The Breakers of Date Selection

Ok, assuming now you've pretty much gotten the hang of the fundamentals of Date Selection and been using it for your personal use with some degree of success. If you're like most of us practitioners, you probably have found that at times, while the theory is clear and straightforward, it's the practicality of application under different circumstances that can prove to be a challenge!

In the article today, I'll be sharing a few pointers on the "Breaker Days" of Date Selection that I've come across from my own personal experience. There are of course many types of "Breakers" but one of the basic assumptions is to always avoid a Breaker Day. However, is this always practically necessary or necessarily practical?

One of the key "Breakers" is the Personal Breaker which is the day that is directly against one's animal sign, that is, year of birth. So for someone born in the year of the Rat, the Horse day is thus his or her Personal Breaker. In general, we'd avoid using the Personal Breaker day since it means that any auspiciousness of the day (which is the reason for using Date Selection in the first place) cannot "connect" to the person in question. This is because the nature of the day is against the outermost "layer" of one's BaZi chart.

However, when push comes to shove (and when there's no other suitable date anywhere in sight), we can select such a day, particularly when there's some change, movement or travel involved. If these circumstances are not involved, then such a clash date may be used (with lessened effects of course) with concerns involving the home, romance and children - as the BaZi pillars related to these "internal" affairs are not the one that's clashed.

Another breaker is the Year Breaker, the day that is directly clashing the animal sign of the year. For example, 2010 is a Tiger year so any Monkey day is a Year Breaker day. You probably have wondered "Hmm...how practical is it to avoid all Monkey days in the ENTIRE of year 2010?" Once again, any type of "Breaker" is against the "King" or "Ruler" in question. For the Year Breaker, the King "rules" for the year. Therefore, by conclusion, the best way to use the Year Breaker is for short-term events, like having a big party (as compared to something long-term like a marriage, for example) or any other once-off circumstance that doesn't require subsequent follow-throughs.

At the other end of the stick is the Month Breaker, the day that is directly against the energies of a particular Month. So, during any Dragon months, all Dog days are Month Breakers. The energies of the Month Breaker are *strongly* against the Month and therefore, in the Dong Gong system, Month Breaker days are also known as Destruction days! As such, these days can generally only be used when something is destroyed (such as a physical structure) or perhaps to get rid of something such as parasitic relationship!

Using the Month Breaker day for a major and important event is sticky - this is because the tendency of things going awry that day is much heightened (hence rendering it difficult to use for things like special events). However, a Month Breaker day with many auspicious stars present can be used for a goal that is long-term and which success doesn't hinge on the outcome of just the event that takes place on that day alone

What It Means To have Growth, Cardinal and Graveyard Earthly Branches In Your Bazi Chat

As those of you who are studying BaZi will have discovered, the process of learning and deciphering BaZi is akin to peeling an onion. This "onion peeling" analogy has been used, time and time again, to describe the process of BaZi study and interpretation.

Each concept in BaZi is usually first understood on a stand-alone basis, and next in a combined and usually interactive and dynamic manner together with other concepts.

However, life does not always have to be so complicated. Often, we can derive important information from just a single characteristic of the chart, for example one of the Earthly Branches or Heavenly Stems.

The Day Master is probably the best (and most important) example of how a single, "one-dimensional" aspect of the BaZi chart can reveal such key and crucial information!

Our topic for this article is the 3 groupings of the Earthly Branches: the Growth, Cardinal and Graveyard groupings. As we know, the BaZi chart describes the BaZi owner's personality, behavior and pretty much all the circumstances of his or her life. As such, simply by identifying the make-up of the Earthly Branches, we can already surmise certain key information.

For example, the Growth Earthly Branches (namely the Tiger, Snake, Monkey and Pig) are indicative of movement, travel and even money-making activities. These branches denote exploration and growth in one's life that lead to discovery and excitement.

A chart devoid of any of these animal signs hence points to a more sedentary and "take-it-as-it-comes-along" type lifestyle and personality. On the other hand, a chart with 2 or more of these growths points to frequent changes, travel, movement and in general, a lack of stability in the person's life.

The Cardinal Earthly Branches (the Rabbit, Horse, Rooster and Rat - the Peach Blossoms) denote the pure Qi of each element, hence indicative of strong and usually extreme characteristics as represented by each element in question. As such, people with many cardinals (2 or more) are usually headstrong and exhibit "extreme" characteristics.

Thanks to the "peachiness" of the Cardinal Earthly Branches, it also goes without saying that these people are always somehow attractive to others (even if they are not physically so). However, this X-factor often leads to complicated and dramatic interpersonal and dramatic relationships.

The Graveyard Earthly Branches (the Dragon, Goat, Dog and Ox) denote not only stability (owing to the Earth element) but also the "mysterious" aspects of one's life. Since the Graveyards contain two other Hidden Stems, those with many Graveyards indeed tend to be complicated people! They usually are reserved characters but more so because they tend to have difficulty understanding and expressing their real, inner feelings - characteristics that lead to communication issues with those around them.

However, people with Graveyards typically have multiple, hidden talents, too! The complete absence of even a single Graveyard in the BaZi chart indicates a lack of grounding and oftentimes, practicality in one's life.

Finding the Right House

Granted, many clients have this burning question, but you can't call a consultant for every single house you fancy! I think by now most of you know the basic Feng Shui drill. For example:

No water in the NE. SW water is the best, or maybe SE, East or North.
A mountain in the NE, NW, West or South is ideal.
Avoid negative features like sharp roof corners, pylons and dead trees.
Bright Hall - this one never fails but facing a wide busy road is NOT a Bright Hall as overly Yang disperses Qi!

Feng Shui-friendly houses do not just wait around for buyers to flock to. The question is WHEN? Have a look at your personal BaZi chart. Are you currently going through a favorable 10-year Luck Pillar? Is the current year good for you? If it is, the opportunity to 'discover' a good house is very high. If it isn't, even if you managed to find a Feng Shui-potent house you might not be given the opportunity to purchase it! This is something I always tell people I meet : "The house chooses the buyer, and not the other way round." It all boils down to affinity. But Client X would normally retort by saying, "I have money, I can buy any house I want."

'Any house' would normally be Client X and his consultant braving the next 10 consecutive houses with extremely mediocre Feng Shui. Or, one with NE sloping away, or Life Palace being pierced, or fulfilling the 8 Killings formation. One time, we found a Feng Shui-friendly house, finally. But at the last moment the seller decided not to sell... because her dog died. Being too distraught, the seller decided to wait another year before selling. Kid you not.

Let's say your BaZi is fine with you purchasing a house this year. It also tells you WHERE to look. For example, your favorable element is Metal. You can look for an area with a Military Arts mountain (half watermelon), or a NW-sitting house with higher ground (without higher ground support, a NW-sitting house is just like any other NW-sitting house). Metal element is also indicated as financial hubs, so seeking houses near here would increase opportunity for optimum Feng Shui.

At the risk of promoting paranoia, I'm going to throw in some divination tips as well. At the point of entering a prospective property, it starts to rain heavily. The Kan trigram has revealed itself: this house will cause you quite a bit of problems - hidden problems, mind you. Many a time, there will also be sewage and foundation problems.

If you are greeted by a bad stench upon arrival at the door, then it is a Kun Gua issue - ill health for the lady of the house or unstable finances. Or, you find that upon walking into the house, the door cracks. That is Dui Gua, hinting at constant injury and possible surgery.

If the weather is just nice and the sun is shining brightly, then it is a Li Gua trigram of happiness. Or, if it drizzles slightly with sunny skies - it is the Accomplished hexagram. But like I said, divination always risks paranoia, so if you see or hear NOTHING particularly out of the ordinary when you enter a new property, all is well and good. It doesn't matter what happens BEFORE you see the house, or AFTER you see the house, or someone can't go to the toilet after house-viewing, etc.

Some years back I was assessing a house for this client. The weather on that day was all right, but what caught my attention were the many dragonflies in the compound (Xun Gua). It was a South-sitting house (Li Gua). Hey, that's a 9-4 HeTu combination - favorable for relationships and networking. And because the NW land was higher, this became an even more powerful combination. True enough, this client built and expanded his company (and finances) by meeting just the right important people.