Zi Wei in the Friends Palace: What Kind of Friends Surround You

Zi Wei in the Friends Palace means your circle often includes people of real weight: people with status, strong views and resources. The people you know are often more influential than you realise.

Friends, colleagues and team

People with Zi Wei here move in well-placed circles and tend to meet strong-willed friends or team members. The lesson is who leads whom: when friends have very firm views you can get carried along, and when your team is strong, managing them takes thought.

• Your circle: Friends with firm views and real weight; a well-placed circle.
• Colleagues and team: Capable colleagues and team members with plenty of pride, who need respect before they will follow.
• Network and mutual help: Your network brings resources and openings, but remember to return favours.

You and your circle: the Life and Friends Palaces

With Zi Wei in the Friends Palace, the Life Palace always holds Tian Tong: you are easygoing and go with the flow, while the friends around you all have firm views and real weight.

This is built into the chart: counting five palaces backward from Zi Wei always lands on Tian Tong, and the Life Palace always sits five palaces backward from the Friends Palace. Further reading: Tian Tong in the Life Palace.

Your work network: the Career and Friends Palaces

Counting one palace backward from Zi Wei always lands on Tian Ji, and the Career Palace always sits one palace backward from the Friends Palace, so with Zi Wei in the Friends Palace the Career Palace always holds Tian Ji: your circle sits right next to your work, and many of your connections grow out of it. Further reading: Tian Ji in the Career Palace.

With Zi Wei in the Friends Palace, neither the Travel Palace star nor the Siblings Palace star is fixed.

Bright and fallen positions

When bright, your helpers have real means and are willing to bring you up. In a neutral position, friends have a lot of pride that their means may not match, and saving face can get in the way. 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.

Opposite the Friends Palace is the Siblings Palace (the Siblings–Friends axis: outsiders and your own people), and its trine is the Children and Parents Palaces; on either side sit the Career and Travel Palaces. The table shows the major stars of the Siblings, Life, Career and Travel Palaces for each of the twelve branches Zi Wei can occupy in the Friends Palace.

"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 Siblings: Tan Lang; Life: Tian Tong and Ju Men; Career: Tian Ji. About 15.5% of charts with Zi Wei in the Friends Palace fall into this group.

Friends from outside have firm views and real weight; with Tan Lang in the Siblings Palace opposite, the people closest to you are lively and sociable. In Wu, Zi Wei is exalted and your network has the most standing.

Zi Wei with Po Jun (Chou or Wei)

Chou: Zi Wei exalted, Po Jun strong; Wei: Zi Wei exalted, Po Jun strong. Opposite Siblings: Tian Xiang; Life: Tian Tong and Tian Liang; Career: Tian Ji. About 16.3% of charts with Zi Wei in the Friends Palace fall into this group.

Friends carry weight and are ready to change things, so your circle gets reshuffled often, and each new set of people tends to be a step up. Agree on who leads before you work together. Further reading: Po Jun in the Friends Palace.

Zi Wei with Tian Fu (Yin or Shen)

Yin: Zi Wei strong, Tian Fu exalted; Shen: Zi Wei strong, Tian Fu favorable. Opposite Siblings: Qi Sha; Life: Tian Tong; Career: Tian Ji. About 17.0% of charts with Zi Wei in the Friends Palace fall into this group.

Friends are steady and well placed, a solid and dependable network. The catch is that everyone cares about face, so when you disagree, nobody wants to back down first. Further reading: Tian Fu in the Friends Palace.

Zi Wei with Tan Lang (Mao or You)

Mao: Zi Wei strong, Tan Lang fair; You: Zi Wei strong, Tan Lang fair. Opposite Siblings: empty palace; Life: Tian Tong; Career: Tian Ji and Tai Yin. About 19.8% of charts with Zi Wei in the Friends Palace fall into this group.

Friends have vision and know how to have fun; the circle is lively and well resourced, and the socialising and spending grow with it. Further reading: Tan Lang in the Friends Palace.

Zi Wei with Tian Xiang (Chen or Xu)

Chen: Zi Wei favorable, Tian Xiang favorable; Xu: Zi Wei favorable, Tian Xiang favorable. Opposite Siblings: Po Jun; Life: Tian Tong; Career: Tian Ji and Ju Men. About 17.3% of charts with Zi Wei in the Friends Palace fall into this group.

Friends value rules and appearances, and things are done properly. In Chen and Xu, Heaven's Net and Earth's Snare, your network feels confined early on and becomes more mutually supportive over time. Further reading: Tian Xiang in the Friends Palace.

Zi Wei with Qi Sha (Si or Hai)

Si: Zi Wei strong, Qi Sha neutral; Hai: Zi Wei strong, Qi Sha neutral. Opposite Siblings: Tian Fu; Life: Tian Tong and Tai Yin; Career: Tian Ji and Tian Liang. About 14.1% of charts with Zi Wei in the Friends Palace fall into this group.

Friends or team members have strong personalities and like to take charge; the relationships have force, and neither side yields easily. Further reading: Qi Sha in the Friends Palace.

Birth-year transformations in the Friends Palace

• Zi Wei with Hua Quan (born in a Ren year): People born in a Ren year have Zi Wei Hua Quan in the Friends Palace: there are forceful people among your friends or team, so agree on who leads before you work together. In our sample, about 10.2% of charts with Zi Wei in the Friends Palace carry the birth-year Hua Quan.
• Zi Wei with Hua Ke (born in a Yi year): People born in a Yi year have Zi Wei Hua Ke in the Friends Palace: your friends are well known and well mannered, and your circle is a respectable one. In our sample, about 9.4% of charts with Zi Wei in the Friends Palace carry the birth-year Hua Ke.

Friendship advice

Mix with people of weight but keep your own judgement, and make sure favours flow both ways.

About 43.2% of charts with Zi Wei in the Friends Palace also have at least one of the six Sha stars in that palace, about the same as the 42.4% across all charts. Malefic stars in the Friends Palace usually show up as more friction and more differing opinions in your circle, which calls for firmer boundaries and more talking things through; they do not mean your friends are bad.

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 popularity or how reliable their friends are.

Other major stars in the Friends Palace