This is one of the BaZi ideas that I have been kicking around in my head. (Have not been posting much of late due to an unfortunate encounter with the #5-#2 stars). The BaZi Kitchen Cabinet idea is something I have been personally trying to make use of and which I also encourage people to develop.

For those unfamiliar with the term, a kitchen cabinet is the term often used to describe a person’s trusted allies and friends (aka inner circle) who can be relied on to provide informal advice. It is commonly used by many politicians as a tandem to their real cabinet. In the case of the BaZi Kitchen Cabinet, I wanted to marry the ideas of both the political concept, and the theory in BaZi that the ideal BaZi must have all 10 Stems and all the 10 Gods!

The BaZi Kitchen Cabinet idea operates on the following lines of thought (or principles, if I want to be snobby about it)

• a person’s collection of trusted allies, friends and advisors (who need not always be allies or friend, but of course, need not be enemies) should consist of at least ONE individual from each of the Ten Stems. It is probably not possible to have all ten stems, but there must be in the mix a Yi 乙，Xin, 辛, Jia 甲 and Ren 壬.

• A person would, depending on the circumstances, either solicit advice from a specific Day Master to deal with a specific type of problem (based on that particular Day Master’s particular skills/strengths/attributes) OR poll several of their kitchen cabinet members, to obtain a variety of viewpoints
• Ideally, the key advisors would be individual’s who do not belong to the same Day Master as the person, and at least one person in the key advisor list should be of a Day Master which constitutes ideally the Useful God for that person OR is one of their Favourable Elements.

Okay, now you might be wondering how the hell I developed this criteria. Here’s the logic behind the reasoning.

Firstly, the purpose of a political kitchen cabinet is to provide unfettered advice. The members of a politician’s kitchen cabinet, because they were informal advisors, were not likely to be beholden to the politician for patronage or position, and thus were more likely to be HONEST and FRANK.

In a BaZi context, each of the ten Day Masters has strengths and weaknesses. As such, by ensuring that you have different Day Masters in your personal kitchen cabinet, you can overcome your own personal short-comings or weaknesses because these people will make up for it for you.

For example, let’s say you are a very nice, upright, principled sort of person (oh, a Jia? Or a Geng?). And you find yourself in an unpleasant business situation that may or may not necessitate some kind of dirty trick response. But being the nice, upright principled sort that you are, you have no idea how to go about doing the smart, survivalist-orientated, wily and cunning mental acrobatics you must engage in, in order to come out of the situation unscathed or at least, without losing out. If all your close allies and advisors share your Day Master (and worse, your personality) then they are USELESS to you. They will give you advice you could have given YOURSELF!

So, you go to your Yi Wood Kitchen Cabinet member, and you pick their brains. After all, Yi Wood, being like the proverbial grass in the wind, and the consummate survivor, will know exactly how to worm out of the situation whilst smelling like roses.

On the other hand, let’s say things are ugly and you need to take a hard bargaining position. To wit, you may consider consulting a Ren Water Kitchen Cabinet member, who will tell you how to play hardball and bulldoze the crap out of the other side. (caveat: that assumes you get a Ren Water with 7 Killings of course, and not the mousy Direct Officer variant but then most Ren Water have some kind of hidden killer instinct really).

By having different Day Masters as part of your Kitchen Cabinet, you can also get a more 360 degree perspective on an issue. For example, Jia Wood’s and Ji Earths are usually the supportive kind, so they would be great for a compassionate or supportive point of view to something you want to do. By contrast, the Yi and the Xins are the great schemers and plotters, so you should seek their advice on what is a) best for you, screw the other person and b) how to get what you want, without getting your hands dirty aka Poop Stirring for Pros.

For a more hands-on, operational and practical perspective towards a problem, you might consult a Geng (who will ask you all those irritatingly practical questions like what is your system, and how you intend to achieve what you want, and what is your goal/objective but will of course give you a clear answer) or perhaps seek the advice of a Ren, who will probably give you the short shrift black-n-white answer.

Ideally, amongst your advisors should include a person who is at least of the element which is either your Favourable Element or your Useful God. For example, if your Useful God is Gui, then you should probably ideally have a Gui person as one of your key advisors. For this type of advisor, I would recommend chosing someone who is NOT YOUR FRIEND. Make this person someone you know, who would be open to giving you advise, but who will not sugar coat it on account of friendship or sensitivity towards your feelings!

Of course, you can tune-up the Cabinet members even more by looking at their Personality and Structure, and seeking individuals who complement your own personality. For example, if you are lousy with money and have a money-related issue, then you should probably seek advise from someone who is of a Direct Wealth structure.

The key to using the BaZi Kitchen Cabinet is to

a) ensure you have a good mix of advisors, who are again, a mixture of allies, friends and non-friend advisors

b) seek advise from at least 2-3 members on any issue – different Day Masters

c) tailor your advisory needs to the key advisor’s Day Master and their attributes.For example, if you are a very fair-minded person, then you might need someone like a Xin or Yi to help you bring out your inner self-preservation mechanism. If you have issues with being a hard-ass, then a Ren’s opinion may help you invoke your inner bitch (or bastard as it were)

Of course, you make the decision ultimately but with a BaZi Kitchen Cabinet, you know you won’t be making decisions that prey on your weaknesses, and you’ll be doing your best to make an informed (in every sense of the word) decision.

Who is in YOUR BaZi Kitchen Cabinet?