Monday May 21st 2007 19.02
siu mun – Grain Filling
Richard Ashworth
Feng Shui Diaries
Solar fortnight beginning:
Monday May 21st 2007 19.02
Hour Day Month Year
fire wood wood fire
bing yi yi ding
su muw si hai
dog rabbit snake pig
Month: yi si the wood Snake
Solar Fortnight: siu mun Grain Filling
Diary Note
Many people think of feng shui as about placing things for good fortune. This is a terrible Western mangling of the facts. Those who know a little more may be aware that feng shui is rooted in the idea of cycles: both of space and time.
The cycles of space mean that certain compass locations have certain natures and are best used in ways appropriate to them. The East for instance, lends itself to the growing of plants and to early morning activities. This is where the light arrives first in the morning and where it is gentlest. By extension, the East supports the nurture of young children. Similarly appropriate uses apply to each point of the compass.
The cycles of time are based in the idea that the years run in cycles of 60. Most people know that there are twelve animals or branches which rule the years. Most of us know if we are a rat or a sheep or whatever but perhaps not whether we were born in say a water rat (1972) or a wood sheep year (1955). Because there are 5 elements, each of which is applied to each branch, there are 60 distinct types of year. This is the cycle of 60. Our own 60-second minutes and 60-minute hours suggest the remnants of some similar prehistoric scheme.
For the Chinese, years with the same stem/branch combination feature similar events. A good example concerns the years of the metal Snake, 1941 and 2001. Perhaps the key world event of 1941 was Pearl Harbour, an apparently unprovoked attack which brought America into a long war from which it had been pointedly aloof. In turn the key world event of 2001 may have been 9/11, an apparently unprovoked attack which brought America into a long war from which it had remained pointedly aloof. History is full of these echoes. This year 2007, which is a fire Pig year echoes 1947 when the Holy Land was in the turmoil that led to the formation of the State of Israel and the subcontinent of India was similarly turbulent prior to partition. The 1st Nuclear non-proliferation agreement was negotiated that year and interestingly Iran (and possibly others) are chancing their arms in this regard this year.
The Chinese also recognise bigger cycles. Three cycles of 60 years make a mega cycle of 180. The current mega-cycle began in 1863, the year of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and is sometimes called the American Cycle. It peaked around 1968 and falls away by 2042. There are those who believe they can identify the esoteric processes by which the USA stole the power of the British Empire across the Atlantic during this time. While in Hong Kong last year, I heard a feng shui master make almost exactly the same points about the shape, positioning and timing of the Washington Monument as those made by the English astrologer David Ovason in his book The Washington Zodiac but for entirely different reasons. The feng shui master was making worrying comparisons with Beijing. Presumably the next Big Cycle will be Chinese. You don’t have to wear Nikes to have guessed that of course.
These resemblances are true also of months and days which also run in cycles of 60. We can compare a month like the one we are now approaching, the fire Horse (bing wu) with the last fire Horse year which was 1966. June 2007 may like 1966 be a successful time for English sport. Interestingly just as David Beckham returns to the England squad, June corresponds not only to the year 1966 when we last won the World Cup but also to June 2002 when we last came close.
As well as allocating an animal to each month, the Chinese traditionally divided the year into twelve solar fortnights. The current fortnight (called Siu Mun that is Grain Filling) started at 19.02 GMT on Monday the 21st of May. Siu Mun is just as it sounds, a period of growing abundance. The crops are ripening but are not yet actually ripe. This can also be applied to human activity. Just as the Autumn is for gathering and the Winter for preparation, so the height of summer is for bringing plans as well as crops to fruition. Now is the time to make sures sales or production are on-target, rather than having to panic and catch up in the 3rd quarter. Aspiration, innovation and ambition are supported now..
The characters that introduce the fortnight are set out above and we can use them to give us a more detailed indication of what to expect. The way to do this is to see how they interact. One of the keys to understanding Chinese Metaphysics is that characters mean relatively little by themselves and a great deal in combination. So if we take the top line (fire wood wood fire) which are known as stems, we immediately have an idea. Fire among other things, of course suggests heat. Wood feeds fire which suggests extreme heat. It would not take NASA to work out that the second half of May might be warm so let’s see what else we can discover.
The lower line consists of animals or branches, one for the year, one for the month, one for the day and one for the hour. Together a stem and branch is called a pillar. So this year’s animal or branch is a Pig and the pillar is a fire Pig.
From the right (and in order of the power they command) the branches read: Pig, Snake, Rabbit, Dog. These animal characters rule the fortnight until June 6th. It is the Pig’s year so he is in charge but it is the Snake month. And the Snake and the Pig don’t get on. Traditionally this is expressed in issues to do with movement. So we’d be right to expect unusually congested traffic, parking tickets, speeding fines, bills that get stuck in parliament and stifled progress in negotiations of all kinds whether it is Turkey’s entry to the EU or Tony Blair’s handover to Gordon Brown: smooth possibly but not rapid. Tony Blair as it happens is by virtue of his date of birth, a triple snake that is to say that his pillars include three Snakes – one each for his day, month (May) and Year (1953) of birth. May was never likely to be the most fruitful month of his life though that seems to be fine with him.
Others who were born in years of the Snake (1941,1965, 1977 and 1989) may take note. Drive extra carefully. Avoid uncomfortable shoes and don’t be surprised if despite the very active chi (or energy) of the season your projects don’t move that fast.
But don’t despair: firstly June brings renewed progress. Secondly as we can see above, every date and therefore every date of birth consists of several animals. So if you always thought you were, say a Pig (which by the way, because Pigs don’t actually get on with each other, are not especially favoured in a Pig year) because you were born in 1959, 1971 or 1983, you now know that your month may belong to another animal as may your day and hour of birth. Everybody is different; it is as daft to restrict someone to the qualities of a Rat (ingenuity, forward planning, charm, by the way) because they were born in 1960, 72 or 84 as to assume that every Virgo is neat or every Scorpio dangerous. People are individuals. Moments in time are too. You are to a greater or lesser extent a Pig if you were born in November or between 9 & 11 in the evening as well as on certain days I’d need a calendar to identify.
Finally for that rarified group with both a mathematical bent and an interest in Scottish history: fire Pig years include not only 2007 and 1947 but also 1707, 1647 and 1587 which are the years respectively of the Act of Union between England and Scotland, the year the Scots attempted forcibly to impose Presbytery on Charles I and the year of Mary Queen of Scots’ execution.
These sorts of correspondence are what makes the ba zi (or personal feng shui based on date of birth) such an essential tool in a feng shu survey and more to the point, if you thought the Scottish Nationalist Majority in the Scottish Assembly had nothing to do with feng shui, now you know better.
My super-duper revamped website is at www.imperialfengshui.info and
my book The Feng Shui Diaries is out now!
If you’re feeling rash you can order it from:
Amazon (www.amazon.co.uk/Feng-Shui-Diaries-Richard-Ashworth/dp/1846940176/sr=8-4/qid=1166798863/ref=sr_1_4/026-3383613-4930062?ie=UTF8&s=books
Waterstones www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/displayProductDetails.do?sku=5567853)
or indeed Tescos.
Names have been changed.
Richard Ashworth