Relationships, not deities
Despite the name, the Ten Gods are not spirits. They are ten relationships a character can have with your Day Master, based on element and yin-yang. Same element is 'self'; the element you feed is 'talent'; the element you control is 'wealth'; the element that controls you is 'career'; the element that feeds you is 'learning'. Each of the five splits into two by polarity, giving ten.
The five families
Self — Friend (比肩) and Rival (劫財): peers, independence, competition, sharing what you own.
Talent — Output (食神) and Expression (傷官): craft, enjoyment, creativity, and the urge to break rules to make something new.
Wealth — Steady Wealth (正財) and Windfall (偏財): money that stays through salary and management, and money that moves through business and opportunity.
Career — Authority (正官) and Pressure (偏官): position and reputation, or challenge and discipline that earn authority the hard way.
Learning — Support (正印) and Insight (偏印): education and mentors, or unconventional learning and intuition.
Where a star sits matters
A wealth star in the day branch — the partner seat — reads as money managed close at hand, often through a spouse or household. The same star in the year pillar reads as money that came early or through family. In the month pillar it points to career income; in the hour pillar, to later-life assets. This is why two charts with the same stars can describe very different financial lives.
Hidden stems
Every Earthly Branch hides one to three Heavenly Stems inside it. The main hidden stem decides the branch's Ten God, but the minor ones add nuance. A branch that shows Career on the surface may hide a Wealth stem underneath — a job that quietly becomes a business. Our Ten Gods table lists the hidden stems for each pillar.