Where do I start?

[meek]

If this is your first time looking into Five Arts, you can read the following in sequence to get a general idea:
1. Direction and Location
2. Yin Yang
3. 5-Elements
4. 10 Heavenly Stems
5. 12 Earthly Branches
6. 60 Jia Zi
7. 12 Qi Phases
8. Chinese and English Names of 10 Gods

[Julie]

THank you for the excellent information.  It is great!  I am new to Chinese forms of astrology and am having such a great time learning it.  I am wondering if anyone cas share any understading they have as to how important the divination disciplines are in the culture today.  Are there specific or general subcultural interests?

Thank you and I sincerely appreciate the generosity and enthusiam this forum projects.

Julie
Cool

[meek]

Hi Julie,

Five Arts (such as Feng Shui, Ba Zi, TCM, etc) originated from China and has been refining and evolving through times. It has been spread around the world as Chinese migrants brought the Chinese culture along with them to their new country of residence. Of course, it is still most prominent in the East.

Regarding the importance of divination disciplines today, it all depends on the individual's understanding of each art.

Most of the points in my first post above can be considered as the basic language of Five Arts. But of course not everybody would be interested in learning the spelling of every word. In times of desperation some may look for an answer without wanting to know the language. Some may have heard that certain method will bring prosperity and wealth, and treat it as a 'treasure map'. On the way one may come across imitations and snake-oil, but that doesn't mean the real thing is not to be found.

Regarding the applications, any method such as divination, feng shui, face/palm reading can be used similarly like a weather forecast - its level of importance is up to the individual. You may choose not to know about the weather and take the chance that it is not going to rain. If the weather forecast predicts that it is going to rain, you may want to stay in or go out with an umbrella. It is about using the forecast predictions to help make your choices.

Also, just like in the west where psychic reading is used to help find missing persons, divination can be used in the same way - to help when 'conventional' methods find no clue. There are many areas one can apply the usage of Divination, Feng Shui and Birthchart reading. The most popular areas are travel, relationships, and career.

These are some of my views about Five Arts. Hope other members will also share their views.

 

[Julie]

Thank you.  I have read it through and found it much easier to understand and track.  I am beginning to realize that this is at least as complex of the Occidental methods...

I have noted that many have said there aren't any good books written for the Ba Zi methods in English, is this the general concensus or is there something out there worth picking up?

Thanks for your response...

Julie

[meek]

Hi Julie, you're welcome.

Regarding the books, lets discuss this under Book and Tool Review? 

On the topic of cultures today, Date Selection for wedding banquet is still quite common. Of course, in modern days society with a 5 or 5 1/2 working week, the criteria will have to be suited for the turnout of the banquet guests. This means weekend is usually the preference.
 

Another area is the practice of Name Selection. When I'm browsing books in big bookshops, there are times when a couple of parents-to-be would be there to browse through a few name selection books, hoping to pick an auspicious name for their baby.

There are other areas we see around us in our daily life:
- group practice of Qi Gong or Tai Ji in the early morning
- feng shui ba gua mirrors hung above the doors
- accupuncture and chinese herbal prescriptions

I will add a new board for Gallery soon, so members can post pictures and chat about the Five Arts we see around us.

 

[ferrari]

Hi meek, awesome as usual
Thanks for all the interesting details.
Cheers
ferrari

[Julie]

Wow.  I wondered if the economic growth has had an impact on their popularity.  I would anticipate a return to the "ancient" arts as a culture grows increasingly "modern".  I am am professional counselor in private practice and across from my office is a man originally from China who does accupuncture and I have referred those needing to detox from drugs/alcohol to him and they just love what he does for them.  It has gained recognition as a acceptable medical intervention for that purpose so the research had to be overwhelmingly convincing.  It really does resemble a miracle!!  It seems funny that he trained for accupuncture here in the US but for engineering in China. He and his wife are just wonderful people. 

Again, thanks so much for your great responses.  YOu are a most  excllent moderator! 

[shaunna]

Hi meek, so in what order of learning for ease in better understanding would you recommend a person just starting out follow? With so many different schools it's very confusing and overwhelming to a newbie.

[Cyril]

[Hidden post: You need login to forum to see it.]

[Noobie123]

Yar, I would also suggest learning Bazi first. It gives you a good sensing of the train of thought you should adopt towards the five arts. Get to know the five elements and understand its multi-faceted structure. i.e. each element can represent different things. e.g. If the element you control is represents both your money (and your wife for guys), while the element that controls you is your superiors (and your husband for ladies).

[moon11]

hello
I just registered and i`ve been reading on some of the links posted in the top
and all i can find is things to help me understand the different theories on Qi
but what i was actually looking for was ways to practice, where to start with my training,
and if i find a teacher how do i know that that teacher is actually teaching the right thing?
I'm sorry if this forum is not actually for the things i have listed
but if anyone knows a website that can help me with this please tell me. Thank you

[Manty]

Hi Moon11:

Welcome to 5arts.

I just registered and i`ve been reading on some of the links posted in the top
and all i can find is things to help me understand the different theories on Qi
but what i was actually looking for was ways to practice, where to start with my training,
and if i find a teacher how do i know that that teacher is actually teaching the right thing?
I'm sorry if this forum is not actually for the things i have listed
but if anyone knows a website that can help me with this please tell me. Thank you

What are you seeking to practice Moon11? 

Qì is usually the beginning "stuff" since Chinese Metaphysics is about Qì.

As to how to judge a teacher, only a teacher can judge another teacher.  A lot of is a matter of karma as to find a good teacher or not.  You arrived here, so some of us can give you a hand, but ultimately you will have to find your teacher.

Good luck in your search.

Manty

[xkfan]

hello
I just registered and i`ve been reading on some of the links posted in the top
and all i can find is things to help me understand the different theories on Qi
but what i was actually looking for was ways to practice, where to start with my training,
and if i find a teacher how do i know that that teacher is actually teaching the right thing?
I'm sorry if this forum is not actually for the things i have listed
but if anyone knows a website that can help me with this please tell me. Thank you

It takes time, karma and experience. So surf more website (more participations) and read more books before you decide to believe the 'one'.

[juniorpua]

Hi moon11,
why not you check whether resource is a favourable element in your bazi or not first.





cheers

[fsa]

[Hidden post below: You need login to forum to see it.]

Hi shaunna,

I suggest you study Destiny first, especially Bazi. With this foundation, you can then proceed to Day Selection, Fengshui, Divination, etc. However, I noticed most people started with Fengshui first, maybe because more people are teaching it, more English books available or simply fengshui makes better money than destiny analysis.

IMO, it is easier to make progress and harder to go off the path with Feng Shui, because one has the objectivity of observation and analysis of the form and configuration of the environment to compare with the subjectivity of interpreting a Liqi chart based on some abstract principles.

Doing Bazi is more difficult because all one has to work with is an abstract pattern language of a Bazi chart, it is comparatively subjective, and human nature, with its layers over layers of interactions, is a lot more complex to understand than the physical environment and human needs.  

Having said that, it also depends on the aptitude of a person, some people are more psychologically inclined than spatially inclined, and others would like to analyze a person rather than a situation. It all depends, but in the end it is good to know both, although one may choose to specialize in one to be.

fsa