Bazi: the four pillars of destiny
The Bazi is an advanced form of authentic Chinese astrology. It is made of four pillars that are the year, month, day and time of birth. A Bazi chart is therefore often called the Four pillars of destiny. The name Bazi itself means eight characters as the four pillars are made of two characters each, hence eight characters in total.
While the Bazi has a very efficient predictive dimension to it, it is also a great tool for “diagnosis”. The Bazi talks about your own potential, your boundaries and your achievements in life. It shows the path that has been given to you by your karma, and what your playground in this lifetime is. It indicates the “karmic lessons” you’ll have to go through and the solutions you can implement to positively transform your life.
The Bazi also shows your affinity for a field of work; for relationship and marriage; your potential to make money; your ability to gain fame etc. It is really a guideline, the blueprint of your life.
As your Bazi shows your compatibility with a type of Chi and with the Elements, it is very efficient to base the Feng Shui of your place on your Bazi chart. As a Feng Shui expert I alway uses Bazi and Feng Shui together: in fact this is the specificity of the Han Wu San Yuan lineage I have learned from. Feng Shui and Bazi are not a stretch or an artificial pairing; rather they are an organic combination as seen through the Three Lucks. Bazi is the diagnosis and Feng Shui is the prescription to change your life!
To give you an example I will speak of a consultation I have done on a apartment in Chelsea, London. The owner is afflicted by multiple sclerosis and has a cash flow problem. Her Bazi clearly showed that her problems started when she entered a different Luck Pillar – that is a different influence over ten years in her chart – with a Fire and Metal clash. Not surpringly her bed position and the colours in her flat also reflected this clash all over the place.
The solution was therefore to use the Earth element that is very useful to her and serves as a buffer between the Fire and the Metal. She then saw improvement in many areas of her life. Feng Shui without reading the Bazi would not give access to such a level of information.
How to read the Bazi?
A Bazi is read and understood through your connection with the Elements. The key concept is your day of birth called the “Day master”. It carries a birth Element. The Day Master interaction with the rest of the chart determines what type of Bazi chart it is.
Your Bazi can therefore be defined as a “Strong” or “Weak”:
- Metal
- Water
- Wood
- Fire
- Earth
On top of this, there are several special cases such as: Ultra-vibrant charts, Follow the Leader, Follow the Son, Follow the Wealth, Fake Follow charts etc.
Initially, the Year Pillar was considered the most important in the Bazi interpretation; it then moved to the Month Pillar and then finally to the Day Pillar. This is the reason why the mundane Chinese “horoscope” still refers to the Animal of the Year which represents the initial Year Pillar; however it is far from being an in-depth analysis.
While a good Feng shui practitioner must look at your Bazi to understand what your life is, only the San Yuan school of Feng Shui fully integrates the Bazi as the basis of the audit: hence its effieciency. All my Feng Shui consultations for home and business in the USA are San Yuan Feng Shui that uses your Bazi information to provide you with the solutions. If you are ready to experience a different, more refined Feng Shui wherever you are in the USA (Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, San Fransisco, Sacramento, San Diego, Las Vegas and Chicago are cities I often give consultations in). Please go the page contact to book your consultation now.
Please do not mistake San Yuan Feng Shui for Flying stars: both use the word San Yuan which means three periods in Chinese; however they are totally different schools. I invite you to visit this chapter to understand the difference.
