Author: Stephanie Stewart

Hunter’s Moon

Posted on by Stephanie Stewart
Hunter’s Moon usually occurs in October

Gardeners learn to observe the cues of nature to properly time their efforts. Simply by paying attention every day to what is going on in the garden you will learn how to identify changes in season by noting the smell of the soil, temperature, precipitation and plant growth rather than relying solely on the calendar. Have you ever noticed that near the middle to end of August the plants seem to already be contracting and going dormant for the season? They may still be showing new growth on the tips but you can see that the shrubs are not as lush and dense even though they have not yet begun to drop their leaves.

For as long as humans have cultivated the land they have used the travels of the sun and the moon for timing and navigation. By using the position of the sun or moon you can determine time and direction without a watch or compass. Observation and practice is all it takes to develop this skill. The sun and moon are constantly changing their positions and path in the sky and at the same time repeat the same cycles over and over again. Just follow the patterns.

In early civilizations, observing the moon was a way to mark time and its cycles would drive agricultural (and other) practices. I am fascinated by the way that the moon affects every living thing on our planet and the fact that this has long been understood by humans. In Native American Cultures each full moon has a name and the names give an indication of what is happening in the natural cycles of the seasons. When the first settlers came to North America they learned from the native people to use the moon for timing and to call each moon by its unique name.

October was considered an important time to hunt in preparation for winter almost everywhere in North America. These are just a few of the names the October full moon goes by:

Hunter’s Moon
Dying Grass Moon
Travel Moon
Blood Moon
Young Animals Moon

These rhythms are common to many cultures. Consider that the Dog month in the Chinese calendar covers most of October. The Dog month was a time of slaughtering the animals that weren’t hardy enough to make it to the next spring. Rather than using up food to keep them going, those animals were used to keep everyone else going.

Gardening is one way that we can keep in touch with nature and its cycles and take comfort in the unchanging repetition of change. Like the Native American people, we need to embrace the patterns of nature because this is a skill we will always need to survive.

I think an awareness of place and constant change enriches our lives in many ways, whether it’s noticing that first fragrance of daphne in winter or seeing the leaves on the trees just beginning to turn in the fall.

The predictability of the seasons gives me something to fall back on when life seems too confusing and unpredictable. No fall will be exactly like another, but I can base my expectations on the pattern.

Understanding where we are in the cycle provides me with a confidence in my own accumulated knowledge and makes me more likely to trust my own judgments rather than the third party advice of people who are not as close to the situation. The ability to do that is just one of the things I get from gardening.

Feng Shui & History in Southeast Arizona

Posted on by Stephanie Stewart

The southeast corner of Arizona is a special place. In case you’re not familiar with it, cities such as Benson, Tombstone, Wilcox, Bisbee, Douglas, Huachuca City (est. in 1877 as Camp Huachuca) and Sierra Vista are in that region. This is the part of Arizona where I grew up. Some of the land is just like what you see in those old western movies about Cowboys and Indians: seemingly dry, flat and grassy with mesquite, palo verde, creosote bush, cactus and the occasional hill or arroyo. The parts of southeast Arizona you never saw in those movies are called the Sky Islands.

The term Sky Island refers to an isolated mountain range which is surrounded by lowlands with a markedly different ecosystem. This means that a temperate forest environment on the mountain can be in close proximity to a tropical or desert-like environment in the lowland. Both the Chiricahuas (peak elevation 9760 ft.) and the Dragoons (peak elevation 7520 ft.) are Madrean Sky Islands and were a sort of “cradle of civilization” in the southwestern U.S. There is archaeological evidence of Apaches living in the Chiricahuas as early as the 14th century.

The photo you see above is a picture of a geological formation called Cochise Head in the Chiricahua Mountains of southeastern Arizona. It is said to resemble Cochise’ face gazing up at the sky.

Cochise

Chief Cochise (K’uu-ch’ish) was the leader of the Chiricahua Apaches from around 1850 until his death in 1874. The estimates of his birth year span from 1804-1825. I think he was probably born in 1806 in southern Arizona – in the region that was later known as the Gadsden Purchase. A Fire Tiger year would fit him because of his fame and his skill as a strategist. Cochise had a reputation as a great leader and although he was captured (and escaped), he was never defeated in battle.

Did you know the name Cochise means “having the qualities of oak”? I think his name has to do with the evergreen kind of oak and Cochise’ gift of survival. Oak is a very hard wood. Perhaps his biggest strength was his knowledge of the land where he grew up.

The Gadsden Purchase

Image courtesy of discoverseaz.com

In 1853 James Gadsden, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, was sent by President Franklin Pierce to make a treaty with General Antonio Santa Anna, President of Mexico, in order to extend the southern border of the U.S. The goal was to secure land for a southern railroad route to the west coast. Without a railroad, travel through the area was slow and hazardous due to the desert environment and Apache raids.

The original intention of Gadsden was to buy land as far south as Guaymas, Mexico but the Congress did not support that idea and Mexico wasn’t falling for that.

The marker on the map is Guaymas, Mexico.

I see this as a huge failure for Gadsden. Can you imagine the difference it would have made to the character and development of Arizona to have a coastline and access to the state via water? For one thing, the capital of Arizona would probably have been a port city rather than landlocked Phoenix which was purposely chosen for its central location.

The treaty was signed on December 30, 1853: a Metal Rat day in a Water Rat month in a Water Ox year. This elemental lineup of water, metal and earth does not bode well for a Fire Tiger like Cochise. The conflicts, kidnappings and killings that had already been underway would only get more intense for him and his people.

The U.S. paid $10 million dollars for a 29,670 square mile portion of Mexico which would later become part of the states of Arizona and New Mexico. The treaty was ratified by the Senate on June 24, 1854.

Texas Canyon

The land gained by the U.S. in the Gadsden Purchase includes part of the Sonoran Desert, the Coronado National Forest, the Chiricahua Mountains, the Dragoon Mountains, and Texas Canyon just to name a few features. The Sky Island mountains are not as formidable as the Rockies or the Cascades but they are high enough to host conifers, broadleaf evergreens, and deciduous trees. Where there are trees there is water. It was a good deal for the U.S.

Slavin Gulch in the Dragoon Mountains – Photo ©John Forrey

In Apache it’s called Favorite Place

There’s a part of the Dragoon Mountains known as Cochise Stronghold. The term “stronghold” is a military term applied by non-Apaches. To the Apaches it was known as “favorite place”.

The Favorite Place is where there are caves for shelter, shade, fresh water and food to forage and hunt. It’s not too cold or too hot for survival. The heat from the sun brings out the scent of the trees, rocks and water together. It smells like heaven. It was a safe place for hiding and an easy place to defend. The fact that Cochise selected this land for himself and his people would indicate he was using some version of what we currently call Feng Shui and his knowledge was probably passed down to him.

In the land grabbing that followed the Gadsden Purchase, the Apaches, whose tribe had been living in the area probably since the 14th century, were compelled to defend the land and their people against all comers including the U.S. military. Though they may have been at a disadvantage in terms of numbers or weapons, they had Chief Cochise and the land on their side. Nevertheless, in 1872 the Chiricahua Apaches were finally overcome and confined to reservation lands in southeast Arizona. Cochise himself went to the Dragoons to live in his Favorite Place with his people. He was one of the few chiefs who negotiated successfully to get the land and the terms he wanted for his tribe.

In 1874 Cochise died of natural causes, probably stomach cancer, on the reservation. His body is said to have been buried in a hidden place in the Dragoons by his people. The location of his grave has not been found to this day.

Metal Element in the Garden: Fall and Fruit

Posted on by Stephanie Stewart

I don’t really need a calendar to know fall is here because:

The huckleberries and crabapples are ready to be picked.
I can see in the branches and leaves of the deciduous trees that the qi is contracting.
My evergreens have just finished their leaf/needle drop.
In the morning I can smell the ocean.
The nights are cooler.

More precisely, I know we’re about six weeks away from winter because early this morning, for the first time this year, I heard the geese honking as they headed south. I’ve been here in the PNW awhile.

In the Rooster month I’m out in the garden wrapping things up and getting ready for next year. I’ll be using all sorts of metal tools for cutting, digging, dividing and transplanting. I’ll be replacing any broken bits of my drip irrigation, checking and cleaning my rain barrels, pruning, pulling out the weeds, mulching, and harvesting the huckleberries and crabapples.

Do you know what time it is?

Fall is the season of Metal, the time when historically, we would be preparing for winter by hunting, gathering, harvesting crops, canning, preserving, and slaughtering livestock to be stored away for our human version of hibernation. For those of us who aren’t farmers or gardeners fall is the time for more modern rituals of going back to school, having the boiler serviced, or getting out the soup pot and sweaters.

Crabapples

Fruits, nuts and berries are the distillation of the energy of the tree or bush and therefore related to both the season and the element of Metal.

Spiny Chestnuts

It takes three seasons of the year to make the fruits that we harvest in the fall such as apples and chestnuts. Three seasons of the year – that adds up to around 39 weeks which is the same amount of time it takes to make a baby.

Huckleberries

It’s always the same cycle once spring comes: seed to sprout, sprout to bud, bud to flower, flower to fruit. We tend to take this cycle for granted because we don’t think about the sheer amount of energy it takes for a plant or tree to produce fruit. There’s a reason that apple trees go dormant and new mothers may be exhausted. It’s the Metal.

Floyd Mayweather, Jr. vs. Conor McGregor

Posted on by Stephanie Stewart

My son Joe asked me to make a prediction for the upcoming fight between Floyd Mayweather, Jr. and Conor McGregor. I’m not one to follow boxing or UFC but I thought it would be a challenge and add some flexibility to my readings.

I decided not to do any research on either fighter before writing this, but Joe did tell me that Mayweather had retired from boxing in 2015 and that McGregor is not a boxer. I am using birth data and the fight date only for this analysis.

I am predicting that Mayweather will win. There are many reasons why that have to do with elements and timing, but you could sum it up by calling it good luck.

Fight Date

The day of the fight is Saturday August 26th, 2017. The fight is scheduled to begin around 9 pm Pacific Time in Las Vegas but Joe tells me they don’t usually start on time. Let’s assume the fight will begin between 8-10 pm which is the Fire Dog hour.

You can see above that there are two Roosters in the chart. Two Roosters together is called a self penalty. Because there are two Roosters in the day it will apply to every one of us on August 26th, regardless of what is in our own natal charts. The penalty has to do with attracting attention, strutting, crowing and cockiness. With the Monkey adding more Metal in the month, and the presence of the Dog in the hour, there is a lot of Metal. To McGregor Metal is his self element; to Mayweather it is his resource. There may be help from the Metal element for both fighters but I still don’t think it will be enough to help McGregor win.

The Earth Monkey month brings Mayweather’s 7 killings energy as this is what the Yang Earth is to the Yang Water. It’s a win at any cost sort of energy. But McGregor has this energy too. For him it is Fire and it is part of his nature. It is present in his natal chart in the Horse (day branch) and in the hour the fight will begin (see day chart above).

Floyd Mayweather, Jr.
February 24, 1977 Ox Hour (est.) ~ Age 40

Floyd Mayweather, Jr. is a Yang Water person.

The flow of ch’i in the chart is pretty smooth. He has a Fire flow which would mean he can make lots of money. That would also indicate he has many women in his life.

Two of the branches in the chart, Snake and Tiger, are called Stations. The Stations have to do with movement, staying in motion, and changing things up. The Stations, the many Water and Metal combinations in the chart, and the nature of Water itself makes for the type of fighter who seems to easily evade punches. He wins by slipping away. He waits for the right moment to throw his punches and win.

Ren and Ding combine in the chart to enhance his creativity but he’s already a tricky, calculating type of guy. If you think he is not smart you are about to be had.

The year pillar has to do with the physical body and shows Mayweather’s fighting style. He has a lot of different ideas. The Snake also combines with the Rooster (2017) which makes him more of a planner. He would see getting injured in order to succeed as a sort of failure.

Mayweather, Jr. entered his current fate of Earth Dog in 2013. The Earth Dog pillar is called a Fui Kong. McGregor has a Fui Kong pillar too (see below). This is the type of ch’i that would be required for a successful professional athlete. A person with one of these pillars can be an indestructible risk taker, capable of bouncing back from defeat and injury. It’s pretty handy to have this type of ch’i late in his career but it also means he is going to have to work hard.

The year 2018 is an Earth Dog, so it may be that we all have to show some endurance and take some risks next year.

Connor McGregor
July 14, 1988 at 12:30am ~ Age 29

Connor McGregor is a Yang Metal person. Metal is the sign of a fighter for sure.

There is an Earth flow to the chart. Earth is his resource but Earth cannot make Metal stronger. More Metal is what makes Metal stronger.

With the Dragon in his year, the Rooster should be helpful but on the day of the fight it may be a liability due to the Rooster self penalty. McGregor, as a Yang Metal person, will be more vulnerable to this energy than Mayweather, who is a Yang Water person. McGregor is susceptible to making some kind of mistake where he is distracted by something or showing off and takes a blow to the head. He may be talking a better game than he can deliver.

McGregor’s year pillar is Earth Dragon. This is a Fui Kong pillar and will reflect his fighting style because it’s in the year. The energy of Earth is like a piling up/piling on. He likes to grapple, wrestle, knock you down, land on top of you. He probably sees getting hurt as just a normal part of life. With the Earth Dragon in his natal chart and in the year position he is probably physically stronger than Mayweather. Obviously being younger is a plus too.

The power element for McGregor is Fire. If it was May or June or the Snake was present he would have a better chance of winning. Too bad summer is over.

Maxine Waters Reclaims Time

Posted on by Stephanie Stewart

Summer 2017 in America

Many Feng Shui masters might not agree about this but the way I see it we are now in the 9th fate: the age of Fire. The super powers of women are becoming obvious to everyone whether they like it or not. Boys are getting angry that there are female only showings of Wonder Woman. Guys like James Damore and Steven Mnuchin are getting nervous and making a pre-emptive strike to block the oncoming rise of women by pouring on the rhetoric. We have seen these tactics of avoiding answering the question that was asked (Mnuchin), or defending a weak position by claiming the victim role (Damore), used against women in authority positions many times. Maxine Waters is not having that. Her super power is reclaiming time. Mnuchin was not able to derail her – instead he opened the eyes of the world to her mastery. Times are changing. The change is accelerating.

Maxine Waters was born in an Earth Tiger year. Earth and Wood together is about power and success, aka kun and choi in the language of Ba Zi.

I wrote a post earlier this year about how people with a Tiger branch in their Ba Zi are quite effective against the Trump administration. Rather than spending a lot of time blustering on social media or in other public arenas, these Tiger people are watching and waiting. They are also working behind the scenes to make sure that when they go in it’s for the kill. They will not forget who did what and who stepped out of their place in the pecking order. The Tiger branch clashes with the current month of Monkey so Tigers will be prominent in August, and then again in October because of the Tiger’s alliance with the Dog.

As the year has progressed I have come to describe our current political situation as a tension between Earth and Wood elements. In the dynamic cycle of the Five Elements, Earth is controlled by Wood. In Ba Zi terms this means Wood is Earth’s power, and Earth is Wood’s success. Under certain circumstances Earth and Wood can also combine to create more Earth. Earth and Wood combining is a characteristic of Trump’s birth chart. He seems to be able to render his opponents ineffective. I say this only happens when the opponent lacks subtlety due to a surfeit of aggression.

Earth vs. Wood

Let’s use Earth element to represent Trump since he has an Earth day stem, Earth day branch and was born in a Dog year. We’ll also have Earth represent the U.S. Government since the office of President and the government are virtually inseparable.

Birth Chart of Donald Trump
Born June 14, 1946 at 10:54 am

Qualities of Earth

  • Remote
  • Stubborn
  • Unmoving
  • Powerful
  • Heavy
  • Compiling
  • Massive

 
Trump’s particular type of Earth reminds me of a small planet becoming huge; adding to its own gravity by consuming everything in its orbit. HUGE!

Now Wood will represent people with a Tiger branch in their chart, such as Maxine Waters and the Tigers from my earlier post. For the Wood element I’m also including the citizens of the U.S.A. since we are the ones who give the power to our government.

You’ll also want to note Maxine also has strong metal in her chart so it’s in her nature to speak up fearlessly about her beliefs.

Birth Chart of Maxine Waters
Born August 15, 1938

Qualities of Wood

  • moving in every direction
  • constant movement
  • stubborn
  • flexible
  • persistent
  • ambitious
  • idealistic
  • wants space

 

From the words alone you can see how these Earth and Wood clash, but they also have a relationship that can be harmonious.

If you follow my logic, Trump is a problem that “we the people” have the power to fix. How to begin? Don’t get distracted by the daily drama. Stay attentive to all the important things you do in your own microcosm even if all that means is communicating kindness and love to those around you. It does make a difference in the macrocosm. Align with those who share some or even just one of your values – don’t worry if you don’t match up on every issue. Be ready to move and change. Success is in flexibility and cooperation.

Summer’s Almost Gone

Posted on by Stephanie Stewart

Tomorrow is the first day of the Earth Monkey 戊申 month which covers the rest of August and a bit of September. When the Monkey comes the change of seasons is accelerated. Summer’s almost gone. Let’s be glad we had it.

Things are looking spent in the garden. Most of the evergreens have just done their annual leaf/needle drop so the ground is crackly and yellow just like the grass that none of us water. We have had no measurable rain here in Seattle for the last 49 days. The ground is very dry. It’s also been unusually hot with runs of days where temperatures are in the 90s. It’s easy to see our air quality is very poor when Bellevue is almost obscured from the west side of Lake Washington. You can smell the smoke in the air from the fires in British Columbia. It’s not what we are used to here in the temperate rain forest. Big changes are happening everywhere.

The part of the change to love is the crazy amount of growth that has happened this summer, the bounty of blooms and reblooms, as well as the extended season for scented bloomers. Here are the perennials and bulbs that are still performing in the garden. Enjoy!

Weigela

Rose of Sharon

Summersweet “Hummingbird”

Scarlet Monkey Flower (Mimulus cardinalis)

Evergreen jasmine

Bee balm “Jacob Cline”

Gladiola

Feng Shui : What’s Your Story?

Posted on by Stephanie Stewart

By the time I was 15 years old, my family had moved house 13 times. We had lived in three different states, at least six cities, and many houses. We lived in Arizona mostly, but also in Texas and California. I became fascinated by houses and their atmospheres and started out defining them by which ones were safe or where the safe places were in each house. This was based purely on how it made me feel. I became fascinated by houses and to this day I still have many dreams that occur inside of houses.

During 5th grade when walking home from school I would look at the houses along the way, making up stories about each one. The story would tell who lived inside and what living there would be like. I would add details about their day to day lives. In some houses there would be French toast for breakfast. In others there might not be any breakfast at all. Not every story was a happy one.

There was one house that was my favorite and the story I told myself regarded what my life would be like if I lived there. The house stood out because there was a garden gate leading to the back yard that you could see from the street. It was the closest thing to a moon gate there was in Douglas, Arizona at the time. Really it was just a wooden gate with a rounded arch above it* but to me it seemed mysterious and inviting. On some days if I thought no one was home I was brave enough to go up to the gate and peek over for a glimpse into the garden. I was looking for magic (divine intervention?) as my parents had just separated. My thought was if I could live in that house my life story would be very different. Little did I know I was onto something.

After 5th grade my parents reunited and we moved to another house – this time outside of Douglas about 1/4 mile from the border between the U.S. and Mexico. The house was run down and you could tell nobody had cared about it in a long time. It had several low, tin roofed outbuildings that were spooky; a hot darkness filled with old junk, rattlesnakes and despair. Everywhere you went on the property there were snakes, scorpions and horrible smelling trees. It was easy to imagine nasty things had happened there in the past. Some days migrating Mexicans the adults I knew called “wetbacks” would come traveling through the desert asking for water. I was never afraid of them – I was afraid for them. That same year some ranchers who owned many acres near our property captured and tortured some Mexican men not far from our house. Fear was in the air.

There were no safe places in that house. I don’t remember much about the interior except for the bedroom I shared with my sister. Close to the center of the room there was a big opening in the floor covered by a board. The board fit into the opening so it was flush with the floor. If you put a rug over it you might not know it was there. There was some storage space beneath – not a full basement. It was like a grave that could open at any time. Nights were the worst because I was always afraid some person who had been hiding in there would come up out of the opening while I was asleep. For me this idea was somehow related to the people coming across our land and asking for water. I had the impression people had actually hidden in the hole at some time.

My mother became very ill and nearly died when we were living in that house. When she was in the hospital my brother and sister and I were sent to stay with friends and neighbors. I forgot to go back to our house to feed my parakeet and it died. My experiences, emotions and my family matched up with the feelings and impressions I had of the house and property.

Why am I telling you all of this? Because you might have thought you don’t know or understand anything about Feng Shui. I’m saying you do in the sense that you know your own story.

You have already noticed feelings, emotions and patterns associated with your environment but perhaps you didn’t take the time to analyze them. If you are honest with yourself you will admit there are places in your house right now that don’t look, feel, taste, smell or sound right to you. This is telling you something about the ch’i in those spaces.

Maybe there are parts of your house where you just don’t want to go. Maybe there are parts of your house where it feels great to you. Think of the words you would use to describe either of those two situations regarding your own house. Writing them down would be a good idea.

Now take those words and see how they apply to your health, relationships, money, career, family, children… Take note of how the words describing your issues link up with the feelings about certain areas of your house.

If that doesn’t work for you try this: What areas of your house or yard are neglected? For example, if it’s the SW there may be something you are avoiding in your relationship with your mother. Or maybe you are a mother who is not taking care of herself. If your front door (related to the mouth) is difficult to open and close, what does it mean to you? Are you not saying things that need to be said? Lonely? Purposely keeping people away? Experiencing illness related to the mouth?

Practicing this kind of thinking will reveal things you are capable of changing if you want to. As a Feng Shui consultant I can help you. What is your story? If you don’t like it you can change it by making different choices. Why would you wait?

*While writing this realized I tried to re-create this gate for a fenced garden in 2000.

Feng Shui Elemental Cure : Six Rod Wind Chime

Posted on by Stephanie Stewart
Metal element as activation or cure

For as long as I can remember I’ve loved the sound of wind chimes*. My first memories of hearing them involve being at my grandmother’s house in the Catalina Foothills of Arizona. I associate them with the wind signaling the coming of rain or a storm; something I still find thrilling even after all these years of living in rainy Seattle. In the cycle of elements, metal creates water. The NW (metal) of the US is a rainy place to live (water).

In the practice of feng shui, a wind chime with 6 metal pipes is often recommended to activate using the metal element, or cure using the metal element. The pipes are made of metal and the number six has to do with the 6 Gua (NW) which has to do with metal. The wind chime can be placed indoor or outdoor, depending on what your house is like.

Sounds pretty simple right?

There are lots of other layers here to consider, such as the birth chart of your house, the current year and month, and the compass location where you are doing the adjustment. For example, using metal in a compass location that corresponds to E or SE is probably not a great idea because those areas are related to the wood element. In the dynamic cycles of the elements metal chops wood.

Another important factor is timing. You don’t want to try to activate or cure one thing only to cause some other problem by doing it at the wrong time.

Here’s how I see it from my gardener’s perspective:

Using metal as a feng shui activation or cure, like pruning, is only healthy if it is done at the right time and in the appropriate fashion. Before you start cutting you need to understand whether the tree is evergreen or not, the growth habits, the mature size it will attain, and when it is the appropriate time to do it. Hacking and chopping, especially in the wrong season will maim a tree forever or leave it dying a slow death.

There is a magical enhancement in artful pruning just as there is in the proper application of feng shui.

*Did you know you can get wind chimes that have different tunings? If you are curious about wind chimes you may want to check out this site: https://www.musicofspheres.com/. I have the Balinese one.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders : If You Want a Friend in Washington Get a Dog

Posted on by Stephanie Stewart

What would it be like for a woman growing up with Mike Huckabee as her father? And why would that compel her to stand and loyally defend the crass actions of her boss Donald Trump? To answer these questions one must consider both nature and nurture. This is just one of the ways to use Bazi.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders was born on August 13, 1982.

The year pillar reveals the nature of parents, grandparents, ancestors, family attitudes, and traditions that are handed down. Compare it to the day pillar and you can have a quick read on the nature of a person’s parents and how he or she responds to that influence. This is where our decisions or reactions usually come from unless we consciously change ourselves.

Twitter/Sarah Huckabee Sanders

Dog 戌 vs. Dragon 辰 is a Clash

In the case of Sarah, the relationship of Dog in the year pillar and Dragon in the day pillar is key to understanding why she is willing to take on the task of defending Trump. There is a conflict between loyalty to authority and defending those who are bullied. There are boundary issues. Her problem lies in discerning who is the bully and who is being bullied.

Because Sarah has been bullied herself she perceives that type of energy as negative. Unfortunately, bullying and being bullied also has the comfort of familiarity and invokes a possibly troublesome loyalty she feels to her father Mike Huckabee.

Being bullied at the same time you are learning to love and be loved is a powerful but useless lesson many girls and young women have learned from their fathers. It’s difficult to believe in a love without manipulation and pain after that. Maybe a big part of the problem is that there is a certain thrill simply in having your father that focused on you. Imagine the outcome if his focus was on teaching you self care instead.

Dog the Father

Source: Getty/Mic

A man who can make remarks like this is a scared misogynist at best. At worst he is a bully who is interested in taking away women’s freedom. For Sarah he is the archetype of the father. As such he represents authority – even the highest authority which some would call God. Sarah’s loyalty to Trump is a reflection of her loyalty to her father. She will have a huge conflict going against Trump in any way and feels compelled to defend him even though it makes her look like an ass.

Some of the characteristics of the Dog correspond with Sarah’s father’s career:

  • Mike Huckabee ran in the Presidential Primaries in 2016 but didn’t really have anything new to say.
  • He is a Christian Minister who probably thinks he is protecting his flock but is too dogmatic to be an inclusive and charismatic leader.
  • He was the Governor of Arkansas from 1996-2007 which shows that he does have leadership qualities with the like minded, i.e. his pack/PAC.
  • Coincidentally(?), he was born in Hope, Arkansas, the same town as Bill Clinton. Also interesting is that Bill Clinton, Donald Trump and George W. Bush were all born in 1946 which was a Dog year. This would lead one to think that the phrase “You lie like a dog” means not only that you lie, but that you do it badly.

 

Sarah has some of the Dog characteristics too. In Sarah’s chart, the character representing her self is 戊 and the character representing her father is 戌. Even if you’ve never studied Feng Shui or Bazi you will probably notice how similar these characters are. Sarah and her father are similar too, but not exactly the same.

But don’t forget Sarah’s day branch is the Dragon. Have you noticed how much more reluctant and heavy* she seems with each new press conference? She knows that Trump’s behavior is out of line and yet she doggedly pursues her own success by continuing in her protective position. She attempts to portray Trump’s behavior as paternally oriented but you can see she is struggling. On the other hand it’s the Rooster year, this is her big chance and the money is good, so…

The Rooster Year 2017

Because there is a Dragon in the day branch of Sarah’s chart, in a Rooster year she may find herself attracted to the fame and power of her job as a spokeswoman and losing track of her own mojo.

Her current fate is Wood Dragon indicating that this is a time where she has new opportunities for both power and money. Her problems are “first world problems”. This kind of big success must distract from any unpleasantness she has to go through to achieve it, but she doesn’t see the crash and burn coming. Unfortunately, a second Dragon means she may be kidding herself about how much she is able to outsmart those around her. Thinking about her long term career (i.e. post-Trump) might be a better strategy.

*I don’t mean she gained weight.

James Comey in Hot Water

Posted on by Stephanie Stewart

James Comey
Born December 14, 1960 (hour unknown)
is too much water? He gets fired from his position of FBI Director on May 9, 2017, ostensibly due to damage done to the credibility of the FBI on his watch.

You don’t need to use divination to know that Comey’s firing has much more to do with our current administration’s ties to Russia than it has to do with some other action on Comey’s part. The reason Comey was fired is that he was perceived as having too much power over information about events that happened last year. The element of water represents Comey’s power in his ba zi but the element of water in general is about communication. Communication will not be suppressed by his dismissal in 2017 because the central energy of this year is water.

But let’s look at his ba zi.

James Comey was fired on a Fire Monkey day. You may remember that 2016 was a Fire Monkey year so already you can see here that there is an implication that he was fired for things that happened last year. Obviously there are echoes of recent events – anyone remember what happened shortly before the election? The 2 months prior to the election were Fire Monkey (August) and Fire Rooster (September). The same sort of chi as 2016 and 2017 but on a different scale.

When the Monkey is in the chart along with the Dragon there is a triple water combination in his chart. In a sense in the Rooster year the Dragon is lurking all of the time but it looks like April 2017 (Dragon month) completes the water combination and it is just too much. The Monkey has to do with getting in trouble with spoken words and the Dragon has to do with sudden change. When they come together with the Rat, keeper (or revealer) of secrets Comey is fired.

Comey’s current Big Fate is Water Snake. We just entered the Snake month on May 5th. Look to the Snake for marking out liars, spin doctors and truth seekers. Always a theme for the Snake. And just so you know, I’m not creative enough to make this stuff up.