A banquet held once in 60 years

   In Xiaolan town, Guangzhou province, China, there is a very special tradition - to host a  Chrysanthemum Banquet only in the year of the Wood Dog. The Wood Dog Year (Jia Xu 甲戌) happens once in 60 years, so you can imagine what a rare event it is!
  
   The tradition of the Chrysanthemum Banquet started in 1814 (year of Wood Dog), during the reign of emperor Jia Qing. Xiaolan town is famous for the cultivation of chrysanthemum flowers. In 1814 several local chrysanthemum societies joined together and in order to celebrate the event they organized a big chrysanthemum festival with a banquet of various chrysanthemum dishes. The Chrysanthemum Banquet was held again in 1874, 1934 and 1994  -  four times altogether.

The Eight Trigram Field in Hangzhou

   The Eight Trigram Field is located in the beautiful Chinese city of Hangzhou. It is maintained since Song dynasty, which means already about 1000 years.

     In this field, different crops (soy, mung beans, aubergines...) are planted at the corresponding directions of the eight trigrams.

The illusionary mind of a young boy in Beijing

Few years ago in Beijing there was a young boy (in his 20s), who after reading too many martial arts novels, his mind entered into an illusionary world 走火入魔. He gave up everything else in life - study, work, personal life, family, friends... I was there with some Chinese friends and the old Daoist priest Xue Zhicheng 薛之程道长.  The mother of this boy asked Daoist Xue to check the feng shui of their home, in hope to find out what is the root of her son's problem. Daoist Xue made some feng shui calculations and said: "No problem with the feng shui here". But, after we left, he told us that actually there is a problem with the feng shui, but as this family is not very rich, they cannot make the needed changes to improve the feng shui in the house. And this was not the major factor influencing the boy. The core of the problem was in the mother who had over-spoiled her son...

Astronomic explanation of stem & branches theory

What is the astronomic explanation of the stem & branch theory?

This question has been in my mind for long time... There are different sayings about it. Some say that the stems and branches are the vertical and horizontal segments of Heaven, the place between North celestial pole and South celestial pole.  And some people suggest that the stem & branches theory is very deep. It's so deep, that cannot be explained (like Dao), as it surpasses the information not only in time, but also in space and it goes beyond the knowledge of contemporary astronomy and science.

Liang Juchao 梁启超（1873—1929）points out that the 22 characters of the heavenly stems and earthly branches have many similarities with the 22 letters of the Phoenician alphabet.

According to Guo Moruo 郭沫若（1892—1978), the theory originates from Babylon and was later applied in China.

Danny Van den Berghe also gives a good explanation of the arrangement of the stems and branches on the world map. It is very helpful and you can see it here:
http://www.fourpillars.net/pdf/world.pdf

Triple Tigers in Chinese astrology

Julia Butterfly Hill is famous for her actions to protect nature. She has a very interesting horoscope, which corresponds to her interesting life. To me, the most striking feature in her horoscope is the presence of the triple Tiger branch. She is a real tigress!

Born: 18 February 1974

Day: Geng Yin (Yang Metal Tiger)
Month: Bing Yin (Yang Fire Tiger)
Year: Jia Yin (Yang Wood Tiger)

As Julia is born in the year of Wood Tiger (Jia Yin), I would call her the "Green Tigress". She reminds me of the chart of Tang Yin 唐寅 - a famous Chinese painter, poet and scholar from Ming Dynasty in China. You can read more about him in wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tang_Yin

Tang Yin was born in the year of Metal Tiger, the month of the Tiger, the day of the Tiger and the hour of the Tiger... 4 times Yin (Tiger) branch in his natal chart! That's why his name is Yin - Tiger. And he is better known by his courtesy name Tang Bohu 唐伯虎, in which Bohu literally means "White Tiger", corresponding to his year pillar of birth - Geng Yin (Metal Tiger, or white tiger) .

So, if Tang Bohu is the White Tiger, then Julia Butterfly Hill is the Green Tigress.

The divination appears itself

心不动 卜自来

If the heart/mind is not disturbed, the divination appears itself.