What’s perhaps the most difficult thing in BaZi is identifying what the “Useful God” of the chart is. “Useful God” refers to the term 用神 (‘yong shen’) in BaZi where 申 (‘shen’) refers to the 10 ‘Gods’ we use in BaZi.
Each and every single chart will have its own “Useful God”, and perhaps one of the most challenging things in BaZi is to identify what the “Useful God” is. One would not be able to do any meaningful analysis of a chart without this piece of information.
Common Mistakes When Identifying The “Useful God”
The biggest and most prevalent mistake in analyzing BaZi is the presumption that a chart has more than one “Useful God”. This is completely incorrect.
BaZi hobbyists love to tend to assume that picking the “Useful God” is simply to pick the elements that either strengthen or weaken a chart’s Daymaster. In other words, when a Daymaster is strong, most would assume Wealth, Officer, or Output elements are the “Useful Gods”. On the flip side, when the Daymaster is weak, most would assume that the Peer/Companion or Resource ‘gods’ are the “Useful Gods”.
The above line of thinking and analysis is completely wrong and is often taught in BaZi beginner courses outside.
To approach BaZi thinking that a chart has multiple “Useful Gods” is completely wrong. Indeed, a BaZi chart usually welcomes at least two elements. Still, we do not regard both as “Useful Gods” because one of them would always be more essential and designated as the “critical element” that a BaZi chart needs. In contrast, the other beneficial element plays more of a supporting role.
Every Element Has Certain Criterias That Bring Out Its Best
I’ve emphasized repeatedly that BaZi analysis is never about just strengthening Weak Daymasters and weakening Strong Daymasters.
One has to have a very thorough understanding of each element and what brings out the best in that element. For example, what Yang Water generally requires for the best of Yang Water to manifest is completely different from what Yin Water needs; what Yang Metal and Yin Metal require to bring out their best side would also be different. The same goes for every other element.
Where Do We Find The “Useful God”
One mistake that I commonly see people making is that they pluck the “Useful God“ from nowhere. This is an extremely sloppy and incorrect way of analyzing and deciding what a BaZi chart needs.
The absolute pre-requisite of identifying a “Useful God” is that it needs to appear first and appear at the right place for it to be usable in the first place because if it’s not even useable or cannot be found, there’s no reason why it would be designated as a “Useful God”.
The Role Of The “Useful God”
This role of the “Useful God” is quite simple. It’s to balance the rectify the inherent flaws of the BaZi chart.
No BaZi chart is in the perfect state of balance, and this is the reality of nature. Every chart is always missing a certain something, or rather, something it needs is in a weak state. The role of the “Useful God” is to make up for this inherent flaw in every chart.
One aspect of BaZi analysis that doesn’t get spoken of a lot is that the state of one’s “Useful God” is different for everyone and it is the state of the “Useful God” that determines the quality and balance of the natal chart.
Types Of “Useful Gods”
The overarching role of the “Useful God” is to rectify the flaws and imbalances of a chart, but “Useful Gods” can achieve differently and can be classified under different categories:
- Mitigating Useful God (通关): This form of “Useful God” serves to prevent two elements who have a “clash” relationship from actually clashing with each other.
- Environmental Adjustment Useful God (调侯): This “Useful God” comes into the picture when we are talking about the seasons, particularly during summer and winter. It adjusts for the climate depicted in the chart so that the best side of a particular element can show.
- Supporting/Medicating Useful God (扶抑/病药): This is the most simple “Useful God” to understand as it just represents the element involved in the strengthening and weakening of the Daymaster.
At the end of the day, the choice of the “Useful God” is to be able to understand the interplay and flow of the elements and under what conditions the elements are in their best state.
When A “Useful God” Is Weak & Harmed
Not all “Useful Gods” are the same, and one of the key differentiators of a natal BaZi chart’s quality and so-called auspiciousness is the state of the “Useful God”.
Let’s take the below chart for example:
- The above Yang Metal chart is definitely on the strong side given that the chart-holder was born during autumn when Metal is the strongest. There are also a lot of Earth elements appearing in the natal chart that adds to Yang Metal’s strength.
- It’s a chart where the Daymaster needs weakening, and what we know is that the elements that can ‘weaken’ Metal would be Water, Wood, and Fire. But as I’ve discussed above, we do not designate these three elements as “Useful Gods”.
- We need to understand what brings out the best in Yang Metal, and the elements known to be able to do this would be Yang Wood (甲) and Yin Fire (丁). But the question that remains is which one do we use? The answer would be Yin Fire (丁), and it’s obvious because we don’t actually see any Yang Wood in the natal chart at all.
The big issue with the above chart is that although Yin Fire (丁) appears and it’s known to be one of the two elements that bring out the best in Yang Metal, Yin Fire is in a particularly bad state to do its job. I’ll explain:
- First and foremost, it’s not “rooted”, and it does not have what we call a 通根, which is another way of saying it’s in a weak, non-supported state.
- To say that it is “weak” is an understatement because Yin Fire (丁) here sits on the 丑 (‘chou’) Branch, which is its “Tomb” (墓) position, so Yin Fire is in an extremely weak state waiting to perish.
- Unfortunately, the Elemental Phases do not rectify the above flaws, so this is a chart where the “Useful God” appears a weak state in the natal chart and continues to stay weak through the majority of the chartholder’s life.
My point here is that the state of the “Useful God” is extremely important in BaZi. We need to know what’s going on in the natal chart first, then assess if the Elemental Phases/Luck Pillars alter their state.
I don’t think I have to say this, but when someone’s “Useful God” appears in a strong manner and continues to be strengthened and activated through their Elemental Phases, one can, of course, expect a lot of positive things happening in their lives. If the “Useful God” gets harmed, then of course, calamity follows.
It’s not easy to identify “Useful God” in one’s BaZi chart. The process is never that straightforward because we’ve I’ve not even spoken about Branch interactions and “Void Emptiness” (空亡) yet, but that’s for another time.
– Sean
