Hexagram 55 Feng (Abundance or Peak)

Knowing and Unknowing

When I was out for a walk a couple of weeks ago in the midafternoon, I was reminded of one of the themes of Feng by which I mean Hexagram 55, not the Feng in Feng Shui 風水 – that’s a different one. Hexagram 55* talks about unusual visions that might be related to astronomy, spirituality or astrology, maybe all three.

The Sun was out, unclouded, and it was lovely. During the walk I could also see the Moon in the sky. One of my earliest teachers in this world of Chinese Metaphysics said that when you can see the Sun and Moon at the same time, you can cultivate or increase your psychic powers. It sounds irrational doesn’t it?

And yet, they certainly weren’t wrong. Just noticing things like the Sun and Moon being in the sky at the same time means you’re not looking at your phone. That alone will tend to make you notice other things and your mind will bubble away, distilling certain conclusions without you even really having to try.

If you want to be a diviner, make a habit of being open to these mostly obvious messages from the Universe and the conclusions that feel right, even though you don’t know exactly how you arrived there. Explore trusting your visions if this is how they happen. I don’t encourage you to explore any that you’re constructing out of worry; those never seem to go anywhere that is helpful.

I do readings and surveys all year, but I work with the most people at the turn of the year. Maybe that’s why in every Ox month, I find myself thinking about inputs, but this last Fire Ox month was…different. For one thing, I have been teaching, doing Feng Shui and Ba Zi readings for days. I’ve been working with multiple inputs, doing multiple outputs. Data in, divination out. Lots of preparation, thinking, writing, talking, dreaming.

The more you engage your powers of observation, the more psychic (if that’s the right word) you will become.

Over the years I’ve noticed that in the Ox month I often get things right even when my inputs are “wrong”. By inputs I mean data that goes with the job, such as compass degrees, dates, times or other calculations. Perception and senses are inputs too. The origin of some inputs is not readily identifiable and those are the important ones; the ones I’m most interested in. If information is coming through me, rather than from me, it’s probably closer to the truth, for lack of a better term.

I do care about the data and its interpretation, but mostly when you’re practicing Feng Shui, you can get it right without getting the exact compass degree right. There are multiple inputs or systems to work with in a Feng Shui survey, including Ba Zi, and the synthesis of them all is what goes into the art of consulting.

In applying Feng Shui, your house is a metaphor for your life. Let’s just start with that. There are common sense interpretations that will fit, as well as transcendental ones. In conducting a survey, usually it’s best to pay attention to any ideas that come to you, not just the floorplan or the compass degree. If you get too hung up on numbers or hard data you could miss more relevant things like the smell of damp in a house that you don’t even have to be there to smell.

When I measure the degree of a house, it is not the same every time. I think this is because things are always changing and we are using Feng Shui trying to understand what the process will be like for the occupants of the house. The difference in numbers is never that significant, but it can vary. If you take the degree and then someone else takes the degree, it’s likely you won’t get the same exact answer. Energy doesn’t stay the same. We affect energy and it affects us.

I want to acknowledge that in applying Feng Shui we are not using the compass in a wholly rational way. Because we are accustomed to using it to navigate, we might not understand that, thinking that precision is all. We may cling to the illusion of rationality for fear of being foolish, lost and wrong. We might resort to saying the data is wrong because we don’t like the story it tells.

In that case, I suppose one could claim correctness or incorrectness of the data as a safety net, but part of any job is taking ownership of your influence and responsibility. Still, I do often question my flexibility with data, and I don’t want to lose sight of my model and dimensions. I want to be precise, but too much precision can actually interfere with divination. It’s complicated!

I know some Masters would disagree with me about getting the degree exactly right every time. Those are the guys with their laser leveled compasses on tripods set up away from the house, the ones who want to remove environmental influence from their measurement. While they can get good results too, I think the interference is part of understanding the situation. The numbers don’t rule the qi, the qi rules and we all end up going with it for the most part. Life on Earth is not that neat. Life on Earth means working with the messiness.

The Universe is constantly telling you some truth that is not good or bad in and of itself. What you do or can create with that current truth is where the magic is.

*This post is an excerpt from my Monthly Guide for the Earth Tiger month. I give more detail about reading the Hexagram each month for my subscribers. Hexagram 55 matches the month pillar of 戊寅 Earth Tiger.

Lunar New Year is January 29th, Solar New Year is February 3rd. The first month of the Year of the Wood Snake is Earth Tiger.

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