The twelve spirits of the Doctor cycle

The Doctor’s twelve spirits are a traditional ring of marks that turns with the palaces. Doctor, Strongman, and Green Dragon are usual names in the set. They give a palace a tone. They are not a second set of palace names.

Editorial review: 2026-09-22 · Reviewed by fateshow · Editorial method

They lend a palace a tone

The Doctor cycle is pasted around the twelve palaces in a fixed order, and the starting cell turns with the chart. Each palace then carries an old name. Traditionally the name has a tone: paperwork, force, or going back and forth. The tone does not replace the major star, and it does not rename Career as the Green Dragon palace.

If the engine did not print the ring, do not draw it

The set is not required for a chart to exist. When the report leaves it off, read palaces, majors, and the auxiliary stars that were printed. Filling the ring from memory counts marks that never joined this chart.

Doctor on the Life Palace

Illustration: the chart marks Doctor on Life, and Life holds Tian Tong. Tian Tong first: the starting cell waits until the setting is steady. Doctor next: tradition lends that cell a paperwork-and-title tone. One sentence: the start waits, and the matter often carries a title or a text. It is not “Life is the Doctor star, so this person should take office.” The spirit name is not a lucky-unlucky verdict.

Common mistakes

  • Using the twelve spirits as the official palace names.
  • Judging luck from the spirit name alone.
  • Completing the ring from a verse when the chart never printed it.

Use it in fateshow

Zi Wei chart

Cast a Zi Wei chart and read the palaces, stars, and transformations it prints.

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Frequently asked questions

Which outranks the other, the spirits or the palaces?

The palaces are the domains. The spirits are a tone pasted on a domain. When they conflict, keep the palace and the major star.

Does every chart carry these twelve?

The cycle exists in the tradition, but only if the engine placed it. If it is not printed, this chart is not using that layer.

Is Green Dragon lucky?

The name sounds lively and is still only a tone. Luck, if you use that word at all, goes back to the major star and the opposite palace, not to the spirit name.

Sources and editorial basis

  1. 1. iztro Zi Wei Dou Shu engine

    Supports only what the current fateshow configuration actually calculates: palace placement, major-star arrangements, and the recorded year-boundary, leap-month, and transformation settings. It does not prove that any traditional school is uniquely correct.

  2. 2. Ziwei Doushu Quanshu (received editions)

    Used to cross-check palace names, star lists, and traditional wording. A received text can record a tradition; it cannot prove scientific validity or guarantee an event.

  3. 3. fateshow chart rule snapshot

    Each generated report stores the engine settings that produced it. Compare those settings before treating two charts as the same calculation.