The Elder (Tian Liang, 天梁) in the Wealth palace (Cai Bo, 财帛)
The Wealth palace is about money coming in and going out. Shelter and protection; calms what is harsh. Open and unassuming.
What the classic says, Zi Wei Dou Shu Quan Shu (紫微斗数全书), volume two
Well off; well placed, wealth and standing of the first rank. Badly placed, money got by hard work, day to day. With the Blessing (天同), made from nothing and exceeding what was inherited. With the Strategist (天机), much effort for little, and a household built only after a change of course. With the six malefics, hard first and easier after — enough to live on.
天梁富足入庙上等富贵，陷宫辛勤求财度日，天同同白手生财胜祖，天机同劳心用力发财不多，更改方见成家，加羊陀火铃空劫，先难后易仅足度日。
“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.
How this placement actually turns up
- Well placed (exalted or strong) in 70% of those charts, badly placed (fallen) in 25%, in between the rest.
- Alone in the palace in 52%; sharing it with The Blessing (天同) 17%, The Strategist (天机) 16%, The Sun (太阳) 15%.
- Carries a birth-year transformation in 30%: Fortune (化禄) 9%, Power (化权) 9%, Merit (化科) 12%.
- 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: 32%; Earth Void or Earth Robbery (地空地劫) with it: 15%.
Counted by casting every day from 1950 to 2009 at each of the twelve hours — 262,980 charts, 8.3% of which have The Elder 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 Wealth palace those are Wellbeing (福德) opposite, and Career (官禄) and Self (命宫) in trine. Whatever stars sit there change what The Elder 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 Wealth 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 Elder in other palaces: Self · Spouse · Career · Property · Parents · Siblings · all twelve
Other stars in the Wealth palace: The Emperor · The Strategist · The Sun · The Iron · The Blessing · The Mystic · The Treasury · The Moon · The Wolf · The Voice · The Minister · The Disruptor