Sunday May 21st 2006 13.12
Siu Mun – Grain Filling
Richard Ashworth
Feng Shui Diaries
Solar fortnight beginning:
Sunday May 21st 2006 13.12
Hour Day Month Year
water metal water fire
gui gung gui bing
wei xu si xu
sheep dog snake dog
Month: gui si the Water Snake.
Solar Fortnight: Siu Mun Grain Filling
Siu Mun Grain Filling
A pastoral image; the ears of corn filling as they ripen. We are now only a month short of the Summer Solstice, the peak of the yang. Everything is growing including the chi power of the year animal, the Fire Dog. Even if we are suffering the uniquely British challenge of simultaneous flood and drought.
Be especially careful now to avoid disturbing the North West of the home where the tai sui (or year animal) reigns. I made the mistake last month while temporarily insane, of replacing my daughter’s bed. Shoemenders’ kids and all that. I had overlooked the fact that her room is at the North West corner and she had an infection inside 24 hours.
The Dog like every year animal, peaks at mid-summer but this particular one will keep on kicking well into October as this is the month the Dog presides over. My 2006 Year Predictions suggest an interesting stockmarket at this time as the big crashes of 1987 and 1929 both occurred under similar chi conditions.
Generally this means not demolishing or digging the North West of any building. Do not face that direction any more than you have to either.
Please Mr Postman.
“Ok, I went online this morning and checked my bank balance: there were two payments amounting to £10,000 into my personal account yesterday and I have no idea who it’s from. I promise not to worry as long as no one asks for it back!”
Paul’s ba zi shows a two-year transition period between jetting around the world making decent money and being equally successful working from home which of course is his preference. The changeover according to his Big Fate takes place in July 2007 which is also the date his contract expires. So soon he will get to spend time with his young family.
Money is just a resource but Paul needs to feed his children while his Fate is changing and my feng shui work on his house and garden cuts in.
Feng Shui can often be a question of gradual change over a long period. Some practitioners emphasise this by speaking of what is and is not within the scope of feng shui but I am not entirely comfortable with this. Paul’s life is turning around in line with his tao. My aim is simply to be appropriate to that.
Some authorities suggest success is a question of intention. This is ticklish stuff but it seems to me that the client’s intention is only a function of mine. I’m responsible at all times. That is why with a full survey I commit to sticking with it until the chi moves positively. The condition of course being that the client does what they are told.
My website is full of reports of success, some rapid, some close to miraculous but placing a cure that immediately precedes the outcome intended remains the Holy Grail of feng shui. The human chi alone – interaction if you like – can make the difference by itself. When a person is challenged enough to admit that they are in their own way, change is rapid. But pure placement is the trick.
Certain issues are a breeze. I have found fame to be very easy to influence rapidly with feng shui and also quality of relationship. My website is full of this stuff. But for many, believe it or not, rapid wealth is more important. As they say, anyone who thinks money doesn’t buy happiness doesn’t know where to shop
So last weekend I performed a classical procedure called Five Ghosts Bring the Money to the House in my own home and instructed Paul in a shadow procedure in his. The Five Ghosts process is probably over a thousand years old and like all Imperial feng shui it is very precise and it does not work on every house.
I learned it from a Chinese feng shui Master and sometime afterwards I remember bumping into one of his pupils. Asking her how she was doing now she had graduated from his instruction, I noticed she was close to tears. It was, she explained, frustration at how she had not been able to make this particular operation work.
“ I place it and nothing happpens, “ she said. “Time and again. What is the point of that?”
What indeed? But feng shui is a lifetime discipline. It is important not to talk up what I can do but also not to talk it down either. If it is not working, there is something I am doing wrong and I need to learn. Usually I get it right sooner or later.
The trick, I have concluded is timing. If you are following a procedure religiously, that must be the case. Now as it happens, the night in question was a night that the Chinese Almanac the Tung Shu, calls the night of the Ghost Postman. Which is why I chose it. On such nights we may petition our ancestors for money.
Some are uneasy with the beliefs this may imply. For myself I am icky with anything that suggests money magic. But Paul’s mortgage is now paid for some time.
It was a tax refund by the way.
And my own ancestors delivered a small lottery win.
The next Ghost Postman Day is June 28th.
Pillar Box.
In the world at large, some of the events indicated by the date Pillars of 2006 (similar to those at the top of this diary entry) are evident. Tony Blair’s position is precarious and even the American public have turned their back on George W Bush. Events in Bolivia and Venezuela indicate South America will be setting the world political agenda for the near future. Religions ructions originating in the North East which my study group had been at a loss to locate, proved to come from Denmark. We have had the anticipated wet spring if a little late; my friend Gill Hale blames this on the precession of the equinoxes. Don’t ask.
This moment is a point of pivot; In this fortnight we see the Imperial Heaven Stars Gam Siang (Golden Box) and Lyn Ga (Imperial Carriage) under the Dial Plate character Heaven’s Amulet which represents true authority.
So we could see a return to sanity. There might be an unforced peace in the Middle East. Here in the UK we may see administration replacing legislation. It’s no good passing laws as a gesture if you are not up to enforcing them. Good law makes fewer not more criminals. It is possible we will see greater understanding between the younger religions. Here on the mystic wing we had little disagreement in the first place; there’s not much to choose between Sufi, Zen, Taoism or even the Society of Friends.
As the Romans used to say Dum spiro, spero which means while there’s life there’s hope, not Let’s impeach the Vice President.
Feedback is encouraged including that you never want to hear from me again if that happens to be the case.
Richard Ashworth
Richardashworthfengshui@hotmail.com
Names have been changed to protect ..uh…me