Hidden Arrows Are Hard to Dodge, Open Spears Hard to Block: On Backstabbers

AI translated from the original Chinese.

Generated by Gemini

At work, everyone hopes to get along happily with colleagues. But there are always one or two people who, whether unwittingly or deliberately, dig holes for others to fall into, making the atmosphere strange; worse still, some inexplicably stab people in the back. Some say wearing a pinky ring wards off backstabbers, but backstabbers never disappear because you wear a pinky ring. So what can you do?

Let's look at this case first:

• Subject: I want to quit this year and find a new job. Can you tell me whether it bodes well?
• Me: What kind of job do you want?
• Subject: Something related to sales.
• Me: Then let's look at this year's work luck.

As usual, I reshape the chart into a suitable form:

A chart must be read "for the matter at hand." The subject wants to work in sales, so which star relates to sales? 貪狼 (Tan Lang). Let's see how 貪狼 fares.

1. With 貪狼 as the pivot, first the star combinations (with its three sides and four directions: 未, 卯, 巳):

• 貪狼 is in the 亥 Palace with 廉貞 (Lian Zhen) and 天姚 (Tian Yao): suited to sales. 天姚 means tactful, appropriate manners.
• The 巳 Palace sees 空劫 (Kong Jie): "rowing a boat in the waves." Applying for a sales job, she may be hired and then given non-sales work.
• 武曲 (Wu Qu) meeting 陀羅 (Tuo Luo): "taking up a knife for money"; the salary may fall short of ideal.

Overall judgment: she suits sales work, but the salary may fall short, and she may be hired as sales only to be moved to another role.

2. With 貪狼 as the pivot, the Four Transformations of work-related stars (with its three sides and four directions: 未, 卯, 巳):

• 貪狼's stem is 丁: 巨門 (Ju Men) becomes 化忌 in the 子 Palace.
• The work star 天府 (Tian Fu), stem 乙: 太陰 (Tai Yin) becomes 化忌 in the 戌 Palace.
• The 未 Palace's stem is 癸: 貪狼 becomes 化忌 in the 亥 Palace.

Overall judgment: the 亥 Palace is flanked by 化忌, and the 卯 Palace's double 化忌 clashes with it too; this year is not suitable for applying for a sales job.

From these two points we can already tell she should not take up sales work this year. But I always check one more star: 陰煞 (Yin Sha), for backstabbers.

• 陰煞 is in 午, stem 壬: 武曲 becomes 化忌, clashing with the 亥 Palace

Judgment: in a sales job, backstabbers will set traps for her, and because 武曲 is Metal, there will be not only "open spears" but also "hidden arrows."

What actually happened:

Afterwards, the subject met me in person. She had applied for "sales," but once hired she became a "sales assistant." Beyond that, the sales unit had a supervisor, and the "sales assistant" role had another supervisor. The two supervisors' instructions often contradicted each other, leaving her at a loss, attacked from both sides and stabbed in the back again and again. In the end she said:

Conclusion

Getting along with people involves many subtleties. Even when everyone works in good faith, misunderstandings, conflicts and poor communication still arise. The subject had planned to stay 3 to 5 years, but after just 4 months, because of these many problems, she had no choice but to leave. I often tell clients: "Destiny is not fixed; people actually have choices." But in truth, all we can choose is our own thoughts and direction. How others treat us is beyond our control, but at the very, very least, we must be able to face ourselves with a clear conscience. Although this job didn't go well for her, I believe she will surely find work that suits her in the future, with a team she can truly work alongside.