What is Tian De?

A chart may show two Tian De at once: one is a minor star, the other is the tenth of the Twelve Year Gods (Sui Qian). This article is about the Year God. It moves with the year and shows which palace that year is more likely to come back around when trouble hits. To find which palace this year's Tian De falls in, draw your chart.

What the Year God Tian De is: tenth in the set

Tian De (Heavenly Virtue) is tenth in the Twelve Year Gods, nine palaces on from Sui Jian, after Bai Hu and before Diao Ke. In a Zi year Tian De is in You, in a Chou year in Xu, and so on; in 2027, a Ding Wei year, it's in Chen.

In the Annual Luck, Sui Jian sits in the Annual Life Palace, and nine palaces on is the Annual Children Palace. Tian De also forms one trine with Hui Qi and Xiao Hao: when you feel low, or small sums slip away, there's often a door nearby that lets things turn around.

How it relates to the Tian De minor star

Volume two of the Zi Wei Dou Shu Quan Shu (The Complete Book of Zi Wei Dou Shu), in its verse for placing Tian De, Yue De and Jie Shen, describes the minor star:

The Tian De star starts the Zi year at You and counts forward to the annual Tai Sui.

Take the You palace as the Zi year and count forward to Tai Sui: in You for a Zi year, in Xu for a Chou year. Compare this with the Twelve Year Gods, and nine palaces on from Tai Sui is the same position. So:

• On the natal chart: the Tian De minor star is placed by the birth-year branch, and so is the Year God Tian De, so the two always share a palace.
• In the Annual Luck: the minor star stays put on the natal chart, while the Year God is placed again by the year's branch and moves elsewhere. The Quan Shu says "counts forward to the annual Tai Sui," which shows the ancients used Tian De to read the year in the first place; Xingge gives that job to the Year God.

The Tian De noble of Bazi (Four Pillars) goes by birth month, and the Tian De in the almanac is an auspicious spirit for choosing dates; neither belongs to the same system as these two.

What the Year God Tian De means, in plain words

A protective blessing: trouble often turns back around. Helping others helps you too. Tian De doesn't guarantee nothing goes wrong. It's more like leaving a door open in that palace: when you're stuck, a way out is easier to find. It and Long De are the two most comfortable gods in this set; Long De leans toward someone reaching out, Tian De toward things turning back around on their own.

Tian De in key palaces

• Life Palace: when you hit a hard spot this year, the turn often comes sooner than you'd think. Don't give up too early.
• Wealth Palace: when money is briefly tight, there's often a way to get through. First think whether there's another route.
• Career Palace: when work stalls, things often pick up again; a delayed project gets back on track. Get through this stretch first.
• Spouse Palace: after arguing or going cold, making up still comes fairly easily. Just talk it through.
• Children Palace: things involving younger people, students or your own creative work tend to take a good turn.
• Health Palace: when you're tired, it's easier to find a rhythm that restores you. Resting is recharging.

Natal and annual, read separately

The natal Year God Tian De shares a palace with the Tian De minor star. Xingge reads the minor star and doesn't repeat the Year God. Only in the Annual Luck is the Year God read: on the first day of each lunar year it moves one palace along with Tai Sui, and you can see it when you switch the chart to an Annual Luck. When a palace has both the Tian De minor star and the annual Tian De, Xingge's palace reading keeps only the minor star's line, so two labels with the same name don't leave you unsure which is which.