Doors

Self
Self

Mệnh: Your physical traits, personality, abilities

Mệnh: Your physical traits, personality, abilities

Parents
Parents

Phụ Mẫu: Your biological, adoptive, or step-parents; their relationships to each other and to you; their life circumstances

Phụ Mẫu: Your biological, adoptive, or step-parents; their relationships to each other and to you; their life circumstances

Karma
Karma

Phúc Đức: "Thriving through virtue" or the extent to which you can reap blessings your forebears have sown

Phúc Đức: "Thriving through virtue" or the extent to which you can reap blessings your forebears have sown

Property
Property

Điền Trạch: The means by which you acquire material things – through inheritance, hard work, or theft; the likelihood that they will last

Điền Trạch: The means by which you acquire material things – through inheritance, hard work, or theft; the likelihood that they will last

Career
Career

Quan Lộc: Your vocation, career, and the power or fame that may come with it

Quan Lộc: Your vocation, career, and the power or fame that may come with it

Friends
Friends

Nô Bộc: Your network of friends, peers, and subordinates

Nô Bộc: Your network of friends, peers, and subordinates

Travel
Travel

Thiên Di: Not just travels, but your relationship with the universe

Thiên Di: Not just travels, but your relationship with the universe

Health
Health

Giải Ách: Your predisposition to illnesses and recovery from them

Giải Ách: Your predisposition to illnesses and recovery from them

Finance
Finance

Tài Bạch: Your attitude toward money and how you accumulate it – a marker of your real contribution to society

Tài Bạch: Your attitude toward money and how you accumulate it – a marker of your real contribution to society

Children
Children

Tử Tức: Biological, adoptive, or step-children; the younger generation to whom you are a mentor

Tử Tức: Biological, adoptive, or step-children; the younger generation to whom you are a mentor

Spouse
Spouse

Phu Thê: Flings, dry-runs, life partnerships

Phu Thê: Flings, dry-runs, life partnerships

Siblings
Siblings

Huynh Đệ: Biological, adoptive, and step-siblings; friends you hold closer than kin

Huynh Đệ: Biological, adoptive, and step-siblings; friends you hold closer than kin

(Photos by Emci)

Lá số tử vi is an astrological chart that consists of twelve cung (“houses”), populated with major and minor constellations.

The placement of the first house, cung Mệnh (“self”), is determined using the birth month and birth hour. The remaining eleven houses follow clockwise: Phụ Mẫu (“parents”); Phúc Đức (“karma”); Điền Trạch (“property”); Quan Lộc (“career”); Nô Bộc (“friends”); Thiên Di (“travel”); Giải Ách (“health”); Tài Bạch (“finance”); Tử Tức (“children”); Phu Thê (“spouse”); Huynh Đệ (“siblings”).

The rules for placing the constellations vary. Some depend on the birth year, month, day, or hour; some on the placement of other constellations.

An individual’s “lot in life” is suggested by a thirteenth house, Thân, which can overlay one of six houses: Self, karma, career, travel, finance, or spouse. The rule for its placement also uses the birth month and birth hour. A bootstrap puller-upper’s chart would presumably show Thân overlaying Mệnh.

The practice of comparing astrological charts to check a couple’s compatibility has been sensibly replaced by getting-to-know-you questions that cover the same gamut. At least one couple has reported bringing an armload of questionnaires to their first road trip for two, thereby making the most out of a make-or-break relationship test.

When food is shared, are you the one divvying it up or the one choosing?   ▲   What transgressions do you consider unforgivable?   ▲   Do you own a safe?   ▲   You have a coughing fit; do you immediately think allergy… cold… pneumonia?   ▲   Is a group of six an intimate get-together or a crowd?   ▲   What do you and your siblings fight about?   ▲   You can pick only one out of three: Would you do something you love, something you’re good at, or something that pays well?   ▲   Rent or buy?