When you plot a Zi Wei Dou Shu chart, you'll notice that it has 12 Sectors. These 12 Sectors are actually a representing of the 12 Stems which you so often hear in Chinese metaphysics. If you are a student of BaZi, it will be something you'll be very familiar with.

The 12 Branches are:

子 zi

丑 chou

寅 yin

卯 mao

辰 chen

巳 si

午 wu

未 wei

申 shen

酉 you

戌 xu

亥 hai

There are 12 Sectors in Zi Wei Dou Shu. When you find out where your Life Sector (命宫) is, you can just plot the other sectors by the fixed order they appear in.

For example, if your Life Sector ends up in the 丑 ('chou') Branch, plot these sectors in an anti-clockwise position:

Siblings Sector (兄弟宫)

Spouse Sector (夫妻宫)

Children's Sector (子女宫)

Wealth Sector (财帛宫)

Health Sector (疾厄宫)

Travel Sector (迁移宫)

Friends Sector (交友宫)

Career Sector (事业宫)

House & Assets Sector (田宅宫)

Karmic Sector (福德宫)

Parent's Sector (父母宫)

Here is an example:

You'll see that the 命宫 is in chou (sector highlight in orange) and the sectors that appear are in order. The Sectors will always follow this order. We usually refer to 父母宫 (Parent's Sector) as the last sector and the chart goes in a anti-clockwise direction. You don't have to worry about this too much as the calculator will do it for you.

Certain sectors are deemed more important than others. For example, a lot of emphasis is given to 事业宫 (Career) and 财帛宫 (Wealth) as these two are seen as the critical sectors that will determine one's success.

That being said, it can be context dependent and sometimes also gender dependent. In the past, for a female chart, more emphasis was given to 福德宫 (Karmic) and 夫妻宫 (Marriage) but we do not have to apply the standards of feudal society in modern day context.

A good habit to have is to always remind yourself that every sector is important, because each and every sector is interconnected just that some interconnections are stronger, and a weak sector will drag down other sectors too.

We'll go through what each of the sectors mean and its significant in the later lectures.