I was at a friend’s house last night and there were a few rounds of ‘how will it be for me in 2009?’

Now, as we were basically in a room full of people born in 1976, the answer was the same for everyone. Not so good. (Ox 丑 and Dragon 辰 is a Destruction, which in general is never a nice thing to have). Then everyone clamoured to ask about themselves when someone produced a Ten Thousand Year calendar. The reason being the year is coming to an end, so why not get an update on the year ahead now?

Which then made me realise why we always get such a flood of consultation requests in December. Many people think that they need to get an update before the Gregorian year is out when in fact, the Solar Calendar doesn’t transit over to the New Year officially until February 4th of each year (known as Lap Chun).

Which brings me to the question of when is the best time to get a BaZi consultation? Now, there are two parts to the answer: the first part relates to the question of when should a person get a BaZi consultation, and the second part relates to the actual temporal point (ie: which quarter of the year) in which is optimum for what we call an Annual Assessment (aka outlook for the year)

I like to compare seeing a BaZi consultant a bit to seeing a dentist.

Some people only see a dentist when they can’t take the pain any more.

Some people are judicious about doing their twice a year check-ups, which is also the opportunity to get their teeth cleaned.

As a consultant, I would say 70 percent of the consultations involve individuals who are seeing us for a reason. Something problem  has cropped up somewhere and that’s why they are seeking a consultation. In other words, they are seeing the consultant for a reason.

In a given year, about 85 percent of the cases are individuals who actually DO have a problem or are actually facing a problem because of the impact of the year pillar on their BaZi or on their Luck Pillars. The variation of instances typically falls into the following categories:

• Fu Yin of the Day Pillar, the Year Pillar or the Luck Pillar
• Clash, Destruction or Harm problem to usually the Month Pillar or to at least 3 out of 4 of the Pillars

In 2008, because it is also a Peach Blossom Star Year, the proportion of Peach Blossom Sha charts also is usually up a little compared to a non Peach Blossom Star year.

The remaining clutch of consultations involve individuals who are essentially engaged in preventative BaZi – these are individuals who see BaZi as providing an edge or strategic advantage in life, and so usually are either teenagers or fresh graduates, looking to get a little extra guidance before they go out into the big bad world or individuals about to change Luck Pillars and who hear the cosmic bell that tells them – it is time to go find out more about what you can do in this life.

Some people get that cosmic wake-up call earlier than others. And some people are more sensitive to the cosmic alarm clock than others. The ones who turn up for a consultation mired in trouble are the ones who have probably put the snooze button on the cosmic alarm clock one too many times, and so now are in dire need of an answer because like the white rabbit, they woke up and realised ‘I’m late!I’m late!. The ones who come for a preventative session are the ones that heard the clock the first time it rang and followed their instincts.

But I digress. Going back to the question of when is the best time to see a BaZi consultant, well, there is no best time really. You just want to make sure you’re not going at the worst time.

The worst time obviously is when you’re older. Because then it becomes harder to change your habits, or negative character traits. Any client I see over the age of 30, unless they are tremendously motivated, has difficulty changing their habits or attributes. And chances are, these individuals will only make changes in their lives if they run up against a serious professional obstacle as a result of their character traits or shortcomings, or if they are put in a situation where they have no choice. And with each 10 years you add to my totally randomised figure of 30, you’re essentially running up against more and more anti-change factors. After the age of 30, life’s responsibilities kick in. People with children or families or obligations like a mortgage, or a car to pay for, have even less room to manuever, especially in Asian society where governments do not provide much for their citizens. Which means issues like changing jobs or venturing into a business become big decisions.

Typically, a smart time to see a consultant is at one of these two points in my view:

• just before the switch over to a new Luck Pillar. For example, if you change 10 Year Luck Pillars in 2010, then a consultation somewhere midway through 2009 is a good idea.
• Midway through a Luck Pillar – for example, your current Luck Pillar lasts from 2004 to 2013 so in 2009, you’re about half way through. It’s good to get a re-evaluation midway through because that enables you to still make adjustments or changes, to realign your goals or objectives better with the overall influence of the Luck Pillar.

The worst time is also when a problem has escalated itself to the point that you need an answer NOW. The longer you wait, the less your options and the less you have an opportunity to make use of any favourable months in a given year to bail you out of a situation. For example, a Ding 丁 Fire person, facing something like say, a tax or legal problem, would be better off resolving the problem in 2007 than in say 2008, or trying to handle the problem early on in the year (ie: February-April) when there are helpful elements in general, than say, towards the end of the year, ie: (December-January) when the elements are less favourable towards getting a good resolution.

For an annual assessment (which differs from the BaZi consultation that you do for the first time), it’s probably smart to start doing it anytime from November to December. Certainly, anyone who is going to face problems in 2009 should actually be looking to have gotten their assessment or evaluation done already because although the year of the Ox 丑 only officially starts on February 4th 2009, because January is the month of Ox 丑, the influence of the Ox 丑 will start to kick in as near as December, instead of closer to February.

In other words, the Rat’s tail is very short, but the Ox’s nose is very long this year.

For 2009, consultants will expect to see more of the following types of charts:

• Higher than average proportion of Geng 庚 Metal DM charts, and to a lesser degree, Xin 辛 Metal DM. Higher than average proportion of Gui 癸 Water DM charts.
• Higher than average proportion of individuals born either in the year of the Dragon or the month of the Dragon (April)
• Higher than average proportion of individuals with more than 2 Graveyard Stars (Ox 丑, Dog 戌, Goat 未 , Dragon 辰) in their charts
• Higher than average proportion of individuals with Rooster 酉 or Snakes 巳 in their charts or both, and a higher than average number wherein the Si-You-Chou （巳 酉 丑 ） combination is unfavourable, rather than favourable.