Void and the Horse: Two Small Marks That Shape the Whole Reading
Void (空亡) and the Horse (馬星/Travel Horse) are two small but powerful marks in a Qimen Dunjia chart. This guide explains what each means and how they shape the reading.
Void: the six jia void table
These two marks, while small, have a big impact on the chart's meaning and timing. Understanding them improves every reading.
The sixty jiazi are the sixty pairings of the ten heavenly stems and the twelve earthly branches, and they divide into six cycles of ten. Each cycle has ten days but spans twelve branches, so two branches are always left over with no stem to pair with. Those two branches are the void branches (旬空, also called 空亡).
| Cycle | Void branches |
|---|---|
| Jia Zi (甲子) | Xu, Hai |
| Jia Xu (甲戌) | Shen, You |
| Jia Shen (甲申) | Wu, Wei |
| Jia Wu (甲午) | Chen, Si |
| Jia Chen (甲辰) | Yin, Mao |
| Jia Yin (甲寅) | Zi, Chou |
When the chart is cast, void is worked out from the cycle the hour pillar falls in. If the hour pillar belongs to the Jia Xu cycle, the void branches are Shen and You, and those two palaces read as hollow for that casting. A void palace is not blank — its symbols still show. They just have nothing solid underneath them yet, so they read as promise rather than fact.
Reading void: solid or hollow, not good or bad
These two marks, while small, have a big impact on the chart's meaning and timing. Understanding them improves every reading.
Void is not "always bad". It is not a verdict of failure, and it is not a good sign either. What it describes is whether something is solid or hollow:
- An inauspicious gate or star in void: its force is reduced, and the bad thing may not be as bad as it looks.
- An auspicious gate or star in void: the promise is there but it struggles to materialise — there is talk, but no knowing when it will actually happen.
- The significator in void: the matter itself is not yet settled, the person involved is not yet sure of themselves, or there is simply no concrete progress.
So when the question is "when will it come through" and the significator sits in void, the usual answer is "not yet — wait for the matter to become concrete", rather than "it will never happen". Void is about timing and substance, not about a final yes or no.
The Horse: the Travel Horse is fixed by the three-harmony groups
These two marks, while small, have a big impact on the chart's meaning and timing. Understanding them improves every reading.
The Horse (馬星, the Travel Horse) stands for movement: business trips, relocation, changing jobs, plans shifting, things speeding up. It is neither good nor bad on its own — it only tells you whether your matter is sitting still. It does not say whether the move is for better or worse, only that something is stirring.
The Horse is found through the three-harmony groups (三合). Take the group the hour branch belongs to, and its Horse is the branch at the opposite corner of that group:
| Three-harmony group (by hour branch) | Horse |
|---|---|
| Shen, Zi, Chen | Horse at Yin |
| Yin, Wu, Xu | Horse at Shen |
| Si, You, Chou | Horse at Hai |
| Hai, Mao, Wei | Horse at Si |
A real chart example
These two marks, while small, have a big impact on the chart's meaning and timing. Understanding them improves every reading.
Take a chart cast at 22:00 on September 12, 2026:
- The hour pillar is Yi Hai, which falls in the Jia Xu cycle — so the void branches are Shen and You.
- The hour branch Hai belongs to the Hai–Mao–Wei group — so the Horse is Si.
This chart is Yin Dun, ju 6. The Chief Star (值符) — Tian Qin (天禽) — sits in palace 7, and the Duty Star (值使) — the Death gate — sits in palace 4. Now suppose your significator lands in a void palace. Remind yourself: the matter looks lively and promising, but it may only be an enjoyable conversation — nowhere near a signed agreement. If the Horse also sits in the significator's palace, the meaning shifts to "not yet concrete, but it will start moving and get going". That is the practical difference: void alone says the matter is not concrete yet, while void with the Horse says it is not concrete yet but already on the move.
Read all three together
These two marks, while small, have a big impact on the chart's meaning and timing. Understanding them improves every reading.
- The significator's palace: first lock down the palace that stands for you and the matter.
- The gate, star and spirit inside it: read the matter's nature and where the friction is.
- Void and the Horse: the final adjustment — solid or hollow, still or moving.
The most common beginner mistake is seeing an auspicious gate and calling it a sure thing. Read void and the Horse alongside it, and the reading gets much more accurate.