It’s the end of the World as we know it (and I feel fine):
Public Feng Shui Bulletin for August 2019
(04:03am 8th August to 07:24am 8th September inclusive)
Pi
———-
———-
———-
—- —-
—- —-
—- —-
Standstill
Hexagram 12
Animal by Animal
During this Water Monkey Month,
The Rat is effusive and wise to be wise,
The Ox connects,
The Tiger may be opposed,
The wise Rabbit finds time for gratitude,
The Dragon needs to re-engage,
Support for the Snake may be double-edged,
The Horse watches for breaks,
The Sheep’s chews what she’s bitten off,
Monkey flatters Monkey,
The Rooster may be underpowered & impatient,
The Dog needs to value only what’s valuable,
while
The Pig is distracted.
S
4 9 2
3 5 7
8 1 6
Water Monkey
The Monkey month doesn’t know rules.
Most helpful location: North East – especially for the yin.
Least helpful location: tai chi.
Favoured Animals: Monkey, Rat, Dragon, Snake.
Especially challenged: Tiger, Pig, Dog, Horse.
The Hexagram (above): P’i Heaven over Earth. Standstill & decay.
My students tell me that I’m always vague. I deny that; I’m not always vague, I’m usually vague. This, I claim, is born of respect for the unknowability of the tao. The illusion of certainty may be the chief ill of the 21st Century. And I’m generally not in the business of predicting disasters.This month however I can be quite specific: whichever way you slice it, it’s very problematic. Traditionally known as the “silly season,” the Monkey Month has so often been a pivotal moment. While the tabloids may be reporting Freddie Starr eating hamsters or finding Elvis on the Moon, there has often been genuine and far-reaching disruption. Two World Wars and at least one financial meltdown have broken out around lap chow, the Beginning of Autumn which opens early in August. A balloon is going up.Is chaos inevitable? No. Chinese metaphysics recognises three levels of meaning: Tian, Ti and Ren, Heaven, Earth & Human. Put simply, what may be indicated by physical causality can be pre-empted by choice. Edgar Cayce who predicted many events that came to pass but also many that didn’t, would say that prayer had changed the future. Chuck Spezzano whose philosophy remains that there is no bad, just the good and misperceptions, used to say something similar when faced with a particularly wrong forecast. Whatever looms we can choose otherwise.
As my students can tell you, the transition between the Fire and Metal seasons that just happened at 04:03am on the 8th August is known as a “clash”; in other words the relationship between Fire and Metal is explosive. That’s true every year of course but in a Pig year it’s especially so. It was on this day in the Pig Year of 2007 for instance, that Paribas pulled out of the bond market, thus dislodging the first domino in a sequence that culminated at the door of Lehman Brothers on Wall Street.
This some might say, is because in a Pig Year the Monkey suffers what is known as a “Harm”, meaning it is the focus of conflicts whose true location is elsewhere, what some would call a proxy war. This may be the experience of individual Monkeys born 1944, 1956, 1968, 1980 or 1992 right now as well as to some extent those born in August or mid-afternoon. And very much the experience of those born on Monkey days – which you’ll need a Chinese Calendar to track down.
To make it more interesting, the 5 Star at the heart of the lo shu this month speaks of karmic boomerangs. To which we might factor in the patterns of previous Earth Pig years. This involves looking back in time and seeing the parallels. One such is the constitutional crisis of Earth Pig Year 1659, when having beheaded the previous monarch Charles I, Parliament found itself unable to govern without a Head of State and invited Charles II back. Another is the Earth Pig Year of 1719 when every major investor in the then-developed world was about to lose their shirt at the detonation of the South Sea Bubble. A third is 1839 which preceded the Opium Wars on one side of the World and the Mexican Wars on the other. See the parallels?
This point in an Earth Pig year has always threatened shake-ups of all kinds, including but not limited to such crises. Shake-ups may be personal, professional, relationship-related or other.
Globally the final detail is er…the globe. In feng shui theory the regions of the World are divided up between the Celestial Animals, working outwards from the Horse at 0˚ longitude. As my students know, this puts the Monkey and its Harm at the Straits of Hormuz. Whether major conflagration is about to develop there or not, I’m pretty sure the Yemeni children pinned between UK & US-equipped Saudi bombers and Iranian guns, know what is meant by a proxy war. Whether we’re talking military conflict or house prices, a balloon is about to go up.
What’s to be done?
1. Get engaged. Too many practitioners in the world of woo-woo consider knowing the facts to be negative. They share this with many investment bankers and climate change deniers. Funny that. As Ram Dass wrote: “Some of us need to get spiritual and some of us need to know our zip codes.” Question everything but seek facts.
2. Be truly mindful. This does not mean simply attributing tedious work or an unethical employer to your own process but choosing to actively pursue joy and awareness.
3. Know your strengths and weaknesses. These will be in your ba zi but there are a million approaches. What can you do to help?
4. Pay close attention to your own position; in every sense, including seeking appropriate feng shui and indeed topographical advice. There is advice in this bulletin and my more detailed private ones.
5. Feel what you feel and be honest about it.
6. Examine your lifestyle; do your bit to fend off climate catastrophe. One way is to avoid meat btw.
7. Do what you do: good intentions are pretty okay paving and if your heart is in the right place, whatever you’ve been doing to heal the world from hugging trees to aura soma, keep at it. Only notice that it hasn’t been enough.
7. There’s lots more.
Light will always prevail.
Where to be in August.
Summary: growth and gain.
North East, Wealth Star: Year Star: 2 Moon (Tiger), Month Star:8.
With the 2 Star and the yang Earth of the 8 together, the area remains especially good for Pigs and Rats (by Year, Day, Month or Hour depending on your priority) as well as for mothers and younger sons. This applies to locating, facing or entering via the North East of course. Anyone locating here should be able to find their own following wind. Acquisition and expansion of all kinds favoured, risk of minor ailments.
Assist: bright light 24/7.
Where not to be in August.
Summary: all sorts of unhelpful
West, Intervention: Year Star: 1 Year, Annual san sha Month Star: 7.
The West gets especially prickly with the arrival of the belligerent 7 Star this month. Add a calming bowl of Water daily to reinforce the helpful 1 Star (here all year) whose Water nature may smooth the rougher edges of the 7. Otherwise expect issues to do with the mouth – sores, ulcers and blurting. Bored children may prove rebellious. As ever, applies to entering the house or orienting this way as well as locating West.
Mitigate: Water: a bowl of fresh Water changed daily.
Richard Ashworth ©2019.
http://www.imperialfengshui.info
Richard Ashworth is among the most respected Western Feng Shui Masters. He has worked from Lebanon to Bermuda, in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore and with stars such as Kelly Hoppen and Gillian Anderson. Unusually for a Western Master, he has addressed the Grand Masters at the International Feng Shui Conference in Singapore. His day job remains “walking round people’s spaces being enigmatic”.
Every month we send (at a modest fee) to retainer clients a more comprehensive monthly bulletin than this one, covering in detail right places to be (and when) as well as helpful days Animal by Animal and much more from the Chinese calendar.
Subscriptions (and further info): sheilaashworthfengshui@gmail.com
He currently has space for a couple of students to start towards the end of September. If you are interested in studying with Master Richard please email to the above address for details.
More information here too: http://www.imperialfengshui.info/courses