Siblings Palace (兄弟宫)
The Siblings Palace (兄弟宫) governs brothers and sisters in the classical texts, but its modern range is wider: siblings, close peers, and the horizontal band of relationships — the people who are neither above you nor below you.
Peers, equals and the people beside you
At a glance
The palace of peers of one's own generation — siblings, and by extension close colleagues.
Classically this palace covers brothers and sisters and the question of support between them. The texts read it as a measure of whether the peer group is a resource or a drain, and they treat the number and the harmony as separate questions.
What this palace governs
Their number, temperament and the texture of the relationship — warm, competitive or distant.
The friends who function as family: roommates, co-founders, the group chat that never dies.
How well you share resources and credit — a useful signal for business partnerships.
Whether help arrives when you fall, and whether it arrives with conditions attached.
The fourteen major stars in this palace
A sense of rank among equals — you are either the one who organises the siblings or the one who is kept at a distance by them. Mutual help is real but formal.
Bright, competitive siblings and a relationship that functions more like an exchange of ideas than a family bond. Mutual help usually comes in the form of good advice.
Warm relations with brothers and peers and a tendency to be the one who carries more than their share of family obligation. Support runs strongly in one direction.
Relations with siblings are practical rather than expressive, and financial matters between you need to be written down. Disagreements over money or duty are common here.
Warm, supportive relations with siblings and peers, and a family structure in which you are looked after more often than you look after others.
Competitive and occasionally fraught relations with siblings. There is usually a history of one comparison or another running through the family.
Dependable relations and a family role as the responsible one. You are usually the sibling others come to, which is a position as much as a relationship.
Gentle relations with siblings, and a tendency for the more emotionally capable sibling — usually you — to be the family's informal confidant.
Warm, competitive relations with siblings and a busy social household. The comparison between siblings tends to be prominent rather than hidden.
Relations with siblings run through words — arguments, comparisons, and long-standing quarrels that are occasionally about nothing else. Distance is common and not necessarily hostile.
Good relations with siblings and a family role as the one who mediates. Peacekeeping is comfortable and can hide a reluctance to state your own position.
The elder position among peers, whether or not you are the oldest. You are the one consulted, and the one who ends up handling family difficulties.
Competitive relations with siblings and a family culture of comparison or struggle. Distance is common, and it is usually distance with respect rather than estrangement.
Relations with siblings are distant or interrupted, often by distance in geography rather than by conflict. You are usually the one who left.
How it is read
Classical readers took this palace literally — how many siblings you have. Modern readers, in one-child households, read it as peer style: how you negotiate with equals when there is no hierarchy to lean on.
A bright supportive star here reads as lifelong allies; a destructive star reads as peers who cost more than they give — the lesson is selectivity, not isolation.
This palace also indirectly mirrors your mother in some schools, which makes it worth reading beside the Parents Palace rather than instead of it.
Related Concepts
Common questions
Does this palace predict how many siblings I have?
It was written for a world of large families, and classical manuals give counts. Modern practitioners read it as relationship texture instead — closeness, rivalry, reliability — because the count is now a policy matter, not a fate matter.
Can the Siblings Palace describe my best friend?
Yes — any peer-level bond that functions like family shows up here, while more transactional friendships belong to the Friends Palace. The line between them is whether the bond survives a bad year.
What does an empty Siblings Palace mean?
You borrow the opposing Friends Palace. Practically: your peer energy is expressed through wider networks rather than a tight inner circle.
Is a bad star here a warning against partnerships?
It is a warning against lazy partnerships. Qi Sha or Po Jun here usually means partnerships work only with explicit contracts and exit plans — the reading is about terms, not about avoiding people.
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