A friend sent me this picture because he knows I’m rather curmudgeonly on the subject of Change.

50cents is also Change.

Last time I blogged about this topic briefly: Elements of Change.

So I’m going to expand a little bit about this idea because Change is in many respects, at the heart of BaZi.

In theory, the idea is that by knowing our BaZi, we then implement changes to our life that appropriately therefore help to offset some of the challenges and problems we face as a result of certain shortcomings or flaws in the chart. But here’s the shirty thing about Change – the extent in which it can alter the path varies and accordingly, the results of the change also vary. Some people get huge advantages, others see very little corresponding advantage. Some change is fleeting and transient, resulting in minimal results, but others actually manage to embrace Change and achieve great results.

If that sounds like something out of The Biggest Loser, well, dieting is an excellent analogy to borrow because losing weight requires not just a short-term change, but a long-term permanent change. It requires an alteration of mindset, and the recognition that results are not achieved overnight.

Anyway in today’s post, I wanted to look at the question of Agents of Change – what is it that has to be present in a chart that enables a person to MAKE A CHANGE?

Change unfortunately, is not a simplistic concept that is just a matter of pressing one button in the chart. This is because firstly, there are many underlying causes or motivators behind change. Secondly, there are many different ‘tools’ that are required to effect change, and to maintain that change.

To me, one of the most important stars to be able to successfully effect change is the Direct Officer Star. This is the Star of Control and Discipline – without self-control or self-discipline, it is not possible to effect any change in life, small or big. If you don’t seen the need to control your behaviour, attitude, actions or responses, then how can you affect Change in your life? I prefer the Direct Officer Star to the 7 Killings Star BUT sometimes, the 7 Killings Star works better (ie: for Ren DM, 7K might be more efficacious). However, I don’t think that a 7Killings motivated change is necessarily always a good change because the 7 Killings Star always involves some measure of one-upmanship or conquest in its innate nature and so the motivation for change may be more competitive rather than orientated in inherent improvement for the self. As such, it may be easy for the person to fall off the bandwagon once the challenge, or the emotional basis for the change, disappears. The 7 Killings Star is also Machiavellian by nature and so the change again, may well be just for convenience purposes. In short, it may not be real change, but cosmetic change or fleeting change, in order to achieve a short-term goal of a particular nature, or to simply convince someone of a certain motive, in order to secure a different goal.

The Direct Officer Star is also integral to achieve change because change involves making a decision to do so, and then committing to that decision. The Direct Officer Star governs a person’s decisiveness but also, their ability to commit to a particular path of action, out of either honour, obligation or responsibility, either to self or to another. Without the Direct Officer Star, it would be difficult to not only embrace change, but to decide and define the change.Yin Day Masters in this respect have a slight advantage in theory because Yin DM’s automatically combine with the Direct Officer Star.

Theoretically, the Direct Officer Star has to be favourable in order for this Star to be relied on to effect change.  If the Star is not favourable (ie: weak DM or overly strong Direct Officer Star), then the Rob Wealth or Friends Star might be better as the path towards achieving change.

In tandem with the Direct Officer Star, the Direct Resource Star must also be deployed. The Direct Resource Star is the star of Self-Cultivation and so closely relates to the desire for personal improvement.  Again, in this instance I would not chose the Indirect Resource Star because it indicates a shortcut approach (meaning, change may be temporary only), and also the Indirect Resource Star denotes unconventional methods (which might imply a warped sense of what needs to be changed, or an odd way of defining change or worse, actually using dumb and potentially ineffective methods, to achieve change. These are people who actually would contemplate swallowing tapeworms to lose weight – don’t laugh, it was a method at one time). Again, this assumes the Resource Star is favourable or useful in some way. An unfavourable or non-useful Resource Star will make the person keen to change, but unwilling to commit to the change since a strong Resource Star denotes a person who is often indecisive but most of the time also, lazy or too laid-back and very accepting of their circumstances.

A little dose of the Rob Wealth Star might be helpful in some instances (ie: weak Day Master) as this helps provide confidence, a touch of competitive spirit (especially if the Day Master responds to this) and of course, will-power to effect change. However, arguably the Friends Star would be better if there is a need to provide support to the weak DM for this purposes – the Friends Star lends innate strength but also denotes inherent self-belief, which is much better than using competitive spirit to get things done (since you likely will run out of steam the minute the reason for competing goes out the door).

Of course, which elements make up the DR, DO and RW/F Stars will also come into play.

Adaptive Day Masters (ie: Water DMs, Yi Wood, Ding Fire) arguably have a better ability to effect change compared to rigid or non-adaptive Day Masters (ie: Wu Earth, Jia Wood, Geng Metal). The problem with Adaptive Day Masters however is that they might prove to be too adaptive, and thus, prone to easily changing their mind or the parameters. Certainly whilst the goal posts do have to be moved in the process of change (after all, the purpose is to ADVANCE), the risk with Adaptive Day Masters is not that they see the situation as a case of many ways to skin a cat, but that they keep changing their mind about whether or not skinning the cat is a good idea. In short, Adaptive Day Masters may have trouble committing to a specific change.

It could also be argued that rigid/non-adaptive Day Masters are better at STICKING to the change, compared to Adaptive Day Masters. For example, Jia Wood, once cut by the Geng, does not forget the lesson easily. On the other hand, Geng, when forged by the Ding, maintains the new ‘shape’ that it has been given. Equally, Wu, like the sculpture that is carved from stone, does not easily alter its new visage.  So it might be concluded that Jia does not forget the lessons learned, and is capable of learning new tricks (aka change) but not without considerable sacrifice or pain, self-inflicted or otherwise. By contrast, Geng and Wu once shaped, find it difficult to alter their form, and thus, perhaps in this life are capable of only making only ONE real big change.