An accurate Guan Yin Oracle (2)

A few months have passed since the January 21, 2012 posting of the accurate Guan Yin Oracle, and now that global financial markets have stabilized with their usual ups and downs, it could be appropriate to discuss the way I have had interpreted this particular prediction:

“Silkworms and grain will yield only half a crop, but your herds will bring you better profit.”

Whether or not Yi aficionados and/or Daoist devotees can learn something from this second article related to the art of interpretation and more will be up to them.

Firstly, it is important to remember that cryptic messages including omens from Celestial sources and the Book of Changes cannot simply be revealed to others. Heaven secrets and messages on future events are meant for private consumption. Discussing the received message(s) in private with someone more knowledgeable - say, the temple assistant, - to help with an early interpretation is however perfectly alright. They usually would be disinterested in the matter at hand. After all until the outcome is known or the omen has unfolded, would they come to know about the accuracy of the message(s).

In the first entry on this oracle, I had mentioned that it could be worthwhile for investors (aka readers) to interpret the prediction.

If they have interpreted it correctly, and have invested accordingly, they could have made some handsome gains from the global stock markets (including the KLSE). Most of these markets have rallied since January 2012, although some had shorter rallies than others.

Let me reveal the interpretation before the next ‘juicy’ part, so that everyone can follow the storyline.

On August 31, 2011, several months after my retirement, I consulted (Qiu) Guan Yin on my fortune and the Oracle (Qin) received contained several relevant and important messages. Most of these messages were clarifications on why the Book of Changes gave those prognostications to me earlier on. In addition the oracle indicated:

“Silkworms and grain will yield only half a crop, but your herds will bring you better profit.”

On the surface, this cryptic message would be more relevant to farmers, is it not? Why would Guan Yin give something irrelevant to me? It must have some relevance, I had thought, and therefore pondered on this particular prediction over the next few days, similar to what I do with Yi prognostications and/or omens.

After the pondering, I realized that silkworms and grain were considered commodities during the olden days. Herds were much easier to interpret and provided a strong foundation to the lie of interpretation. For clarity, herd is a collective noun for animals, namely bulls; therefore it relates to stock market terminology.

Similar to prognostications from the Book of Changes, the interpreted prediction provides alternatives and now would read as:

Investing in commodities will yield only half a crop. Investing in stocks will bring better profit.

Take note that the term ‘yield only half a crop’ can mean 50% profit, or making losses! Therefore the prediction indicated that for profit it is definitely better to invest in stocks rather than commodities.

If we can zoom back to late August and September 2011, around the time of receiving the oracle, every investor’s eyes were on gold, then, including the author.

Gold was the mother of all rallies in commodities. Gold prices were soaring sky high. Many an investor, including moms and pops, were struck by the gold fever trying hard not to miss out on the action. It was easy to make money by buying gold futures, or by buying and hoarding gold bullion, coins and jewelry. Gold prices seemed to go up forever and not come down. Analysts and fund managers across the globe fueled the speculation with more promising and ever higher target prices in their reports on gold. (Note: Beware that the analysts and fund managers always seemed to know more than the gods – ShenXian!)

Armed with the interpretation of Guan Yin’s prediction I decided not to touch gold or other commodities at all. This is the type of protection I had mentioned in the first article.

Sure enough, in the first couple of weeks in September 2011, gold soared to USD 1920 an ounce. It then promptly recorded its biggest plunge in monetary terms, a drop of 300 plus dollars, within a day or two. What happened was that investors had stampeded to rush out of gold with the plunge further exacerbated by lots of deleveraging and margin calls in gold futures. Probably many gold investors got badly burnt when the huge plunge took place. Prices of other commodities also fell on cue.

To date, those who had bought gold at or near its September 2011 highs are still nursing their wounds from realized or unrealized losses with prices stabilizing in between the USD 1,600 and USD 1,700 levels.

In line with the interpreted Guan Yin Oracle’s prediction, I had started to invest in the stagnated Stock Market late 2011 buying on dips and accumulated more stocks in the months of January and February 2012. Disposing of them for profit during the expected rally; and in line with the timing from a prognostication from the Book of Changes reduced stockholdings to a very manageable level, just before the rally ended. Share prices have fallen quite a bit since. And the rest as they say is history.

If oracles from divinities or the Book of Changes are accurate and we cannot correctly interpret them, we could be at the losing end. For example, we could have invested in commodities such as gold instead of stocks.

Never over rely on the interpretations of incompetents; otherwise you may have cause for regrets. Without realizing it, you could suddenly find yourself facing impending disaster(s), financial or otherwise, as a more severe example. You may find out later that the Book of Changes has already warned you about the forthcoming disaster(s).

In the study of profound subjects like the Book of Changes and Tao, avoiding the company of incompetents and sycophants could prove fruitful to students. These particular types of people have neither the talent nor virtue.

A pointed question put to Yi aficionados especially those with decades of study and practice:

If divinities and/or the Book of Changes want to help us to meet everything in the right way and yet we choose to ignore this divine help through ignorance or indolence, how can we ever achieve the ability to assist the gods?

As indicated earlier on, what each Yi aficionado and/or Daoist devotee can learn from this discussion on the interpretation of oracles and/or prognostications will be up to them.

Cheerio!