Hi everyone,

Apologies for being missing for a while now (as always). There are a lot of changes – positive ones thankfully – going on in my life right now and I am still undergoing these changes. I haven’t got into the mood for writing for quite some time. The consultations are still ongoing for sure. If you’re new to this blog, just know I’m still very active in my practice so feel free to reach out if you ever have any questions before getting a reading done.

I will share what these changes in my life probably by the end of next month. It’ll be my 100th post on this blog so I’ll definitely be making it a personal entry. Moving forward, you should, hopefully, see me blogging a lot more as 2019 slowly comes to an end. I have plans to revamp the website to make the user experience better for everyone as well but that’ll take a while, so do continue to bear with the primitive design.

Some of my readers might have come across a really long blog post I’ve written quite some time ago regarding good BaZi charts vs bad BaZi charts. To date, it remains one of my most-read posts and arguably one of the most thought-provoking ones based on the feedback I’ve received. Perhaps it’s due to the post presenting Chinese metaphysics and BaZi at its rawest and most relatable way, as well as being a display of a practitioner sees when deciphering a BaZi chart. Despite being told not to, clients still could not resist from asking me which of the four categories they fall under.

I know most people expect a Chinese metaphysics practitioner to dish out a solution or two during a BaZi consultation, but I wish to reiterate here and now that the primary job of a practitioner is not to dish out solutions contrary to popular opinion. We are here to read charts. I balk at the word “solution” because it implies that the problem can and will be solved, but common sense tells us that this is not something a practitioner can guarantee for you. We can give suggestions or opinions based on our own experience, but refrain from thinking that these serve as an instant panacea to whatever you are facing. If you are lucky, you may end up with a practitioner with enough life experience and wisdom to give you some words of advice, otherwise, you’re better off trying to do some form of introspection first.

Practitioner or not, it is hard for someone to truly experience first-hand what another is going through. Let’s say for example: If your chart indicates that you have a tendency to be addicted to gambling and you get into trouble for it, someone who will never have this form of addiction will never be able to understand what you are going through. Their internal make-up is just different. The same applies to all other kinds of issues. If you’re lucky, yes, you will be able to find someone who shares a common experience, and he or she, hopefully, can offer you some valuable insight or share how to resolve some of the challenges you’re going through. I will never understand what some of my clients are going through, and similarly, my clients will never understand what I am going through or have gone through as well.

At the end of the day, what I am advocating is to still try to look inwards first, if not, seek professional help from a counselor – they are there for a reason and there is absolutely no shame in that. Talking to people like your friends or practitioners like myself can help, but only as a means of getting a different perspective – not to get a solution. I still firmly believe that the solution still has to come from yourself or from the guidance of a professional. Most practitioners aren’t qualified counselors, so please do not use a BaZi or Zi Wei Dou Shu reading as a form of replacement for professional help.

What practitioners can do is totally different. I’ll explain.

I often have to deliver unpleasant news during my consultations, such as someone moving into a negative 10-year Elemental Phase or what’s more commonly known as a ‘Luck Pillar” which prompted me to write this post. In case you are wondering why I don’t just use the commonly used term ‘Luck Pillar’, it’s because I utterly dislike the word “luck” for reasons I’ve explained here, which is why I coined my own term called “Elemental Phase”.

Without further ado, here are some of my thoughts which I hope everyone will find useful:

Do Not Underestimate What Moving Into A New 10-Year Phase Can Do To You

People tend to underestimate what your 10-year Elemental Phase (大运) can do to you, and instead, only look at the Annual Phase or 流年运。Most people aren’t aware of the concept of 10-year Elemental Phases no thanks to the bad practices such as annual zodiac forecasts which I regard as complete utter nonsense. If there is one thing you should take away from this post, it’s that you always need to look at your 10-year Elemental Phases first before you even think about what your individuals years are going to be like. The real remedy for the flaws of your natal chart has to come from here.

Whenever you move into a new 10-year phase, huge changes are bound to happen. This is something I can absolutely relate to and so do many of my clients. These changes can come in many different forms, such as a change in your career, family environment, or simply forces that are out of your control, like the economy as a whole. The things and events that often occur as a result of a change in your 10-year phase are not in your control, which is why it makes it so important and significant. If you are moving into a positive 10-year phase from a negative one, congratulations because the change you are going to experience is going to be epic.

What often catches people off guard is moving from a positive phase into a negative one, or even worse, staying stuck in a negative phase. People will usually freak out and not know what to do upon hearing this. If you fall under this category, please read on.

Calm Down & Plan Ahead

Everyone and I really do mean everyone, will experience positive 10-year phases as well as negative ones. This is inevitable and it is simply the law of nature. Every phenomenon you can observe will have a rise and an eventual decline and this applies to us as well.

If you happen to have a chart that indicates that you are entering into a negative 10-year phase, the most important thing is to not freak out. This is the most unconstructive thing you can do and it achieves absolutely nothing.

The simplest way to put it is this: Moving into a negative 10-year phase means the environment you found yourself in has now fundamentally changed. Perhaps you just changed industries, you got yourself a new boss or you got married. Something major about your life is now different. As you can imagine, these are just a few examples of how the macro-environment you are in can change and its significant impact on you.

We are often at the mercy of such changes because once it happens, it’s not something that you can simply unwind, so preparing for them and handling them well is critical for your well-being.

Remembering Your 10-Year Phases Is Also A Reflection Of How You Grow

One of the other most unconstructive things you can do is to blame others and your circumstances.

Your chart is, in a way, your karma. Blaming others or blaming your circumstances isn’t going to change anything. As cheesy as it sounds, please always remember to just learn from it and continue growing.

If you read my blog post on bad BaZi charts vs good BaZi charts, don’t forget that your 10-year Elemental Phases is also a reflection of whether or not you are growing, and this will, in turn, determine what kind of environment you find yourself in. It is always a feedback loop and nothing is truly separate from one another. If you have not read the blog post I mentioned, I’d highly encourage you to do so, because if you can appreciate how your 10-year phases are a reflection of how you grow, you will not be bound by the law of metaphysics and can definitely transcend your chart.

Perhaps to put things into perspective: I’ve had clients in their 40s who are going through three consecutive negative 10-year phases right now who have come to me and asked why they are still struggling in their career and finances. Naturally, they did not take my comment of them not growing very well, especially when it comes from someone younger. One thing they failed to realize is that at this day and age, someone half their age could be doing their job and do it better, for half the pay. The environment has changed, but the chart-holder hasn’t.

How Severe A Negative 10-Year Phase Is Depends On Your Natal Chart

Ten different people can all go through a negative 10-year phase at the same time, but the degree of the difficulty and challenges they go through can be very different. This is determined by their natal chart because your natal chart is your foundation after all.

If one’s natal chart shows obvious character flaws, the impact of a negative 10-year phase will, of course, be a lot more severe than someone with a better, more balanced natal chart. This is also one of the reasons why it’s important to focus on yourself first because the nature and severity of the troubles you get into have to do with what kind of person you are.

Before I move on to the next section, bear in mind that there are more than 7 billion possible BaZi charts, so virtually all of us will experience our phases differently to varying degrees of severity.

What A BaZi Reading Hopes To Achieve

I know some people might be asking themselves, “If a practitioner cannot solve my problems, then why should I go to a practitioner in the first place?”

Again, it’s not about getting a practitioner to solve your problems. Trust me, even as a practitioner myself, I can’t solve some of my own problems. But I suppose the most valuable thing you can get is what to look out for moving forward, and you’ll want to prepare for an environment change that you aren’t able to see. If you are about to move into a negative 10-year phase, you’ll want to be prepared for that and also think about what is causing the upcoming phase to be a negative one – it might be that your health starts to go down, or you might be marrying the wrong person, or it might be that the company or industry you’re working in is about to go through some major change. It could be anything.

Similarly, if you’re about to move into a positive phase, you will want to prepare for it so that you can enter into that phase in a strong manner to reap the most benefits from that phase.

Remembering Our Ancestors Would Not Develop Chinese Metaphysics Just To Tell Us “Life Sucks And You Die”

I say this all the time and I still say it. Our ancestors would not have spent centuries developing this field just to tell you your life is going to suck and you can’t do anything about it.

Metaphysics is not predestination. I repeat: Metaphysics is not predestination.

Granted, it feels that way sometimes, but what I’m trying to say is that it’s not all doom and gloom just because you are moving into a negative 10-year phase. Even if you cannot amass wealth, gain status or whatever it is that you desire during a negative 10-year phase, you could at least prevent things from spiraling out of control or avoiding an obvious pitfall. Try to shift your perspective a little during such periods and see it as a period for introspection and growth, and perhaps spend some time upgrading yourself while you wait for a better 10-year phase to arrive.

We all go through negative inevitably, but remember there will come a time where we go through good phases too, but only when we handle the bad ones well.

– Sean