Chapter 22
The Four Pillars of Destiny, Part 1
In This Chapter
Is our destiny determined by fate or free will?
The Ten Heavenly Stems
The Twelve Earthly Branches
Downloading your life chart using an online program
Let’s say you’re at a dinner party. You’ve discussed the escalating crisis in the Middle East, debated the merits of the high protein-low carbohydrate Atkins diet, argued about whether aggression is an inherent trait in specific breeds of dogs, voiced your opinion about celibacy in the Catholic Church, and chuckled over the latest celebrity foibles. Several bottles of Merlot later, there’s a lull in the conversation. Here’s the perfect time to pose this question to perk up the party: “Do you think your life is predictable?”
This chapter answers that question. Here, you’ll learn how The Four Pillars of Destiny, a method of Chinese fate calculation, can determine a predetermined course of events—your destiny and luck. You’ll learn how this method can help uncover your hidden potential so that you can enjoy a more meaningful and satisfying life.
How Free Is Free Will?
Although most Westerners believe that destiny and luck are random and unpredictable, the Chinese believe destiny and luck are measurable and knowable. Nevertheless, the Chinese believe how we think and act can help alter (positively or negatively) a predetermined course of events. So, before you discover what your four pillars say about your destiny and luck, let’s take one step back and talk about free will.
We all know what free will means. It’s what sets us apart from any other living, breathing thing on Earth. Free will allows us to make choices, to actively participate in building our life’s path. But are we totally free? Of course not. No one has absolute free will. Not even America—the land of the free. Physical limitations and psychological conditioning restrict most of us from making choices that are harmful, or socially and morally unacceptable. For example, you have the freedom to jump off a cliff. But would you want to? Also, you have the freedom to say just about anything. It’s your constitutional right. But would you want to? Do you really want to tell your best friend that you hate her new hairdo? Do you really want to tell your spouse he or she is not your soul mate? We think not.
Clearly, our decisions in some measure reflect the belief systems of our parents, society, and country. But our decisions are also influenced by our character or personality, the part of us that is largely inexplicable. Some believe our fundamental character is determined by our genetic composition. Some believe God or a Higher Power grants us our innate character, talents, and circumstances. Some also believe in reincarnation, the belief that cause and effect, or karma, determines the outcome of our lives. Basically, reincarnation holds that we are continually reborn until we achieve our full potential.
Master Class
When Song dynasty scholar Su Tong Po was asked about the criteria for passing the Imperial Examination, he answered that a person’s success is based on five factors: Destiny (ming) and luck (yun) are preordained by heavenly qi. Feng shui is determined by earthly qi. And, the accumulation of virtuous deeds (ji yin de) and study (du shu) are controlled by human qi.
The Chinese believe that our character, destiny, and luck are a blend of fate and free will, a harmony of heavenly, earthly, and human qi. They believe our character is a by-product of our fate. Our fate is determined by the first breath we take. Literally, we inhale our destiny and luck, a composite of qi present at that exact moment.
Portending the Future
Anyone can predict the cycle of life: You’re born; you grow up; you age; and then you die. No one can deny this most fundamental fate. On a natural level, anyone can predict that spring’s rebirth leads to summer’s vibrant abundance, which is followed by autumn’s decay, and then winter’s abyss. On a smaller scale, we can look outside and based on the season and our observation of the sky, forecast the day’s weather. Also, we can use tools to help us prepare for the day ahead. For instance, we can read the thermometer posted outside the kitchen window, watch the weather vane on a neighbor’s roof, or stick our finger in the air to determine the direction the wind is blowing. Yet, the five senses that we rely on to help us make judgments and decisions limit us; that is, we can’t see or feel the minutia of weather patterns.
Feng Facts
In meteorology, there’s an interesting phenomenon called the butterfly effect, so called because the flutter of a butterfly’s wings (a slight change in atmospheric conditions) can cause dramatic atmospheric changes in another part of the world. On a human level, this means that the smallest act of free will can lead to an unpredictable outcome.
Of course, we can watch the local television news for information about the weather. Meteorologists always seem to have the answer, and they’re even correct most of the time! This is because they use more sophisticated instruments to measure things like air temperature, air currents, wind speed, and humidity. In the same way, in order to predict more detailed information about a person’s life, we need a sophisticated technique.
What Are The Four Pillars of Destiny?
In China there are two kinds of fate calculation: Ziwei Doushu (Purple Constellation Fate Computation) and Ziping Bazi (Eight Characters of Ziping). Ziping Bazi is commonly known as The Four Pillars of Destiny. First developed by court astrologer Li Xuzhong of the Tang dynasty (618–907 C.E.) and modified by Xu Ziping of the Song dynasty (960–1269 C.E.), the system of The Four Pillars is a method of calculating and interpreting the five phase components of the qi you inhaled at birth. Like feng shui, it is an accurate system of predicting possibilities. For example, the chart you will soon create online might indicate a potential for great wealth, thus creating an innate urge to succeed. But how you act on this urge is where your free choice comes into play. In other words, regardless of what your chart might indicate, free will helps to determine the outcome of your fate.
Wise Words
Called Bazi (eight characters) in Chinese, The Four Pillars of Destiny is a method of calculating and interpreting the five phase elements present at your birth. Each pillar represents a year, month, day, and hour. The Four Pillars of Destiny measures probabilities, not certainties, of your life’s path.
So, if good fortune prevails in your chart, waiting for Publishers Clearinghouse to come knocking at your door isn’t an answer. The onus is on you to act on your inborn talents and desires—to force the hand, so to speak. If you are blessed with advantageous possibility, it’s up to you to bring it to fruition!
What do the “pillars” of The Four Pillars of Destiny mean? Well, each pillar is actually a time component. One pillar represents the year, one the month, one the day, and one the hour. Each time component describes the five-phase element structure present at the moment of your birth (when you took your first, qi-inspired breath). The relationship and position of each phase helps to determine your probable life path. The following chart is an example of a Four Pillars chart. It belongs to the late Princess Diana. The day-stem component is highlighted; this component is called the Day-Master. You’ll learn about the Day-Master’s importance in the next chapter.
Master Class
There’s a fundamental difference between Western and Chinese astrology. Western astrology considers the positions of the planets, sun, and moon at your birth—a truly astral method. Chinese astrology is concerned with types of qi (heavenly, earthly, and human) and, therefore, isn’t exclusively astral.
Notice that each pillar is divided into a stem-branch component. Actually, stem is short for Ten Heavenly Stems, and branch is short for Twelve Earthly Branches, which we’ll discuss a little later in this chapter.
Time, Chinese Style
Before we can get into the mechanics, let’s take a moment to talk about, well, time. As we mentioned in Chapter 13, Westerners view time as linear. The year begins on January 1 and ends on December 31. The month begins on the first and generally ends on the thirtieth. The day begins and ends at midnight. Times proceed along a straight line.
The Chinese, on the other hand, think cyclically. Time is a continuous spiral. What goes around, comes around. Time does repeat itself—sort of.
The Ten Heavenly Stems
How did the Chinese develop their concept of time? As the story goes, the legendary Huang Di, known as the Yellow Emperor (2697–2597 B.C.E.), ordered a wise man named Da Nao to invent a system of recording time. To achieve this, Da Nao set about observing the intricacies of the five phases of qi, how they transformed over the course of the year. From this observation, Da Nao developed what he called the Ten Heavenly Stems, shown in Table 1.
Wise Words
The Ten Heavenly Stems (Tian Gan) represent heavenly qi—cycles of time. The progression of stems show how the five phases alter with the passage of a year. One type of qi undergoes growth (yang) and then declines while yielding to another type (yin).
Why are the stems heavenly? Harkening back to Chapter 4, the Chinese people use the word “heaven” to mean “time.” Hence, the heavenly stems record how qi changes with time.
Referring to the table, each stem is associated with a yin (-) or yang (+) delineation and a phase. For example, the first stem Jia is yang (+) wood. The second stem Yi is yin (–) wood. The third stem Bing is yang (+) fire, and so forth.
The Twelve Earthly Branches
Just as the words “heaven” and “time” are interchangeable, so, too, are the words “earth” and “space.” As you learned in the previous chapter, the Twelve Earthly Branches denote movement of qi in a given area on earth. Referring to the illustration in the previous chapter, notice that the pig, rat, and ox branches rule the north and winter. Following clockwise around the illustration, the tiger, rabbit, and dragon branches rule the east and spring; the snake, horse, and sheep (or goat) branches rule the south and summer; and the monkey, rooster, and dog branches rule the west and autumn. Why is each branch referred to by its animal name rather than a phase? This is because each branch is comprised of one or more phases. Collectively, they are called the reserved (or hidden) stems in the branches. For our purposes, we’ll refer to them as the branch phases.
Wise Words
The Twelve Earthly Branches (Di Zhi) represent the movement of earthly qi in a given location. Each branch is assigned a zodiacal animal and contains one or more hidden stems.
Referring to Table 2, notice that the first rat branch Zi contains only hidden yin (-) water. The second ox branch Chou contains mainly hidden yin (-) earth, with some yin (-) water and yin (-) metal. The third tiger branch Yin contains mainly hidden yang (+) wood, with some yang (+) fire and yang (+) earth. Get the idea?
The Cycle of Sixty
The Ten Heavenly Stems and the Twelve Earthly Branches combine into a Cycle of Sixty stem-branch pairs, shown in Table 3. If you imagine two gears—one with 10 teeth and the other with 12 teeth—and allow them to rotate and interlock, the gear with 10 teeth would complete its rotation before the gear with 12 teeth. If you mark the first tooth of each gear and begin the rotation, you’ll note that it takes six rotations of the 10 and five rotations of the 12 before the first teeth of the respective gears are aligned as they were at the start. Thus, the sixtieth interlocking will start the repeating of the cycle. Therefore, there are 60 possible pairs when the stems and branches are combined.
Wise Words
The Cycle of Sixty represents all possible combinations (60) of the Ten Heavenly Stems and Twelve Earthly Branches with corresponding yang and yin designations. The year 2697 B.C.E. marked the first of the 60-year, or 60-stem-branch, cycle.
Beginning with Jia Zi, the year 2697 B.C.E. marked the first of the 60-year, or 60-stem-branch, cycle. Why does the cycle begin with Jia (wood) Zi (water)? This is because the branch (Zi/water) is at the end of yin. The beginning of yang is marked by the growth of wood. It is a time of birth and renewal. What cycle are we currently in, you ask? You’ll find out in a moment.
Calculating Your Four Pillars
Creating your chart takes a matter of seconds. It is error-proof—and it is absolutely free! All you need to do is to go to Joseph Yu’s website: www.astro-fengshui.com. Scroll down until you find “Four Pillars Calculator.” Click on “On-line calculator.” You’ll be taken to a page called, “Chart Your Four Pillars.”
Follow these simple directions:
1. Type your name, or the name of person whose chart you will be creating, in the appropriate box.
2. Select the GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) zone for your place of birth. If you do not find the city, or a city close to where you were born, go to www.timeanddate.com. Under the Time box, click on “World Clock.” Scroll down the page until you find your birth city. Click on it. For example, if you were born in Johannes-burg, South Africa, GMT Standard Time is +2 or two hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time. If you were born in Toronto, Canada, GMT Standard Time is –5 or five hours behind Greenwich Mean Time. Note: Make sure that you jot down the Standard Time and not Summer or Daylight Savings Time. Return to “Charting Your Four Pillars” page on Joseph Yu’s website. Choose GMT +2:00 Athens/Helsinki for the first example and GMT –5:00 US/Eastern for the second example. Alternative references to obtain the time zone for your birth city are wwp.greenwichmeantime.com, www.astro.com (AstroDIENST), and www.hko.gov.hk/gts/time/worldtime2.htm (Hong Kong Observatory).
3. The longitude box is optional. However, you can obtain this information at the same website you might have used in Step 2: www.timeanddate.com. For example, the longitude of Johannesburg, South Africa is +27 degrees. The longitude of Toronto, Canada is –79 degrees. Anything east of Greenwich, England (Zero Longitude) gets a + and anything west of Greenwich gets a –. Longitudinal information can also be found on the alternate websites listed in Step 2.
4. Select the year and month of your birth.
5. Select the day of your birth.
6. Before you select the hour of your birth (recorded in military time; see the following conversion table), you first must adjust for Daylight Savings Time (DST), if appropriate, by subtracting an hour from the time of your birth. If you’re not sure DST was in effect, go to www.astro.com. On the home page, click on “Astrology Atlas Query” located on the top, left side of your screen. Select the region in which you were born and type your birth city. This will take you to another page. Next, type your birth data. If DST was in effect, it will be noted. Another good source is The International Atlas, Fifth Edition: World Latitudes & Longitudes, Time Changes and Time Zones, by Thomas G. Shanks (see Appendix C).
7. Click “Compute.” Scroll down to find your Four Pillars chart and your Eight Luck Pillars chart (the latter will be discussed in Chapter 26). Print it out.
Remember, GMT is Greenwich Mean (or Meridian) Time. It is an imaginary longitudinal line that runs from the North Pole to the South Pole. Zero Longitude runs through Greenwich, England. Since 1884, it has been the starting point of every time zone around the world. GMT is fixed. Adjustments are not made for Daylight Savings Time.
Princess Diana’s Four Pillars
As an example, let’s compute Princess Diana’s Four Pillars birth chart.
The first row represents the stems belonging to the year, month, day, and hour of Diana’s birth. The second row represents the branches belonging to the year, month, day, and hour of her birth. As we mentioned earlier in this chapter, a branch contains one or more hidden components, and therefore, is referred to by its Pinyin or animal name. The third, fourth, and fifth rows represent the hidden stems within the branches (the branch phases). In Diana’s chart, the ox or Chou branch in her year pillar contains only yin (-) earth. The horse or Wu branch in her month pillar contains yin (-) fire and yin (-) earth, and so forth.
To make Diana’s chart easier on the eye and easier to study, we’ll rearrange her chart so that the Pinyin names and phases are grouped separately. At this introductory stage, it isn’t necessary to note the Pinyin names of the hidden stems in the branches. Diana’s chart now looks like this:
Using a separate sheet of paper, take time now to arrange your pillars in the same way. With a pencil, outline your day-stem component—your Day-Master. In Diana’s case, Wood is her Day-Master. You’ll learn the relevance of the Day-Master in the next chapter.
Whew! You’ve completed your Four Pillars of Destiny life chart. Now what? This is where the fun begins. In the next chapters, you’ll learn different ways of analyzing your chart. You’ll learn about your life’s focus, your relations with others, and money matters (among other things).
The Least You Need to Know
The Chinese believe the first breath we take at birth determines our destiny.
Our free will allows us to actively participate in changing our destiny.
The Four Pillars of Destiny is a method of determining the qi you inhaled at birth.
Each pillar is made up of a stem-branch component(s) corresponding to a five-phase element and a yin/yang delineation.