The twelve palaces
A Zi Wei Dou Shu chart divides a life into twelve areas and places them from your birth hour. The palace supplies the subject and the stars sitting in it supply the tendency, which is why the same star reads differently in each of the twelve.
The twelve
Computed · In reading orderThe order runs from the life palace, which classical practice reads first, round to the parents palace. Where the palaces land on the square changes with every birth; the order they are read in does not.
Self 命宮
01 of 12Siblings 兄弟
02 of 12Spouse 夫妻
03 of 12Children 子女
04 of 12Wealth 財帛
05 of 12Health 疾厄
06 of 12Travel 遷移
07 of 12Friends 僕役
08 of 12Career 官祿
09 of 12Property 田宅
10 of 12Fortune 福德
11 of 12Parents 父母
12 of 12The six facing pairs
Computed · 對宮No palace is read alone. Each one sits directly across the square from another, and the pair is read together. It is also the rule that rescues an empty palace: with no major star of its own, a palace is read through the stars of the one facing it.
Where the body palace can sit
Computed · 6 of 12身宮, the body palace, is a second emphasis laid over one of the twelve. It marks where a person's effort concentrates in adult life, and it can only land on six of them. The life palace says who someone is; the body palace says where they pour themselves.
Twelve areas, not twelve verdicts
A palace is a subject. It says what an area of a life is, and it says nothing on its own about how that area goes. The stars sitting in it supply that, and how brightly they sit supplies the strength. This is why the same star means different things in different palaces, and why a palace cannot be read from its name.
It is also why counting is the wrong instinct. Classical practice weighs how well a star is placed rather than how many are present, so one major star at its brightest carries more than three dim ones.
An empty palace is normal
About half the palaces in a typical chart hold no major star. The tradition calls that 空宮 and treats it as ordinary rather than as an absence of life in that area. The rule is to read the palace through the stars of the one opposite it.
That borrowed reading is genuinely weaker than a star sitting in place, and a reading that presents it at full confidence is overstating what the method gives. Where a palace that matters to your question is empty, the honest answer names the limit.
Where the twelve fall in your own chart
Draw your twelve palaces free →The palaces are placed from your birth hour, so no two charts put them in the same cells. A reading draws the plate, names the stars in each palace and reads the ones carrying weight rather than marching through all twelve.
Still working out which system answers your question? The fourteen major stars
Method and sources
The order of the twelve, every facing pair and every trine are computed from a chart drawn by the same engine the readings use, and checked against the classical pairs as well. What each palace covers follows the classical text listed below.
Read against the classical treatment of the stars and the twelve palaces:
- 紫微斗數全書 Ziwei Doushu Quanshu The Complete Book of Zi Wei Dou Shu