Sheep Diary, what to expect from July 7th 2015
Sheep Diary: the month of the Water Sheep (6th) 2015.
(July 7th 18:30 to August 7th 18:30pm inclusive)
Dun
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Retreat
Hexagram 33
Sheep Month, Animal by Animal.
During this Water Sheep month:
The Rat may speak on another’s behalf.
The Ox may be directly opposed.
The Tiger may see opportunity.
The Rabbit may find an ally.
The Dragon may find purpose.
The Snake may have things to let go.
The Horse may expand his retinue.
The Sheep may join in protest.
The Monkey’s timing is poor.
The Rooster is out of place.
The Dog is in the thick of it.
and
The Pig offers help.
I used to be in an origami group but it folded.
The Sheep is a team-player. However Confucius’ gloss on the month Hexagram (Dun above) in his Commentaries on the Book of Changes is that the “the superior person keeps inferior persons at a distance, with dignity but without ill will.” By “superior person” is meant the sincere and humble seeker after the middle way, the so called jun tze.
The typical Sheep however will join any group that asks nicely. Sometimes this is not appropriate. As a general rule we need to choose associations that support us and/or our objectives. As they say (actually as I say) if you armwrestle with pygmies you’re going to end up on your knees. In short this month is about discernment rather than being up ourselves.
Which may make it timely to point out that feng shui comes to us down two main lines of descent: one from the proto-Taoists who gave the years, months and hours names countless years ago; the other from the diviners of the Zhou Dynasty and their antecedents who named the yin and the yang and developed these two simple ideas into the Yi (that is the Book of Changes or I Ching).
It’s not actually going too far to state that feng shui procedures, cures, corrections or formulae not derived from one or other of these traditions are not really feng shui at all. This is not to say that Chinese Masters do not use other types of intervention – they do – or that three-toed toads and qi lins don’t work, but that strictly calculations not based either in the relationships between the Celestial Animals (Rat, Ox, Horse etc) or the Trigrams (three line figures) of the Yi are essentially folk lore.
Now you know.
Where to do what, when and why.
The South East receives the blessing of the 8 this month. All year that sector has held the 2 Star of increase and expansion. The 2 is a double-edged portent because increase means not only acquisition and hence growth but also growths of various kinds including weight gain. However combined with the benevolent 8, most diviners would expect the expansions to be the sort most of us are looking for; of acquaintance and family, hopes, dreams and facilities. So for this kind of augmentation this month, perhaps place a Water fountain at the Dragon (that is SE1 or ESE) which throughout 2015 also holds the helpful Fortune Virtue Star (which speaks for itself) – or load that area up with plants. Colourful blooms look so great this time of year.
You’ll tend to gain some of this advantage by simply making regular commotion in this part of your building, by occupying it or by facing South East. This last applies particularly to those with an Eastern kua. If you don’t know what that is, do ask. Oh and if you have a South Eastern door, use it.
The Sheep in the Sheep Month in the Sheep Year.
The Sheep is both a team player and an idealist. Which generally means (s)he is all about cooperation. Perversely however, a surfeit of Sheep like this month actually brings something like the reverse.
So Greece has by a 61% majority dug in its heels against the financial powers that be. You might expect the key note of a double Sheep time like now to be obedience. It is. But expressed as its opposite. This is yin and yang; the next stage after the total yang of fruit on the tree is the shedding of autumn leaves.
Central to cooperation is mutual attentiveness. Again these are Sheep qualities. It appears that the half of Europe considers the Greeks ouzo-drinking, tax-dodging wastrels and the rest think of the Germans as humourless work addicts. These are careless stereotypes. What is true though is that austerity has been debunked by major economists such as Paul Krugman, Jeffrey Sachs, Thomas Piketty and Joseph Stiglitz. Christine Lagarde of the IMF has criticised its application in the UK while enforcing it elsewhere. All of this will come home er….to roost by 2017.
The Greeks know there’s something wrong with the logic they’ve been presented with. And they have voted for an ideal: a return to prosperity that doesn’t involve further loss. Perhaps the rest of Europe needs to consider the referendum in this light.
And the Sheep is also a joiner. (S)he lives for clubs, peer groups and communities like the EU. Germany is the anchor of this last community and by insisting on a solution that all member nations endorse, is also reflecting the Sheep.
So a rock and a hard place? Or a chance for compromise and mutual understanding? The Sheep stands for both. The Monkey month that follows however is a more mischievous creature altogether. As is the Monkey year of 2016.
Sheep Pillars; know your Sheep rating.
Birth in the Sheep hour (13:00am-15:00pm): biddable children.
Birth in the Sheep month (July*): educated in large classes.
Birth on the Sheep day#: guardian of family.
Birth in the Sheep year: tolerant to a fault.
* Caution, the Chinese month generally starts and finishes a few days after ours.
# Just ask.
Traditional Chinese Feng Shui: a journey through time and space..
Evening Talk and Day Workshop.
In September at the College of Psychic Studies I’ll be teaching the place of intuition in classical feng shui; how we can know what’s right and what’s wrong about a person or place and what to do about it. This last is harder btw.
The evening talk (Tues 8th September) will be followed by a one-day crash course (Sat 19th September). You may find these events especially useful if you know little about the subject and would like a rapid introduction in depth.
Learn feng shui with me in 2015/6
We’re telegraphing these events now because the opening module of my next Feng Shui Starter Course The Wind that Stops at the Water, falls on the weekend in-between (12th/13th September) and you might use these events as an introduction. It’s open to experts, sceptics and civilians alike. Do join us.
Tuesday 8th September (evening) & Saturday 19th September (all day) at the College of Psychic Studies:(www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk)
Richard Ashworth, on the first day of the month of the Sheep, 2015 ©.