Can’t start a Fire without a spark. My diary for the month of the Water Rabbit

Can’t start a Fire without a spark.
My diary for the month of the Water Rabbit
(17:36 Mar 5th to 22:14pm 4th April 2017 inclusive)
in the Year of the Fire Rooster.

Da Zhuang

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Great Power
Hexagram 34

“One must have chaos within in order to give birth to a dancing star.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
The Rabbit Month
Animal by Animal
During this Water Rabbit Month,
The Rat senses ingratitude,
The Ox is needed,
Tigers may be inappropriate,
The wise Rabbit trusts,
The Dragon seeks (and often gains) vision,
The Snake may feel out of sync,
The Horse surges but not far,
The Sheep joins forces,
The Monkey is less challenged,
The unwise Rooster preens,
The Dog is on the periphery,
and
The Pig grasps the nettle.

Know your inner beast. How Rabbit are you?
Birth in the Rabbit Hour (5-7am)~: family is central to you..
Birth on the Rabbit Day#: hostess with the mostest.
Birth during the Rabbit Month (March)*: fabulous Roladex.
Birth in the Rabbit Year: gentle and decent to a fault.
~ GMT. # You’ll need a Chinese calendar for this. * Caution: Chinese months start later.

Where to do what, when and why
Summary: Here’s where to go for that leap forward.
North East, Wealth Star: Year Star: 4 gip sat, Month Star: 1
Great all year, especially for West Group kua (8,6,7,2). This month’s 1 Water Star brings release and relief. Those qualities of invention, curiosity and academic success that attach to the young female are strong here now. Also to the not-so-young and male. Ways to achieve this include facing North East, locating in the North East of your space and seeking NE-facing buildings.
Top Tip: carry a compass.
Annual Solution: Bright light. Four Plants (eg four bamboos in Water)..
Monthly Enhancement: add Wood eg four bamboos in Water.

East and West Groups: Everybody falls into either the East or the West Group by virtue of their birth date. The calculation is simple but if you do want to know where you belong, email me at richardashworth@imperialfengshui.info.
Readers Digest version: East Group people best face East, South, South-East and North and/or in buildings and beds backing onto these directions. West Group vice-versa. Sorry it’s fiddly, I’m not making this stuff up.

Can ‘t start a Fire without a spark.
“One must have chaos within in order to give birth to a dancing star.”
Friedrich Nietzsche

Here comes the Water Rabbit month bringing Hexagram 34 Da Zhuang Great Power, as you can see. The Western mind tends to think of this kind of image as an ego boost but a more grown-up approach is to ask – what next? Great power cannot last. What do we do with it? How do we prepare for the fact that we’re going to meet on the way down those we dealt with on the way up? October and November may bring answers.

Interestingly the Rabbit is the romantic; generally gentle, accommodating and domestic. They are hosts, networkers and getter-onners with people. Despite everything else this remains the likely tenor of this as every Rabbit month. Which is poignant when we consider that in a Rooster year, the Rabbit is pretty sure to experience issues of disloyalty and bad faith. It’s just not fair. But then as far as anyone knows the tao has no moral remit. Rabbit month/Rooster year – broken faith; either or both ways round. Dog: expect to be roped in. And Dragon.

But surely this is the last thing the gentle Rabbit or the fun-loving Rooster want? Of course, but I learned early on in this strange journey, that there’s no irony in real life. When we tell ourselves that despite our perfect behaviour, things just didn’t work out, we’re missing the point. We choose all of it; consciously if we can but unconsciously otherwise. This is the tao.

And it may that for all of us this period of turbulence is bringing up useful lessons. The Rabbit perhaps needs to know their own bitter side and the Rooster the outcome of short-term thinking. And these lessons permeate to the rest of us because we are all living through the same time and place. This is the month of the open and talkative Water Rabbit but also the year of the show-offy Fire Rooster. Now may be the time get to know your inner bunny and your inner turkey.

For the above and other reasons I’ve often referred to 2017 as the Year of the Turkey and there seem to be plenty of such gobblers in public life right now. But this month it might be more accurate to call it the Year of the Chicken. As in two reckless drivers speeding towards one another at colossal combined speed.  Remember this may be true globally, domestically and personally. And we can adjust our attitudes, our behaviour and our environments to allow for that. For which, see below of course.

March is also a 7 lo shu month which makes for even more glitter and shiny stuff. Bomber-jacketted Donald Trump playing with his toy planes and aircraft carriers may be typical. If we discount Barack Obama (pause for deep breath) Trump is of course the third consecutive draft-dodging Fire Dog President. Drain the swamp? Pull the world into it more like.

The 7 which defines the month just as the Rabbit does, represents a thousand things in Chinese symbolism. One of which incidentally is the Rooster. 7 is reckoned to be mischievous, interfering, inappropriate, even in the extreme aggressive. Elementally it is generally considered to be yin Metal. But its full name is Red Seven and red is not a Metal colour. Red is passionate, spontaneous, awkward, it’s Fire. 7 also stands for the mouth and the openings of the body.

Taken together what does this mumbo-jumbo mean? Here’s what: the yin metal implies a superficial attitude, attachment to bling and shiny things and variable integrity; Fire brings impatience and attention-seeking behaviour. Not a nourishing cocktail on the face of it. However – stay with me – this year there’s a 1 in the heart of every building. This brings the 7 to the boil. So we can expect communication to be frank, revealing and immediate this month. Home truths are told and emotional and spiritual stuckness expressed. It’s time for frank talk – again globally, personally, domestically, other. If we pay attention longstanding dialogue may complete.

Animal Fortunes for the Rooster year remain on the website all year:
2017: Year of the Turkey. Use wisely.

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Richard Ashworth is among the most respected Western Feng Shui Masters. He has worked from the Lebanon to Bermuda and with stars such as Kelly Hoppen and Gillian Anderson and unusually for a Western Master, has addressed the Grand Masters at the International Feng Shui Conference in Singapore. His day job remains “walking round people’s spaces being enigmatic”.

Richard Ashworth © 2017
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