Surrounded palaces
The four palaces of SurroundedPalaces and its five predicates.
The surrounded set is the most commonly used reading scope in Zi Wei Dou Shu. A matter cannot be read from its own palace alone: the stars of the opposite palace and the two trine palaces bear on it just as much, and only all four together give the full picture.
The examples on this page chart with "en-US", so the display values in the output are English.
The four palaces
| Field | Offset | Traditional name | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
Target | +0 | The palace itself | The matter itself |
Opposite | +6 | Opposite palace | The facing side; the most immediate influence |
Career | +4 | Career position | One of the trine |
Wealth | +8 | Wealth position | One of the trine |
All four fields are *Palace, so every method of the palace object is available
on them.
Wealth and career positions are relative names
Wealth and Career mean "the trine positions relative to this palace", not the two fixed palace
names among the twelve. Anchored on the Soul palace they happen to land on the Wealth and Career
palaces (+8 and +4), which is where the names come from; anchored elsewhere they are other palaces.
Four ways to get one
// from the chart, by palace name
byName := chart.SurroundedPalaces(iztro.PalaceSoul)
// from the chart, by index
byIndex := chart.SurroundedPalacesByIndex(4)
// from a palace
fromPalace := chart.Palace(iztro.PalaceSoul).SurroundedPalaces()
// from a star (the surrounded set of the palace it sits in)
ziwei, _ := chart.Star(iztro.StarZiweiMaj)
fromStar := ziwei.SurroundedPalaces()
fmt.Println(byName.Target.Name, byIndex.Target.Name,
fromPalace.Target.Name, fromStar.Target.Name)Output
soul soul soul soulThe Soul palace sits at index 4 and Ziwei sits in the Soul palace, so on this chart all four routes give the same surrounded set; pick whichever matches what you already have.
By index wraps modulo 12, by name does not
SurroundedPalacesByIndex takes the index modulo 12, so -1 and 12 both wrap correctly; but a
zero-valued chart (an Astrolabe built without charting) has no twelve palaces and returns nil
here. SurroundedPalaces takes a name and returns nil on a misspelling. Check both for nil before
reading fields.
Have / NotHave / HaveOneOf
Purpose Test whether the four palaces together hold the given stars.
Zi Wei meaning A phrase like "Ziwei is in the surrounded set" asks exactly whether a star appears anywhere among these four palaces, without asking which one.
Signature
func (sp *SurroundedPalaces) Have(stars ...string) bool
func (sp *SurroundedPalaces) NotHave(stars ...string) bool
func (sp *SurroundedPalaces) HaveOneOf(stars ...string) boolParameters
| Parameter | Type | Required | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
stars | ...string | Yes | — | Star keys, variadic |
Return value
| Method | Meaning |
|---|---|
Have | Every listed star appears among the four palaces (not necessarily the same one) |
NotHave | None of the listed stars appears |
HaveOneOf | At least one listed star appears |
Example
sp := chart.SurroundedPalaces(iztro.PalaceSoul)
fmt.Println(sp.Have(iztro.StarZiweiMaj, iztro.StarTianxiangMaj))
fmt.Println(sp.HaveOneOf(iztro.StarQishaMaj, iztro.StarPojunMaj))
fmt.Println(sp.NotHave(iztro.StarHuoxingMin))Output
true
false
trueZiwei is in the Soul palace and Tianxiang in the Wealth palace — different palaces, but both within
the four, so Have is true.
Edge cases and pitfalls
HaveMutagen / NotHaveMutagen
Purpose Test whether the four palaces carry a given natal mutagen.
Zi Wei meaning "Ji is in the surrounded set" means one of these palaces holds a star the birth-year stem sent ji to — a common condition when locating a source of pressure.
Signature
func (sp *SurroundedPalaces) HaveMutagen(mutagenKey string) bool
func (sp *SurroundedPalaces) NotHaveMutagen(mutagenKey string) boolParameters
| Parameter | Type | Required | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
mutagenKey | string | Yes | — | One of the mutagen keys |
Return value bool.
Example
sp := chart.SurroundedPalaces(iztro.PalaceSoul)
fmt.Println("lu in the surrounded set:", sp.HaveMutagen(iztro.MutagenLu))
fmt.Println("ji in the surrounded set:", sp.HaveMutagen(iztro.MutagenJi))
fmt.Println("no ke in the surrounded set:", sp.NotHaveMutagen(iztro.MutagenKe))Output
lu in the surrounded set: false
ji in the surrounded set: false
no ke in the surrounded set: trueThis chart's natal mutagens fall in the Children, Surface and Health palaces, none of which is in the Soul palace's surrounded set.
Edge cases and pitfalls
This looks at the natal mutagen marks on stars, unrelated to mutagens flown by palace stems. For those, use the palace's flying-star methods.
Semantic text
Surrounded-palaces text lives not on *SurroundedPalaces but on the astrolabe method
SurroundedPalacesToText:
text, _ := chart.SurroundedPalacesToText(iztro.PalaceTarget{Key: iztro.PalaceSoul})