Falling over themselves

Like the curious, I too would read what the more famous fortune tellers and the Fengshui masters predict for this Chinese New Year 2008.

Recently, fortune tellers and Fengshui masters have been falling over themselves predicting what will happen in 2008. The general public and the curious can get easily confused over what each ‘master’ had presented, in the newspapers and on TV, over the past few days – differing directions to receive the God of Prosperity (Cai Shen) and which animal sign conflicts with the Tai Sui (the dominant star) in 2008. Divergent views on how the stock market will perform during the year and what industries are best to invest in.

Therefore whom should we believe and whose predictions will turn out right?

Where Fengshui believers face a wrong direction, instead of receiving the God of Prosperity, they could receive the Five Ghosts (Wu Gui) or even the Termination of Life (Jue Ming). If those who belong to an animal sign which in actuality does not conflict with the Tai Sui, but were told that there is a clash, then they would have been done a disservice.

With divergent views proffered on how the KLSE will perform over the year, what are investors supposed to do? When should they buy and when should they sell? The million dollars question.

A couple of years ago, in an entry, one had chastised a young Fengshui master for writing that the duration of a Chinese dynasty depended on its burial sites and that some of the Ming emperors were ill advised to place their tombs where they were. In his subsequent articles on Fengshui, he had become a bit more circumspect.

Last year if you recall, one mentioned that the Yi does not give predictions like those predicted by a Yijing scholar from Penang, Malaysia. This year, while a bit more circumspect with his predictions, he chose to rely on a hexagram, Dispersion, to predict the Malaysian stock market and her economy for English calendar 2008. Yes, Hexagram 59 Huan / Dispersion is a reasonably good prognostication for the KLSE and the economy. But, as people grow older, it proves more difficult to change their mindset.

If both of these masters from Malaysia happened to read this entry, I am glad that you guys are improving your presentation to the general public. It will be good in terms of disseminating knowledge and could add to your merits.

The younger one particularly impressed me with his 2008 reading for the KLSE and the Malaysian property market, as if he had read my inner thoughts for the year and the next. By now, readers of The Star newspaper may have guessed who I am referring to. Take note of his predictions published in that newspaper on February 9, though it needs some fine-tuning, it can help investors in general.

Knowing little about Fengshui and fortune telling, I will not attempt to add to the confusion. Lucky you!