Chinese Astrology and Destiny
One must remember that the Chinese have never looked upon their astrologies in a fatalistic way, so neither should we! In fact, one viewpoint when interpreting a hexagram is that of the trinity of Heaven, Man and Earth. Each hexagram consists of two signs, or trigrams, with three lines each. In looking at any one of these trigrams one can consider the bottom line as representing Earth or the material circumstances (within situations under the trigram's jurisdiction), the middle line as representing Man and his mental faculties, and the top line as representing Heaven or spiritual circumstances. The same goes for the entire hexagram but now we double each member of this trinity so that expressions of Earth is found on the bottom two lines, those of Man on the two middle lines and those of Heaven on the uppermost two lines. Studying the omen texts pertaining to the middle lines, the one of each trigram, or the two in the middle of the hexagram, will gives hints on how to deal as a human with the "given" or destined main characteristics of the birth hexagram. "So I am said to be this, or destined to handle this type of circumstance, and now this or that "middle line" tells me to handle it like that..." A little mind boggling perhaps, but we are definitely not dealing with a fatalistic astrology! It rather more looks like an interactive prognosis, a guide for perhaps discovering some lurking motif of which we were ignorant before reading... Still, there is sometimes room for a shudder as one realizes that e.g. a yearly hexagram has fulfilled itself in some major event although one had totally forgotten about the prognosis...
Well, is there a Destiny then?Yes, to even contemplate a predictive system without a supposed underlying order does not make much sense. Ancient Chinese philosophers made frequent references to what they called T'ien Tao, or the "Way of Heaven". The historian of Philosophy, Fung Yu-Lan, has distinguished five ancient uses of the word T'ien (Heaven) and their meanings: The complete Yin Yang Horoscope divides into two hexagrams, the first, elsewhere called the birth horoscope or hexagram is actually referred to as Hsien T'ien (lit: before Heaven). The second is called Hou T'ien (lit: after Heaven). Here it would seem the term T'ien refers to the fourth of the above meanings, the naturalistically perceived heaven. The birth symbol portrays what there is to work with BEFORE one's nature has settled and become oneself (or should we say second nature?). The term would seem to imply that nothing is pre-determined at this stage in life! Later on, however, the naming of the symbol of one's mature years presupposes that some sort of nature has now formed and is in control of us. That is, the tendencies from the moment of birth have by now have coagulated and become us, unless Man's free will has intervened and changed the course of the natural tendencies inherent in the birth symbol! Obviously, the question of Fate vs. Free Will was a tough one for the Chinese to wrestle with, and the answers are not entirely clear.
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As mentioned elsewhere, one line from the birth horoscope is singled out as the ruler. This line may indicate the full
possession of the horoscope's potential or otherwise. In cases where the ruling line does not fulfill the promise of
the structure as a whole, there is still plenty of hope.
