Sitting back and reflecting, many a time we realize that there is such a thing as fate. All pursue success. But as one old master said, we can know fate but we don’t have to be subservient to it.

That man was a master of eight characters. He has seen and observed the fate of many who have come to consult him. He may not be rich but is comfortable. Those who come to him for advice and hope come from all walks of life and peering into their lives has given him additional wisdom.

The most important aspect of divination is to know whether one is born as strong or weak. Not strong as in physically strong but strong as in the support that one receives from the surrounding characters of one’s horoscope. This strength is vital in determining the outcome as it interacts with the potentials that come with the tide of time.

In Eight Characters, the day one is born is taken as the self. The interaction and relationship of this self with the other characters of year, month and time are seen and analysed and from there, the diviner will know whether the self is strong or weak along with its varying degrees.

Without exception, we can safely say that all of us would like to be told that wealth is ours for the taking. We would very much like to hear that we are born lucky. We have aspirations to ‘make it’. But what if it is the other way round?

Very likely we would try to look for a solution, an answer or a magic formula to make things right. You may hear that things will be alright if you relocate or work or live in a certain direction. You may try to live in a house that faces a specific direction. Or you may try to wear clothes of a certain color because you believe that is your lucky color and will complement what is missing in your horoscope. Can luck be changed?

This master offers one simple advice. If one is born ‘unlucky’, it is good that one knows. he can plan to live within his providence. Within his circumstance, he can still eke a comfortable life. He can choose to make himself happy and those around him can appreciate him for the work that he does.

As an example, the man who always whistles as he collects the discarded tin cans and plastic bottle is doing a great service to the community. Come festival time, the residents where he forages give him money packets because they are grateful for what he does in cleaning up their compounds. His is an honest living. In a way, that is a meaningful existence.

On the other hand, if one were to try to win at all cost, it may not be a win at all. Read the papers and see all those who face jail for crimes of robbery, deceit, CBT and what-not. They are people who want to win or get rich quick. Some things in life cannot be forced!

Coming from all this, horoscopes and similar divination arts can be useful tools for bettering our lives.

Which Way to Go?

One of the most commonly asked question is, “What is my best direction?’ followed by “I want to buy an apartment. Which direction is best for me?”

We all want a good direction because we believe that a good direction equates to good feng shui and good feng shui equates to success which spells more money, good health and more laughter!

When it comes to directions, offhand, in charting and divination, there are the three styles (Qi Men, Tai Yi and Liu Ren), plum blossom and purple star not to mention the I Ching itself. In feng shui, we have the eight mansions method, the life or kua numbers and the Luo Shu numbers for the year, month, day and hour.

Before we get lost, let’s bite into something that is easy to chew. That would be our life number or kua number. This number is based on the year we are born. Just scroll the chart right below this for the year you were born for your kua number.

The numbers actually represent the trigrams. For most purposes, the elemental quality of the number is used. They are like this:

1   = water

2,8 = earth

3, 4 =wood

6,7 = metal

9  = fire

There are best houses to match each life number:

1 best to live in houses facing south, east, southeast

2, 8 best to live in houses facing southwest, northeast, north

3,4 best to live in houses facing west, northwest, south

6,7 best to live in houses facing east, southeast, southwest, northeast

9 best to live in houses facing north, west, northwest

But I must first clarify. What is written so far is for information and at best is a very coarse method of deciding on a direction.

Life Chart and Planner

Over cups of coffee at Ikea, the talk turned to life and the challenges that confront us. The subject turned to Bazi astrology and Western astrology.

If we were to plot out an eight characters horoscope, we would be able in a subjective way make a prediction of the fortunes like good times and bad times. How accurate that will be is another matter. It is no joke that the best anyone can have is a good 20 years of riding high, that is, when luck is at its peak.

On the other hand, there would be those horoscopes which foretells bad luck and in the same way no more than 20 years. Fortunately for such people, there are little slivers of hope and opportunities that will come along.

This brings us round to an aspect of western astrology which I find quite relevant and something which everyone can try their hand at.

It is very simple. The chart above says it all. The area above the red line are the good times in one’s life while those below are low times. Each cycle from high to low and back to the beginning of the high is about 7 to 9 years though it could be more.

This sine curve varies from person to person and is calculated based on the birthdate of a person. However, I find the most practical is to take note of our own high and bad mile stones and place them on the graph.

For example, if you had the best point in your career, you could note that and mark it on the highest point on the curve. Similarly, if you had a bad experience, like monetary loss, lost your job or had bad relationship problems, you could note that and mark it on the curve.

The idea is to create our own graph and use that for making future major decisions.

(If the picture is too small and not clear, magnify to read or press + while holding down the Ctrl key.)

No guarantees or offers of liability….. J

Roads all over but do they stop?

A business is about profits. For there to be profits the business has to prosper. To proper, there must be activity. Herein lies the basic requirement of a successful business. And feng shui adherents believe that a good fengshui location is the first step in that direction.

How does feng shui consider as a good location?

Somewhat out of context but this line from third volume of the Snow Heart Verses which goes like this, “The nature of water is movement. Its wonder lies in its stillness.”

Modern roads and thoroughfares are treated as water. Maybe not water as such but more accurately the nature of water and that is its constant moving flow. Roads equates to traffic. Be it a major highway that cuts across boundaries, main streets, side roads or pedestrian paths, they all are conveyors of traffic, machine or people.

Let’s check how we can relate them to getting our business location right in a macro way.

1              Busy-ness = business

As the Snow Heart says, there are two aspects, movement and stillness. A busy street is an indication of business potential.It is a numbers game. The more people you have walking past you, the higher your chances of snatching a sale. Not much feng shui required!

2              People must stop and browse

A crowd is of no use if they just walk away hurriedly. They must stop preferably right where you are. That means there must be parking and other amenities. A fruit stall at a highway rest stop would do better than one at a junction simply because travelers stop to pee, rest and to relief their thirst.

A shop with no space does not encourage customers to stop and browse. Like they say, every window shopper is a potential spender. Shopping malls with crowds do better than those where flies flit at leisure.

That is wonder in the stillness. To stop is to be still.

3              Tapping the latent energy relevant to what you want to sell

A busy street selling clothes means nothing if you are selling insurance. This is so because people go there to shop for clothes not to get an insurance cover. If you set up a booth there, you will be transparent as far as they are concerned. If you are selling phone cards, you may stand a chance.

Feng shui calls it earth qi (that is the closest meaning). To borrow a new age term we could say it is about the vibrations of the place. If you are into hardware, it may be a good idea if your business premise is located in an area where there are furniture, plumbers and building products. The earth qi resonates with your business or the other way round.

Feng shui literature abound with many descriptions of the different types of water but these basic points are the essentials. If we can see their relevance, we should have a good start.

In theory, we have the potential qi and the manifested qi. Potential qi is invisible and hard to pin down. Roads are manifested qi. They are a good gauge of the motility of a business location. And happily, they can be discerned.

Was thinking of taking a short break and some fresh air but was reminded that I have yet to provide the table for getting the day characters.

The day characters are a part of Eight Characters or BaZi astrology. It is in fact the loci from which an analysis of one’s horoscope and fortune is derived.

The easiest is to look it up in the Chinese Almanac but for those who do not have one, you do your own calculation. I hope the example I have done will help demonstrate how it is done.

The first table you see shows the day cycle for the 1^st day of January of the year. For example the day cycle for 1^st January 1961 is 31.

To obtain your day character you do this:

1              count the number of days from your date of birth from 1^st January

2              add the number of days you have just obtained to the value of the year of your birth (seen from ‘branch & stem on 1^st January of the year’

3              take away multiples of 60. The balance less 1 is the day cycle value of your birth day.

4              Look up the table ’60 year cycle’ to get the character code for the day cycle just obtained.

For example, for a person born on 4^th August 1961, it goes like this

1              number of days from 1/1/1961

January                = 31 days

February              = 28

March                    = 31

April to July        = 30+31+30+31=122 days

To August 4^th =4

Total                        =216 days

2              year 1997 cycle begins   =31

Days to birthday               =31+216=247 days

3              taking away multiples of 60 (4×60=240)

The balance is 7

Therefore, the cycle for the birth day on 4/8/1961 is 6 (from 7 less 1)

4              The code for 6 is F6 (written as 己 巳)

There, you have it. Easy and simple, isn’t it?

Table A

Table B

Have Fun!

What is meant by a prized feng shui location?

The ideal location is decided by evaluations of five criteria which are:

1 Dragon (read mountain range formation)

2 Hillocks

3 Water

4 Focal point or Dragon point

5 Orientation or alignment

Traditionally, the selection is based on a detailed study of the area and without doubt requires lots of climbing and traversing of terrain. It is a saying that one way to identify a master worth his salt is the tan of his skin! A dark tan would show that he has done his homework. No helicopter those days. Even if he had one, he would still need to alight and taste the water to know its quality, maybe sniff the air even. (Because the taste of the water would also reveal information, for example, a tardy bitter taste might point to an abundance of male Qian energy)

A precious feng shui location actually means that it is suitable for agriculture, commerce and easily defended. What is called a kao shan or high ground at the rear forming a wall means that there is protection from strong winds as well as offer condensation of moisture such that crops can grow.

Hillocks are features of an undulating terrain which is suitable for irrigation and agriculture with little likelihood of water logging.

A suitable orientation obviously will mean good sunlight and rain.

Water sources naturally are very important for agriculture and also they were important means of transportation. Under such gentle weather conditions and natural fertility makes for a land conducive to agriculture and rearing of livestock. What can be more prosperous when trees grow and livestock thrive?

I like the picture above. It says it all. It is like a geography class, isn’t it?

Picture acknowledgement Wang Qi Ting

Feng Shui and Colors

Do colors really have any significance in feng shui and how does it work?

Studies on human behavior have shown that colors do affect our moods. Blues are quieting, green invigorating and yellow brightening. Morose colors are black and grey while red gets us excited. These are facts and we don’t really need any studies to tell us that. But what really is interesting is how feng shui makes use of colors to work on a level which we are not able to see and feel.

Colors are used in fascinating ways. The fengshui rationale is somewhat different. We could talk about, say, yellow brightens up a living room but feng shui may use the color to represent the qualities of earth or white to represent metal.

Let’s look at how feng shui would work with the color white. In flying and annual star feng shui, for instance, the stars 5 and 2 are said to be unfavorable in that they have the potential to cause accidents, injuries, illnesses and other such bad things. Both these stars belong to the element earth and to diminish or even completely remove their effect, the element metal is employed.

Let’s take a step back. Both earth and metal are two of the fivesome elements. The other three are water, fire and wood. They relate to each other and the two more important relationship is the productive and destructive cycle. In the case of earth (5 and 2), they are diminished or reduced by metal. You can say that their power is robbed by metal. (The purist would say they are reduced by metal.)

Thus, you could use a white color for that room or area where the 5 or 2 star is present. This tiger year, 2010, for example, the 5 is active in the southwest and the 2 is active in the northeast. Hence, most masters would recommend we use white in those areas. The feng ling or wind chime too has that effect in that the metallic sound produced would clear away the energy of 5/2 earth that is around.

This is also applied to the latent character of the house or office and is accomplished by plotting out the natal chart of the space.  That explains why we see wind chimes hanging from the eaves and balconies.

The impact of color is subtle yet its effect is perennial. However, my advice is to use them in a moderate way which also means that they should not overpower your space. The keyword is harmony. This means that if everything is white, it becomes harsh and the feng shui would be overkill. Too much of a strong herbal tonic in the long term may make our body too heaty with is not what we want.

On passing, may I add a word on wind chimes. They are not cure-alls. Use them wisely. On a gross level, a soft deep tone wind chime is suitable. Too many and we get surrounded by a whole plethora of jangling sounds which are not the quality of metal that is required to do the work.

The most beautiful wind chime I have come across is the Woodstock wind chime which is tuned but they are quite expensive.
Woodstock Percussion DCB37 Earth Chime – Bronze

A good doctor asked me out for lunch one day. It was a warm gesture as it had been quite a long while since we last caught up. Really I had thought of inviting him earlier as, respectfully, he was my Tuina and acupuncture teacher. My lame excuse for not having done so was because I did not want to disrupt his busy consultation schedule.

After lunch he asked my opinion on a new condo unit he had bought. He asked me about the dragon forms and veins. I told him that it was not relevant to talk about dragons.

His condo complex is situated on a small hillock. His unit in particular faces downhill with a view of the city. It is still under construction and we had no access so we could only view it from the apartments across the road.

There are a few points though that we could see. The units sit away from the main road which sits on the ridge of the main hill. This is good. The slope leading to the units is gentle and the road sweeps round the units which is also good. The layout is regular and is conducive to easy planning and traffic.

It opens to wide, flat open land but there is no information as to what the future development of that will be. The main highway can be seen in the distance. There is also a septic treatment plant off to the west but is too far away to have much impact. Directly in front of Doctor’s unit is a cylindrical reservoir on grade. Off hand, it should have no significance but there is no harm keeping this in mind for further evaluations.

Doctor’s unit sits on the lower side of the hill and his block would be lower than the entrance. These would be factors for future consideration. His unit faces north and captures the rising sun. This fact will become very important when we get to view the completed unit.

From the perspective of land forms, the development will have the higher land on its right and slopes towards the left and the rear. On its left sits two completed apartment units.

Yin yang consideration is foremost. From this short visit, I can see that as a whole, this requirement is satisfied. I have some reservation on Doctor’s unit as it sits low and more valuations need to be done before knowing what to do.

Of the many metaphysical arts, eight characters astrology is one of the most interesting. Many of my friends have vouched that it tells their life so accurately. In fact, I know a few friends who have kept little slips of paper that were given to them by astrologers. These slips of paper were to be referred to and acted as a guide through the phases of the client’s life.

I, myself, had consulted astrologers. That was back then. I did one but unfortunately, I lost that slip of paper. In that slip of yellowish paper was written the years of my life and the fortunes I would encounter. It was interesting. Actually what is even more interesting was that this astrologer used no calculators nor had he any need to refer to any book, manual or tables. He was a fat fellow and his predictions were made while he was in some sort of a trance. He was reputed to be very accurate.

Experiences like these have pricked my curiosity. Come to number them, there are so many different methods being practiced. There are those who rely on appearances of stars while others rely on the interplay of the five elements. Among these, there will be a juxtaposition of various methods. Among these, the most objective is what I call the Ten Positions.

Astrology grew from a fusion of Taoism (Daoism) and science both physical and occult. Dao harks a long way back and absorbed, adopted, merged, fused, blended and evolved with philosophy, religion, shamanism, science, occultism, you name it. So much so that it is very difficult to tell or separate them anymore. Despite all this, the best benefit can be obtained from Eight Characters astrology if we learn to use it in an objective way.

Here I am back again, this time with the month branch-stem code. The Tabulation in the article before this one gave us the branch-stem code for the year.

What I am trying to achieve is to present a simple way of getting the branch-stem codes that Chinese fengshui and astrology uses. With tables, I hope that the whole tedious exercise becomes simple.

At the end of the day, with the eight characters in hand, you can check up the codes that are in your birth chart and from there know your own strengths. Astrologers use them for fortune telling and now perhaps we can DIY.

Before going to the table, perhaps a little explanation will help. Below are actually two tables. One table, the first, lists out the cod for the first lunar month of the year. You use this one to check the first lunar month. Remember, it is not the western months of January, Feb and so on.

The second table is to be used after you have identified the code of the first lunar month of the year you were born. If you were born in the 6^th month, then move along the horizontal line until you come to the month you were born. Note the code (this is your month code).

After the tables, I shall provide an example to lead you through the process.

The first table

The second table

For example for someone born on 1^st April 1997 …

1              April 1^st is within the 2^nd lunar month. (Remember month one begins 4February? 4March is thus month two. 4April is month three and so on)

2              Go to the first table. The code for the first month of 1997 is I

3              Go to the second table. 1997 belongs to type 3. The month code for the second month is J4. (this is the code we want)

4              Go the previous article and from looking up the table there, we see the year code for 1997 is D2.

From this short exercise, we now have two codes – the year code and the month code; D2 and J4 respectively.

Given some time, I aim to use these two codes to check whether a person born on the 1^st April 1997 has the Heavenly Eminence star in the horoscope.

There will be people who take astrology seriously but in building our own horoscope, we can have some fun. In my mind, astrology has been around a long time and mankind has always never missed peering into the unknown and looked for the meaning of life.

The predictive astrology by using stars like heavenly eminence and bright scholar goes back more than a thousand years. It was probably relied on then. Society now is more complex and this has to be born in mind when we study them.