This is Lance Armstrong’s chart (hour not correct). I thought I would continue some of the discussion about his chart here.

Postscript: the Luck Pillars have now been included into the post.

So the thing about this chart is what made him cheat/dope?  I have been thinking about this, especially because when I first looked at the chart, it did not scream ‘CHEATER’ to me. Honestly I was a little surprised because I didn’t immediately see the Stars that I’d expected to see in the strength that I expected to see them. Not of course that the ‘cheater’ Stars (7K, RW and more to the point, IR) were not present – in the chart, these stars ARE present but not in overwhelming strength although granted, the HOUR is not determinable (although given the circumstances, it would be an educated guess that it’s either a Dragon or a Dog or an Ox). But the broad composition of the chart is not suggestive of a cheater. It is strongly suggestive of a highly competitive personality, but that does not equate with cheating.

Also been thinking about some answers I got from students over the weekend about their expectations on what they should be able to do after learning BaZi to a certain level. One student said he wanted to be able to do matching of staff to job requirements in his workplace and it occurred to me to ask if the person felt they were qualified in terms of real world knowledge (as opposed to BaZi knowledge) as to what a particular job demanded in terms of skillsets in order to successfully do the matching. If you have ZERO knowledge of how to define a particular set of skills for a specific type of job, how will you know if the BaZi chart matches the criteria?

Which brings me back to Lance Armstrong and the world of cycling, of which I know little about. Until of course, this whole debacle came out. And then there was ONE TELLING STATEMENT that I read in an article that sort of turned the lightbulb on for me on this whole thing. Normally, when a winner of a particular sporting event (ie: Olympics) is declared a cheat, the next in line will receive the medal. This was the case with Ben Johnson and Marion Jones. Their medals were stripped (or in Jones case, returned) and given to the next in line aka clean winner. But when it came to the Tour De France during the years that Armstrong was the winner, EVERY SINGLE CYCLIST who finished behind him was caught for doping.

It is now emerging that possibly, the world of cycling, in the period that Armstrong was riding, was a world where doping was de rigeur. It can be argued that in Armstrong’s chart, the DW star is almost as strong as the RW star. These two stars are contrary to each other but they also need each other in a sense. When DW is strong, the RW is needed to help the Day Master successfully control the strong DW. DW follows the rules, RW skirts them. So how do we reconcile this situation in the context of Lance Armstrong?

Well, one way to look at it was that he was a very competitive personality but one who also wanted to play by the rules. And in his mind, given that doping was rampant, Armstrong WAS playing by the rules by doping. The fact that he became exceptionally good at it from various accounts is demonstrative of his RW star and probably discovering the hidden potential of his IR star within the Pig of his year when it comes to out-thinking the testers and officials.

But did he intend to cheat to win or did he simply cheat because he believed that was the only way to win? Elements of his chart (particularly the HO and DW stars) suggest this may have been his mindset, that he did not think he could win without drugs and that it was not cheating if everyone else is doing it. The misconception of the DW Star is that the DW Star follows the rules. It does – whichever are the RULES OF THE DAY. Rules do not necessarily have to be ethical – notice that there is no DO star to speak off in Armstrong’s chart. A DW and DO star together would follow the rules but only follow the rules if they were ethical. A DW Star that is present WITHOUT a DO star will not react in the same manner. So if the rules of the day says that every guy who is competing against you is cheating, then you have to cheat too because that’s what the system is.

Maybe that’s why in Lance Armstrong’s own way, he doesn’t believe he cheated.