The Spouse Palace in Zi Wei Dou Shu: Your Values in Love, and the Kind of Person You're Drawn To

What the Spouse Palace Shows

The natal chart shows your attitudes and values, and rarely points to one particular person. The Spouse Palace is the same: it shows how you see love, the kind of person you like, who you hope to be in a relationship, and how you hope to be treated in one.

The stars and transformations in the Spouse Palace stand for your attitudes and values, not for things that have already happened; what is really going on has to be checked against real life. The rules also say plainly that the natal Spouse Palace shows your attitude toward love, and is not read directly as your partner.

The Spouse Palace Itself: General Principles

The natal chart shows your deep-down views on love. The natal Spouse Palace shows your deep-down views on love; the Spouse Palace of a decade cycle or annual cycle shows an extra layer added on top of that outlook during that time. This article is about the natal chart; for the Spouse Palace of a particular year, see The Four Transformations in Your Annual Spouse Palace.

Ups and downs in love are normal. The Spouse Palace is like a street of food stalls: not every stall is good, yet we easily expect every one of them to be wonderful. Rough patches in love don't mean your fate is bad.

The Four Linked Palaces of the Spouse Palace

With the Spouse Palace as the palace in focus, its Four Linked Palaces (San Fang Si Zheng) are the Spouse Palace, the Career Palace (its opposite palace), the Mobility Palace, and the Fortune Palace. When you look at the Spouse Palace, these four palaces are read together. Still, the three linked palaces influence the Spouse Palace only within their own meaning; for example, the Career Palace influences the Spouse Palace only in the area the Career Palace covers.

For what the Four Linked Palaces are and how to count them, see How to Read a Zi Wei Dou Shu Chart.

The Four Transformations in the Spouse Palace

A transformation never exists on its own; it always comes from a particular star. When it falls in the Spouse Palace, what it looks like depends on which star brings it. Below are the directions you can look at when Lu, Quan, Ke, or Ji falls in your natal Spouse Palace.

• Lu (Prosperity): Lu means "something extra." In your values in love, here is where you can look: a little more room and energy for love.
• Quan (Power): Quan means wanting to hold, and holding on more firmly. In who you hope to be in a relationship, here is where you can look: having your own clear views, and holding on more firmly.
• Ke (Fame): Ke means letting things show and being seen. In your attitude toward love, here is where you can look: it comes through more easily and is more easily seen by others; being seen is not necessarily a good thing.
• Ji (Obstacle): Ji in the Spouse Palace means something feels missing in love, or that you are seeking something in your heart. Feeling that there isn't enough doesn't mean there really isn't.

For what each of the Four Transformations is, see The Four Transformations in Zi Wei Dou Shu.

An Empty Palace and Challenging Stars in the Spouse Palace

An Empty Palace

When there is no main star in the Spouse Palace, it is called an empty palace. The view FuSang Vision follows is that an empty palace always borrows all the stars of the opposite palace; the opposite palace of the Spouse Palace is the Career Palace.

With no main star for the palace to rest on, here is where you can look in the area that palace stands for: a relatively weaker sense of security. In the Spouse Palace, this means you hesitate to give your heart fully in love and hold something back; after borrowing the stars of the opposite palace, this unease is less noticeable, but some of it remains.

Di Kong and Di Jie

A palace "emptied" by Di Kong and Di Jie in the natal chart is often a part of life a person keeps pursuing all their life; in the Spouse Palace, it means love is something you pursue all your life. Di Kong and Di Jie affect only the palace, not the stars: the palace itself has less force, but the stars in it are still there. Di Kong and Di Jie are not counted as challenging stars.

The Four Challenging Stars

Qing Yang, Tuo Luo, Huo, and Ling are together called the four challenging stars, and they stand for four kinds of emotions that are hard to rein in.

• Qing Yang: Like a blade: decisive, steadfast, with lasting drive; the other side is a tendency to go at its own pace. In the Spouse Palace, here is where you can look: your attitude toward love is more direct and decisive, and once you decide, you hold firm.
• Tuo Luo: Like a top spinning in place: torn inside, slow to make up its mind. In the Spouse Palace, you may more easily hesitate in love and find it harder to let go, but you also have strong willpower and can hold up well.
• Huo: Passion that comes fast and goes fast, acting as soon as something occurs to it. In the Spouse Palace, here is where you can look: your passion for love comes on quickly.
• Ling: Calm and reserved, keeping joy and anger off its face, very composed. In the Spouse Palace, here is where you can look: you keep your feelings about love inside and don't show them much.

Each Star in the Spouse Palace

Each star looks different when it falls in the Spouse Palace. For details on each star, see the star pages; every article in Zi Wei Stars also has a section on the Spouse Palace.

This table is for reference. In practice, a reading takes many more details into account.

What Actually Happens Depends on How Each Palace Works

All of the above are only places "you can look," not the one answer. Zi Wei Dou Shu doesn't divide things into good and bad; every judgment is a relative comparison. Never read a single palace or a single star alone; the more clues you can look at, the closer you get to what is really there. If a sign on the chart does not happen in real life, real life is what counts.

Frequently Asked Questions