Useful and Favorable Elements

The useful god (用神) is the element judged to play the most critical balancing role in a chart, with the favorable (喜神) and unfavorable (忌神) elements following from it. Selection logic is standard — supporting a weak Day Master or restraining a strong one, climatic balancing, or protecting the structure — but the chosen element follows from the strength and structure reading. Because of that, different schools can select different useful elements for the same chart, so the result is best read as method-relative rather than a single objective answer.