Zi Wei Dou Shu sets up twelve palaces from your birth year, month, day and hour and places stars in them to read each area of life. Instead of constellations, it maps destiny through the symbolism of stars.
Twelve palaces — twelve areas of life
Zi Wei divides life into twelve palaces — Life (self), Wealth, Spouse, Career and more. It is a concept akin to the houses of Western astrology, each palace responsible for one part of life.
Among them the Life Palace is the most central, showing innate character and the broad direction of life — a seat much like the Day Master in Saju.
The natal board and three directions
Placing all the stars across the twelve palaces for your birth moment completes the Natal Board, the lifelong base map. Onto it the flow of time — major luck cycles — is overlaid to read fortune moment by moment.
A palace is not read alone but through its "three directions and four corners" — the opposite palace and the palaces linked by triangular harmony. Reading by this web of relationships is the heart of Zi Wei.
Frequently asked
Both read from birth time, but Saju reads through the energies of the five elements while Zi Wei reads through the symbolism of stars placed across twelve palaces. Saju weighs the balance of energy; Zi Wei maps life area by area.
The Life Palace is a starting point, not the whole. You need its star, the stars of its three related palaces, and whichever palace you care about — wealth, relationships, career — read together for a complete picture.