Since time immemorial, human has been dreaming of reaching the Sky but to be more specific, Astrologers and Meta-physicians have been amazed by the distance of ever reaching it and to be able to decipher the significance of the stars appearing in the night sky. According to ancient records, the Ancient Chinese believed that there was a one-to-one correspondence between people on Earth and the Stars in Heaven.

The oldest systems of using stars to read the life of a human being in Ancient China was founded during the Qin Dynasty. It was known then as the Five-Star Astrology where its approach had close resemblance to their Western counterparts. However, there were discrepancies and its accuracy had thrown up more questions than answers. The conclusion then was at best superficial, and at worst, tongue in cheek piece of work.

This led to further research and unveiled two different lines of thought on this subject of Destiny.

Both school of thoughts generally agreed that the Qi ( loosely translated as "Vital Force of Life" ) present at the moment of birth that determines the life of a person. The Bazi or Four Pillars of Destiny introduced to the world by Xu Zi Ping explained that Qi in terms of Five Elements aspects and everything in our livelihood revolve around it and subjected to its continual balancing influence at decade, annually, monthly, daily and double-hourly levels as governed by their respective Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches in the respective person's pre-determined DNA at birth.

The other school of thought is called Zi Wei Dou Shou. In modern days interpretation, it can be loosely called Purple Star or Emperor Astrology. In Short, it is also popularly called Zi Wei Astrology." Zi Wei", also a Emperor Star, is a constellation of Stars in the sky or Heaven. "Dou" is another manner of calling it Star in the Chinese context. "Shu" means Calculation, Interpretation or simply Divination of Numbers. The Ancient Chinese professed that every happening corresponds to a number. If one can find the number by calculation, then it is believed that we will have control in our hands. Thus, the whole descriptive name of " Zi Wei Dou Shu" advocates a way to understand the stars and led by Zi Wei to find the Divination number which reveals all that we want to know about our past, present and future.

It is difficult to trace to who is the original founder of Zi Wei Dou Shu. Historical records and thesis was traced to Taoist Master Chen Xi Yi during the early Sung dynasty ( AD 960 - 1127). Subsequently, there were two versions discovered. Briefly, they were: the comprehensive handbook of Zi Wei Dou Shu and the comprehensive collections of Zi Wei Dou Shu. Hence, there were variations in interpretation techniques though it still arrive at the same outcome.

Some Chinese metaphysics scholars or practitioners believe that the Stars used in Zi Wei Dou Shu are real stars in the Universe with different degree of intensity and hence its influence on humans. While others believe that they are simply special galaxy of energies that exist in the Universe. As there are unlimited amount of stars in the Universe, the stars used in Zi Wei Dou Shu can range from 26 to more than hundred over according to different schools and their respective teaching methodologies.

The fact that the stars has been personified by the practitioners and scholars alike with their own reasoning and research findings enlightened them over a long period of time, to challenge it otherwise would be a futile attempt by modern practitioners and scholars as it has been proven to be effective in deciphering our own "da vinci codes" of our livelihood.

Whether these Stars are real or just virtual energies, it is immaterial as long as we are able to translate it into something meaningful and use this knowledge to understand how it can affect human mind, human action and reaction, moral standards, prosperous state of affairs, happiness and melancholy, good and not-so-good.

The principles and theoretical foundations may appear rudimentary if you already had prior metaphysical basics built up from other subjects like Feng Shui or Geomancy, Bazi or Four Pillars, Qi Men Dun Jia, Liu Ren. During that precise moment of birth, these stars are believed to simultaneously enter into the human body and become the implanted nature of the person. This may appear to be over-the-top for most people to accept such fairy tales description of how life is created. Following on this "new life", these implanted stars will influence different aspects of life in different manner in different times over the course of their life journey.

Interestingly, this explanation matches real life in that how well do we resemble our parents in personality, characters, habits, achievement and how we live our daily life. It is very unlikely that one will have a DNA or Zi Wei Dou Shu Chart similar to either of our parents. In this illustration, one will agree that do not necessarily inherit our characters, nature, personality to the "T" from our parents, though there are some degree of semblance in behaviour but the norms are likely to be remote in higher percentages of the most cases of familial relationships.

In the beginning, a Zi Wei Chart was popularly constructed in a circular form. Later, it has evolved into a square or rectangle format which is very much a personal preference rather than a standard to be adopted. Essentially, the twelve palaces therein describes twelve aspects of a person's life. The relative positions of the palaces are important and useful in interpretation especially as to determine whether a particular life event will materialize be in good or not-so-good terms.

There is a body palace which is not one of the twelve palaces and it can reside in one of the following palaces: Life/Fate, Spouse/Marriage, Wealth/Feeding, Travel/Outdoors, Career/Activity, Virtue/Happiness/Karmic. The Body Palace cannot reside in the other remaining six palaces.

The Body Palace has special dimension. Most Ancient Chinese people believe in reincarnation. What is means in layman terms is: " The soul of a living being does not die after the body dies. The energy has to undergo another life and another life with no ends. In each life, this soul gained added wisdom. For some they gained more, while others may gain less. Some souls could deteriorate while others achieved higher echelons in wisdom progression. Ultimately, it is how one lives their life. Hence, the current soul of a living person is affected by the way how one lives their previous life.

In this case, the location of the body palaces in either one of six palaces mentioned above has a certain degree of significance and also explain why in our current life, we have a strong tendency to pay a close attention to certain aspects of our life more in certain areas while naturally neglected certain areas which in turn affect our general well-being and our chosen path in our current destiny.

Just a simple example to illustrate. If one's body palace is located in the career/activity palace, this person considers career his/her most important and he/she is likely to spend a lot of time on it like his/her life mission and he/she is a 100% Organisation/Corporate person. His/Her life revolves around it no less. However, if the stars inherent therein are not favourably aspected, then he/she is likely to experience upheavals and challenges in his/her relationship matters. The intensity will be triggered by the movement of time over his/her life time.

This begs the question - "What Can I Do about it after knowing my pre-determined destiny?". There will be many questions after questions. Though one may know the answers already, but a high 90 plus percentage will choose to either ignore it as if it wont' happen to them and simply wanting to continue in dream-state mode till hard reality sets in and then desperately looking for help like a final stage cancer patient.

At the end of the day, the choice is still in our hands. Miracle can only happen if we know in advance about the likely situation and do something about it now than too late to alter the course of future events or to avert potential future pitfalls in life especially it can be altered through one's positive actions and thought processes to mimick behaviours and habits that will bring you closer to your desired outcome. Be Forewarned is to Be Prepared in advance.

May Success, Prosperity and Harmony Be Contagious in your Life.

Garrett Lee

Founder

Ancient Feng Shui

Zi Wei Dou Shu Destiny Study is another main branch of Chinese Astrology alongside with Bazi or Four Pillars that the ancient Chinese used to unveil their predestined affinities by applying its techniques to enhance their general well-being be it on a personal, business advantage, and daily level. In short, Zi Wei Astrology enables us to better comprehend and optimize our lives at each phase or episode during their journey of success and trepidation.

Zi Wei Astrology is different from fortune-telling, such I-Ching and Bazi. Zi Wei Astrology has been widely practised in ancient China especially during the Song and Miing Dynasties. Zi Wei can be translated to mean "Purple Star" or "Emperor Star" and Astrology means "Interpretation using esoteric techniques".

The main focus of Zi Wei Astrology is to study a person's destiny based on the movement of various stars and the location of Zi Wei Star within the twelve different palaces or houses or quadrants.

The variation in methodology in calculating the person's destiny is different from school to school. For example, there are northern and southern schools in addition to different techniques variation adopted for calculation and interpretation.

Zi Wei Astrology uses calculations of a person's year, month, date and time of birth to allocate the stars inside the twelve different palaces. The chart that is constructed forms the person's personalised Destiny Chart and this chart corresponds to the person's entire life's "ups" and "downs" as they unfolds over the course of their life.

The next step after constructed the personalised Destiny Chart is to understand the meaning of the twelve palaces. And then to go on to understand the broad and narrow definition of stars besides seeking a further understanding of the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches in each respective palaces, houses or quadrants.

The five elements with its generating and controlling cycle principles cannot be overemphasized when it is used in the mix of interpretation of a probable event or projected outcome either on a personal or business level. For it can cause one to be in a pathetic or triumphant state of mind.

Another interesting factor is the time of birth. By knowing it, one can already deduce one's orientation in life and what holds closely to their heart and mind. Thus, knowing which double-hour one is born can provide an indicative perspective of the person's "general mindset".

In this system of Zi Wei Astrology, the palaces can shift or rotate around but the stars within each palace or house or quadrant remain. It is similar in analogy to taking a train ride. When one starts a journey as in since birth, it moves from "one station to another station" in life as it progresses, the views outside the train window changes while one remains on the moving train until it reaches the final destination which means here end of one's journey or life.

Thus, the 12 standard stations or stages are: Fate Palace where the starting luck cycle varies for each person, thus there is pre-fate palace where one begins life. Next is Sibling palace, if any to begin interaction with them and this can include one's peers as well. Third comes spouse palace which is based on old Chinese tradition, one gets settled down first before greater responsibilities befall on them. Fourth, according to ancient tradition, having children is the next first responsibility and obligation of the married couple to carry on the descendant tree.

Fifth, one will have to feed the family where it is represented by Wealth palace. Sixth is health palace where health is paramount to all especially one has to find ways to bring in more wealth for the family. This can take a toll on one's healthy being. This is what it means by mid-life crisis by modern interpretation.

Seventh, is travelling or relocation palace, where one has to make frequent trips away from home to seek new opportunities as the demand for better living justifies its means. Eighth, is friends palace where one will seek unity and socializing to build strategic bridges or alliances in order to gain bigger advantage in life. Ninth, one will be at career palace where building up one business fortune or empire takes its full extent. Tenth, one's property will be enhanced and can be in fixed asset related matters including buying a second property or renew the current property to accommodate growing population at home. Eleventh, this is the retirement phase or the happiness stage or some interpretation labels it as Karmic palace. Though one goes into retirement eventually, whether one is in happy or melancholic or charitable state of mind will very much depend on how one lives during the last ten palaces of the person's life. Final stage,Parents/Ancestors/Seniors Palace where one returns into the embrace of the source for protection, support and care. Thus, to be forewarned is to foretell, which is what one can influence, depending one's action and approach to life, the likely final outcome to be.

One of the important tenets of interpretation with high accuracy is the understanding of the meaning of the stars appearing in different palaces. Though there are many stars to consider, experience tells us that fourteen major stars and its supplementary stars will be sufficient without bringing into the mix the auxiliary stars for generally correct interpretation. Unless finer aspects are required, then auxiliary stars could be added on to bring out "more flavours" to the dish. An analogy would be: there are Major Stars and Co-Stars in the movie and they can jointly bring up the plots and theme of the show or story when they are in different scene or "palace". Auxiliary stars are like extras or stunt-artists, where appropriate inclusion into the mix, to add more flavours or spice up the excitement. And the person is the Producer and Director of their own movie.

This is simply amazing especially when one is able to take a peek into their own future and to know early in their life how it can evolve over time. This is synonymous to allowing one to make the "right" decision under different circumstances so that one will be able to achieve optimal prosperity and harmony at different stages of one's life.

May Success, Prosperity and Harmony Be Contagious in your Life.
Garrett Lee

Founder

Ancient Feng Shui