Life Chart and the Four Forces
The starting point for doing a reading on a person’s life is to compile a Life Chart. To do so, one needs to know his or her date of birth (year, month and day), as well as the time of birth with accuracy within the two-hour time block based on the Chinese clock from ancient times. I know someone who would like me to do a Chart for him, but because he was adopted, he does not know his time of birth so I am not able to help him. In theory, I could examine all 12 time blocks, compare past events to the 12 different Charts and select the one most representative of his life. It is obviously a huge undertaking so we decided to just pass.
The Life Chart is the foundation and provide an indication of a person’s appearance, core values, personality and disposition. Overlaid on this foundation, we need to apply the four forces (good fortune, power, fame and destruction) based on the prefix of the calendar in the year the person was born.
The house where the good fortune entered in the Life Chart signifies what is most important, or what gives the person the greatest satisfaction in life. If it’s in the Wealth house, that person will spend endless effort coming up with ways to make money, hold multiple jobs, wheel and deal, and has an index of success based on how much material wealth can be generated. If it’s in the Parents or Friends / Servants house, those are the people most important in a person’s life. I have heard of female friends complaining about their significant other (boy-friend, husband, partner) dropping everything and taking off to be with their mother or buddies at the whim of a call; they have to compete for attention and are always taken for granted. Other than finding ways to accept and adapt, I really do not have any other advice to people in that situation if they want to stay in the relationship. You cannot force or dictate another person to make you the number one priority if he or she finds joy, fulfillment, happiness and satisfaction with someone else that he or she prefers over you.
The house where the power force resides can be interpreted as what gives a person strength. If it resides in the Life house, the person can be a power grabber and very controlling. If it resides in the Marriage (Intimate Relationships) house, the significant other always calls the shots and the person just follows orders.
If the fame force resides in a person’s personal houses (being Life, Mobility, Career and Wealth), that person can make a name for himself or herself and is very useful in show business, politics or academics. If the fame force resides in the Children house, that person is blessed with kids that are smart and excel in life. They remain close and often chum along throughout life enjoying time and doing things together.
The destruction force is a person’s Achilles' heel, a weakness or a vulnerable area that gives the person grief and misery time after time in life, and the person is helpless to overcome it or get it under control. If the destruction force resides in the Wealth house, the person can have cash flow problems and is in general not suitable for running his or her own business unless the person can find partners with deep pockets. As the Wealth house is at a direct angle from the Career house, the financial issue is often caused by disruption in the Career house which signifies loss of employment. One fellow I knew at my previous day job has the destruction force in his Wealth house. He held a manager position in his late 20’s and was considered a rising star in the organization. Yet he felt restless and unfulfilled. Out of the blue, he quit his job and took a year and a half off travelling to 14 countries. He had a great time but also depleted most of his savings. When he decided to return to the work-force, he had to take contract jobs and it took him a few years to land on a full-time job again. [TOP]Life Chart, Decade, Calendar Year and Age
We can learn a lot about a person’s character and disposition based on the Life Chart, but that is a static view. According to some stats available on line, as of 2011, the life expectancy is 80.93 years for Canada, 78.64 years for the United States of America, and 73.49 for China. People go through ups and downs in life. The Life Chart is definitely not sufficient to predict or foretell a person’s fortune, as in life experiences and occurrence of events.
A person’s life is strung together through a series of Decades. The start and end of a Decade is determined based on three factors:
- Gender (Male or Female)
- Quality (Masculine or Feminine)
- Element (Water, Wood, Gold, Earth and Fire)
Leading the cycle is a Masculine Male / Feminine Female with Water as the element. The distribution of Decades will go clockwise with the following houses as the Life house for that time period:
- Parents: 2 - 11
- Fortune (Mental State and Wealth Accumulation): 12 – 21
- Home (Real Estate Properties): 22 - 31
- Career: 32 - 41
- Friends / Servants: 42 - 51
- Mobility: 52 - 61
- Health: 62 - 71
- Wealth: 72 - 81
- Children: 82 - 91
- Marriage: 92 -101
Wrapping up the cycle is a Feminine Male / Masculine Female with Fire as the element. The distribution of Decades will go counter-clockwise with the following houses as the Life house for that time period:
- Siblings: 5 – 14
- Marriage: 15 -24
- Children: 25 – 34
- Wealth: 35-44
- Health: 45 – 54
- Mobility: 55 – 64
- Friends / Servants: 65 – 74
- Career: 75 – 84
- Home (Real Estate Properties): 85 – 94
- Fortune (Mental State and Wealth Accumulation): 95 – 104
There are 10 different combinations for the distribution of Decades.
The Chinese Calendar Year runs on a cycle of 60 years based on 10 prefixes around the 12 animals. It is based on the lunar calendar with roughly 30 days each month. Full moon is always on the 15th day of the month.
Age is based on the Chinese method of counting. It starts at 1, as life starts at conception. The period runs from the date of the person’s birthday until the following year. A person born on July 1, 1990 will have his or her 25th year of life from July 1, 2014 to June 30, 2015.
To predict a person’s fortune, one needs to consider a person’s star distribution and impact of the four forces on the Life Chart, Decade Chart, Calendar Year, and Age. One can go further down to the Month and Day, which I apply to my daily life as I have the skill and knowledge to do so.
The Chinese Almanac has a concept called “broken day”. Those are days when people should be extra cautious against bad things that may happen to them, around them, or to people that they care about. For this reason, traditional Chinese people would check the Chinese Almanac and avoid “broken days” for milestone events like a wedding, christening a baby, or opening a new store to ensure a good beginning. [TOP]