Auspicious Dates, Places & more
for
The (5^th) month of the Water Horse, 2020.
(13:49pm 5^th June 2020 to 23:46 6^th July inclusive)
in the Year of the Metal Rat.

Index
1.                          Overview.
2:                          Animal Fortunes for the Horse Month, Animal by Animal.
3:                          Healing your own space.
4:                          Where to be or not to be.

1. Overview: 

Gou
————
————
————
————
————
—–  —–
Pairing
   Hexagram 44

A 4 month                                        entertains curiosity.
The typical Horse Month            features display, visibility and revelation.
Where to be this month:            South West, South.
Where not to be this month:     North West, East.
Favoured Animals:                      Tiger, Dog, Sheep.
Especially challenged:                Rat, Ox, Dragon, Monkey, other Horses.
The Hexagram (above):              Gou Pairing. Heaven over Wind.

Summary: Things coming to light.

Special attention this Month: One Day Workshop
Wednesday June 17th:  Interpreting the Book of Changes.
2 places left.

S
3       8       1
2       4       6
7       9       5
Water Horse

This month’s lo shu: wu huang 5 at NW; san sha North

2.The Month of the Water Horse, Animal by Animal:
These generic forecasts carry different nuances dependent upon whether this Animal rules your Year, Month, Day, Hour or Life House.

Rats (1948, 60, 72, 84, 96; births in December*, around midnight & on certain days#)
Your native Water is challenged by the Summer Fire. So articulacy is at a premium but not easy necessarily to exert. Do open up and speak freely but carefully and above all with compassion. Remember that the open mouth is the most powerful weapon known to man.
Hexagram 27: the corners of the Mouth.

Ox (1949, 61, 73, 85, 97; births in January*, 1-3am & on certain days#) Loosen your grip; this year – all year – your will is done. So relax and allow it to happen. Power will naturally gravitate to you. So let it. Meditate, pray, enter alpha-rhythms more – you have a gift for this.

Tiger (1950, 62, 74, 86, 98; births in February*, 3-5am & on certain days#) You’ll be flexing your muscles about now. Which is exactly what the adverse circumstances require. Serve for service’s sake and watch how it changes things for the better. Reward for doing the right thing may be deferred but it may not be. (Continue to) treat all, however apparently dumb, with respect.

Rabbit (1951, 63, 75, 87, 99; births in March*, 5-7am & on certain days#) You may feel exhausted and you’ve earned that. Exhaustion is a function of resistance to emotion. Take a deep breath and feel it – whatever it is – let your shoulders loosen and start again. Life consists of gain and loss so there must sometimes be loss.

Dragon (1952, 63, 75, 87, 99; births in April* 7-9am & on certain days#) You’ll be hanging back from the hubbub if you’ve got any sense. This may suggest withdrawal from certain types of market. Don’t overplay your hand; others hold royal cards too. Trust.

Snake (1941,53, 65, 77, 89, ; births in May*, 9-11am & on certain days#) Seek shade, your yin Fire is not strong enough to compete with the peak Fire of the Horse month while you defend yourself against the overwhelming Water of the Rat Year. People may talk about you but that’s none of your business.

Horse (1942, 54, 66, 78, 90; births in June*, around midday & on certain days#)  You don’t like your own company much right now but you’re kind of stuck with it. Curb spontaneity and invite discussion. Stubborn and foolish are very close. Don’t overdo exercise or push the envelope. Some would say you’ve done enough damage already. Time for a rethink.

Sheep (1943, 55, 67, 79, 91; births in July*, 1-3pm & on certain days#) Join now, mend fences, re-apply for admission; your subtle vanity may have made you reject any organisation that would tolerate you. That’s no more than a simple question of personal choice. So thank your mind for sharing.

Monkey (1944, 56, 68, 70, 82; births in August*, 3-5pm & on certain days#) You could usefully show more care. Neither the world nor your partner owes you a living. You’re on a roll all year. Be sure to lower the ladder. Especially for Snakes who may be calling for your help right now.

Rooster (1945, 57, 69, 81, 93; births in September*, 5-7pm & on certain days#)
Comparison comes to you easily but you’re better at identifying difference than similarity. Your current heartbreak(s) are derived from this bias of perception. Try looking through the prism of the Tao which tends to turn things upside down

Dog (1946, 58, 70, 84, 96; births in October*, 7-9pm & on certain days#) Horse is your nemesis if you overreach. Recently you may have. The Dog with too much Fire is quite vulnerable at this time. Cool it, stay lubricated and reasonable. You rule now but all such power wanes: Hexagram 34.

Pig (1947, 59, 71, 83, 95; births in January*, 1-3am & on certain days#) You may be puzzled right now. The way forward is not obvious under the circumstances but the smart Pig has sown enough quality and goodwill that (s)he can safely rely on reaping just rewards by year’s end. The dimmer Pig needs to build support right away.

* Remember Chinese Months start a little later than European ones.
# You’ll need help and/or a Chinese Calendar for this.

3.Healing Your Own Space.

Principal Snyder: Some things I can just smell. It’s like a sixth sense.
Giles: No, actually that would be one of the five.
Joss Whedon – Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Suddenly everyone wants to know how to heal a space. Hardly surprising when many of us feel like we’re Brie Larsen in Room. How do you heal a space? Here is a very simple check list:

1. Notice how you feel about the space. Trust that feeling. Put it into words.
2. Which areas are attractive and which are not? Trust your preference.
3. What is right or wrong about these spots?

Are they too yin or too yang? That is to say too dark &/or too wet on the one hand or too bright & too dry on the other? Use your senses and trust them: what smells right? What echoes oddly? What’s uncomfortable? And so on.

4. Which of these areas are active ie bright, noisy or busy and which not?
Is this the way it should be? Again trust that you know.
5. Assess these spots relative to the Five Elements. Does one Element have more attention or space than another?
6. Assess the spots relative to the Compass Points. How should they be used? What is being exaggerated or suppressed? For instance the South is likely to be where most light falls; is there too much light there or too little?
7. Assess them relative to the Eight Trigrams; which members of the family are affected? Does this fit the facts?
8. Assess relative to the Twelve Animals. Who is affected? And in what way?
9. Make corrections: make dry what should be more dry, activate what should be active and alive, deactivate what should not be. Trust how it feels before and after.
10. Be conscious of which members of the family and types of activity belong in which area and be very conscious of giving love to the corresponding individual as you make corrections.
11. Get rid of things you don’t like or need that take up space; charity, recycle or a skip maybe. Notice where they were. This is not about tidiness.
12. Notice how much you knew already.

The above is not comprehensive of course. Which is one reason I plan to teach this online in small groups as a Foundation Course leading to my Starter Ba Zi and Feng Shui Courses later this year.
Let sheilaashworthfengshui@gmail know, if you want to reserve a space.

4.Where to be in June.
Summary: shining brightly.
South, Bright Future: Year Star: 2 Month Star: 8. Annual san sha
The benevolent 8 Star brings further yang to the South where it’s needed. South is best this year while the Sun is shining. It remains the home of the san sha or Three Inconveniences but the yang of the 8 (like the 9 last month) turns this space around while the sunshine lasts. If you want publicity or notice, continue to pursue it here.  You’ll get stuff finished too. Some stomach issues possible.
Assist: Wood: 3 plants. Keep them well-Watered.

Where not to be in June.
Summary: aspiration at a standstill.
East, Ambition: Year Star:5 Month:2. Annual wu huang. Moon (Rabbit E2) Monthly san sha
5:2 means loss, difficulty and illness. The worst place to be all year and especially during the current unpleasantness. Traditionally countered with Metal but I shouldn’t rely on that too much. Eastern doors are relatively safe as entrances but not as exits. This pattern implies a testing time for the Eldest Son, young leaders, ambition and the assertive; worse if they locate East. Keep Eastern rooms closed and quiet.
Limit: t’ang lung and plenty of Wood
Richard Ashworth ©2020
www.imperialfengshui.info

Richard Ashworth is among the most respected Western Feng Shui Masters. He was among the pioneers of feng shui survey & analysis at a distance (now of course the only way to do it) on MySpirit Radio in the noughties. A good taster of his approach may be found on Audible at https://adbl.co/2m92Es3. You can also see him at work on tv’s Housebusters at https://bit.ly/2lJWLBl

Richard has worked from Lebanon to Bermuda, in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore and with stars such as Kelly Hoppen and Gillian Anderson. Unusually for a Western Master, he has addressed the Grand Masters at the International Feng Shui Conference in Singapore.

Every month we send (at a modest fee) retainer clients a more comprehensive monthly bulletin than this one, covering in detail right places to be (and when) as well as helpful days Animal by Animal and much more from the Chinese calendar.

Subscriptions (and further info): sheilaashworthfengshui@gmail.com

Richard Ashworth©
www.imperialfengshui.info

 

Transformation with Richard Ashworth – Just a Few Days to Go!

Just a few places left…
If you are planning to attend the Transformational Workshop, there are only a few days left to take advantage of the £50 deposit offer.

The deposit will hold your place at £350* (details below).
After 1st August the cost will be £400.
Please email me at sheilaashworthfengshui@gmail.com to book.

Transformational Group Workshop with Richard Ashworth.
October 20^th/21^st, Godalming.

“One day when you conquer yourself and return to true order, the whole world will revert to humanity.” Liu I-Ming, “The Taoist I Ching” translated by Thomas Cleary.

Chinese healers have been using the ba zi or Four Pillars of Destiny to loosen stuckness, soothe emotional pain and re-set life paths for around two thousand years. I’ve only been doing it for around twenty.

Those twenty years however have enough for me to conclude that it’s the most powerful healing tool I have ever encountered. What I mean by “healing” is the solving of a spectrum with blockages, upset and stuckness at one end and performance enhancement at the other. Actual physical change is of course unusual, at least in the short term. But transformation, that is to say the road that was blocked suddenly and without reason becoming clear is common.

How is it done?

The answer is that the ba zi is a snapshot of the wu xing or Elements – Wood, Water, Fire, Earth, Metal – prevailing at our moment of birth. Because these Elements are overlapping and changing all the time, their cycles can be tracked. It appears that if we can track the cycle, we can influence its course.

Which tends to reveal moments of decision. We are making tens of thousands of decisions every day. And my field work suggests that some of them are clunkers. We so often take a left turn when we might perhaps have gone right or straight ahead and sometimes there are massive consequences. Which is why I sometimes call the ba zi a map of our most likely mistakes.

From where I’m sitting – which you don’t have to agree with, of course – pretty much everything is a choice. And because the gan zhi Cycles of Elements can be in effect wound backwards or forward like the mileometer of car, the ba zi can identify moments of choice: both the helpful and the not so much. And if we can identify a choice we can very often re-choose and reclaim heartbreaks, forgive, mend and get out of our own way. Which can free us to aim for the stars.

You’ll know I expect that I have drafted thousands of these things. I’ve written tens of thousands of words on the subject. I have not however for some while hosted a group intent upon transformation by way of the ba zi.

I am inviting you to join just such a group for a weekend in October. No promises but I’ve got a bit of a track record in this area and the ba zi boasts two thousand years.

There are 20 places maximum in the group and like all our workshops it’ll only take place if the universe appears to want it. It’ll cost you £400 for the two days unless you catch the Early Bird Offer of £350 which expires August 1^st. A non refundable deposit of £50 now will be enough to secure your place at that price, the balance is due by the 20th September 2018.

It’s non-residential and will take place in or near Godalming but further details can be obtained from sheilaashworthfengshui@gmail.com

I hope to see you,

Best,
Richard.

Rat Diary: what to expect in December 2014. The Rodent less travelled.

Rat Diary: what to expect in December 2014.

The Rodent less travelled.

Rat Month opens: December 7^th 14:11pm. 

The Rodent less travelled.

The Rat by contrast with the Pig, is yang Water. The Rat is the communicator and the keeper of secrets, so this frantic year will have been a challenge. The Rat is uncomfortable with the spontaneous, extrovert Fire of the Horse. Rat achievements are a slower burn. This month’s Fire Rat however brings the sort of invention and innovation that takes courage to be true to; the Fire that moderates this particular Rat is an inventive spark, almost as if it were a hybrid Horse-Rat. The month is full of opportunities for originality but they may not run along safe paths.

By way of illustration, two of the season’s big movies are The Imitation Game and The Theory of Everything. The first concerns Alan Turing, the genius who fronted the Enigma team, saving an estimated 14 million lives and shortening World War II by years. He has been a fascination of mine since I studied the proto-AI of Turing machines as a Philosophy undergraduate in the 70’s. No one knew he was a hero then though it was common knowledge that he had died in disgrace. As it turns out, he was convicted of the victimless crime of being gay. He was, just to make my point, a 1912 Water Rat.

Stephen Hawking by contrast is a Water Horse (a hybrid Rat-Horse, if you like) who has had to cope with increasing debility as his mind has groped to embrace the entire universe. But again his career might be summarised as the tension between genius and its expression. Like Turing and like this month. Use it wisely.

A similar tension as it happens, informed my friend, shaman and healer Maurice Willmott who died last week. He was a very special, gifted and good man whose cause of death read “motor neurones disease” but who had, by his account given up on a venal world that had disappointed him. Bless him wherever he may be.

The Rat in the Rat Month.

Rats (1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996, 2008) are the talkers of the Chinese Zodiac and the keepers of secrets. In the Rat month we gather round the fire and catch up. At this time a young Rat may give away the farm by over-emoting (more battle-scarred ones let you do the talking). Typically the Rat forms a team with Monkey and Dragon for whom individually he may actually have little time; he needs an outcome if he is to consort with them. So December finds the otherwise often frivolous Monkey focused and the Dragon holding his own ego in a looser grip. The Rat has a rather one-sided affinity with the Ox who will tend to boss him around. Who’d have thought a Zodiac Animal represented by Margaret Thatcher, Adolf Hitler, Barack Obama and Napoleon Bonaparte might have ideas about their right to rule?

The Rat is not generally comfortable with the Horse but this is the frank antipathy of introvert for extrovert. The Rat’s difficulty with next year’s Sheep however comes under the category “covert”. If all of this forms the right cocktail, the Rat presides over a calm culmination to a turbulent year. If not, things could be explosive all the way to the Spring Festival.

Rat Month, Animal by Animal.

During the Rat month:

The Rat chances his arm.

The Ox takes charge.

The Tiger bides his time.

The Rabbit may nurse grievance

The Dragon chills for once.

The Snake holes up.

The Horse is wrong-footed.

The Sheep is distant.

The Monkey sobers up.

The Rooster runs out of words.

The Dog is in the manger.

and

The Pig opens up.

Rat Pillars; know your Rat rating.

Birth in the Rat hour (23:00pm-01:00am): voluble, articulate children.

Birth in the Rat month (December*): work in communication.

Birth on the Rat day#: articulate, communicative.

Birth in the Rat year: loquacious heritage.

* Caution, the Chinese month generally starts and finishes a few days after ours.

# Just ask.

Where to do what, when and why.

This month’s lo shu is the intrusive 7. In a 4 year, the theme of a 7 month can be tolerance or the lack of it. Consideration for our neighbours is the answer.

Here are a couple of dates that may help with that. They are calculated using the T’ung Shu or “Farmers’ Almanac” and take account of a variety of esoteric criteria including the Twelve Officers, Mansions of the Moon and the calculations of the 13^th Century diviner Dong Gong.

27^th   December    favours      :        Monkey, Dragon, Rat, patient Snakes.

                                     Do                        make a firm irrevocable start.

26^th December     challenges  :        Ox

Don’t:                  invest deeply in the way things are going.

FORTHCOMING EVENTS

December 13^th : One Day examining with Richard what’s in store for 2015, the Year of the Wood Sheep: For you, your animal sign, your house, the world. Just a couple of places left!! Price: £100. Email: becciimperialfengshui@gmail.com to book your place.

An Introduction to Feng Shui: It’s all about meaning. Join me for an introduction to Classical Feng Shui on December 14^th with the Circle of Divine in London. Have a look at the Facebook page: FESTIVE SPECIAL :Conscious Lifestyle choices to create wealth, health & harmony for 2015 or email Becci.

Tune-Ups for your home /office : Get your space aligned to get the best of  the new energies for 2015, Richard is booking in Tune-Ups  now for the New Year. Email: Sheila@imperialfengshui.info

Ba Zi Starter Course: Discover the Secrets of the Four Pillars opens the weekend of 17/18^th January 2015. Early Bird Available.

Contact: becciimperialfengshui@gmail.com

Richard Ashworth©, early in the month of the Fire Rat, 2014.

www.imperialfengshui.info

 

Chicken Busy. Rooster Month; bak lo, the Season of White Dew

Chicken Busy.

Rooster Month; bak lo, the Season of White Dew. 

“Divinity is knowing where to start.” Our Lost Infantry – Scissor Fight. 

It’s the Rooster month, the month of Zhong Qiu, that is the Harvest Moon, said to be the brightest and fullest. It’s the counting-up time of the year. A good time to re-think, reinvent and restructure. Also to move house. Last night’s moon was a perfect half-circle I noticed, as it rose in the halflight that is neither Summer nor quite Autumn. It’s a writer’s cliché that as the leaves fall, the mind turns to sunsets but there it is.

The first weeks of September are the traditional time for starting wars and blowing things up and as I park in the lane, having failed twice to spot Luke and Lisa’s new home, an excitable American with a serious lack of imagination hijacks Facebook on my ipad to welcome Armageddon and the “end times”. Do me a favour.

And talking of popular times and place for dispute, this summer I’ve been working on a watermill on the Serbian-Romanian border (which after a huge amount of earth-moving will become a Water Dragon) as well as a villa in Cyprus with close-to-perfect feng shui and a tower near Kingston where the front door is having an argument with the Water that flows through the garden. But the most arresting project has been this semi-detached cottage out in the woods of the Surrey Hills. Let me tell you why.

Luke’s a musician, Lisa works for a children’s charity. They’re both Pigs, that is multi-talented with a wide sphere of interests and skills as well as a need for space. The Chinese character for a home is a pig under a roof; note, just the one. They’re wide-open, sweet young people who look as if mutual tolerance is as easy to them as falling off the logs that surround their home. But when you consider it, their needs are very different; he for instance needs space and the safety to make noise, she some quiet to think. Forest all around suits them both.

Careless Whisper. 

I’ve also been working with the publishers of a Southern European tabloid. They have been suffering malicious gossip. Gossip? A tabloid? Who’d have thought it? As it turns out, the South of their basement houses a natural spring which has overflowed in the unprecedented floods of the Horse year. The South is the closest to the Sun, hence the place of visibility and publicity, Water is communication – a thimbleful spilled in the English Channel at Zeebrugge also raises sea level off Zanzibar. Put the two together, karmic issues aside, you get uncontrolled rumour.

The complete cure is a sam he (that is Three Harmony or yang gong) formula involving housing and redirecting the spring. Meanwhile I’ve given them as a band-aid, a procedure involving the addition of Earth in the form of several huge crystals. It’s a funny old building still featuring a huge ancient printing press to which Hitler apparently took a particular aversion. The Gestapo are said to have imprisoned it in its own custom-built cage. Now that’s what I call a proportionate response.

Plugs. 

I first learned complex sam he formulae with Master Chan Kun Wah in the late 90’s. At that time I had just sold the insurance business I had been running in parallel with my woo-woo studies for twenty years and was in the lucky position of being able to study pretty much full time. What this meant was that I’d sit in a room with Master Chan once a month or so along with Gill Hale and Jon Sandifer and Sylvia Bennett and others frantically writing down every word. Then I’d go home and spend the next month working out what the hell he’d said.

Sam he formulae, arguably the most powerful, longest-lasting and most effective of all, pivot on the concept of the qi (pronounced chi) form. These are the methods the Grand Masters save for billionaires.

Identifying the qi form, which dictates the quality of energy entering a building is a judgement call; what you’re effectively doing is reading the trail of qi. This depends on a subtle blend of feeling, measurement and guesswork. It’s one of the key skills of feng shui. And I’ve lost track of the number of times Master Chan taught a complex formula which I was just about able to grasp and concluded by saying that the calculation all depends on the qi form. That’s traditional Chinese teaching methods for you.

What I’ve learned in the years since is that the key to qi form is finding the qi mouth. This is usually, but not always, the low point of the compound, that is to say where Water gathers. It can be miles away and in an urban environment almost impossible to locate.

When you find the qi mouth, what’s required is to “plug” it. This means placing a bridge, stones or some other obstruction to tame the outgoing flow. If you get it precisely right, the house receives the full benefit of the energy that is otherwise running loose in the landscape. So for instance, if I get the mill right, another billionaire is created. Often I use boulders. Sometimes I have to re-angle doors to accommodate the qi mouth. Which can be fiddly. The rules for this were formulated around eleven hundred years ago in the T’ang Dynasty.

Sloping Off. 

This idea of qi is elusive. The ancient tradition is that it “comes down the mountain on the wind and stops at the Water”. That’s the Book of Odes (c300BCE.) These days quantum theorists are happy saying that mass is simply very condensed energy. Consider how much goes into putting the mass into a mountain, even a small hill like the one behind Luke and Lisa’s new home. I seem to recall from elementary Physics that height is sometimes called potential energy.” Maybe that’s the simplest way to look at it; once we’ve found the Mountain (that is height) we’ve found the source of the qi and the Water will be at its foot.

Luke’s day job is as a gardener. He understands seasons and cyclical change. He has the leathery glow of a man who loves the outdoors. He tells me how drastically bird life has reduced since he’s been working; no orioles, sparrow and finch numbers hugely down. He readily gets the idea of qi form.

“Sometimes,” I say, “People are startled when I find the height and then point to Water.”

“Gravity,” he laughs.

“Exactly.”

The cottage backs onto an incline running left to right as you look out.

I follow with my eye the slope down the meadow behind the house. There is woodland in every direction but this one. At the summit there is a much bigger house. It’s a dull day so although I’m looking South, I’m not dazzled. Tracking the qi down the hill, the gradient flattens almost due West and I’m about to note down exactly where when I realise there’s no need. Precisely on the qi mouth there’s an ancient willow. It’s been pollarded and pruned once or twice as there are several generations of branches sprouting like hedgehog’s quills around it but the trunk is fully a yard in diameter. There’s your qi mouth.

“Perhaps two hundred years old,” Luke guesses.

And there’s your plug. Perfect sam he; no need to reangle doors, nothing fiddly required. The woodland cares for this house just as indeed it should.

The Birds and the Bees. 

Inside the house there are boxes everywhere. I suggest – counter-intuitively – that they sleep in the slightly smaller back bedroom. Then I identify work spaces for them. On different floors.

In the dining room there is retained energy. Calling it woo-woo™ is as specific as I’m going to get. I tend to think in terms of Chinese metaphors. That’s what they’re for. The more personal I make it, the fewer methods there are to approach it. I used to spend a lot of time “moving on” such spots of energy. I’m not sure whether it was principally for me, them or the client. It certainly made me feel clever and sensitive.

In this case I suggest we let it be. It’s not doing any harm and it seems to be linked to a picture of Lisa’s brother on the mantelpiece. I feel into it; there’s a whole story here. Another time. All I do for now is suggest they arrange the dining room table at an angle to the walls so as to pick up their best directions.

We sit, we look at ba zis. The ba zis raise some issues that may have been floating over them, as yet undiscussed. Lisa’s a bright sensitive woman, Luke equally so but the fact is as a general rule, that when it comes to relationships women are usually smarter. At some point a woman will ask where the relationship is going and a man may reply: “Going? I didn’t know it had to go anywhere.” Luke knows that everything that is not growing is shrinking. Cycles are no mystery. As Bob Dylan wrote ”Everything not busy being born is busy dying.”

Click here to hear me speaking about ba zi, the most powerful model for transformation I know.

Richard Ashworth © 2014.

Rooster Diary: what to expect in September 2014

Rooster Diary: what to expect in September 2014.

Chicken Nuggets.

Rooster Month opens: September 8^th 02:21am. 

Chicken Nuggets.

Often this time of year feels more like a parting than does the New Year itself. Autumn has a very distinctive taste; endings are beginning just as beginnings are ending. There’s a new school year, a return to work after a break and so on. And this month of the Harvest Moon, the Zhong Qiu moon, generally reckoned to be the brightest and fullest of the year. Change is the only contant. Everything that is, expanding or contracting. In September we look both back and forwards. 

The Rooster in the Rooster Month.

Roosters (1945, 1957, 1969, 1981, 1993, 2005) punch above their weight especially relationshipwise but a typical weakness is vanity. The Rooster month can bend the Dragon out of shape, brighten things up for the Ox and Snake and provoke the Rabbit into action. The Rooster naturally glittering, however suffers the so-called “self-clash” which can mean a month of rivalry and ruffled feathers. Best to come down off your perch. 

Rooster Month, Animal by Animal.

During the Rooster month:

Roosters are best advised to make space.

The Dragon can lose his way,

The Ox tidies up.

The Snake shines,

The Monkey takes a break,

The Dog leads reluctantly,

The Pig is waiting for something,

The Ratmay not trust smooth words.

The Tiger marks time,

The Horse seeks a niche.

The Rabbit is challenged.

and

The Sheep offers a home. 

The Rooster Pillars. Find your inner Rooster.

Birth in the Rooster hour (17:00pm-19:00pm): glamorous children.

Birth in the Rooster month (August*): work in design, fashion or finance.

Birth on the Rooster day#: attracted to all things bling.

Birth in the Rooster year: life lessons relating to relationship. Early choices.

* Caution, the Chinese month generally starts and finishes a few days after ours.

# Just ask. 

Where to do what, when and why.

This month’s lo shu is the 1, to do with Water, circularity, communications and pitfalls. Talk, talk, talk is the trick. Complete emotional disclosure throws off chains while it opens hearts and doors. In a 4 year, a 1 month offers a turbo charge.What was your objective as the year opened? Do you remember? Are you still on track? Are you even accountable? Talk.

This month: In the West we have the 6 annual and the monthly 3 stars.This makes for conflict with authority. Often that conflict is intergenerational; youth versus experience, passion versus planning and so on. All of which can be so creative. In addition for the technically-minded, West is the primary wealth location of the year, holding the windfall pin choi star as well as the Moon which maintains stability and integrity and finally the hot Red Matchmaker which speaks for itself. Take a risk, live a little; add Metal if you want to keep the lid on, Wood or even better Fire if it’s time it blew. You know who you are. 

Auspicious Dates and Places

Every month Richard compiles for his retainer clients at vast expense, a detailed bulletin of the current auspicious dates, places and procedures for health, wealth and wisdom. Now you can subscribe. If you’re interested in receiving that bulletin along with his daily Hot Spots, contact becciimperialfengshui@gmail.com 

For more detail on Richard’s talks & courses in the next few months please click here.

 

Richard Ashworth©, late in the month of the Water Monkey, Sept 2014.

Sheep Diary: what to expect in July 2014.

Sheep at half the price. Sheep Month opens: July 7th 12:57pm.  Sheepish The Sheep month of a Horse year is a time of co-operation. The Sheep can not help but form teams of which typically the Horse is leader. There’s still plenty of Fire – hard to miss as we look out of our windows upon this blazing summer. But the Sheep is Earth-in-Fire. Initiative is not the average Sheep’s strength. This is one reason I consistently refer to the Chinese Animal as Sheep rather than Goat; for one thing the Sheep is yin (ie broadly feminine) while the Goat is a very yang kind of symbol in many cultures. For another the Sheep is well-mannered while the Goat can be aggressive. So expect gentle herding in July and a gathering of groups, some demonstrations, many petitions and lowish-key protest.  The Sheep in the Sheep Month. Sheep (1943, 1955, 1967, 1979, 1991, 2003) co-operate. They tend to be lieutenants rather than generals. This tendency to second-in-command is accentuated in a Horse year. Horse and Sheep are best mates but the Horse is in charge. The Horse is impetuous and spontaneous and the attendant Sheep is check and balance. So Sheep are likely to be even more considerate, organised and selfless than usual around now under their own sign. Sheep months tend to favour the home-loving Rabbit and Pig as well as the Horse – currently probably over-turbocharged itself at the expense of the Ox and to some extent Rat, the talkers of the Chinese Zodiac. So just one caveat: it’s a dutiful, altruistic month for Sheep but not necessarily a communicative one. The smart Sheep uses this information to be especially out there.  Sheep Month Animal by Animal. During the Sheep month: Some Dragons may experience minor but fair and direct challenge. The Snake may feel rushed, The Horse may remain in charge, The Monkey might wisely look over his shoulder, The Rooster begins to shine once more, The Dog may part company, The Pig may not partake, The Rat may button his lip. The Ox may choose diplomacy. The Tiger may be above it all, and The Rabbit may simply enjoy being home. Note: last month I missed out the Snake. Not on purpose. But that gives a pretty accurate view of the Snake in a Horse month in a Horse year; over-shadowed. Snakes may feel like commenting.  The Sheep Pillars. How Sheepish are you? Birth in the Sheep hour (13:00pm-15:00pm): obedient, cooperative mutually-bonded children. Birth in the Sheep month (July*): it hurts not to work as a team Birth on the Sheep day#: able to contain otherwise dysfunctional family. Birth in the Sheep year: idealistic parents. * Caution, the Chinese month generally starts and finishes a few days after ours. # Just ask.  Where to do what, when and why. This month’s lo shu is the 3, to do with the Eldest Son, the ambitious, but unsubtle aspirational. In a 4 year it may be that a 3 month pumps up the volume of the young male voice. This is the month when targets for the year are revealed as achievable or otherwise. This month: the 9 Star is in the South West. In a 4 year this may mean that for the time being, kun the Mother, the totem of relationship, is biding her time. Expect an announcement from Hillary Clinton in September perhaps.  Also for your attention: Learn authentic Chinese feng shui: Richard’s Starter Feng Shui Course The Wind that Stops at the Water runs this autumn over four weekends starting 13th September.  Learn ba zi: Richards next ba zi course, Discover the Secrets of the Four Pillars of Destiny, starts January 17/18th 2015. Book both courses together for a further discount. Richard now teaches via Skype: both feng shui & ba zi (including advanced) on a one to one basis for those who live abroad or can’t travel. This offers the opportunity to work at your own pace. Go to: www.imperialfengshui.info/courses for more information. Richard is talking Ba Zi at the London Astrology Lodge: Monday 7th July at 7pm, Astrological Lodge of London at The Theosophical Society, 50, Gloucester Place, London W1 8EA. Richard will be looking at times, places and people and explaining to the Astrological Lodge ba zi’s roots in the tao, yin and yang and the five elementsorwu xing. Along the way he will examine some historical events, to see if indeed they fall into cycles. Astrologers, feng shui people, sceptics, cynics, civilians, all welcome. More details here.  Finally, read Richard’s last beautiful diary, “Its Dark and we are Wearing Sunglasses” here. Richard Ashworth©, early in the month of the Metal Sheep, July 2014. www.imperialfengshui.info

It’s dark and we’re wearing sunglasses

Dedicated to Maurice Willmott.

“Late last night I heard the screen door slam and a big yellow taxi took away my old man.” Joni Mitchell. Big Yellow Taxi.

The Dark Newt of the Soul.
Menorca, Dragon Month, Horse Year.
While I’m here I swim daily; a few more lengths every morning. I like the sensation of my muscles stretching with the regular exercise. I feel my waist tightening and my shoulder joints.
In the Commentaries to the Book of Changes, Confucius counsels that destiny emerges from character. There are no free tickets or free lunches. We may spend a lifetime looking for short cuts but eventually our lives match us. Everything is chosen. Which is great or not depending on how we view ourselves and the justice of the cosmos.
Much of feng shui of course derives from the Book of Changes (or Yi) ; which consists of just sixty four diagrams made up of six lines each. Between them they say pretty much everything there is to be said; sixty four Hexagrams, sixty-four expressions of the human predicament with six ways out each. The Hexagrams themselves break down into two Trigrams, each of which represents a situation, a feeling, a thought, a member of the Confucian family and a thousand other things. And a great deal of authentic feng shui comes straight out of the Yi. There have been times in my life when it has been the only voice I trusted.
Last year on my final swim, I came across a frog in the pool; a Menorcan stripeless tree frog which is longer, thinner and a brighter green than ours and with its big eyes, more like a proper Disney frog. You might think that a swimming pool would be frog paradise. I guess he did too. Except for the chlorine and the fact that he couldn’t jump out because the ledge was too high and there’s no traction on water. He struggled a little – only a baby, I think – but eventually, cupped in my hand, I placed him gently on the perimeter and he bounced off. Today, a year later almost the same thing happens; apparently identical frog, same situation but on day one. I take that as progress.
It’s April, I’m here studying, researching and writing again. And thinking. What I’m studying is yang gong, the method used by inscrutable nonagenarian Grand Masters to turn external Water into vast assets for Asian billionaires. Which came first the Dragon or the billions? you might ask. Water is certainly the key to feng shui but what I can tell you is that it wasn’t until the 20th century that the feng shui man saw his job as placing Water relative to the building as opposed to the other way round. That makes a lot of what calls itself feng shui pretty silly.
I’m also studying the Yi but then I’m always studying the Yi.
What I’m thinking about is my peers who seem to be dropping like flies. The nearest I’ve had to a close male friend in my adult life, tai chi Master, skilled musician, thirty years a fireman, peerless husband, father and grandfather and all round good egg Alan Briggs, died suddenly in November. Without warning he suffered a massive heart attack in the arms of his beloved wife of forty years. He was a remarkable man.
Everybody dies and there are worse ways to go, but of my British feng shui peers, Master Jon Sandifer died a little earlier and Rob Grey just a little after. The world is the lesser for their loss and now my friend, shaman and miracle worker Maurice Willmott has made the dubious choice of contracting motor neurones disease. It’s a hard time for healers.
From where I’m sitting all death is suicide and I’m wondering why these men made these choices and I’m thinking it’s because each saw the way the world is right now and recoiled helpless. You don’t have to agree of course.

Meme Girls

It’s unseasonably warm but a villa-owner can’t rely on that; hence this sun-spattered place that sleeps eight is empty but for myself and my daughters, Jessica and Henrietta. It’s predictably cuboid – including garage – except for a two-storey turret to the East. Up there you can see across the heathland all the way out to sea. I’ve done that many times. But the wrought-iron steps have succumbed to time and weather and on this visit they are roped off.
This quiet dwelling, way out in the biosfera is owned by my friends Gemma and Anna who save souls as Taylor Light Creates (TLC – geddit?). Anna is a gifted psychic. I call her the Happy Medium. And Gemma who teaches Alexander Technique, is simply the single most gracious person I know.
The villa was built by their Father back in the 70’s; not it seems, a happy man. Not then, not now. He died young in the 1990’s. There is a paved area at the back that is almost always in shade. They tell me he used to lurk there.
Up in the sky a bird of prey hovers over something. It’s not that big – more likely a peregrine than an eagle or a buzzard, I guess; a rare or endangered species for sure. A few lizards are about and I doubt the bird would chance its wing with a tortoise. There are no fast roads here serving up splattered rabbit or badger. Es Grau has rats just like everywhere else in the world. Polecats too, but nothing bigger and I imagine even these small predators are a bit heavy for a falcon. Also a bit aggressive.
Jessica and Henrietta are twins of 26, identically tiny, brilliant and beautiful but very different people. It’s great to have them here with me; apart from it being high time we caught up, their relentless work ethic pulls me into its orbit. I cannot help but study. But the fact is that I love wrestling these obscure formulae into submission. And before you gasp at my erudition, let me clarify; I’m studying the text in a translation by Hung Hin Cheong, (kindly published by Joey Yap’s Mastery Academy) along with notes I’ve accumulated from various sources over the last two decades.
As well as a writer, Jessie is an actress and herein lies heartbreak. In 2006 she made a big movie with Anne Hathaway and since then she’s done respectable work – some of it high profile – but nothing that has matched up. Despite their writing success, she hasn’t been happy away from the camera. But Jessie’s a trooper and she also has an uncanny sense of the structure of a story.
They’ve tolerated my particular brand of mumbo jumbo all their lives and they play along as I make sure they’re seated South to suit their ba zis. They chunter and banter while they work at the kitchen table, almost like a single person talking to herself.
The bird lingers, tacking into the thermal, close to motionless in the new warmth. Perhaps it’s just playing; there are worse ways to spend a spring morning. There are worse ways to spend a life actually.
Morning turns to afternoon and eventually evening when Jess and Hen down tools and we prepare a meal. Henrietta wants to watch the sun set over the Balearics so we eat outside under the Western portico. As it happens, a quirk of our location is that the sun’s final descent actually happens out of sight. The bushes in the way are tall and these young women aren’t. The glow is pretty magnificent though.
“I wanted to see the sun set,” says Henrietta.
The Moon is new, so darkness falls rapidly. It remains warm despite a slight breeze as we share a beer by the pool. I sit between them, my feet dangling in the deep end; theirs don’t quite reach. It is the breeze that makes the Balearics comfortable even at the peak of summer.
“You might have seen it on tip-toes.”
She frowns.
“Before the month is over I’ll show you something magic in the moonrise.” I say and I explain to her how the phases of the Moon can be represented as Trigrams. “
“Three unbroken lines, maximum yang; full Moon,” I tell her but it doesn’t satisfy her.
Jessie has the recent UN press release about climate change on a Twitter link on her phone.
“By most accounts peak oil production was reached in 2006,” she reads.
Master Chan Kun Wah once told me I would be a Master when I could tell Water from Fire. Estimates of how far seas will rise this century vary from a few centimetres to metres. Great Ice meets Great Fire leads to Great Water. I have an idea that I may be close to understanding. And I think of the vast tonnes of ancient glacial ice floating like sugarcubes in the English Channel.
The report makes it clear that we are collectively walking over an ecological cliff edge. No surprise there. Shameless corporate greed, reckless burning of oil and gas, plus half-baked government have made this inevitable. Every generation believes the world will barely outlive them but even those of us who know this, are concerned about the world we are passing on to our children. If you believe Guy McPherson or James Lovelock we may not even manage that.
When I was last in Singapore, not two hundred miles away in Indonesia, a motorway was driven through the one of the last habitats of the orang utan, man’s closest relative on Earth. These are dark times. The three of us hold hands. The nature reserve suddenly seems small and ever so fragile. This blackness is what Alan saw, I think. He was too smart and had seen too much of the world not to see the same night-black that Maurice is recoiling from. It’s dark, as Elwood says in Blues Brothers, and we’re wearing sunglasses.
There’s plenty of room in the villa. The master bedroom with its en suite sits in the West. There are other bedrooms but in 2014 both North and North West are troublesome. So Jess and Hen go West and I go North East. They get the ensuite, I get shuttered windows that open onto the rear.
I shift my room around so that my head is South East and I can back onto a wall. As a bonus I’ll be able to see the sun as it rises because there are no bushes in the way on this side of the house. I sit lotus-fashion on the bed and watch the night gather. Then I pick up Sebastian Faulks’ Birdsong which Henni has recommended. It’s beautifully written but I can’t be bothered with it. In the night I hear the shutters rattle. It’s dark and we’re wearing sunglasses.

Turning Turtle

I wake thinking of Gemma and Anna’s father and how these magnificent women have turned hurt into healing. They say it takes three generations to make a writer; this may be true of healers too. My own father claimed that he had always wanted to write but that a raft of practicalities got in the way: family, career, mortgage, you know the riff. Bless him; it wasn’t true. No one forces these things upon us; they’re not destiny, God’s will or a court order. We always retain choice even when we imprison ourselves in the realities we buy into. And for myself, I don’t live by writing as these two do. Jon Sandifer had seven children and a chronic weakness of the kidney, I remember. And I think of Alan tuning his guitar with one hand and a rollie in the other, considering the future he might share with his children and grandchildren.
Another morning, another swim. I’m up to twenty lengths now. After a few arguments with Spotify, I’ve rediscovered the music of Style Council, Paul Weller’s jazzy 80’s combo. As I dry myself and make tea, I’m playing Paris Match on my laptop. That smoky vocal is by Tracy Thorn out of Everything but the Girl. I know it’s contentious but I think this is Paul Weller’s best music. For me the Jam were fatuously rebellious and these days Weller seems to be duplicating the 70’s music he claimed to hold in contempt in ’78. Bless him, his perma-frown and his funny haircut.
There are no falcons today, but a single lizard scurries back and forth across the pebbled drive. The sun is already high.
Unimpressed by my choice of music, Hen and Jess rise early, put on a playlist and get writing. Screenwriting is an interminable business. First you write a pitch, then a treatment, then a spec. Then if that stimulates the right juices, a producer demands a rewrite. Then the sources of finance – the BFI for instance – demand further re-writes, then send “notes” with requests ranging from corrected punctuation to what can amount to yet more rewrites. All before the film goes into what the industry calls “pre-production”.
Meanwhile Jess and Hen have been writing on Fresh Meat – cool comedy if you’re young enough to recognise cool – as well as for Children’s BBC and fulfilling a series of other people’s commissions. It’s creative but not entirely theirs. What they’re here for is to put to bed the final “notes” to Olivia and Jim, one of their original screenplays. And get it made ie into production. They’re aiming to write a spec for a new movie too, something it’s been tough to fit in between the commissions. Sounds ambitious.
“We never get time,” says Henni, with deep frustration. Where have I heard that tone before?
They write through the day. I study. When they get excitable it’s hard to concentrate around them, so I repair outside. It’s 30 degrees. Don’t you just hate it when that happens?
There’s another bird up there, it could be a falcon or eagle or even a coot; it’s swooping and gliding not hovering.
Yang gong is not derived from the Book of Changes so much as from careful study of nature. Sometimes I’m asked for a scientific explanation of feng shui and I tend to say something like: “If you plant your tomatoes on a North-facing wall don’t expect great salads. Worse if it’s January.” We’re all subject to these forces – men, women, frogs, firemen. That’s feng shui. That’s yang gong.
I look out over the front garden, still spring-green. The qi – for which also read energy, water, traffic and gradient – slips away to the South. The villa was built in the early 70’s when what is called the Wealth or Water Star was where it should be, in the swimming pool. Now it’s at the back. And the house is in some need of repair. Armed with that information I can tell Gemma and Anna how to restore it to its former glory. And perhaps put the paved area at rest.
Later Jess, Hen and I watch Parks and Recreation and we laugh like goons. Rob Lowe does not seem to have aged since the West Wing. I love the sound of the girls’ laughter.

Fossil Fools

Marianne Williamson is planning to stand for Congress. This extraordinary woman’s Course in Miracles-based teaching has already changed the world. “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure,” comes from her book A Return to Love, although it’s often attributed to Nelson Mandela. If she is dipping her fingers into the murk of politics, something’s moving. Bless him. Nonetheless I continue to lecture my daughters on peak oil production.
“Fossil fuels had become too hard to extract. So prices could only rise. It was time to stop.”
“Presumably that wasn’t news,” says Henni with customary irony.
Of course not. Instead however of taking this gentle hint from the powers-that-be at face value, oil producers got more and more ingenious.
“Fracking may pre-empt being held to ransom by Gazprom but random rape of the environment with poisons doesn’t seem a longterm alternative,” I say bleakly.
It’s a windless night but the shutters are rattling as I drop off to sleep. I wake to a blazing sunrise over the Eastern hills. The thin linen curtains are no match for the sunlight.

Economic Migrants.

Feng shui was developed by a series of Chinese geniuses over millennia. Che Ying who pioneered modern yang gong in the 17th Century was one; Grand Master Yang Yum Song – from whose nickname yang gong is derived -another. It’s his sketchy 11th century illustrations that Che Ying tidies up in his classic Direct Pointers to True Earthly Principles. These are what are called Sam He or Three Harmony methods as opposed to the Sam Yuen methods which use the Hexagrams and Trigrams of the Book of Changes.
Sam Yuen allocates each Hexagram of the Yi to a particular point both on the calendar and on the clock. Also on the map; this is called na jia – “positioning yang Wood” and it corresponds with the rising and setting position of the Moon.
This morning we get up, drive the hire car slowly to the other side of the reserve and recycle plastic, paper and glass. The glass is the plum job; you the bottles smash satisfyingly against each other as they drop into the container. We argue over which of us gets to do it. Somewhere there’s a landfill that is this much less full, somewhere an oil well that need not produce quite as much. You do what you can, don’t you?
Back at the villa, I tell them about na jia. Out here in the wilds there is so little light pollution that there’s a decent chance I can fix the positions of the changing moon relatively accurately.
“You mean the Book of Changes can tell you where the Moon is going to rise and set?”
“Pretty much.”
“Awesome.”
Studying yang gong involves reading translations of Che Ying and Zhao Yu Cai formulae spliced into five hundred pages of diagrams. Here’s the basic principle: feng shui is a real thing. Power, energy, qi is stored compressed and then released. Think of the energy that went into putting up mountains. That energy flows down on the wind from the heights. When it meets sufficient Water, it is held where we can use it. What Che Ying and Zhao Yu Cai concern themselves with is where the Water goes. This may be the big secret of authentic Chinese feng shui.
As the days go by, the Beach Boys and Neil Young are leavened with Taylor Swift and the eternal lentil and vegetable stew with fish. Each morning we swim. We shower, we dry, we chat, but we’re at work before nine.
Jess and Hen argue over the new script. It’s nuclear in the front room where we’re all working. That’s the thing about twins. Born together they’re as close as close can be. Which means they feel safe to tear strips out of each other. They know they’ll eventually complete the dispute and settle and everything will be fine again. Ten days in, they’ve handled the pre-production notes and written a draft script for a short film and started their spec but now they’re at another impasse.
I suggest we take a walk.
“We might see one or two tortoises,”
“As long as they’re not in too much of a hurry,” Henni says.
“I don’t know whether what we’re writing is any good,” says Jessie, as we walk the gravel path through the gorse. She is anguished. Every writer gets to this point. To make it any good, they must devote themselves 100% to what they are writing and meanwhile refuse all opportunities to live lives, make money, hedge their bets. And at the end they may decide it’s bollocks. We stitch these things together and we hope they make sense.
A screenplay is generally ninety pages long. They have got to around thirty and it sounds pretty lively but Jess isn’t sure it’s real. She’s still distressed.
“You write and gravity kind of takes you,” she says. “And it may go in a wrong direction that it’s really hard to pull it back from.”
Between the hills there’s a break opening onto a lake dotted with coots. The birds twitter in the afternoon stillness. It’s a little known fact that the Eurasian Coot winters at Es Grau before returning North. Although Menorca is a small island, the heath appears to stretch forever in three directions and I find myself wondering how many centuries coots have been coming here and what cataclysm it would take to stop them.
“I’m not sure it’s got any shape,” Jessie says. And then she adds bitterly: “And I want to be acting anyway.”
“And here we are,” says Henni. “Writing. In Menorca. Not acting.” She is gentle and reassuring but there is no deflecting Henrietta. She’s four-foot-eleven of sheer will.
They talk it through. They won’t write pantomime villains or violence and the story must grow from the characters.
“It has to be honest,” says Henni.
It becomes obvious to all of us that the script is real, also engaging and beautiful.

Short Films.

“What is it about tortoises and feng shui?” Henni asks as we walk on.
“Actually it’s turtles, specifically Asian River Turtles whose lower shell or plastron is roughly square and the upper shell roughly circular; that’s the traditional Chinese representation of Heaven and Earth. Tortoise shells are very similar.”
“Uh-huh.”
I explain that the early Chinese divined from lines breaking up the patterns on the backs of the turtles.
“The patterns evolved into a “language” of two types of line – broken that is yin, and unbroken or yang. Broken broadly means “no” and unbroken “yes”.
“Like a binary code?”
“Exactly.”
“How did they make the lines appear?”
“By baking the shells. They actually made the river turtle extinct.”
“Yuk.”
Day sixteen of the Moon that was new when we arrived; dusk is approaching. We talk by the pool. In addition to completing the “notes” and the short film, they have a brand-new 90-page spec. That’s some work for a couple of weeks and they’re here for two more yet.
This Moon is the Peony Moon; it’s close to full. Full yang, that is as bright as it can be, represents the Trigram Qian, the Father, three unbroken lines. So according to the na jia formula, the Moon should rise between 7 and 9pm at chia, that is between 67½ and 82½ degrees East. I know precisely where that is and I point – out beyond the paving to the rear, over the hills, almost opposite the setting sun. And sure enough there it is, just becoming visible; the Moon rising against the cloud in accord with the ancient measurement.
“Awesome,” they say in unison.
The spec concerns two mutually dependent sisters who fall out. Write what you know, Jessie says. They may make it the first film of their own as yet unchristened production company, they tell me. I suggest “Short Films” as a name. Neither is impressed.
The Moon is now gone. It’s dark, quiet but for crickets. We retire. I sit on my bed and listen to the shutters. I’m still not tempted by Birdsong. I listen into a webcast: Andrew Harvey’s extraordinary work in what he calls Sacred Activism which offers a middle-ground between anarchy and tree-hugging. It’s close to midnight but something’s happening.
My Father could navigate by dead reckoning. He’d have spotted the Moon rising though he’d have made nothing of it. To him there was a simple linear explanation to everything.
When I was perhaps eight, we slept under the stars. Pointing above, “There’s Polaris,” he said. “That means North Star. If you’re lost, find that one and you’re home. Part of the Great Bear or Ursa Major also known as The Dipper.”
“What about South?” I remember asking.
“There’s no star due South,” he said. “You find the Southern Cross and estimate.”
“How?”
I don’t remember understanding the answer.

False Smooth Snakes.

The next night as we sip beer again, there is not a frog or tortoise to be seen. This may be because two snakes are fighting by the pool. Combat appears to consist of one sinking its fangs into the other’s back, letting go and then offering itself for the favour to be returned. None of the hissing and posing you might expect.
“This isn’t the Jungle Book,” says Jessie, by way of explanation.
These snakes, according to Wikipedia, are examples of the Menorcan false smooth snake, whose bite is fatal to small rodents but no risk to us. They look pretty forbidding, just the same. We keep our distance; this is not a bar fight to break up. I have a suspicion they might actually be shagging. Probably a better idea.
Just as every pessimist thinks himself a realist, every generation believes the world will be hard pressed to survive them but even those of us who know that, are concerned by the horrors we see and those we see coming. And we suspect that we might be the first generation to be right. But you know what? I’m on the side of the angels. I fear what I see but I choose something better. I prefer to concentrate on the Tessla car, Marianne Williamson’s campaign, Anna Friel saving the gorillas. As Oscar Wilde wrote: we are all of us in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars.
Having looked closely at a few tortoises now – like me and unlike their aquatic cousins, reluctant to swim in cold water – I conclude that given an infinite number of Chinese river turtles and a very long time, one shell might emerge dotted precisely like the lo shu or magic square of Chinese folklore. And it’s certainly true that the upper shell is domed like the sky and the lower squareish.
I rarely write these long pieces any more. Here are some reasons: the social media people tell me to write shorter, more frequent articles and link them to Twitter, FaceBook, Linked-In, Grinder (I made that up). Secondly I’m busy. Also the most engaging bits of my writing apparently are those about people. And some people don’t like being written about. Finally the power of these pieces comes of poignance. And poignance is next door to impotence and I refuse to believe nothing can be done.
Tonight the sky is totally clear sky over the heath and bumpy hills and Henrietta is satisfied with the sunset and the sudden blackness that follows. I point out the Big Dipper, the engine room of Chinese Astrology. We notice the pointer which indicates seasons and directions and I explain that it is this motion that is reflected on the shell of the tortoise. And hence much of traditional feng shui. We talk about Maurice and the fighting snakes.

Richard Ashworth ©2014.
Post script: the film Olivia and Jim is now in pre-production according to IMDB, the film-maker’s bible.

www.imperialfengshui.info

What Richard is doing…where & when

Hi:

I thought it was about time I sent out one of my newsletters to let you know what Richard is up to in the next few months & where & when! So…

 Ba Zi at the London Astrology Lodge:

Monday 7th July at 7pm, Astrological Lodge of London at The Theosophical Society, 50 Gloucester Place, London W1 8EA

Richard will be looking at times, places and people and explaining to the Astrological Lodge, ba zi’s roots in the tao, yin and yang and the Five Elements or wu xing. Along the way he will examine some historical events, to see if indeed they fall into cycles.

Astrologers, feng shui people, sceptics, cynics, civilians, all welcome.

More details here. 

Starter Feng Shui Course:

13 & 14th September 2014 is the first weekend (of four) of Richard’s Starter Feng Shui Course.

For anyone who wants to become expert in the theory and practice of  feng shui. This course opens to a lifetime of study which may excite enthusiasts, the curious and anyone who would like to better understand themselves and the world around them. Grounding in feng shui principles desirable but not essential.

Early Bird Offers are still available.

More details here. 

  Starter ba zi Course:

17^th & 18th January 2015 is the first weekend of his starter ba zi course.

Richard is world famous for his ba zi work & his course is honestly incredible!

Again open to all curious souls…

Early Bird offers are very much available.

More details here. 

 If you book both courses together further discounts are on offer. 

 Richard now teaches via Skype both feng shui & ba zi on a one to one basis with weekly sessions so if you can’t travel or you live abroad, this is a perfect option & Richard loves doing it!

 Advanced Ba Zi:

As Richard is finding teaching via Skype so successful he is now offering one to one sessions in Advanced ba zi. His studies with the Masters have given him so much he can now pass on to those wishing to take the study of ba zi much further & deeper.

 Feng Shui at the London School of Astrology:

On Saturday 18^th October at the London School of Astrology at The Friends Meeting House, 173, Euston Road, London, NW1 2BJ, Richard is talking feng shui to western Astrologers…should be fun. More details to come.

 

So that’s pretty much it for now, if you have any questions please do email me on sheila@imperialfengshui.info

or call the office on  +44 (0)1483 428998 or visit the website:  www.imperialfengshui.info.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Sheila

www.imperialfengshui.info

Snake Diary: what to expect in May 2014.

Snake Diary: what to expect in May 2014.

Snakes and Ladders.

May 5^th 22:16pm until June 6^th 02:32 inclusive. 

It’s dark and we’re wearing sunglasses.

This month is an Earth Snake. The last time the Earth Snake ruled an entire year was 1989. By most accounts that was pretty cataclysmic; as a Tweet correspondent reminded me this week, it was the year of the Second Summer of Love, the year of the smiley. And then there was the peripheral business of the Berlin Wall coming down, the end of the Cold War and of the Soviet Union. Last month the UN made an unequivocal statement on climate change. We are now officially sleepwalking over a precipice wearing sunglasses and state-of-the-art headphones. This month may mirror 1989 in terms of a change in the world order. Not so drastic though; it’s only a month. 

The Snake in the Snake Month.

Unlike Dragons, Snakes (1953, 1965, 1977, 1989, 2001) get on relatively well among themselves, so a Snake month may bring them agreement and consensus. The Snake works well with teams that include the sensitive Ox – whose gifts include sticking to the point – and the photogenic Rooster – who can both attract attention and keep accounts. The Snake, the seeker after truth, brings something like spin. This Wood Horse year however with its constant bright light, is not the year for concealment. And no human action remains hidden for ever; ask Gerry Adams or Max Clifford. 

Snake Month Animal by Animal.

During the Snake month:

The Dragon finds an audience,

The Horse shares the limelight,

The Sheep’s invitation may not be taken up.

The Monkey’s charm may not be enough.

The Rooster is in demand as long as the Ox invigilates,

The Dog may feel understood but not necessarily approved of,

The Pig may tire easily,

The Ratmay take up the role of disciplinarian.

The Tiger is apt to maintain a respectful distance,

and

The gentle Rabbit is often surprised by sudden popularity.

Note: do remember the purpose of this is to foster health, wealth and wisdom; it’s a foolish Snake who uses the above to disdain Monkeys or avoid Tigers.

The Snake Pillars. How Snake are you?

Birth in the Snake hour (9-7am): children seek truth as do you, later in life.

Birth in the Snake month (May*): suits work in sales & marketing.

Birth on the Snake day: lifelong pursuit of truth, may start late.

Birth in the Snake year: brought up to question.

* Caution, the Chinese month generally starts and finishes a few days after ours. 

Where to do what, when and why.

At the centre of this month’s lo shu is the 5, to do with the double-edged sword of power. The 5 of course belongs in the centre. The bench mark lo shu supposedly observed by Fu Xi on the back of a “noble turtle” had 5 at the centre. So it’s a return to influence, truth and certainty. Know where your power base is and consider retracing your steps.

This month: the North East which holds the tin yute gwai yan Noble Helper Star is doubly effective because it also holds the monthly 8 Star. If you take no other feng shui advice, perhaps just trust the 8 and locate yourself North East when the opportunity presents itself. 

Forthcoming Events:

*We still have places on Richard’s Feng Shui Course starting the weekend of 13^th/14^th September 2014. Early Bird Offers are still available. For those further afield Richard is offering the course via Skype in parallel. 

*If you want to meet Richard in person he is talking at the Astrology Lodge in London on the 7^th July 2014. It will be a fascinating & educational evening.He may even joke.

*Enjoying these diaries? You can subscribe to more in-depth bulletins, weekly &/or monthly. For more details on this or with any other queries email:becciimperialfengshui@gmail.com 

*To keep up to date with Richard, follow his daily tweets  summarising the forthcoming day each morning @fengshuidiaries 

Richard Ashworth©, early in the month of the Earth Snake, May 2014.

www.imperialfengshui.info

Dragon Diary: What to expect in April 2014

No Dragon Feet.

Earth Dragon month, Wood Horse year.

April 5^th 04:54am.

 

Rapid Movement.

The Earth-in-Wood that is the Dragon always makes for change. Master Zhongxian Wu suggest we ”purify and change old patterns” while “an unwavering attitude will help us accomplish tasks (now) even if we bump into some tough situations.” It’s moving-on time.

Change, as the man said, is the only constant. But sometimes it can feel overdue. Not possible of course but sometimes we know that that job, that mission, that relationship is over but it limps on. Now may be the time to act. If a change is gonna come, April is the likely time. This as Master Wu implies, may take courage. An Earth Dragon may make it easier – the Earth is always restless – or more difficult because it’s big and solid. The harder they come…. 

The Dragon in the Dragon Month.

Dragons (1964, 1976, 1988, 2000) suffer the so-called self clash; they are not reckoned to play nice among themselves. In fact the Dragon is often said to be the most powerful of the Chinese Zodiac but this power is accompanied by fragile ego. Dragon times like the Dragons themselves are demanding and magical. April is the time of transformation; Spring becomes Summer, Wood becomes Fire, views opened by the fallen leaves close up again; everything changes.. It’s in the air. Not just for Dragons.

So give everyone but especially Dragons, extra space now. In the words of Keane, everyone is changing and neither you nor they know what fresh shape they might be taking up. That last bit isn’t from Keane. 

Dragon Month Animal by Animal.

The Dragon:

Takes the Snake on as apprentice.

Tolerates the competitive Horse.

Sidesteps the Sheep who keeps out of his way too,

Conspires with the Monkey although he knows better.

Joins the Rooster but is likely to get bent out of shape.

Makes peace with the Dog from his current position of strength.

Admires the Pig from a respectful distance.

Is directed by the Rat.

Bamboozles the Ox.

Remains wary of the Tiger.

Allows the Rabbit to draw on his resources.

The Dragon Pillars. How Dragon are you?

Birth in the Dragon hour (7-9am): children inherit opportunity & add drive.

Birth in the Dragon month (April*): unemployable.

Birth on the Dragon day: secretly magical but prone to mood swings.

Birth in the Dragon year: light on the face of it, dark within except when it’s the other way round.

* Caution, the Chinese month generally starts and finishes a few days after ours.

Where to do what, when and why.

This month’s lo shu is the 6, to do with winning and losing. This is the month of finicky detail.  We can approach it two basic ways: respecting authority or flouting it. Either’s likely to lead to change.

This month: activate or be in the East of whatever space you find yourself. This month it holds the 4 of discovery and all year the 2 of obstacles while its native star is the 3 of moving on. Putting all that together, if you’re brave and hungry for change, hang out East.

Forthcoming Events: 

Feng Shui Course 2014:

If you want to learn more about Feng Shui or want to hone your current skills, Richard’s next Feng Shui Course starts on the weekend of 13^th & 14^th September 2014 & there are three further weekends in October, November & December. There is still an Early, Early Bird Discount available but not for much longer. For further information, go to Richard’s website or email becciimperialfengshui@gmail.com Also, if you live outside of the UK & want to study with Richard he runs Skype courses concurrently with the UK ones. Do email for more details.

Astrological Lodge of London:

Richard has been invited back to talk Chinese Astrology (Ba Zi) at the Astrological Lodge of London on the 7^th July 2014 if you would like to hear him talk in person. More details closer to the time.

Richard Ashworth©, in the month of the Earth Dragon, March 2014.

www.imperialfengshui.info