In honor of my Teacher, Liu Ming,
::: ::: :::
Commentary and compilations by Jamie Shulander
All notes from class notes/works by Liu Ming
INDICATORS (Auspices): Yearly, Monthly, Lunar and 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
Metal Rats are sensitive, meticulous and resourceful. They easily win the attention and support of others and love to compete and win. Their ambition is modified by a strong personal sense of moral and spiritual values. They enjoy independence and are ruthlessly calculating in matters of the heart and finance. Though not without enemies, they experience relatively even fortunes. Jovial in appearance they internally brood and worry over the slightest things. They are susceptible to contagious and common illnesses but live long because of treatments from expert physicians and meticulous personal habits.
LM Notes: Metal Rat
QI NODE: 21 Great Snow
Yin Matures
“The Great Snow qi node is a time of visions and magic. Our inner yang sees images in the Great Yin. Things are not as they appear. Yin extends its influence into our dreams. During this qi node qi is best at 11pm (when you are asleep). Practice neigong in the morning and evening. Remembered or forgotten dreams appear in this qi node that portend the coming year. The darkening of the light means shorter days, no rainbows and abundant snow. Stillness may lead to stagnation. All activity slows down, many things seem to stop or die. Every being/thing must rest. A trip south (winter vacation) is recommended for those with insufficient yang.”
LM The Way of Three Treasures
LUNAR HEXAGRAM: 61 Zhongfu: Holding the Center
"The action that arises from stillness is able to ‘work wonders.’ A Zen archer lets the arrow find the target without meddling."
LM Changing: ZhouyiHexagram 61 Zhongfu: Holding the Center
Lunar Mansion: The Heart / Fox
Solar Indicator: Full
"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 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
“This is an optimum day for education, preparation, polishing, gathering resources and firming up plans. Confidence grows as the right time and necessary resources are now part of the vision. The qi is forming patterns and remaining in the channels. Practice and disciplined cultivation bring confidence. The prince (yang) is gaining support. Discipline in small matters succeeds. True confidence requires no aggression. Though nothing needs to be done, the natural maturation of strength occurs.”
LM Notes: Full
QI NODE: 22 Winter Solstice
Yin Rules
“The Winter Solstice qi node has the shortest day and the longest night of the year. It is one of four annual pivots that rectify the annual qi. During this qi node qi is at its height at midnight! At the end of this qi node, the new calendar year begins. In the Chinese official calendar it is the mid-point of winter. The astrological year is still months away.
Yin peaks but in this same qi node it begins its inevitable decline - supreme yin gives birth to the flux of yang. Tigers mate. Christmas lights twinkle. Birth and death commingle, but life is cold and apparently dead now begins to move toward life.
Everywhere in Chinese cosmology black (dark) produces ‘yellow’ or light of the sun. ‘The darkest hour is just before dawn’.”
LM The Way of Three Treasures
Hexagram 60 Jie: Juncture
Lunar Mansion: The Tail / Tiger
Solar Indicator: Level
"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 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
“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
“Raw impulse is strong but dangerous. Excessive ambitions can bring about personal disaster. There will be setbacks in progress. Acting properly when the time is right goes well. In the acquisition of what you want (money or property) it is important to be strong but modest."
LM Changing: ZhouyiWEDNESDAY December 22, Yang Wood Dragon 19
Lunar Mansion: The Basket / Leopard
Solar Indicator: Settle
“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 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
“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
Hexagram 19 Lin: Approach
Lunar Mansion: The Ladle / Griffon
Solar Indicator: Maintain
"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 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
“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
Hexagram 13 Tong Ren: Community
Lunar Mansion: The Oxboy / Ox
Solar Indicator: Destroy
“It is favorable to go forward in concert with others after reflection and alliance is established."
LM Changing: Zhouyi 13 Tong Ren“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
“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
Hexagram 49 Ge: Molting
Lunar Mansion: The Maiden / Bat
Solar Indicator: Danger
"It is a favorable time for dramatic reform and revolution - night becoming day. If you are ready to accept serious change and ready to let go of the past, everything is favorable. If you fear change, Ge donates the painful torment of unsuccessful resistance.”
LM Changing: Zhouyi 49 Ge“It is auspicious to stay home, enjoy the arts, self-reflect, do inner planning 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
“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
Hexagram 30 Li: Oriole
Lunar Mansion: The Void / Rat
Solar Indicator: Complete
“Though things seem bright, one cannot rely on the brightness to last for a long time. Seize the moment. No battle is won without sacrifices on both sides."
LM Changing: Zhouyi 30 Li“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
“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
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.