Hi everyone!
Hope everyone is enjoying the long weekend! I’ve been finding it a lot easier to get motivation to blog and write articles on metaphysics recently thanks to my new health regime. I’ve been hitting the gym on a regular basis and have been watching my diet rather carefully. To top that off I invested in a Harman and Kardon Onyx Studio 2 and have been playing relaxing music as I sleep to improve my sleep quality. The effects have been pretty remarkable. I think health is one of those aspects that most people neglect, not knowing that it is one of the pre-requisites for transcending your chart when you talk about metaphysics. Oh, by the way, if anyone’s thinking of investing in an affordable speaker I really recommend the Harman and Kardon Onyx Studio 2. I bought mine from my Lazada at a really affordable price so do check it out!
I mentioned in my previous post that I will start off each entry with something a bit personal before touching on a bit on technicalities. I think to make my entries feel more structured and flow a bit better, the personal part of the entry will be like any other blog where I talk about my day-to-day life, whereas the technical part of the entry will focus on the application and the insights in relation to whatever is happening and how I use it to make better decisions. When you possess such knowledge you’ll find yourself constantly tapping into it to try to enrich your life, so I thought I’d share how metaphysics has benefitted me.
The Lunar 7th month is finally over and I’m seeing a huge surge in BaZi reading requests. I recall have 0 clients last year during the 7th month period last year, and though I’ve still had some reading requests this year, you can clearly see a drop in the demand during this period where people generally avoid anything even brings to mind the idea of spirits and ghosts. Personally I don’t find it a taboo to have your fortune read during the 7th month, just that it’s very interesting to observe how people respond to such occasions. The BaZi reading sessions with my clients in September have been rather fruitful and a very pleasant experience and I’m glad everyone got something out of it. Some have kindly left a review on Facebook as well. (I don’t fake my reviews!) I’ve also started giving lessons this month and have been getting referrals for lessons as well, and finally my media feature will be out in November (they pushed it back to November and it will be on the online version of their publication) so everything is pretty amazing!
One thing that stood out during my consultations in the month of September has been on the topic of character. My clients have been asking me to help them identify their flaws, and at the same time I’ve been asked by some ex-clients to help them with some decisions that has to do with choosing the right people for the job. We deal with a multitude of people in our lives, and I’m pretty sure we wish to surround ourselves with good people who have a moral compass and leave you with good vibes. Of course, it’s inevitable that we come across people on the opposite spectrum – that’s just life.
Your BaZi Chart Is A Reflection Of Who You Are & What You Have To Offer
I’ve always mentioned that your BaZi chart is a reflection of your inner-world and it’s not that things are happening to you arbitrarily. It’s what you consistently put out there in the world that causes your life end up a certain way, which is why our ancestors emphasized so much on character cultivation. Let’s put aside pre-determined circumstances and the environment you were born into for now, and besides, I’ve mentioned that two people with the same chart can have very different lives but the parallels will be there, even the way they feel. Someone’s quality of life is not determined by money or the position they hold per se. A businessman and a farmer can have the same chart, but both of them can still feel like a million bucks because they are comfortable with what they have and they have a purpose in their lives. There was an emphasis on title and position in olden days because the greatest honour was to serve the emperor by being in government. In modern context, anybody from any field can be looked-up to for their contributions and it is no longer exclusive to government sectors.
Let’s enter the mind of a metaphysics consultant or ‘fortune-teller’ for a moment. When I look at a chart, I don’t go “Oh! The universe is out to curse this person and make life difficult for him/her!”. Rather, I see a story – from the person’s family, to the trials that person has to go through, the turning point, and of course, their personality and most importantly their character. Do note that personality and character are completely different things. Someone can have a really pleasant personality on the surface, but deep down they are something else. It’s the reason why the saying “a good judge of character” exists rather than “a good judge of personality”. Personality is something you see on the surface and is superficial, but character reveals so much more and one will always put more weight on character.
So, when I look at a chart, am I able to see someone’s character? The answer is “yes”. But it’s not the kind of assessment that has pin-point accuracy but more of a general direction, which is actually good enough. The information you can get from a chart is enough to help you determine if this person is trustworthy, and whether you can work with this person, or whether you wish to pursue a deeper friendship with this person. Given that I have this knowledge in metaphysics, the Enneagram, and also from my own life experiences, I tend to be a little more observant and have a bit more insight into human nature and what motivates people to do the things they do. It all adds up to being like a people management skill so it definitely helps me in my career and personal life. I know it appears calculative and this aspect may make me look like a ‘scary’ person to be around, but I think it’s fair to say that we wish to invest our limited time in our lives to the right places and right people. Learning to say “no” at the right time will open up so many other doors that will be better for you. I’m a chess player and I like to plan things and work towards my goals; I don’t like wasting time and I enjoy making sense of why I do the things I do, so in a way I’m ‘calculative’ yes, but I would never use it to benefit at the expense of someone – it’s really for me to plan my life better. My friends and colleagues know me as an extremely open and direct person, and I will never hide my intentions or try to manipulate things behind the scenes.
The Steps Behind Assessing Someone’s Character Using BaZi
Now, I bet everyone is asking, how do I assess someone’s character from their BaZi chart? Well, there are certain logical steps to take in the assessment of the chart. I won’t cover everything in this blog post so let me just go through it briefly. It’s actually pretty straight-forward.
The key is to get a good understand on what chart structures are, or what we call 格局。Once you’ve gotten a clear understand of how to identify the chart structure, the next level would be to understand the concept of 体 and 用 – if I were to translate and explain it in English, 体 represents your foundations or starting point, and 用 signifies the process and how it unfolds. So in actual fact, 体 is your natal BaZi chart, and 用 is your 运。To someone interpreting a chart, all these form a story of how this person’s journey was like. So if we were to use this concept to explain how to assess someone’s character by their chart, 体 can represent the innate character they were born with or meant to have, whereas 用 represents how they go about making use of these innate talents they have. This is a bad way of putting things, but you can see it this way – someone with a good 体 but bad 用 would be like a lazy, but good and gentle man. Someone with a bad 体 and good 用 would be like someone with a temper, but can get a lot of things done. It’s like meeting someone with the kindest heart, but you’ll also notice that it comes with some baggage and emotional turmoil, or meeting someone with a fiery temper but is still morally upright and an exceptional leader. The human mind is infinitely complex, which is why I said it’s hard to assess someone with pinpoint accuracy but you can get a general idea. This aspect of metaphysics makes this job very interesting as there’s always some new things to observe and learn.
I’ve had the opportunity to see what I studied manifest in real life. When I first started giving consultations and was building up my client based, it didn’t occur to me that what I studied really showed up in real life, but now that I’ve been doing this for a while, you really do notice a pattern and similarities in character and behavior in certain chart structures. The personalities that stand-out the most have always been 偏印格 or 七殺格, or 破格s like 伤官见官 or 枭神夺食。Please not make the mistake and assume that the chart is bad the moment you see 偏印 or 七殺, and even 伤官见官 and 枭神夺食 needs to have certain conditions met before it can be qualified as a 破格 or a collapsed chart structure. Whether a 偏印格 or 七殺格 is bad or not depends on other things in the chart – I am talking about cases where the negative side of 偏印格 or 七殺格 manifests.
Let me draw on my own experiences to explain why I’m always so afraid of meeting people with a negative 偏印格 and 七殺格。When the negative side of 偏印 manifests it’s usually called 枭(xiao1)神 instead, so let’s call it 枭神 in order not to get confused. Followers of my blog will know that I started out on forums to get a following before I switched to Facebook and my website. During the period when I was participating on forums, the people who came out in a deliberate attempt to challenge me or ruin my name all belonged to 枭神格。I know because they have the habit of posting their birth details on the forums and I took a look. A 枭神格 is usually seen as one of the most unfortunate chart structures to have, and some practitioners have even named it 最没有福气的格局, because 枭神 is the ‘god’ that assaults 食神, which is seen as your source of abundance and happiness. The thing about people with this chart structure is that, they have a tendency to rejoice at other people’s suffering. If they can’t be happy or get what they want, so can’t others. They need to realize that their unhappiness and suffering is because of their own mentality and it’s not that they are cursed or that the world is against them. They just need to be more self-aware, stop self-victimizing and responsible for their own lives.
I’ve encountered quite a number of people with 枭神格 to date – one of them suffers from bi-polar; another is involved in illegal activities; and one of them is constantly involved in drama of all kinds and blames everything and everyone but herself. The client who blamed me for not diagnosing her cancer (again, I emphasize that BaZi cannot diagnose cancer and I have friends who study both Western medicine and traditional chinese medicine who can attest to that) also belongs to 枭神格 interestingly. Whereas for 七殺格, the people with have such chart structures generally have strong personalities, but their characters will depend on how the 七殺 in their chart is being controlled. When 七殺 manifests its positive qualities, we call it 偏官, so we’ll stick to the term 七殺 for now. People with a negative 七殺格 tend to have short-fuses and can be overbearing. When they get angry they really, really lose control. It’s extremely hard for people who have an 七殺格 with no remedy, which can appear either in the natal chart itself or the Luck Phases, to achieve success in life. In short, someone with a 七殺格 may very likely end up being a 小人 to a lot of people. We’ll leave the definition of 小人 for another time. There are plenty or other examples when it comes to challenging chart structures, just that these are the two that I encounter most often. Other chart structures like 伤官见官，枭神夺食，羊刃格 etc are totally different stories with other kinds of manifestations.
Let’s talk about some positive chart structures. One of my favourites is a qualified 食神格, meaning it has no clashes and the Daymaster is strong. People under this chart structure tend to exude child-like qualities, making them extremely likeable and a joy to be around. They are very blessed materially as well. People under 食神格 usually have an artistic flair and will end up in careers that allows them to express this side of themselves. A lot of successful artists and celebrities have this chart structure. Another good example would be 正官格。正官 represents someone’s title and status, or someone’s 贵气。As I mentioned earlier, in modern context, you no longer need to be in government to have status and title anymore. You could be in any field but still be held in high regard and be acknowledged for your contributions, and that’s where your 贵气 and respect from people come from. People with a qualified 正官格 are morally upright and make excellent leaders, so success won’t be denied to people like them. If you’re think what 贵气 is – it’s roughly described as the kind of aura that someone gives off that inspires confidence and makes you look at to them and it’s not something everyone has and it’s not something that comes with wealth. There’s so much more I could say and other examples of positive chart structures I could give, but I’ll leave it here for now.
The events and people I have observed are extremely intriguing for someone in my field. This knowledge is still applicable even after thousands of years and it’s absolutely fascinating.
There is a reason why I always tell my clients that all you have to do is to be self-aware, and have the humility to look at yourself in the mirror to see what you can improve about yourself, because your chart is your inner-world and it has nothing to do with things outside of yourself. No one is perfect. I really dislike parts of myself that I hate and I am trying extremely hard to transcend it or at least make something good out of it. Easier said than done of course.
Being able to assess someone’s character using BaZi is a useful skill to have for sure. Some of my clients who owe businesses come back to me quite often to get my view on individuals or potential partners, and it has all led to a very positive outcome because a good team is assembled and the people who only wish to serve themselves are removed. I also have a student this month who will be taking lessons from me, and she wants to be able to assess people based on their charts as well so that she can protect her children. Don’t get me wrong – this art isn’t meant to condemn people or to benefit yourself at other people’s expense. We all wish to live the best life for ourselves. For the person who owns a negative chart, it’s a chance for reflection and to build character; for the person who knows someone has a negative chart, it’s a good opportunity to either help that person if he/she wants to be helped, or a reason to make the right choice to respect yourself and stay away from negativity.
At the end of the day, the most important message that I keep trying to drive across is that your chart can be transcended as long you start from the inside. Our ancestors won’t spend thousands of years coming up with such methods just to remind us that our lives are going to be horrible – this art is meant to be used for self-awareness and empowerment. It’s all in the mind. I’m not trying to invalidate anyone’s feelings or suffering, it’s just that you have to make that conscious decision that you want your life to be better. That’s always the first step.
A BaZi Master Can Identify Character Flaws Extremely Easily
The chart below belongs to someone I do not personally know, but apparently this individual has quite a reputation and the chart was passed to me by someone who knows the chart-holder. This chart belongs to a female, which can be determined by looking at the direction of the 大运。
To a layman this chart means nothing, but to me this chart holds priceless information. I’m very grateful for this skill that I have as it helps me make much better decisions regarding a lot of things, especially when it comes to people. I’ll keep the description brief and focus on the key takeaways. From what I understand, the chart-holder does have some character flaws that needs to be worked on, but I won’t go into that here. This is a real person we are talking about here and sharing too much negative stuff does make me uncomfortable:
This chart does have some major cause for concern and it has been shown to be so based on what I understand of this person’s life:
– Parents divorced when she was 11.
– Multiple unstable relationships through her life.
– Major calamity in year 2015
– Unemployed currently
Let me just touch on a few key characteristics of this chart and how some of the above points can be deduced:
Character – Volatile temperament. Leans towards self-centredness. Suspected to be suffering from Borderline Personality Disorder.
Daymaster Strength – Definitely a strong Daymaster given the season she was born into and the 卯亥 Wood combination that forms in her chart. Note that her chart has two 羊刃s that is in the form of 卯 which also acts to strengthen her Daymaster, which is in severe need of balance.
Parents Divorced When She Was 11 – 戊土 and 壬水 representing the parents clash with each other during that year. Although 戊土 is technically the one that assaulted 壬水, 壬水 combines with the 丁火 to form Wood in the chart in a surprising comeback to assault 戊土。
Multiple Unstable Relationships – 辛 Metal which represents her romantic partners comes under extremely heavy assault by the two 丁火伤官s in her chart. It’s a typical case of the taboo combination known as 伤官见官。The myriad of unstable, toxic relationships began when she entered into her 2010 甲寅大运。The 羊刃s in her chart also play a part in this. Should the 正官 not be there, it will become a 伤官伤尽 chart which is considered a good chart structure.
Major Calamity In Year 2015 – The year where the 羊刃 in her chart is triggered. Having one 羊刃 is already bad enough; having two is disastrous. Hospitalized several times and contracted an incurable disease.
Unemployment – Virtually no wealth in the chart and the 正官 star that gets assaulted harms her 贵气。Not someone that will be put to use in a leadership position in the corporate world and the ability to acquire wealth will be extremely limited.
Overview – This chart has a number of flaws that unfortunately do not having a remedy, resulting in the difficulties the chart-holder is currently facing. The 体 (referring to the 8 characters) of the chart already suggests certain innate character flaws and limitations, and it doesn’t help where the 用 (her 大运 and how things will unfold) does not uplift the quality of her chart either. The interesting thing to note is that this individual was born into a an environment that is a lot more privileged than others with a lot of resources for personal growth and development, but the path she led caused her life to spiral downwards.
It always begs the question of whether your attitude determines your 大运 or your 大运 determines your attitude. Remember your 大运 isn’t referring to things or event that happen to you arbitrarily, but rather how you develop as a person as your life unfolds according to nature’s laws.
The chart-holder will move into 乙卯大运 in 2020 which is her 劫财羊刃 phase so I don’t expect things to pick up for this person to be honest. The 乙卯 phase will be even more challenging then her current 甲寅 phase as 卯 is the 羊刃 position of 甲 Wood and I can’t emphasize enough the impact of 羊刃 on someone’s chart. The most unfortunate thing about the chart is that it does not encounter any remedies within the natal chart as well as within the 大运 phases. The only period of solace was during her 癸丑大运 where the 伤官见官 taboo combination was remedied.
As a practitioner, there are many moments where I feel helpless when I come across a chart that indicates a challenging life. I can only pray that no matter who it is or what kind of chart one may hold, we can all quickly learn the lessons we are brought here to learn and focus on leading a happy and fulfilling life.
-Sean
