In honor of my Teacher, Liu Ming,
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Commentary and compilations by Jamie Shulander
All notes from class notes/works by Liu Ming
INDICATORS/aka Auspices Listed: Yearly, Monthly, Lunar then Daily
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LUNAR YEAR: YEAR of the OX
Deplete: Insensitive, ruthless if crossed, humorless, sullen, slavishly conventional, fearful of change, aloof and dull.
Image: The Ox talked about in Chinese Astrology is well known to all Chinese farmers. When China turned away from the wily horse to the sedate ox as the plow animal, rice productivity greatly increased. As a plow animal the Ox plows straight furrows and needs no coaxing. Ox are linked with the profits of consistent hard work and the Confucian virtue of perseverance in what is right. Naturally strong they are at their best when they are constantly challenged. Their sense of justice (and the law) makes them good leaders. Though often materially successful, they lack attachment to material things.
Metal Ox are accommodating, strong and reliable. They never shy away from difficulty or back down in confrontation. They promise more than they can deliver. Hurtful trauma in childhood (orphaned, immigration) and repressed anger ultimately polish their cold-heartedness into a calm and generous character. They are good parents and friends to a small in-crowd. They are rarely sick, and live long lives. Though their fortunes wax and wane they have comfortable old age.
LM Notes: Metal Ox
Wood Goats are industrious, sincere and disciplined characters. They mature quickly, attract helpers and work diligently towards great success. They have great good fortune due to previous causes. Many friends and their children will support them. Their artistic and aesthetic sense is strong, but they rarely produce art due to excessive idealism and naivete. They are strongly affected by their environment. Their strong constitution often chooses self-abuse but will ultimately give them long life.
QI NODE: 12 Great Heat
Malignant Yang
"Great Heat refers to the extreme heat in the yang twilight of the year. Oppressive heat draws up the dampness of the Earth. At this time declining Yang partners with the inter-seasonal Earth and creates Damp Heat. Damp Heat has an oppressive quality (mold, rot) in this qi node and it fosters unprecedented growth and a legion of illnesses. Though much continues to grow and flourish we must avoid the pernicious quality of the season. The great mantle of Yang must be handed down to Yin. The wise prepare for transference not defeat.
During this qi node the environmental qi (Heaven/Earth) is best at 2pm. Practice neigong several times a day facing due south. Dress lightly, wash your hair often and stroll about to avoid the damp. Chew well. During the day eat two meals, rest (nap) after lunch, snacks of fruit (melon, grapes) are good on hot days. Drink green and flower tea (jasmine, honeysuckle, lily) and in the evening enjoy a light savory soup.
It is a good time for initiating new and practical disciplines of conservation (that anticipate autumn). Activity should slowly turn from forward to reverse - begin to edit what has been accomplished. Cut back on obligations. Pace yourself. It is not a time for laziness and indolence but it is auspicious to edit what is 'unrighteous' - do not store what will mold or close down too soon.
Upon waking and before bed bucket bathe (with a final cold salt rinse), watch the sunset and go to sleep not long after dark. Rest, relax, travel (vacation by the sea), exercise and do not be exposed to coastal winds.
Guard the heart (shen) by modestly expressing your feelings - it is natural to feel emotionally lethargic or distant. Expect less from those around you to avoid emotional congestion. Be real! Honestly clear away emotional heaviness - denial. Damp heat inspires denial. Neurosis can easily go psychotic."
LM The Way of the Three Treasures
LUNAR HEXAGRAM 10 Lu: Treading
"The process contains danger because you do not have the power to create success with certainty. Everything depends on exactly how you conduct yourself. Humility, caution, fear-management, and contemplation bring success.” LM Changing: Zhouyi 10 Lu
Hexagram 38 Kui: Incompatible
Solar Indicator: Settle
“Unfavorable for planning or forward progress. Expect to be frustrated but make small gains. It is a good time to seek counsel from those with expertise and wisdom...Try a little self-reflection and humility."
LM Changing: Zhouyi 38 Kui
“Auspicious activity: It is auspicious to build and buy new property. It is an especially good day to get married. It is favorable for divination, signing contracts, romance/courtship and all forms of partnership. Good auspice is especially related to festive group events, banqueting, family gatherings and/or community celebrations. It is an excellent day to take office (begin a new job).
Contraindicated Activity: It is not auspicious for funerals/burials (become unsettled: ghosts). Seclusion or isolation is unfavorable (miss opportunity).”
LM Notes: The Bow
“Preparedness makes action timely and successful. Tradition, convention, training, education - all forms of readiness, inspire action. Forces join together and new alliances produce unexpected results. Action taken with such thorough preparation is bound to succeed. The qi of the day is stable, progressive and functional. Clarity and calm (yin) are not unseated by action (yang). Focus and repetition succeed. Procrastination and equivocation is contraindicated.”
LM Notes: Settle
Solar Indicator: Maintain
"Things are auspicious for the underdog, but early success collapses. The situation is touch and go. Things can end up okay if some sacrifices are made."
LM Changing: Zhouyi 54 Guimei“It is auspicious to continue routine work and to uphold and support your superiors. It is auspicious for religious rituals (not ancestral), divination (and compliance), family gatherings and celebrations. It is favorable for sponsoring and/or attending public and cultural events.
“It is very unfavorable for marriage (cause chronic illness and premature death for both partners), funerals and burials. It is inauspicious for traveling far from home. Buildings begun today become money pits (need constant repair) and the construction will cause injuries and/or accidental deaths.”
LM Notes: The Wings
“Spontaneous action and inspiration (yang) become the new tradition (yin). Qi assertion (yang) is repeated again and again to hold and harden gains (yin). Establishing a new state is the focus. The qi of practice and the drilling of troops is awesome. Allies appear from all quarters. True majesty succeeds without pressing forward. Today success breeds more success and everyone may be included in the new victories. Generosity is a prophylactic to decline - giving is a sign of strength and cements alliances. It is the sun at noon.”
LM Notes: Maintain
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LUNAR HEXAGRAM 59 Huan: Overflowing
"Huan is generally favorable and associated with getting rid of the old and bringing in the new. It is the refreshment that comes from deep and honest spiritual revelation."
LM Changing: Zhouyi 59 Huan
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WEDNESDAY, July 28, Yin Fire Ox 19
Lunar Mansion: The Chariot / Earthworm
Solar Indicator: Destroy
“Auspicious Activity: Great success comes to anyone who initiates and continues industry. Business booms, all prosper. Building and remodeling go well (bring prestige). Marriages will inspire both partners to be their best and they will produce brilliant offspring. Funerals, memorials and burials will allow the dead true peace (and produce scholar offspring). Contraindicated activity: It is very unfavorable to procrastinate and/or postpone.”
LM Notes: The Chariot
“The successful prince as warrior must now lose his youthful ambitions and develop into a proper king….Today calculated loss (cancellation) succeeds”
LM Notes: Destroy
Lunar Mansion: The Horn / Crocodile
Solar Indicator: Danger
"The action that arises from stillness is able to ‘work wonders.’ A Zen archer lets the arrow find the target without meddling."
LM Changing: Zhouyi 61 Zhongfu: Holding the Center
“It is auspicious to begin or initiate any activity (marriage) or series of activities. It is a good day to buy property, plant a garden, apply for and/or begin a new job. It is ideal to apply to or enter school, begin a construction or remodeling project. It is auspicious for marriage proposals and making your case as asking permission is favorably received. All activities related to children and/or young people are auspicious. Its first appearance each year (or any Spring season) is particularly auspicious. A child born on this day will be intelligent and fortunate.
“Contraindicated activity: Funerals, memorials, constructing tombs and burials will bring about disaster to a family. It is not time for exerted effort or overcoming obstacles. The qi is fresh and unformed and therefore should not be pressed into fixation (slavery).”
LM Notes: The Horn
“To roust hypocrisy in his new alliances the leader must bait his hidden enemies (yin) by showing vulnerability. This day is a qi expression of true power but all the action is fraught with danger and risk. The games of political power are also the precursors of decline. The power plays show yin to be drawing life from the heart of yang. Success is limited now to a kind of survival. Manipulation and covert action succeed. Elegance becomes the mask of cleverness and intrigue. Doing only what needs to be done is best. Old habits or patterns of pressing forward will invite catastrophe. Beware grudges.”
LM Notes: Danger
Lunar Mansion: The Neck / Deck
Solar Indicator: Complete
"Favorable for the practice of circumspection and restraint. Being observant and conservative with resources is auspicious. Knowing how to see and when to use limits brings success."
LM Changing: Zhouyi 60 Jie: Juncture"It is auspicious to comply with the orders of superiors and/or let assistants/helpers lead the way. The image is auspicious, in a preordained sense, but can be ruined by unnecessary effort. It is about the useful conventions of education. Collecting data before action.
"Contraindicated activity: Industry, marriages and weddings, signing contracts and starting or initiating production invite calamity. These activities will bring ruin over the following 10 days. Building on this day causes strokes for fathers and eldest sons. Burying the dead will cause the spread of disease. Going to battle is disastrous. Travel by sea invites shipwrecks."
LM Notes: The Neck
“It is a day for resting on your laurels. Success is established and secured and the new state seems to govern itself. Enemies are few. It is a time for inward reflection (yin) on the bare face of reality (yang). Struggle (yang) is no longer possible or necessary (yin). Decline is not feared and success not celebrated. Wisdom approaches and withdrawing succeeds. Art is the demonstration of confidence, dignity and wisdom - be artful. No more accumulating - decorate with modesty. The way of perfecting power is austerity and restraint. Do less, have less, show less and seek nothing. Enjoy what is already manifest.”
LM Notes: Complete
Lunar Mansion: The Root / Badger
“Sun is about how sacrifice brings good fortune. It is also about the enlightened management of diminished resources and the transformation of reduced circumstances into an advantage. Sun is about attracting new resources into your life by eliminating inessentials. It is a time when recycling the trappings of success allows you to stay in power. It is when less is more.”
LM Changing: Zhouyi 41 Sun"It is auspicious to go to school, make offerings to ancestors, consult oracles and/or physicians. Avoid abandoned buildings and the wilderness (as spirits that cause illness are active). Comply with superiors and taboos (follow conventions/traditions).
"Contraindicated activity: Marriages and weddings bring accidental death. Contracts signed today invite betrayal and embezzlement. Travel by sea invites shipwrecks."
LM Notes: The Root
“What makes this day smooth is a sense of fearlessness. It is not so much how it goes (yang) as what it shows (yin). Rise and fall are no longer the point - the wide view can be taken. Ease is possible - effortless continuity on all sides. The qi seems to float us forward quite naturally - ebbing and flowing are both acceptable. The lessons of earthly life are found in both maturing and declining. Everything succeeds. Cleverness and survival give way to courage and directness. Be like the beloved monarch and not an ambitious merchant. Let new resources and assistants come forward by standing back.”
LM Notes: Harvest
"You must be patient and appropriate in your progress, but do not procrastinate. The auspice is for forward action."
LM Changing: Zhouyi 19 Lin
"It is auspicious to make (sincere) offerings to ancestors, consult oracles, practice ritual and meditation, move home, begin construction and add rooms (remodel) to homes and shops. It is a good day for fengshui adjustments, acquiring luxuries, medical treatments (esp food/herb cures) and making investments. Success will visit anyone who studies and/or takes exams today. Funerals on this day benefit both the living and the dead. Straight-forwardness and sincerity bring success."
"Contraindicated activity: Finalizing divorce, excessive ambition and ingratitude. Exaggeration and hypocrisy bring disaster. Not a good day for taking leadership or management responsibilities."
LM Notes: The Room
“The choice here is whether to call fate something to fight or something to embrace. It is a day with an easy qi. It is a day to appreciate how things really operate beyond the desire that creates images and appearances. Accepting should be a boundless (yin) act beyond goals - the goal has always been return to our beginningless origin (Dao). There is no protagonist (yang) that should relax - there is only relaxation itself (yin). Look around for a successor (new plan, idea, task) and resume the heart/mind of a novice. The son of a rebel leader may become the second emperor of a new dynasty. An open heart gives the option to acquire great wisdom.”
LM Notes: Open
