A Zi Wei Dou Shu chart has 12 palaces, one for each Earthly Branch. Each palace governs a specific life domain — self, siblings, spouse, children, wealth, health, travel, friends, career, property, fortune, and parents.
Short answer
A Zi Wei Dou Shu chart has 12 palaces, one for each Earthly Branch. Each palace governs a specific life domain — self, siblings, spouse, children, wealth, health, travel, friends, career, property, fortune, and parents.
In depth
The 12 palaces are arranged in a fixed clockwise order, but their positions on the chart are determined by your Body and Self palace placement, which is calculated from your birth month and hour. This means two people born in the same year can have entirely different palace orientations.
Each palace contains 0–4 of the 14 major stars (plus dozens of minor stars). The combination of stars in each palace describes the quality and trajectory of that life domain. For example, if Zi Wei (Purple Star) is in your Career palace, your career is likely high-status; if Tian Ji (Heavenly Mechanism) is in your Wealth palace, your finances are prone to fluctuation.
The Body Palace (which moves with your birth time) and the Self Palace (which moves with your birth month) overlap with two of the 12 palaces, amplifying those life domains. Reading a ZWDS chart requires interpreting all 12 palaces as an interconnected system, not in isolation.