The full birth chart: twelve palaces on a fixed wheel with every star placed by rule from your birth date and hour.

The seat of the self and the anchor of the chart. Every other palace is positioned and read relative to it.

A second centre of gravity that shares a position with one of six palaces. Its themes grow louder in the second half of life.

A palace read together with its opposite palace and its two triangle allies. The basic unit of serious chart reading.

The palace directly across the wheel. Its stars shine into the palace being read, always.

The two palaces four positions away on either side, forming a triangle that lends supporting currents.

The two palaces pressed against a palace on either side. Certain star pairs sitting there squeeze it, for good or ill.

An empty palace borrows the major stars of its opposite palace and expresses them second-hand.

A palace containing no major star. Not a blank fate: see borrowing.

The four modifiers, Lu, Quan, Ke and Ji, that a heavenly stem applies to four specific stars. The moving engine of the system.

Flow, appetite and natural increase in the palace it touches.

Drive, authority and contest. Things get done here, sometimes with friction.

Refinement, reputation and gentle rescue in trouble. Favours name over gain.

The knot, hunger or recurring lesson. It also strikes the opposite palace, a mechanic called 冲.

The disturbance a Hua Ji sends into the palace opposite its own seat.

Ten-year periods, each governed by one palace in sequence. The direction of travel depends on gender and year polarity.

The current year’s overlay. The palace whose branch matches the year hosts the annual Life Palace.

A named structure formed when particular stars gather around the Life Palace frame. Read as a chord, not as separate notes.

One of the fourteen principal stars that carry the main weight of interpretation.

Supporting stars such as Wen Chang, Lu Cun or Huo Xing that colour and modify the majors.

A classification (Water 2, Wood 3, Metal 4, Earth 5, Fire 6) derived from the Life Palace pillar. It sets the starting age of the decades and places Zi Wei.

The traditional two-hour block of the day, twelve in all, used in place of clock hours.

The traditional age count in which a person is one at birth. Decade ranges in ZWDS use it.

The ten heavenly stems and twelve earthly branches whose sixty pairings label years, months, days and hours.