What is the Yue De star?

Things that get stuck often end up loosened by someone; a fight, more often than not, can still be patched up. Yue De (Monthly Virtue) is about this blessing of "room to turn things around." It is a very light minor star, called the "Two Virtues" together with Tian De, and often read alongside Jie Shen and Nian Jie. To find out which palace Yue De falls in, draw your chart.

What kind of star is Yue De

Yue De is a helpful star of virtue and blessing: when you hit a hard patch there is often room to turn things around, there are often people around you willing to help, and you yourself tend to be generous at heart. Wang Tingzhi's table of minor stars says Yue De governs things turning for the better and governs "kindness," and he says Tian De leans toward the father and older men in the family, Yue De toward the mother and older women. It doesn't make that palace's affairs plain sailing; it's more like there being a way out in that palace when things get stuck.

How Yue De is placed: Xingge follows the Quan Shu's text

The verse for placing Tian De, Yue De and Jie Shen in volume two of the Zi Wei Dou Shu Quan Shu (The Complete Book of Zi Wei Dou Shu) says:

Tian De starts Zi at You and counts forward to the Tai Sui of the current year. Yue De starts Zi at Zi and counts forward to the Tai Sui of the current year.

By the text, Yue De starts the Zi year at the Zi palace and counts forward to the Tai Sui, so Yue De always lands in the cell with the same name as the year branch: in Zi for a Zi year, in Chou for a Chou year.

Xingge places it by this text: Yue De is in the palace of your birth-year branch. Most charting software on the market uses a different starting point, starting the Zi year at the Si palace (Si for a Zi year, Wu for a Chou year), so when you compare with other charts, Yue De may be five cells off. That's a difference of convention, not a charting error. Everyone agrees on the Tian De line; the difference is only in Yue De.

The text says "to the Tai Sui of the current year," which shows the ancients also used the Two Virtues to read the Annual Luck. On the natal chart, Xingge places them by the birth-year branch.

Not the same as Bazi's Yue De Gui Ren

Bazi also has a "Yue De Gui Ren" (Monthly Virtue Noble), which the San Ming Tong Hui, a Ming-dynasty classic of Bazi (Four Pillars), discusses in its chapter on Tian De and Yue De: it goes by birth month and points to a Heavenly Stem, which is a different system. The name is the same, but the calculation and use are different, so don't read them together.

Yue De in key palaces

• Life Palace: when you hit a hard patch, people or chance often help you through; keep goodwill in your heart, and the turn comes faster.
• Spouse Palace: after fights and rough patches in a relationship, you can usually make up. Talking it through works better than the silent treatment.
• Wealth Palace: when money can't be stretched for a while, there is often a way to work it out. Talk it over with someone first, and don't rush to cut your losses.
• Career Palace: when study or work gets stuck there is often room to turn it around, and someone often speaks up for you. Don't rush to give up; get through this stretch first.
• Fortune Palace: knots in your heart often come undone slowly on their own. When you feel low, just give it some time.
• Parents Palace: knots with elders mostly come undone. Giving way first costs you nothing, and the relationship warms again.

Reading Yue De with main stars, transformations and luck periods

• Hua Ji: Yue De is most often looked at when it shares a palace with Hua Ji. Hua Ji is where you can least let go and care the most; with Yue De beside it, practitioners often read it as that matter being able to get stuck, and also to come undone. The Hua Ji lesson has the full reading of Hua Ji.
• Challenging stars: when Yue De shares a palace with challenging stars like Qing Yang or Tuo Luo, their drive is still there, but there's a better chance of reining it in.
• Tian De and Jie Shen: with both Virtues in the same palace, or Jie Shen added too, the sense of turning things around is strongest.
• Annual Luck: the natal Yue De doesn't move with the Annual Luck. When the annual Life Palace reaches the Yue De cell, it can be read as a year when stuck things have more room to turn around, a good time to bring up knots you've been putting off.