Hey, More on Ba Zi

*lynne* at Answers Without, Answers Within will do the Chinese Ba Zi or Paht Chee or Four Pillars reading for anyone interested. She also has some other reading options for those interested.

As I am with the Tarot Queen, she doesn't claim to be an expert (and I've read there's a great deal of expertise required to become a master at this) but she's happy to do a reading for free, but you have to let her publish it on her blog (you can use a pseudonym).

I'm going to do it. I haven't a clue how to evaluate a Chinese fortune unless I did tons of research and, truthfully, I just don't have the time.

And, of course, I'm cool with a public fortune. (Now you'll all know if I become a serial killer as soon as I do!). But, I'll also be posting the salient points here along with links to *lynne*'s blog and her guidelines for readings.

Thanks, *lynne*! This is going to be fun.

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For Anonymous: Ba Zi Anyone?

Anonymous asked: hey u believe in Chinese Ba Zi & can u intepret one?

Actually, this is technically easy to answer since I never heard of it. So, no I can't say I believe in it, per se. And, naturally, I have no skill in interpreting it.

But I am interested in different things so I looked it up. Thank you, Wikipedia. Apparently, Ba Zi is Chinese astrology, specifically a reading of one's destiny based on the year, month, day and hour of one's birth. Now, when you put it that way, I've read about such things. More than one book that touched on Chinese culture (and, yes, I know it's more complex than that) explained how seriously this was regarded as a fortune was often solemnly cast early in a child's life and the results were taken as gospel.

Note that, though I can't claim to "believe" it, I do not disbelieve it either. These fortunes are taken very seriously by a great many people and I think there are many things that are not readily explained. I don't read my own horoscope, but I do identify with my sign (Western Zodiac: Scorpio). I learned tarot very skeptically and I'm still a little mystified when it makes sense. I don't know that I believe anything absolutely in the fortune telling world, but I believe it's possible. And that would extend to Ba Zi. I will say that the Chinese method for predicting a baby's gender was spot on with all three of my children.

Now, if you were hoping I could do a Ba Zi reading, I'm sorry. I'm not exactly sure what it would take to become proficient, but I'm not currently. However, there are sites that can perform readings. And I did find this handy dandy gadget courtesy of Four Pillars and Feng Shui Calculator:


How cool is that? The Wikipedia article I cited above has other links as well.

Sorry I couldn't help you out much, but I hope you had fun. I did. I'll use the calculator myself and tell you what it says in a comment.

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