What the Water 2 · Empty Palace type is like
A Water 2 empty-palace type is like a very still lake: whatever stands on the far shore, the surface reflects. Spend some time with them and you may find that the version of you they reflect is clearer than the one you see yourself.
Empty Palace meets the Water 2 Bureau
When the Life Palace has no main star, a reading borrows the stars from the palace directly opposite, the Travel Palace. It is a way of reading: the star is not actually in the Life Palace, and its brightness is taken from the opposite palace too. A Water 2 empty palace most often borrows Zi Wei with Tan Lang or Tian Ji with Tai Yin, about 11% each, the two most concentrated borrowings of any bureau; in all, about 27% borrow Tan Lang, also the highest share of the five. Tai Yin is Water, and Tan Lang's body is Water, the same element as the Water 2 Bureau, water reflecting water. That makes this type especially good at absorbing their surroundings, naturally bringing out the side that suits whoever they are with. The Life Palace most often falls in You or Shen, about 30% between them.
Work and money
Their great strength at work is reading the room. In a new team they quickly work out who really makes the decisions, which rules are written on paper and which live in people's heads. That suits them to work that means understanding very different settings: overseas postings, cross-cultural teams, customer experience research, on-site consulting. With money their spending habits tend to shift with the people around them. A savings rate that does not change with the setting gives the lake a water level of its own, however much the surface reflects.
Love and getting along
In love they are a partner who becomes the shape of the two of you. With someone who loves hiking, they start buying boots; with someone who loves exhibitions, weekends are spent in galleries. The commitment is genuine. They need a partner who is curious about what they liked to begin with, rather than simply enjoying being reflected. In each relationship they can also keep one or two things they would carry on doing with or without the other person.
When things get stuck
Reflect for long enough and a lake forgets what its own bed looks like. They blend in so well that they play a different self in each circle, which gets tiring, and they can lose track of which one feels most comfortable. Keeping some time with nobody else around, and asking “what do I want to do when no one is watching?”, helps. That answer is what the lakebed looks like.
The rhythm of the 10-year periods
Water 2 enters its first life period at age 2 (counted the traditional way), and that period is the empty Life Palace itself. For ten years they get to know themselves through the borrowed stars across the way, watching how adults, siblings and the people around them do things. This type often says their personality was collected bit by bit: a little learned here, a little there, until it all came together into something entirely their own. The first change comes at 12, then 22 and 32; each new palace has different main stars, and what they collect changes with it.
For the full picture of this persona, see Empty Palace · The Traveler.
Where it comes from in Purple Star Astrology
In this type the Life Palace has no main star. That is called an Empty Palace, read by borrowing the stars of the opposite palace; Xingge calls this persona the Traveler.
The bureau is the Water 2 Bureau. The Five Elements Bureau comes from the Nayin of your Life Palace stem and branch; it places the Zi Wei star on the chart and sets the age your first 10-year period starts, which is 2 for this bureau. No bureau is better than another; Xingge reads it as a flavour of the same persona.
Across 8,158 charts of this type:
- Life Palace branch
- You 15.5%, Shen 14.5%, Yin 12.7%, Wei 11.8%, Chou 11%, Mao 10.9%
- Life Palace stars
- borrows Zi Wei + Tan Lang 10.9%, borrows Tian Ji + Tai Yin 10.9%, borrows Lian Zhen + Tan Lang 9.1%, borrows Tian Tong + Tian Liang 9.1%, borrows Tai Yang + Tai Yin 8.2%, borrows Tian Ji + Ju Men 8.2%
What is the Five Elements Bureau ›Find my bureau ›Empty Palace ›
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Empty Palace in the other bureaus
Other personas in the Water 2 Bureau
Famous people of the Empty Palace persona
FAQ
Does an empty Life Palace mean having no personality?
No. An empty-palace personality grows by absorption: the borrowed stars across the way give the base colour, and the surroundings add the rest. A Water 2 empty palace absorbs especially strongly, so people often call them easy to be around and able to get along with anyone. It is not that they lack views; the shape of their views adjusts to the setting. Ask them seriously and you will get a very clear answer.
For a Water 2 empty palace, what is the difference between borrowing Zi Wei and Tan Lang and borrowing Tian Ji and Tai Yin?
Those who borrow Zi Wei and Tan Lang have a more outgoing base, enjoy a lively crowd and lift the mood; their Life Palace is in Mao or You. Those who borrow Tian Ji and Tai Yin have a more delicate base, watching and thinking a lot; their Life Palace is in Yin or Shen. Each accounts for about 11% in this bureau. Borrowed stars usually act more gently than a main star sitting in the Life Palace, so reading them as tendencies rather than fixed traits is more accurate.
How common is the Water 2 · Empty Palace type?
Out of 262,980 charts cast for every day and every two-hour period from 1950–2009, 8,158 have Empty Palace leading the Life Palace and the Water 2 Bureau: about 3.1%, roughly 1 in 32 people. Every day and hour is counted equally, so this is not the actual birth distribution of a population.
Why can two people born on the same day be different types?
Where your Life Palace falls depends on your birth month and birth hour, and your Five Elements Bureau comes from the stem and branch of that palace. So on the same day, one two-hour period later moves the Life Palace by one, and the main star and bureau can both change. The twelve hours of a single day usually produce several different types.
What is the Five Elements Bureau?
The Five Elements Bureau is the Nayin element of your Life Palace stem and branch: Water 2, Wood 3, Metal 4, Earth 5 or Fire 6. The number places the Zi Wei star on the chart and is also the age your first 10-year period begins (2 for Water, 6 for Fire). A bigger number is not better or worse; Xingge reads the element as a flavour of the same persona.
How is this different from MBTI?
MBTI comes from a questionnaire about how you see yourself. An Xingge type comes from your birth date and time, with nothing to answer, and the same birth details always give the same type. They work well side by side: MBTI describes your current habits, the chart describes your underlying nature and the rhythm of your life.
Which type do I get if my Life Palace has two main stars?
When two main stars share the Life Palace, the one listed first (in the order of the Zi Wei and Tian Fu star groups) sets the persona, the same as on your chart page. A Life Palace with no main star is the Empty Palace: the Traveler.
A type looks only at the Life Palace and the bureau: the roughest outline of a chart. People of the same type differ in the Body Palace, the surrounding palaces and the transformations.