One of the most common problems that I face as a consultant is clients doing what I call ‘Gilding the Hour’. This is the BaZi equivalent of Gilding the Lily – essentially, the person ‘decides’ that their Hour MUST be wrong  (or in some cases, ‘might’ be wrong).

And they always decide this….AFTER the consult.

It is for this reason that I am very very reluctant to do consultations for clients who are uncertain as to their hour of birth. (ie: The cases of “my mom says it was after dinner/somewhere around breakfast time/ late at night” or  “my grandma remembers it being dinner time”). And I am always very cautious when I am sent the time of birth with GMT attached to it. (as was the case recently).

I don’t want to go into the debate about whether or not GMT or China time or deducting/adding Daylight Savings Time is the right way to do it. This argument is endlessly recycled through the numerous metaphysics forums out there and frankly, I fail to see the point of it.  I am also lazy and can’t be bothered with what are to me, semantic debates. As such, I just go with the birth certificate as definitive because I believe that the universe will cover my cosmic ass through the principle of synchronicity, which is the Metaphysical equivalent of Que cera cera or “what will be, will be”, with a touch of res ipsa loquitor or “the thing speaks for itself”.

In most of the instances where I have been asked by someone to repeat the consultation (or re-do the consultation) because of a doubt as to the Hour Pillar, it has always been because the outcome of the consultation does not produce the desired results or outcome for the client. (unscientific observation: a high proportion of such cases involve people with strong Resource – I wonder why). In ALL of the small number of cases I have dealt with, the ‘gilded’ hour irrefutably produced a better outcome (marginally in some cases, significantly in others).

The thing is, this is BaZi – you don’t get to shop around for the best deal in life. You get given something and you have to make the most of what you’ve got. The moment someone develops doubts about their Hour of Birth, they might as well STOP making use of BaZi or stop consulting a BaZi consultant. In fact, stop even looking at astrology. You might as well go through life flying blind. Because once you start questioning (seriously) if your hour is the right hour or not, you have officially landed in the Land of the Slippery Slope.

When the change is positive, it is always tempting to prefer that hour. And when the change is negative, it is always preferable to go with the other hour. It’s just human nature.

The avoidance of doubt is critical when it comes to BaZi consultations because in BaZi, DOUBT = HOPE. And no, hope doesn’t float.

Hope kills.

You can die of hope in this world. And you often die a really slow death when you’re being murdered by Happy Hope, who unlike the Grim Reaper, prefers a spoon to a scythe.

Certainty by contrast, whilst necessarily unpleasant and in some cases, depressing, presents clarity. With apologies to Gordon Gekko and Oliver Stone, certainty, for lack of a better word, is good. Certainty is right. Certainty works. It cuts through all the optimism bullshit that we feed ourselves sometimes in this life. Only when you know where you stand, can you decide how to go forward.

I’m sure that there will be some academic types frothing at the mouth at my seemingly careless disregard for an important intellectual discourse. But the fact is that there can be no answer to this debate of whether GMT is used, China time is used, or whether or not Daylight Savings Time should be disregarded or regarded. Who can say they are right and everyone else is wrong? You would literally need to do a hundred thousand case studies, plot their charts based on the three seemingly ‘major’ disputed techniques and track all these individuals intimately over the course of at least 30 years (in order to let them go through three 10 year Luck Pllars), before you could arrive at the conclusion that one system is right over the other.

I frankly, am not that obsessed. And nor if you ask me, are any of those who argue one way or another over the GMT vs local time, Daylight Savings vs no Daylight Savings, China Time vs No China Time.

And then there’s the question of how on earth the ‘correct hour’ will be verified. How do you determine that one hour is correct and another is wrong? Who gets to say one hour is more accurate over the other? The person in question? How then do we discount the invariable bias/prejudice/hopelessly naive optimism/extreme pessimism that comes into the picture? How do we objectively assess a person’s life (without their involvement) to determine – aha, the actual hour is [x] because of the events that took place?

Which is why the birth certificate provides a sort of metaphysical finger in the dike.  It is not a perfect answer but it is an answer that provides CLARITY. And CERTAINTY. It is not indisputable, but that is where synchronicity, much like equity, rushes into fill the gap.

Realistically in some instances, a reasonably trained consultant usually CAN also with some well structured questions (and assuming total honesty on the part of the client), ascertain what is the correct hour. This is because the Hour amongst many things, represents a person’s desires and greatest aspirations. So some time spent chatting with the person might yield some information that gives a hint as to the hour. BUT, that’s assuming the subject is TRUTHFUL, honest and open about their deepest desires (which may be dark, perverse, lazy, ugly, distasteful, or even stupid). Sure, you can look at their relationship with their children but what if they have no children? And even then the relationship with children can also be affected by other features in the chart, besides a problem with the Hour.

At the same time, it is also not possible to utilise this approach to ascertain the Hour all the time. Sometimes the only way to really be sure of the hour is via observation over the course of a number of years (a bit like studying a test case). So it is NOT quite so easy to actually get the Hour entirely wrong, but equally, not always straightforward when it comes to determining what is the correct Hour.

So what is the moral of the story with this diatribe? It is to try to suggest that people move past fixation with the Hour, or looking to gild the hour. Of course, there are instances where errors in the time of birth exist but when the debate comes down to whether or not to use GMT or not etc etc, it is largely in my pragmatic opinion, a fruitless exercise.

If you are uncertain, then just go with your Date of Birth sans time. You will learn enough about your character (strengths and weaknesses) and certain facets of your destiny for you to make a reasonable decision on how best to pursue your ambitions and goals in life. You won’t get a complete picture, but you’ll get at least 3/4th of the equation. It may not answer ALL your questions in life, but it might answer one or two important ones. And then you can go about doing something to help yourself get what you want in life.

That’s what we’re all here for right?