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
Fire Roosters are skillful, sensual and restless characters. They are excellent craftspeople and have a strong ambition to escape the limitations of poverty and class. They flip-flop from iron self-confidence to hopelessness and back. Though apparently strong willed they collapse in the face of difficulties. Their unapologetic, anti-social attitudes will complicate their relationships and dim their fortunes. Their sexuality is ferocious and embarrassment unknown to them. They often carry the burden of unresolved ancestral (congenital) illnesses and are haunted by the unsettled dead.
LM Notes: Fire Rooster
Qi Node: 16 Autumn Equinox
Yin and Yang Equality
"When the qi node Autumn Equinox arrives annual Yin qi is established. Day and night are equal. During this period the environment grows ever more yin and is characterized by a cool, dry wind (metal element). It is one of four annual pivots that rectify the annual qi. Yin and yang are equal - day and night are equal. Storehouses are filling up and the work of harvest is nearly complete. There is a pleasant stillness.
During this qi node qi is best at 6pm. Neigong should be done indoors morning and evening in short sessions. When yin/yang equality is reached and yin is about to take charge, it is best to eat food that has a higher jing/qi concentration. Breakfast can be eaten a little bit later than in spring/summer but it should be hearty. Do not eat at all after 7pm. All meals should be experienced in a quiet and undistracted setting. You needn't be a hermit, but avoid being social at every meal."
LM The Way of Three Treasures
“Routine work brings about unexpected results. At the highest level of success is an opportunity to be extraordinarily generous."
LM Changing: Zhouyi 26 Da ChuHexagram 14 Dayou: Prosperity
Solar Indicator: Maintain
"Through good management, prosperity is established and, through generosity, prosperity is translated into great benefit."
LM Changing: Zhouyi 14 Dayou
“It is auspicious to comply with superiors, make offerings to the ancestors, move home and/or immigrate. Only routine work may avoid negativity. Contraindicated activity: If you start a lawsuit (making your case) you will lose everything (imprisonment). If you construct a building, get married or bury the dead, disaster follows. Everything sold today will be at a loss to the seller. Pushing forward (forcing progress) on this day will have three times the negative result of other days.”
LM Notes: The Heart
“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
Solar Indicator: Destroy
“The wise use great strength with great caution, because the know it is costly (great injury). In general, the authors of the Zhouyi give great strength no value, unless it is paired with wisdom.
However, it is also observed that even the weak, when in a desperate situation, naturally possess great strength - the will to survive. The force or instinct to survive has great strength and can have a successful result. This kind of great strength should not be confused with belligerence or mere violence."
LM Changing: Zhouyi 34 Da Zhuang
“It is auspicious to start a building (brings prosperity), get married (brings fertility), bury the dead (resolves karma) and educate the young (secure longevity) on this day. It is a good time to move house (into a city). These actions today cause a person or family and all their projects to flourish. On this day investments increase in value. It is ideal to give or receive (spend) inheritances. Enjoying the arts is appropriate. Lost treasures can be found on this day. It is ideal for self-cultivation, meditation and enjoyment. It is a time of recognizing and acknowledging achievement with rewards. Evening is less auspicious.”
LM Notes: The Tail
“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 Basket / Leopard
Solar Indicator: Danger
"It is auspicious to marry, work hard, purchase, build and remodel (new door = new resources) on this day. It is auspicious to continue your routine work, review and reinvest. Acquiring wealth (work, invest and collecting debts) is highlighted. Good for burials, memorials and funerals (rain of blessings from the ancestors). Contraindicated activity: Laziness, gossip and slander."
LM Notes: The Basket
“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
THURSDAY, September 30, Yin Metal Snake 24
Lunar Mansion: The Ladle / Griffon
Solar Indicator: Complete
"It is best to subordinate to or ally yourself with the strong or wait to accumulate more strength and resources. Do not be rambunctious, distracted or diverted. Small projects done well will eventually add up to success. Obstacles and delays can be expected in any forward action.”
LM Changing: Zhouyi 9 Xiao Xu
"It is a most auspicious day for Daoist religious rites, initiations and transmission of (esoteric) teachings. It is an auspicious day to start up a business and build a new building (home, temple). It is a safe day to dig foundations (wells, trenches) and get married. New opportunities (news) abound - taking exams and routine work bring great success/reward on this day. It is an auspicious day to bury the dead - they will rest peacefully and benefit the surviving relatives.”
"Contraindicated activity: Hypocrisy, irreverence, breaking taboos and sloth."
LM Notes: The Ladle
“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 HEXAGRAM 45 Cui: Assembly
“Beneficial for all joint efforts. Be receptive to the inevitable success that comes from joining together with others. Expect emotions to run high and epiphanies on all sides.”
"When we sincerely open our hearts in this way we are naturally purged of our selfishness and wantonness. Through this exchange we may enter into the depths of human spirituality. There is no greater gesture than this ritual of rituals."
LM Changing: Zhouyi 45 CuiLunar Mansion: The Oxboy / Ox
Solar Indicator: Harvest
"Xu suggests that waiting is a part of the natural unfolding (fate) of all situations. Xu is about making the most of waiting - using the power of patience and procrastination to avoid struggle and develop wisdom in action. Accepting fate is not about abandoning intelligence. A wise and able person has the sensitivity to find the freedom within fate. The wisdom of Xu is the clarity to hold back and go forward at the right times.”
LM Changing: Zhouyi 5 Xu
“It is auspicious to stay home, guard resources, meditate and focus. It is auspicious to initiate austerity, enter retreat, recover and economize.”
LM Notes: The Oxboy
“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
Lunar Mansion: The Maiden / Bat
“Routine work brings about unexpected results. At the highest level of success is an opportunity to be extraordinarily generous."
LM Changing: Zhouyi 26 Da Chu
“It is auspicious to stay home, enjoy the arts, self-reflect, do inner panning and practice austerity (meditation, fasting and rest). It is beneficial to guard your health and conserve your qi. It is favorable to support others. Building may be safe but not profitable.”
“It is not auspicious to take risks, medical treatments, bury the dead (cause epidemics, bowel disorders). To initiate industry (dig earth) and production on this day invites calamity.”
LM Notes: The Maiden
“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
SUNDAY, October 3, Yang Wood Monkey 27
“Tai is favorable for going forward and expanding. When Tai is divined natural growth is inevitable - all plans succeed, if you do not push or rush them. Do not over analyze the situation. Recognize that things unfold by themselves.” LM Changing: Zhouyi 11 Tai
“It is auspicious to stay home, strengthen family ties and protect your children. Sleep and rest are recommended (be cautioned by your dreams).”
“On this day it is not auspicious to marry (your children will be delinquent or handicapped), bury the dead or make offerings to ancestors (ghosts/dead will become demonic - causing illnesses for 3 years!). Extra-marital affairs begun on this day will eventually ruin your family, reputation and health. Medical treatments today can cause injury and expose constitutional weakness.”
LM Notes: The Void
“A Shut day is a day of rest, whether you like it or not. Qi resources are spent and the notion of a spender (yang) is long gone. Dispersion has ended in exhaustion (big yin) and no memory exists to create joy or negativity. Struggling to act on such a day borrows qi from fantasy and sets up a ghostly pattern of bad qi credit. What’s it like to float down the river with no boat, no river and no protagonist? It is ideal day for retreat, mediation and severing ties with everything - don’t worry, it is not the end of anything! Let go anyway - feel the freedom and inaction, disconnectedness, because it offers limitless insight. Focus on your golf swing and forget about how the kids are squandering their inheritance on cocaine. It’s that kind of day! The river has reached the sea and even the water is confused.”
LM Notes: Shut
