In honor of my Teacher, Liu Ming,
::: ::: :::
Commentary and compilations by Jamie Shulander
All notes from class notes/works by Liu Ming
INDICATORS/aka Auspices Listed: Yearly, Monthly, Lunar then Daily
::: ::: :::
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: 15 White Dew
“Yin Descends
"White Dew qi node shows the shifting relationship between collapsing yang and ascendant yin. When yin 'descends' it is actually taking charge - yin style. In the morning white dew is the harbinger of change. The clouds are high in the sky. The growing west wind is cool. Dew is fresh yin qi - a fragile, glimpse of snow. The growing yin almost goes unnoticed. As the last of the summer qi subsides, a cool west wind (qi) appears and the season of autumn begins and develops. Geese migrate south and fall harvest continues in earnest.
“White Dew is a time of clarity and stillness. During this period the environment grows ever more yin and is characterized by a cool, dry wind (metal element). During this qi node the environmental qi is best at 5pm. Neigong should be done indoors. Do not eat at all after 7pm.
In the imagination of the poets and hermits of China it is a time of year when white nymphs are offering inspiration. Unlike their superiors, the Jade Lads and Ladies, these nymphs inhabit the sea and forest, not the Celestial realms. White dew, a rare or first form of frost of the year, is the signal of their presence. They show us white dew to remind us to prepare for the arrival of the Celestials (yin).”
LM The Way of the Three Treasures
"Generally auspicious and associated with a light-handed approach to things. It is not how you find pleasure, but how you express it that will determine the longevity of your happiness."
LM Changing: Zhouyi 58 DuiHexagram 39 Jian: Stumbling
Solar Indicator: Level
“Events call for experts, but, even if experts cannot be found, all goes well. Caution, patience, humility and self-discipline pay off. If you are not anxious or selfish, you are given success."
LM Changing: Zhouyi 39 Jian
"To consult a physician and consult oracles (divination of all kinds) will bring clarity. It is a good day for industry (labor/gardening = long term wealth), building (restores clarity) and burying the dead (enhance intuition). It is inauspicious to take anything for granted. It is inauspicious for revolution, confrontation, breaking taboos, neglecting responsibilities or travel (someone at home dies/gets sick)."
LM Notes: The Net
“This is a day when stable readiness and the qi of confidence blooms into activity. Youthful anxiety and ambition are replaced by personal strength and confidence. From this position all things look and are possible. Educated choices are easily acted upon. Others join you to enlarge the success of activity. The prince (yang) is mature, if inexperienced, but ready to act independently of his mother (yin). Pleasure is the outcome of disciplined practice. Yang qi’s previously renegade quality is matured, integrated and dominant.”
LM Notes: Level
Solar Indicator: Settle
"You are advised to keep still (resist the urge to move) and enter the unseen (meditation) - two actions, which are non-actions. Good fortune comes from keeping still. Let things arise of themselves. Do not struggle.”
LM Changing: Zhouyi 52 Gen
"It bodes well to follow superiors, practice austerity and/or pool resources with others. It is a good day to sincerely comply with divination and maintain taboos meticulously.
"It is inauspicious to push forward, be industrious or initiate new ventures. Revolution or demanding idealistic justice on this day will be catastrophic."
LM Notes: The Beak
“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
Lunar Mansion: The Trio / Gibbon
Solar Indicator: Maintain
“With true modesty anything can be accomplished. In modest steps a great journey can be accomplished. Even when strong action needs to be taken, do not abandon modesty.”
LM Changing: Zhouyi 15 Qian
"It bodes well to dispose of inessentials (haircuts), edit, fast, study (Classics), take exams, enter retreat and practice meditation. It is good to be industrious close to home (house clean). Initiating business (particularly group enterprise) will be fruitful if planning has been thorough.
"It is inauspicious to push forward aggressively. Do not get married, finalize divorce, bury the dead (it will create family dissent), spend savings or speculate financially as these all lead to losing resources and cooperation."
LM Notes: The Trio
“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
THURSDAY, September 16, Yin Fire Rabbit 16
Lunar Mansion: The Well / Tapir
Solar Indicator: Destroy
"Pi is not a time for going forward. You are blocked by your own pretense or by external circumstances. Be humble and patient, and cancel or postpone great plans. Adaptation and patience are the keys to positive change in the future." LM Changing: Zhouyi 12 Pi
“It is auspicious to build, remodel, do fengshui adjustments, take exams, and maintain routine industry. The earth can be dug (gardening = wealth) and it is a good day to donate, buy or sell (investment) real estate. Community or charity projects will flourish. It is favorable for apologies. It is favorable for medical treatments (particularly for initiating a series of treatments for a chronic condition).
“It is not auspicious to postpone needed repairs, apologies or difficult tasks. It is not good for funerals or burials of those who died by suicide, violence or sudden illness because others will soon follow.”
LM Notes: The Well
“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 Ghost / Sheep
Solar Indicator: Danger
“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 Cui
“It is especially auspicious for funeral/burial (resolution of fate). It is also good to make gifts/donations to temples and offerings to the divinities, spiritual guardians and make memorials for the dead (ancestors/lineage). It is advantageous for entering retreat, meditation, fasting, spiritual initiation, ordination and ‘crossing over’ into transitory states.
“It is not auspicious for worldly industry of any kind. It is a bad day to go to war (many casualties) or get married (husband will die early). One should avoid the wilderness (possession/illness will result).”
LM Notes: The Ghost
“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 Willow / Roebuck
“...The truth is, nothing is accomplished without a network of co-factors and helpers (family and friends [alive and dead]). Modesty and grace express our interconnectedness.”
LM Changing: Zhouyi 35 Jin
“It is especially auspicious for seclusion and the composing of memorials. It is favorable to make offerings and practice divination. It is fruitful on this day to fast, enter retreat, practice meditation and receive spiritual initiation and/or ordination (lineage). It is ideal for funerals / burials and the complete resolution of the unsettled dead (exorcism).
“It is not auspicious for marriage. Do not indulge in lawsuits (as it will ruin 3 generations).”
LM Notes: The Willow
“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
"Bi is favorable when appearances match the inner nature of things. Simplicity, rather than extravagance, is recommended as the aesthetic of confidence. Beware of the deception that comes from superficial decoration."
LM Changing: Zhouyi 22 Bi: OrnamentSUNDAY, September 19, Yang Metal Horse 13
"Pleasure, in its many forms, though powerful, is not long-lived. The auspice is good for enjoyment but self-indulgence can ruin it. Enjoy and share the results of the success, but do not make pleasure a goal in itself."
LM Changing: Zhouyi 16 Yu
“Think powerful, but gentle succeeds...It is auspicious for building and routine work (you will meet / hobnob with the powerful). Good auspice is directly related to continuity, convention and not innovation.
“It is not auspicious for funerals/burials or marriages (rape, divorce). It is a dangerous day for travel and/or medical treatments.”
LM Notes: The Birdstar
“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
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.