: Seven Killings is pressure — and the force pressure squeezes out of a person. This type acts decisively, carries hard campaigns and often performs better in adversity than in ease. But the temper runs quick and clashes come easily; health-wise, watch what sustained tension costs.

In a luck cycle: Pressure is unmistakable: much to do, weight to carry, and the sense of being pushed forward. But a Seven Killings decade is also the most tempering stretch there is, and carrying it through often changes the level a person operates at. Health and temper are the two things to watch — sustained tension exacts a price.

In an annual year: Pressure and responsibility rise and events push you forward; bearing it tempers you, but mind your health and temper.

Direct Officer

Rule: Controls the Day Master, opposite polarity

Nature: Direct Officer governs standing, discipline and a sense of duty. This person is self-regulating and rule-abiding, mindful of reputation and structure, and readily trusted and placed inside an organisation. Overweighted it binds the hands — everything sought whole and safe, with too little nerve to break out.

In a luck cycle: A decade weighted toward standing and rules, where position and recognition inside an organisation come more readily — good for promotion, examinations, credentials and formal responsibility. The constraint is felt just as strongly: everything goes by procedure, and attempts to break the mould meet walls.

In an annual year: Standing and rules: good for exams, promotion and credentials, though the constraint is felt just as much.

Indirect Resource

Rule: Produces the Day Master, same polarity

Nature: Indirect Resource governs the sideways kinds of knowing — intuition, metaphysics, craft, a specialism nobody else holds. This person thinks unusually and learns fast, but resists doing things in order. Socially somewhat apart, and prone to thinking much and doing little.

In a luck cycle: Thought turns inward — a decade suited to further study, digging into an out-of-the-way specialism, or learning a craft or discipline. Socially it runs cool, and thinking outruns doing. Indirect Resource also crowds out the Eating God, so a channel of expression that used to flow may be interrupted; expect it.

In an annual year: Suited to study, research and learning a craft; socially cool, and thinking tends to outrun doing.

Direct Resource

Rule: Produces the Day Master, opposite polarity

Nature: Direct Resource governs the mother, learning, and shelter. This person is generous in nature, values cultivation, gets on with elders, and works with something to lean on. Overly strong it breeds dependence and slow movement — waiting to be pushed rather than starting.

In a luck cycle: A sheltered decade with help from elders and mentors — good for study, qualifications, restoring health and repairing depleted reserves. It is a relatively protected stretch, but dependence and slowness creep in. Do not let "having backing" turn into waiting to be pushed.

In an annual year: A year of mentors and shelter, good for study, qualifications and restoring reserves; avoid leaning too heavily on others.