Besides the twelve palaces of a Zi Wei Dou Shu chart, there is one more marker that shapes how a life unfolds: the Anchor palace (Shen Gong). It is placed by your birth hour and always sits inside one of six palaces. If the Ego palace (Ming Gong) shows the roots you were born with, the Anchor palace shows what tends to grow on top of them as you mature.

How the Anchor Palace Is Placed

The Anchor palace and the Ego palace carry a similar kind of meaning. What makes the Anchor palace special is the way it is placed. Two things decide it:

• Birth hour: one of the 12 double-hour slots of the lunar clock
• Six possible palaces: the Ego palace, the Inner Life palace, the Career palace, the Persona palace, the Wealth palace and the Love palace

Here is where the Anchor palace lands for each birth hour:

Clock time	Double-hour	Anchor palace sits in
11:00 p.m. to 12:59 a.m.	Rat hour	the Ego palace
1:00 to 2:59 a.m.	Ox hour	the Inner Life palace
3:00 to 4:59 a.m.	Tiger hour	the Career palace
5:00 to 6:59 a.m.	Rabbit hour	the Persona palace
7:00 to 8:59 a.m.	Dragon hour	the Wealth palace
9:00 to 10:59 a.m.	Snake hour	the Love palace
11:00 a.m. to 12:59 p.m.	Horse hour	the Ego palace
1:00 to 2:59 p.m.	Goat hour	the Inner Life palace
3:00 to 4:59 p.m.	Monkey hour	the Career palace
5:00 to 6:59 p.m.	Rooster hour	the Persona palace
7:00 to 8:59 p.m.	Dog hour	the Wealth palace
9:00 to 10:59 p.m.	Pig hour	the Love palace

Because the hour decides everything here, an accurate birth time matters. A birth near the edge of a double-hour can land in a different palace.

In short: The Anchor palace is placed by birth hour and always falls in one of six palaces: Ego, Inner Life, Career, Persona, Wealth or Love.

What the Placement Tells You

The way the Anchor palace is placed also hints at what it means. It always lands in one of six palaces, and each of those stands for an aspect of the self: talent (Ego), inner life (Inner Life), career (Career), action (Persona), money (Wealth) and romance (Love).

The Ego palace is treated as the root. It shows what was there from birth. The Anchor palace is treated as the branch. It shows what develops later, in the results of growing up.

So with the Ego palace as the main reference, the Anchor palace points to traits that get added as a person grows. "Shen" can also be read as "the self" in motion, and the aspects it attaches to tend to become the main themes that surface in adulthood.

When the Anchor palace sits in each of the six palaces, it tends to read like this:

• Anchor palace in the Ego palace: attention goes to the self, to taking care of yourself and putting your own choices first.
• Anchor palace in the Inner Life palace: attention goes to inner life, to developing ideas, beliefs and a personal stance.
• Anchor palace in the Career palace: attention goes to work and career, to finding the direction and ideals you want to pursue.
• Anchor palace in the Persona palace: attention goes to relationships, to how you come across to others and to practical action.
• Anchor palace in the Wealth palace: attention goes to money, to managing it and putting it to use.
• Anchor palace in the Love palace: attention goes to feelings, love and romantic relationships.

The more of your energy goes into the area your Anchor palace points to, the more room there tends to be for growth in that area.

You can see where your Anchor palace falls by looking at your chart on HOROS, where it is marked for you.

Conclusion

The Anchor palace carries a lot of meaning for how a person develops later in life, building on the roots already shown by the Ego palace. That makes it an important factor to notice whenever you read a Zi Wei Dou Shu chart.

• It is placed by birth hour, so an accurate birth time matters.
• It always lands in one of six palaces: Ego, Inner Life, Career, Persona, Wealth or Love.
• The Ego palace is the root; the Anchor palace is the branch that grows from it.
• Each placement points to an area where attention tends to gather as you mature.