I wanted to finish reading Elizabeth Gilbert’s book before writing about her chart. I’m a few more chapters away from finishing but it’s enough to inform this post. The book was something I picked up after watching the trailer for Eat Pray Love (released this week, starring Julia Roberts) and I’ve been reading it since. After reading the 1st section of her book (the Italy section, or Eat section), I was intrigued to find out her chart simply because I was dying to know if my theory about her chart panned out.

In the first section ‘Eat’, Gilbert spends a lot of time talking about the failure of her marriage, the challenges she faced in dealing with her husband (who she wrote was a nice man but turned nasty when the divorce happened) and how she found herself entirely reluctant to have children. Looking back at the book, this is the timeline that I can see:

Age 31 (year 2000 – Geng Chen 庚 辰) – Gilbert by her own account realises that she does not want to have children or be married to her spouse. (I am paraphrasing – please read the book to get her ‘actual account’).

Age 32 (year 2001 – Xin Si 辛 巳) – she leaves her husband, goes into a relationship with David.

Age 33 (year 2002 – Ren Wu 壬 午) – she leaves David. Goes to Bali. Meets the medicine man who tells her she will lose, and make back a chunk of money.

Age 34 (year 2003 – Gui Wei 癸 未) – her divorce is finally settled, and Gilbert is able to proceed to Italy around September 2003. This is when she commences her journey that takes her to Italy, India and Bali following receipt of an advance from her publisher for the book on her travels. Her trip stretches into 2004, the year of Jia Shen 甲 申. At the end of the book, it is revealed that she meets someone (for those of you who watched the movie, played by Javier Bardem).

Age 36 (year 2006 – Bing Xu) – Eat Pray Love is published and very well received, and has to date spent 158 weeks on the NY times bestseller list.

So, with these details/facts in mind, let us consider the chart in light of some of her issues.

Finding God

This is something that comes up a lot in the first few chapters of the book. The need for religion or at least, the issue of religion offering comfort is obvious to most students of BaZi. This chart is extremely hot, and needs water, which is the Resource Star. Resource as we know represents comfort, but also co-relates with religion or superstition.

Now, in the three pillars that we have, there is no water. Although one has to assume there is water in the chart, this is arguable. If one looks back at her career, she got her start in 1997 when Esquire published her short story, which then led to a steady stream of work after that. She was in her Gui You Luck Pillar at the time, and it was  Gui You year. The year before was Ren Shen – water was clearly very strong in those two years. The next major work came in 1997 (Ding Chou year), when GQ published a story that went on to be the basis for the film Coyote Ugly. So most of her opportunities coincided with the water years.

Further, her sudden change in her attitude towards her relationship notably took place when she entered a Luck Pillar without any water, and after two years of Wood (Tiger and Rabbit years).

It’s possible that there’s no water in the chart although unlikely given her level of success, it would have been hard to achieve that without any Resource Stars, which represent Helpful People. The more likely possibility is the Jia Xu Luck Pillar simply served to make the fire in her chart more intense (note the partial Wu-Xu combination), thus making the Water all the more important, hence, the intensified and sudden realisation of the need for religion, god or some kind of religious compass.

By backwards engineering the information about her chart, and her life, is highly likely in my view, that the hour of Birth is either Ox or Dragon. The Hour has to be something that the Dog can clatter into to release the Water for her to find her religious or spiritual moment. This is derived from the fact that she had her eureka religious moment very much when she was at the lowest point in her life, which is the sort of situation that relates usually to either a Clash or a Destruction.

Further, it has to be a Graveyard-Storage branch since elements in the Graveyard -Storage need to be Clashed to be released. Also, Ox and Dragon are the only two Branches that will release Water. As she herself points out in the book, her ‘eureka’ moment came in 2000, which was a Dragon year.

Addendum:

It’s significant that in the book, she notes that her first moment of attempting to find herself/god actually occurred much earlier, during a visit to Bali, and later to an island near Lombok. This provides an integral clue as to what is the Earthly Branch that holds the key to this BaZi. Earlier, it was established that the chart needs water but then the question is: WHICH WATER? Ren which represents Indirect Resource clearly is the answer, since the book, is definitely somewhat ‘flaky’ in it’s tone. And being a search for religion, self, visiting an ashram, is obviously about an Indirect Resource subject. 2003 itself was a Ren Wu year – so it clearly seems like Ren is the preferred, indeed, workable water.

But what the chart is actually telling her (via her book) is that the chart wants THE PIG.

THE. PIG.

亥 is the key to this chart. It calms the fires in this chart rather than putting them out with a splutter in the way Gui would. The presence of the Ji Earth Stem clearly tells us that Gui on the Stem isn’t the answer. Gui in the Branch (in the form of 子 is also not the answer since that just comes off as nasty against the Goat and the Horse, not to mention the Rooster). Pig on the other hand, brings the much needed Water. The combination also produces Wood, which whilst strictly speaking is not usable by Jia Wood, is still somewhat helpful to this weak Jia.

Looking at the book, it all makes sense. Her first revelation that she needed to end her relationship came after she visited Bali (crossed the 亥 ）and whilst she was alone on the ISLAND (壬  all around). And during the year in which she spent in Italy, India and Bali, she was essentially crossing the sea every three months.

亥 again.

Pig is also great for the Xin, which is her Direct Officer Star.

Marriage Failure

The failure of the relationship at this point can be explained by the effect of the Luck Pillar very clearly. Jia Xu in itself is the Graveyard of Metal, denoting a relationship with a Spouse naturally in itself comes to an end here. Xu also harms the You in the chart, which represents the Spouse Star. The rebound effect of David can be seen from the Geng Chen and Xin Si annual pillars that appeared. The metal however cannot survive the Fire in the chart come the Ren Wu year, which further intensifies the Fire in her chart, and also creates a self-punishment with the Spouse Palace.

Part of the early chapters of the book also indicate that Gilbert faced inordinate difficulty with getting her spouse to agree to a divorce. This is easy to see – firstly, Jia Xu in itself denotes lots of obstacles, especially with matters related to money and property, and as the Spouse Star is involved in the interaction, it is clear that it has some connection to the marriage. Further, in her chart, Fire is extremely strong, particularly Ding Fire. The Xin, which represents her Direct Officer Star, is surrounded by 7 killings. Thus, her Spouse was a nice person up until the point he felt he had been crossed or betrayed by her leaving. And Xin likes to use Water, particularly Hurting Officer. So, her Spouse was being difficult both to prove a point and also because, the character of the Spouse is inherently spiteful (a basic quality of the 7 Killings Star).

The divorce settles in Gui Wei because this denotes the end of a legal problem for the Spouse (thus, the divorce finally concludes) but also, indicates that he decides for his own reasons (most likely he was also getting tired of it – Indirect Resource denotes a somewhat random, often unexplainable reason or reaction) to conclude the deal. She however is helped by the presence of Gui Water, which helps to calm down the Fire in the chart, and also is favourable to both her and her Spouse.

In the book, she meets someone new in the Jia Shen year. Although the book doesn’t say what happened to her relationship in the end, the nature of the relationship is clearly defined by the Jia Shen – a Friend + Boyfriend at the same time.  (Gilbert has since married him – will it last past the Bing Zi Luck Pillar…)

Children

In the book, Gilbert talks about her realisation that she did not want children. The reason for this is also very clear in her chart. The Fire element (which represents children to a female) is extremely strong, overwhelmingly so. As such, the Day Master does not WANT any more of that element. Further in a Luck Pillar where the effect of the Fire element is amplified, makes the Star even more negative. And thus, naturally deters the Day Master from favouring that element (and thus, wanting more of it in life).