The General (Qi Sha, 七杀) in the Career palace (Guan Lu, 官禄)
The Career palace is about work and standing. Command and discipline. Acts alone; big wins and big losses.
What the classic says, Zi Wei Dou Shu Quan Shu (紫微斗数全书), volume two
Well placed, distinguished in military office and of no small authority; not suited to a civil man. With the Iron (武曲), authority and standing; with the Mystic (廉贞), merit and prominence.
七杀庙旺武职峥嵘权贵非小，不宜文人，武曲同权贵，廉贞同功名显达。
“Well placed” and “badly placed” refer to the star’s brightness in the branch the palace falls on: the same star in the same palace reads differently bright and dim, and the clause says how.
And in the chapter of questions on the stars (Zhu Xing Wen Da Lun, 諸星問答論)
well placed in office, calamity turns to good fortune
在官祿得地，化禍為祥
How this placement actually turns up
- Well placed (exalted or strong) in 84% of those charts, badly placed (fallen) in 0%, in between the rest.
- Alone in the palace in 50%; sharing it with The Mystic (廉贞) 17%, The Iron (武曲) 17%, The Emperor (紫微) 16%.
- How often the conditions the classic’s line names actually occur — one of the four difficult stars (擎羊陀罗火星铃星) in the palace with it: 31%; one of the six helper stars (左辅右弼文昌文曲天魁天钺) with it: 41%.
Counted by casting every day from 1950 to 2009 at each of the twelve hours — 262,980 charts, 8.3% of which have The General here (every main star sits in every palace in about one chart in twelve). A count, not a reading.
Never read alone
Zi Wei reads a palace together with the one opposite it and the two in trine. For the Career palace those are Spouse (夫妻) opposite, and Self (命宫) and Wealth (财帛) in trine. Whatever stars sit there change what The General means here — which is why a page like this one can only give the classic’s line, and your own chart has to give the rest.
If a transformation lands on it
- Fortune (化禄): eases it and finds gain inside it — the star still does what it does, but smoothly and to some profit
- Power (化权): intensifies it and puts you in charge of it — more of the star, and more of it under your hand
- Merit (化科): makes it visible and gives it a name — the star's workings become something you are known for
- Trouble (化忌): sharpens it and makes it cost — the star's difficulty is where the chart puts its weight
What each transformation does to a star is this site’s reading, not a line from the classic.
Which star is in your own Career palace?
That needs your birth hour and place. The hour is corrected to true solar time, using the clock your birthplace actually kept that year.
The General in other palaces: Self · Spouse · Parents · Siblings · all twelve
Other stars in the Career palace: The Emperor · The Strategist · The Sun · The Iron · The Blessing · The Mystic · The Treasury · The Moon · The Wolf · The Voice · The Minister · The Elder · The Disruptor