BaZi, also known as Four Pillars of Destiny, is a traditional Chinese metaphysical system that maps a person's birth year, month, day, and hour onto eight characters drawn from the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches. Each character carries one of the five elements — metal, wood, water, fire, earth — and the productive or destructive interactions between them describe innate temperament, life patterns, and ten-year luck cycles. BaZi is essentially a precise time-based language for analyzing the dynamic balance of yin, yang, and the five elements across a lifetime.

Zi Wei Dou Shu, often called Purple Star Astrology, is an Eastern divination system that matured during the Song dynasty. It places more than one hundred named stars — including Zi Wei, Tian Ji, and Tai Yang — across twelve palaces, each governing a life domain such as career, wealth, relationships, or health. The pattern formed by which stars sit in which palaces produces a person's chart structure, which describes innate talents, constraints, and recurring life themes. Compared to BaZi, it reads more like a structured life map than an elemental energy reading.

Both systems are built on birth time and celestial positions, but they answer different questions. Western astrology uses planets, signs, and houses to describe psychological motivations and personality. BaZi uses stems, branches, and five elements to model time-based flow and decision timing. Accuracy depends on what you are asking — psychological self-understanding leans Western, while questions about timing or long-term cycles lean BaZi. AskStar reads both side by side so you can see blind spots that any single tradition tends to miss.

AI does not replace traditional metaphysics; it handles the volume of cross-referencing a human consultant cannot do simultaneously. AskStar first computes your chart with a deterministic astronomy engine — that step is pure math, no AI involved — and only then does a language model integrate signals from Western astrology, Zi Wei, and BaZi to surface cross-validated insights. Accuracy depends on three things: correct birth data, precise chart calculation, and an AI grounded in classical sources. AskStar's engines are aligned with established astrological and metaphysical canons to reduce guesswork.

The essentials are accurate birth data: birth date, birth time (as precise as possible, ideally to the minute), and birth city. Birth time is the most important field because it determines your rising sign, Zi Wei life palace, and the BaZi hour pillar. If you are unsure, check a birth certificate or ask a parent. You can still get a reading without an exact time, but some palace and hour-pillar insights will be limited. AskStar computes every chart automatically — no prior astrology knowledge is required.

Each AI feature uses Credits. Chat costs 1 credit per message, a personal reading costs 8 credits, and Quick and Deep Analysis modes cost the same. Synastry doubles the cost because it analyzes two charts together. Chart generation itself is free — you can compute and view your chart as many times as you like, and credits are only spent when you request AI interpretation or chat. There is no monthly subscription; you top up credits as you need them, and unused credits do not expire.

Quick uses a fast model to deliver concise, focused conclusions and is well suited for getting a direction quickly. Deep Analysis uses an advanced model that produces richer cross-system synthesis — including triangulation across Western astrology, Zi Wei, and BaZi — explicit blind-spot detection, and concrete action recommendations. The text is substantially longer and more layered. Both modes cost the same number of credits. Deep Analysis is a Premium-only feature designed for situations where you want a thorough perspective before a meaningful life decision.

Your personal data is encrypted at rest. Birth information and chart contents are processed only to compute your charts and generate your readings, including via contracted AI/LLM providers that act as processors under our agreements and do not train their models on your data. We do not sell your personal data or share it with third parties for advertising. You can delete your account and associated data at any time from settings. For full details on data handling, retention, and your rights, see our privacy policy.