Saturday, December 29, 2007

Yi divining with the ShenXian

This entry is written especially for Yi fellows who believe in the existence of Daoist deities and immortals (ShenXian), particularly those readers from Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan where Daoist temples are easily accessible. Yi diviners who keep an open mind and those who like to improve upon their already good divination skills but do not have such readily access to the ShenXian in their respective countries can take note of this entry for their future reference.

No, I am not trying to convert any Yi fellows to Daoism nor am I asking them to pray to the ShenXian for blessings or help. I am just sharing my experience on a way to further improve upon our Yi divination and interpretation skills. What best than to test our self acquired divination skills with divinities – with or without their knowledge and/or approval. After all, according to the Doctrine of the Mean (Chung Yung), it is possible that a Yi diviner can divine like a Shen (spirit).

After I had returned from London, England for good, my mum surprised me with a divination slip (qian), obtained by way of shaking divination sticks (jiu qian) out of a bamboo or metal container, from a Guan Yin temple depicting my fortune for that year, 1980. She had been praying for her children and family and obtaining these divination slips for decades. The yearly predictions from this particular temple are known to be accurate and the cost for one divination was less than 20 US cents then.

For a few years after that I did not take too much notice of the predictions until I started to consult the Zhouyi for my annual hexagrams. One day, out of curiosity I compared my annual hexagram with the divination slip for the particular year from the Guan Yin temple. While what was foretold by the Guan Yin divination slip appeared simpler, the story of the ancient referred to in the slip almost matched with the Yi prognostication. (Take note that each divination slip contains a popular storyline reference to a particular 'ancient' to provide for a more accurate interpretation of the fortune reading.)

Over the next five years, the same matches occurred – which meant that the predictions from this particular Guan Yin temple were indeed accurate or that this student’s Yi divination and interpretation skills had improved. That was my first test.

The second test with predictions from divinities came during the 1993 Bull Run in the KLSE. In early 1993, the Yi had already indicated through various prognostications that the stock market was going to be very good. The Book of Changes would tell me through the hexagrams when to buy and when to sell stocks. My friends and ex-colleagues who consulted with Daoist deities and heavenly immortals to trade on the stock market would often share the predictions given by these ShenXian. Together with the Yi prognostications nothing could go wrong. We were all making good money from the stock market – until the music stopped in the first week of January 1994. My friends were still trading in the KLSE because the divinities never told them to get out of the market.

Perhaps they really thought that I was an easily scared ‘rabbit’ when I sold all my stocks by the third week of December 1993 and went to Australia to celebrate Christmas and New Year. I had indicated to them that the Yi had warned of impending falls and they should sell most of their stock investments by end December and hold cash. Instead they bought more after some initial profit taking because the stock market remained hot.

By early 1994 until the end of 1995, the predictions of the Daoist deities and heavenly immortals had become corrupted. That was the third test.

Over the years, there were more such tests which provided some of the reasons why I have diligently followed the Yi instead of the ShenXian. (Some of these later tests and comparisons had been blogged, years ago.)

It is fun to be able to divine with the Yi and compare notes with accurate predictions from the Daoist deities and heavenly immortals. Such predictions through divination slips or mediums can be obtained directly or indirectly (through a relative or close friend) from Daoist temples. The comparisons and tests can also provide Yi students with a deeper understanding of the Yi and raise our levels in interpretation of the prognostications.

Yi diviners do not have to believe me; you can try it out sometime given the opportunity. Hopefully it helps in your progress in Yi divinations until you can divine like a spirit. By then nothing on earth and in heaven remains hidden, since all you need is to consult the Yi.

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