The Ten Gods (Sipseong) — Companion, Output, Wealth, Officer & Resource Stars Explained

The Ten Gods (Sipseong, 十星) describe the relationship between your Day Master — the Heavenly Stem of your birth day, the character that stands for "you" — and every other character in your chart, sorted into ten roles. There are five basic relationships: is it the same as me, do I produce it, do I control it, does it control me, does it produce and support me? Each of the five splits in two by yin-yang polarity, giving ten. The Ten Gods aren't a score of good and bad. They're a map that shows where a person's natural temperament carries its weight.

How are the Ten Gods determined?

The Ten Gods aren't assigned by hand. They follow one standard rule: the producing-and-controlling (生克) cycle of the Five Elements, measured from your Day Master. Because it comes down to an exact rule, a generic AI chatbot that eyeballs a birth chart can hand you the wrong god; Gwiraedang works the relationship out deterministically with its own astronomy-based perpetual calendar (Ten-Thousand-Year calendar) engine. Within the same relationship, matching yin-yang polarity gives the "Indirect" (偏) god and differing polarity gives the "Direct" (正) god — so each of the five groups splits into two, ten in all.

Companion stars (比劫) — the element that is the same as me: Friend (比肩) and Rob Wealth (劫財). This is the strength of "the self" — the seat of independence, drive, competitiveness, and camaraderie.
Output stars (食傷) — the element I produce (生): Eating God (食神) and Hurting Officer (傷官). The seat of expression, creativity, and productivity — bringing what's inside out into the world.
Wealth stars (財星) — the element I control (克): Indirect Wealth (偏財) and Direct Wealth (正財). The seat of practicality and the knack for working money, people, and resources.
Officer stars (官星) — the element that controls me (克): Seven Killings / Indirect Officer (偏官) and Direct Officer (正官). The seat of responsibility, discipline, social role, and self-management.
Resource stars (印星) — the element that produces and supports me (生): Indirect Resource (偏印) and Direct Resource (正印). The seat of receptivity, learning, being cared for, and reflection.

If you want to get a feel for the producing-and-controlling cycle first, start with the Five Elements guide — it makes the Ten Gods far easier to read. The "you" at the center (the Day Master) is covered in depth in the Heavenly Stems guide, and the birth-day pillar where that Day Master sits is unpacked in the Day Pillar guide.

What does it mean when one star stands out?

When many characters from a single group gather in a chart, that grain shows up strongly in the person. Just remember: "a lot" doesn't mean "good" or "bad" — it means "pronounced."

Strong Companion stars — a firm sense of self and steady drive. You draw strength from deciding for yourself and standing shoulder to shoulder with your peers (too much can tip into stubbornness or rivalry).
Strong Output stars — expression and creativity shine. You come alive when you can put things into words, writing, or work (sometimes your words run ahead of you).
Strong Wealth stars — a sharp sense of reality and follow-through. You're good at securing what's needed and keeping it in motion (you can lose sight of rest or ideals).
Strong Officer stars — solid responsibility and self-discipline. You take rules and duty seriously (you can be hard on yourself).
Strong Resource stars — a large capacity to learn, consider, and hold others. Thoughtful, with a supportive heart (long thinking can slow you to act).

If you want to go deeper into each group's character, strengths, and balance point, Gwiraedang's Ten Gods reference breaks it down group by group. A group being absent has its own grain too, so we never pin a person down from a single group. And because the Ten Gods surface differently across your Luck Pillars from one period to the next, reading them alongside which current you're passing through now gives a more three-dimensional picture.

FAQ

What's the difference between "Direct" (正) and "Indirect" (偏) in the Ten Gods? Within the same producing-or-controlling relationship, differing yin-yang polarity from the Day Master gives a "Direct" god, and matching polarity gives an "Indirect" god. For example, among the elements you control (克), the one of opposite polarity is Direct Wealth and the one of matching polarity is Indirect Wealth. "Direct" (正) reads as a composed, steady grain and "Indirect" (偏) as a lively, wide-ranging one — but neither is better than the other. They simply have different uses.

Can the Ten Gods alone tell me everything about my personality? No. The Ten Gods are an important axis for reading a chart, but not the whole of it. The grain only comes into focus when you read them together with other clues — the nature of your Day Master, the distribution of the Five Elements, and the symbolic stars. And please keep in mind that Saju itself isn't a tool for revealing a fixed fate. It's a reference for understanding your natural temperament and reflecting on yourself, and a Saju glossary can help whenever a term trips you up.

The Ten Gods in Saju aren't a divination that pins down fortune and misfortune — they're a reference for understanding where the weight of your own temperament rests.