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.