Zi Wei Dou Shu twelve palaces: how to read them

What are the Zi Wei Dou Shu twelve palaces?

Zi Wei Dou Shu, sometimes called purple star astrology, lays out a birth chart in twelve palaces. Each one names an area of the framework, from siblings to career to the home. The English names are a vocabulary aid; translations vary between books and apps. The twelve cells are marked with the twelve earthly branches, the traditional twelve-sign cycle (Zi, Chou, Yin and so on).

How to find your Life palace

Your Life palace need not sit in the same cell as someone else's. The cells belong to the twelve earthly branches and never move; the chart lays the palace names onto them from your birth data. Read the name on a cell before the stars inside it.

The Life palace is placed from the lunar birth month and the birth hour: count the first month from the Yin cell forwards to the birth month, then from that cell count backwards, starting at the Zi hour, to the birth hour; the cell you land on is the Life palace. The free calculator does this for you and labels it.

• The Life palace label (命宫), the usual first place to read.
• The Body palace marker (身宫). It marks one of the twelve palaces and can share the Life palace.
• The legend for any colored marker; without it, a marker tells you nothing yet.
• Whether you are looking at the birth arrangement or a period layer, such as the ten-year or yearly one. Keep them apart.

From the Life palace, the other eleven names always run in the order of the table above. In the square layout they go counterclockwise, which is how the numbers in the figure wind around the chart.

Palaces, stars and transformations: what is the difference?

Three kinds of label can share one cell, and they are not interchangeable.

Palace宫

A named area of the framework, such as Career or Parents. It says what a cell is about, not what will happen.

Major star主星

One of the fourteen main stars, led by Zi Wei (紫微), placed in the palaces by fixed rules.

Four transformations四化

Also called: Si Hua

Markers on selected stars: Hua Lu (often glossed 'emolument'), Hua Quan ('authority'), Hua Ke ('renown') and Hua Ji ('obstruction'). The tool uses those of the birth year.

A first note should describe the chart before it explains anything:

“Therefore this career will succeed” would be an extra claim, not something the labels establish.

How to read a Zi Wei Dou Shu chart for the first time

1. Find the Life palace

   Read what its cell shows: the stars and any markers.

2. Choose the palace for your question

   For a question about work, that is the Career palace.

3. Look at its group

   Read it with the palace opposite and the two in trine, four cells away on either side. The group is called san fang si zheng (三方四正). The figure and table below use the Life palace as the example; for a work question, count the same distances from the Career palace.

4. Note only named connections

   Write down the links the explanation actually names instead of scanning the chart for the most alarming word.

5. Keep your own facts apart

   Working hours or a changed manager are information you supplied, not something a star discovered.

So if your question is about a hard work routine, read it against the Career palace and any other palace the explanation brings in. For the system as a whole, start from the Zi Wei Dou Shu guide.

What does an empty palace mean?

Some palaces show no major star. Such a palace keeps its position and its relations, including its opposite and trine palaces. A sparse cell does not mean a person has no relationships, no career or no support.

When you read another interpretation, ask whether it borrowed stars and which relations it used for that palace, rather than whether one star is simply good or bad. The same birth data reads very differently in another system; how to read a BaZi chart shows the BaZi side.

Which birth details does a Zi Wei chart need?

The entry asks for three things: a Gregorian date, one two-hour birth period and the gender used by the calculation. Check these points before you build the chart:

• A Gregorian date. Convert a lunar record first instead of copying its numbers, and keep any leap month it marks.
• Near midnight, the calendar date the source meant.
• One two-hour birth period, and only one your record supports. “Late at night” may straddle two periods.
• The gender used by the traditional calculation: a calculation input, not a judgment about a person.
• No time zone or birthplace field, and no true solar time correction: the period you choose is used as it is.
• Any estimate, kept apart from the original record.

If two charts place a palace or star differently, compare the calendar, date, time period and stated method before the descriptions. An attractive interpretation cannot correct an uncertain birth input, and the input should never change just to get a result you prefer.

With your details ready, the free Zi Wei Dou Shu calculator shows the twelve palaces, the major stars and the four transformations, and states how the chart was built.