Zi Wei in the Mind Palace: What You Really Need Inside

With Zi Wei in the Mind Palace, what your inner self wants is dignity and a sense of control: a life with quality, where you are respected and get to make your own calls. Your happiness often comes from feeling that everything is going the way you arranged it.

Your inner world

People with Zi Wei here have strong views of their own and care a lot about their personal standards and style. The lesson is that those inner standards run high: when others fall short you get impatient, and you are just as hard on yourself. For you, relaxing can be harder than working.

• What you need inside: You need respect and a sense of control, and you want your life to have order and quality.
• How you enjoy life: You enjoy things with class: a good restaurant, a well-designed space, a social occasion that carries some weight.
• Under pressure: Under pressure you tend to shoulder everything yourself, refuse to show weakness, and keep your feelings bottled up.

Outside and inside: the Life and Mind Palaces

When Zi Wei is in the Mind Palace, the major star of your Life Palace is not fixed: it may be one of the Tian Fu group of stars, or the Life Palace may be empty. A common picture is someone who looks practical or driven on the outside, yet inside cares deeply about their own standards and sense of control.

With Zi Wei in the Mind Palace, the major star of the Life Palace changes with the branch; the table below lists it for each branch.

The Wealth–Mind axis and the Travel–Spouse–Mind triad

Opposite the Mind Palace is the Wealth Palace: the Wealth Palace shows how you earn, the Mind Palace shows your state of mind and what you enjoy, and that is what decides how the money gets spent. Its triad is the Travel and Spouse Palaces, so your inner needs are tied to how you come across in the world and how you love. When Zi Wei is in the Mind Palace, the Travel Palace always holds Lian Zhen and the Spouse Palace always holds Wu Qu, because Zi Wei, Lian Zhen and Wu Qu always form a triad. Out in the world you are skilful with people, in love you are practical, and inside you want dignity and to be the one in charge.

Bright and fallen positions

When bright, your inner self is steady and generous, and you know how to enjoy life while keeping a sense of proportion. In a neutral position you still care about saving face, but with less inner reserve behind it, so small things can make you anxious. Brightness by branch, from the table of the Complete Book this site uses: Exalted: Chou, Wu, Wei; Strong: Yin, Mao, Si, Shen, You, Hai; Favorable: Chen, Xu; Neutral: Zi.

"Empty palace" means the palace has none of the fourteen major stars; in that case you read it through the stars of the opposite palace.

The six combinations

Zi Wei alone, facing Tan Lang (Zi or Wu)

Zi: Zi Wei neutral; Wu: Zi Wei exalted. Opposite (Wealth): Tan Lang; Life: Qi Sha. About 14.6% of charts with Zi Wei in the Mind Palace fall into this group.

Inside you want dignity and control; with Tan Lang opposite in the Wealth Palace, money often goes on socialising and pleasure. Zi Wei is bright in Wu, where your inner self is at its most generous.

Zi Wei with Po Jun (Chou or Wei)

Chou: Zi Wei exalted, Po Jun strong; Wei: Zi Wei exalted, Po Jun strong. Opposite (Wealth): Tian Xiang; Life: empty palace. About 17.7% of charts with Zi Wei in the Mind Palace fall into this group.

Inside you have firm views and a craving for change, and you often want to break the status quo and rearrange your own life. In spirit you refuse to settle for the ordinary; what you enjoy is the freedom of "my call". Further reading: Po Jun in the Mind Palace.

Zi Wei with Tian Fu (Yin or Shen)

Yin: Zi Wei strong, Tian Fu exalted; Shen: Zi Wei strong, Tian Fu favorable. Opposite (Wealth): Qi Sha; Life: Po Jun. About 16.3% of charts with Zi Wei in the Mind Palace fall into this group.

Steady and big-hearted inside, you value both quality of life and security; this pairing knows how to enjoy life with dignity. The lesson is that your standards are high, so imperfect things are hard for you to let go. Further reading: Tian Fu in the Mind Palace.

Zi Wei with Tan Lang (Mao or You)

Mao: Zi Wei strong, Tan Lang fair; You: Zi Wei strong, Tan Lang fair. Opposite (Wealth): empty palace; Life: Tian Fu. About 17.3% of charts with Zi Wei in the Mind Palace fall into this group.

Inside you are full of desires and know how to enjoy yourself, seeking pleasures and social life with taste. Classical texts call this pairing "romance troubling the ruler"; in the Mind Palace it is a reminder to enjoy yourself in moderation. Further reading: Tan Lang in the Mind Palace.

Zi Wei with Tian Xiang (Chen or Xu)

Chen: Zi Wei favorable, Tian Xiang favorable; Xu: Zi Wei favorable, Tian Xiang favorable. Opposite (Wealth): Po Jun; Life: Tan Lang. About 16.8% of charts with Zi Wei in the Mind Palace fall into this group.

Inside you value dignity and order and like a life with rules and taste. In Chen and Xu this is the "net of heaven and earth" position, so you often feel boxed in and need to find your own way out. Further reading: Tian Xiang in the Mind Palace.

Zi Wei with Qi Sha (Si or Hai)

Si: Zi Wei strong, Qi Sha neutral; Hai: Zi Wei strong, Qi Sha neutral. Opposite (Wealth): Tian Fu; Life: Tian Xiang. About 17.2% of charts with Zi Wei in the Mind Palace fall into this group.

Tough-minded inside, you want to lead and to be challenged, and you cannot sit still. What you enjoy is the sense of achievement from reaching a goal and being in command of the situation. Further reading: Qi Sha in the Mind Palace.

Birth-year transformations in the Mind Palace

• Zi Wei with Hua Quan (born in a Ren year): For people born in a Ren year, Zi Wei takes Hua Quan in the Mind Palace: your inner convictions grow even stronger and so does your wish to control how life goes. Learning to let go is the work here. In our sample, about 10.9% of charts with Zi Wei in the Mind Palace carry the birth-year Hua Quan.
• Zi Wei with Hua Ke (born in a Yi year): For people born in a Yi year, Zi Wei takes Hua Ke in the Mind Palace: you value taste and doing things properly, and your inner life is rich and cultivated. In our sample, about 10.5% of charts with Zi Wei in the Mind Palace carry the birth-year Hua Ke.

Finding your balance

Set aside a stretch of time each week where you do not have to decide anything, so a Zi Wei mind can really rest.

About 43.2% of charts with Zi Wei in the Mind Palace also have at least one of the six Sha stars in that palace, about the same as the 42.1% across all charts. Malefic stars in the Mind Palace usually show up as a busy mind that finds it hard to switch off, so you need a few more ways of looking after yourself; they do not mean you are unhappy.

What our sample shows

How we counted: this site’s engine cast one Zi Wei chart for every day from 1960 to 2005 (birth hour drawn by a fixed-seed random sample), 16,802 charts in all. These figures describe how chart structures are distributed; they do not measure anyone’s good fortune.

Other major stars in the Mind Palace