The Unbearable Weight of Life
AI translated from the original Chinese.
In fate reading there is a principle of "no question, no answer." My teacher said this in class once. At the time I was puzzled...
- Me: "Does 'no question, no answer' mean that even if you see the worst outcome in a chart, as long as the subject doesn't ask, you mustn't say?"
- Teacher: "Yes. It is a precept handed down by fortune tellers of old."
- Me: "Even if it's so serious that you can see the subject will have an accident as soon as they walk out the door, you still can't say if they don't ask?"
- Teacher: "In principle, yes."
- Me: "Why?"
- Teacher: "Everything has its karmic law. Asking, and asking about the crux, is a kind of karmic connection; perhaps it is guidance Heaven means to give them. Answering without being asked only unsettles the subject's mind."
I thought about this for a long time. Since I began studying Dou Shu, I had wondered what the purpose of studying fate was: to help people seek good fortune and avoid misfortune, to help people find happiness. But the more I learned and the deeper I understood, and as I grew older and saw more, I gradually came to feel that everyone is walking the road they are meant to walk. It's like someone walking along a cliff edge: they chose to walk there, and however we call to them, they won't come back to safety unless they themselves want to.
Xunzi said: To tell without being asked is called arrogance; to answer two when asked one is called garrulity. Arrogance is wrong, garrulity is wrong; the gentleman is like an echo.
Meaning:
If no one asks for your teaching and you volunteer it anyway, that is rashness; if someone asks you one question and you answer things beyond it, that is long-windedness. Both are wrong. A gentleman should be like a bell: struck once, it rings once, just right.
Perhaps that captures well what fate reading means by "no question, no answer."
Several months ago I talked with a client about his future direction, suitable work, relationships and so on. Recently he came again and told me something shocking and heartbreaking: two important members of his family had died within two months of each other. At first he hadn't asked about this, and I hadn't thought of where the trap in his chart lay. But even had I thought of it, how should I have warned him? And if he had asked and I had told him, could he have avoided it? With my mere mortal nature, I truly cannot answer or explain such questions. Let's just talk about the images in the chart.
The chart is as follows:
What can we discuss from this chart? As usual, let's transform it:
In this chart we can observe that the 寅 Palace is the weak point:
The 寅 Palace (with its three sides and four directions: 戌, 午, 申)
- 化忌 concentrated in the 寅 Palace: this is where the trap lies
- The 寅 Palace's stem is 戊: 天機 (Tian Ji) becomes 化忌, which in turn makes 太陰 (Tai Yin) 化忌
- Major stars in 寅: 天機, 太陰. 天機 and 太陰 can stand for family members and family affairs
- Lesser star in 寅: 白虎 (Bai Hu). If triggered, something more serious happens
- 午 Palace: 天梁 (Tian Liang), for accidents
- 午 and 申 palaces: 左輔 (Zuo Fu), 右弼 (You Bi). Events come one after another
Overall judgment: if the 寅 Palace is triggered, the household may be in turmoil.
At this time the subject's main star is in the 辰 Palace, with stem 庚, which makes 天同 (Tian Tong) become 化忌, triggering the 寅 Palace. Here the 寅 Palace is where his family lies, and there a 白虎 lies waiting...
But I must stress here, to avoid misunderstanding and to keep readers from panicking over their own charts: what you see in a chart won't necessarily happen. Moreover, an ill omen needs corresponding people, matters or things to trigger it. Never compare your own chart with this and misread it.
I wanted to write this article because family is truly the unbearable weight of our lives. What has happened cannot be changed, but what if it could be prevented in advance? I dare not say what can be done within the realm of fate reading, but if there is even the slightest chance to notice the problem beforehand, perhaps, perhaps, perhaps something could be done... right?
In the end I can only sigh: before destiny, we are all so small.