My policies on answering questions on this forum are quite clear. I answer technical questions but I do not answer personal questions relating to a person’s chart (for obvious reasons, this creates more problems than solutions almost always and see my entry on why free bazi advice is a bad idea). However, I am frequently in receipt of technical questions for which there is no other way to describe it than – BADLY PHRASED.
So if the recipients wonder why there has been no answer – well, because it’s very difficult to answer a badly phrased answer succinctly and clearly.
Here is an example of what I consider a ‘badly phrased’ technical question that I received recently.
If output god is unfavorable and regulating useful god are wealth, power, and resource… And output god being unfavorable and “not wanting any more of it in life”… How then could I make the wealth god useful, since it’s 1 of the favorable gods, if I exclude the output element, how will my wealth element be supported? Especially when there’s friends there to make wealth element more weak..how does that work? This is also in the case where person I’m referring to us born in the season of output(eating god)?
Firstly, there no real question in this question. It is stream of consciousness blathering. What if blah leads to blah but the blah is involved and so how does blah become blah without cause blah to become blah?
Secondly, there are too many false assumptions in this question. The asker is assuming that they have interpreted the chart correctly to assume that Output is unfavourable. The asker is also confusing two concepts: unfavourable + favourable elements and regulating useful gods. These are two different levels and methods of analysis and they are being thrown together in the same pot.
The asker assumes that the wealth god has to be made “useful” since it is one of the favourable gods (again, it is not clear WHICH one is the Useful Wealth Star – Direct or Indirect Wealth – since no other data was supplied). The asker also doesn’t seem to understand the difference being “using” and “useful”. (it’s a nitpick I know but still – precision in BaZi is important).
Then there is the exclusion of the output element but then wanting go support the wealth element aspect of the question – again this is a question that is meaningless in its attempt to derive a technical understanding and fails to adhere to the key basics. Since the asker knows that output supports wealth, by extension, output cannot be ‘excluded’. So what is the real question here that they are trying to work out?
Where it gets entirely contradictory is the next part – there are friends to make the wealth element more weak. Wait a minute – if the chart has lots of friends, then it is a strong day master to which how then did the person arrive at the conclusion that Output was Unfavourable? (this is a complete turning on the head of the basic approach to interpreting a chart – Strong/Weak). The poser of ‘how does that work’ seems thrown in to the end of the question without consideration for exactly what is being asked. How does WHAT work? The whole last 3 sentences made no sense. How can the technical question be accordingly answered?
And then finally there is the point that the person is born in the season of the Output Star (specifically Eating God). Again, since I don’t know the Day Master, i don’t know what the Earthly Branch in reference is and finally, I haven’t seen the whole bloody chart – how on earth can such a question be answered aside from the fact that I don’t even know if the person has interpreted the season correctly? (given the previous numerous technical interpretation errors?)
This is not an out of the ordinary question. This is the TYPICAL nature of many technical questions that BaZi consultants get. This medusa’s head of bits and tangles of “stuff” and somehow we are expected to come up with answer that is satisfactory. I should demand a satisfactory question first surely?
The person asking the question here is trying to throw 20 things into the pot and arrive at one golden answer. It doesn’t work that way. The key to asking a good technical question is to break it down in to small bite sized segments but most importantly, to UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND. This person clearly has picked up bits and pieces of information from all over the place and is trying to figure it out for themselves – since the basic information is incongruous and inconsistent, the more this person adds to the pot of incomplete information, the more they get confused.
Start with the basics first and get that right. Apply the Fav/Unfavourable Elements well. Leave out the regulating Useful God first. Work with the Day Master and Strength of the Day Master primarily and figure out what is the question that is at the heart of the technical inquiry – are you asking this question to better understand what line of work the person should be in? How they should make their money? What are the challenges they face in their personal relationships? The technical is there in order to facilitate an understanding of the personal – without the personal question at the heart of it all, how can the technical question ever yield any insight?
Clarity of thought and precision of communication is essential in BaZi because one is juggling many different ideas at different levels.Needless to say, the above question will go unanswered because it is not possible to answer it.
Hi Baziqueen!
I laughed while reading an example of question…what a flow of mind..and..I got a question!!!
Trying to shape it right:
1) I know that Tiger and Snake earthly branches are a harm to each other and also a half-part of Fire Punishment (along with Monkey). Does it make this kind of harm a more painful than other pairings of harms e.g. Dragon and Rabbit?
2) Let’s say person born in Tiger year and is currently going through Snake Luck Pillar. Would it imply his emotional state becoming more unstable or negative? I know you have to know the elements. But just having this condition?
1)
Tiger-Snake is not a Harm, it is a Ungrateful Punishment.I do not know what is the Fire Punishment – never heard of it. Snake-Monkey is a Combination-Destruction and Tiger-Monkey is a Clash.So you are not comparing apples with apples but apples with cheese. CORRECTION & ADDENDUM: As pointed out by Lynette, Tiger-Snake is indeed a Harm – my mistake – typed in haste. To answer Kit’s question regarding the nature of the Harms and whether there is a differentiation between Tiger-Snake vs Dragon-Rabbit by way of degree of pain – this requires a long reply. Firstly, Harms do manifest in different forms, which would denote different outcomes and so by extension, might suggest alternating degrees of ‘pain’. Some Harms have specific implications whilst others don’t necessary have such implications. For example, Dragon-Rabbit and Pig-Monkey typically denote legal problems or litigatious tendencies. We tend to associate Rat and Goat with implications of poisoning or unclear thinking or contamination but that is the nature of the Harm elementally. However, a lot depends on the nature of the chart as well. A person who has many of the ‘Pian’ 偏 Stars in their chart (ie: 7k, IR, IW) may not have an issue with a Harm that is litigatious in nature since these people by nature are the kind of people who skirt the edges of the law anyway.Secondly, the degree of pain varies from person to person because ultimately, the 10 Gods that are involved in the picture MUST come into the equation. Positioning of the Harm is also relevant – if the Harm does not actually involve the Day Master (ie: isn’t something that is in the Day Pillar), it may not actually feel that bad. Also, obviously, if a Harm involves any of the Stars that relate to the person’s mental state of mind or esteem (ie: Resource Star, Useful God, Friends/Rob Wealth Star), then of course the effect will seem greater because these Stars directly connect to the person’s sensitivity points within a chart. However, the effect of the Harm is often further illuminated by looking at ANY OTHER INTERACTIONS – for example, a Dog-Rooster Harm accompanied by a Rabbit-Rooster clash is VERY UNPLEASANT. But a Tiger-Snake Harm accompanied by say, a Pig will not be as bad as a Tiger-Snake harm accompanied by a Monkey because of the effect the Monkey has on the Tiger and the fact that the Tiger-Monkey is a Water Combo, and Water is the element of Emotion.
The bottom line I think is that Harms are worse than Clashes, but ultimately, a Harm has to affect a person psychologically by touching on either a Star that matters/is important or a star that connects to mental state (or physical state in some instances).
2) You have answered your own question – depends on the 10 Gods and the Day Master and the overall state of the chart. Sorry but this is exactly what is a question that cannot be answered.
On Ungrateful Punishment – is there a way to prevent its negative impact or the whole Luck Pillar (10) – especially last 5 years – there will be influence?
There is no such thing as prevent in my opinion. Only managing the situation. Also, I am guessing you mention the last 5 years because you are following the train of thought that says the Branch influences last 5 years of a LP whilst the Stem influences the first 5 years – I do not subscribe to this viewpoint. The impact of the Punishment will be seen from the years wherein the punishment is exaggerated or exacebated by certain stems. Ie: Tiger x Snake – Snake/Monkey/Pig years will impact more strongly.
Re: Tiger-Snake is not a harm. From my super-noob perspective, Tiger wants to combine with Pig, but Snake clashes with Pig, therefore Snake harms Tiger. Similarly, Snake-Monkey combine (and destroy) while Tiger-Monkey clash, therefore Tiger harms Snake.
However, Tiger-Snake is half of an Ungrateful Punishment.
Is the above wrong? If so, then is it correct to say that your method of detecting harms is slightly different from Joey Yap (at least according to his books and his online course, which are what I’ve checked out so far)?
Hope to be enlightened by you soon! And great blog, by the way! I’ve been a lurker for quite some time!
Tiger-Snake is indeed a Ungrateful Punishment and Harm. My mistake – typed in haste – I have rectified the answer appropriately below. And I do follow the MA teachings, for the record, as I was formerly an Instructor/Senior Consultant there.
Thanks, Baziqeen,
and another question:
you probably know the method when in Bazi chart every element is calculated and presented as weight. So for example in someone’s chart there are 38 points of Metal, 25 points of Water and so forth…
The difficulty is when I analyze Bazi chart in a different (or mostly common used) way – it appears that “weighting” method presents different numbers. What do you think about this method and its use? Thanks
The method of weighing is obviously designed to provide some form of mathematical basis to assessing a BaZi. I don’t use this method because BaZi is a judgment call, an ART. There is no formula to it. Making it into a formula basically means machines can come up with the answer – and since they haven’t been able to come up with an answer, obviously, a formula doesn’t work does it?
Yo, nice read there. So what are the implications of Tiger-Snake ungrateful relationship? I have Tiger in year pillar, Snake in day pillar. Snake is my resource, Tiger is my superiors. Its something mental about meeting power right? Power attacks my mental state in other words.
Depends on the Day Master, and any other interactions – can’t ignore Luck Pillars either. This is what I mean when I say people shouldn’t ask questions in isolation. Answers are impossible this way.
What happens there is a Monkey in the hour pillar, but the person is going through a 10 LP of Tiger and will go during those years through a Snake Year? Would the destruction clash would be as strong as if the last 2 animals were inside their chart?
If you have Snake and Tiger in your chart, and go through a LP that aggravates it, that is definitely worse than something that is activated by the LP and AP together, but not permanently present in the chart.
Interesting comments on Tiger-Monkey clashes. What is the impact if someone has multiple Tiger-Monkey clashes (Tiger in Year pillar, Monkey in Month pillar, Tiger in Day pillar and Monkey in Hour pillar)? Does this indicate a life full of obstacles? If yes, what sort of obstacles?
Depends on the Day Master. Generically, it denotes a person with a high tendency towards attracting legal problems, and who is emotionally a wreck.
Any advice on how to mitigate and reduce the negative impact in this case? Thanks.
You can never mitigate the negative impact of a clash. Only manage it.
I read that for Tiger-Monkey clash, the cure animal is Snake, as Snake combines with Monkey saving the Tiger. However, Tiger-Snake-Monkey forms the Ungrateful Punishment! Isn’t this contradicting?
Any advice on how to mitigate and reduce the negative impact in this case? Thanks.
I have a snake in hour pillar and monkey in day pillar. Does it mean when comes the year of tiger (e.g.2022) I will form the full ungrateful combination? Does it mean this will affect the emotional state or possibly a divorce on the way?
Re the punishment, yes. Re outcome it depends on the DM (note, I do not provide professional advice via my blog).
Thank you and noted. On a another question, isn’t snake and monkey combination equals to water combination? Which is good?
that would depend on what Water means to you. People always talk about interactions in their chart remotely without regard for the essential point that a) it always depends on your Day Master b) it always depends on what your chart needs c) it always depends on the 10 Gods involved. d) it always depends on the context of the question.
Isolated questions about interactions are in effect useless information. In fact, I don’t even teach clash combo harm etc as the first thing to look at. 10 Gods in the chart and base character of the person FIRST. If you don’t know this, then stop wasting time looking at interactions. You will get no information of value.