When I read Sumiko Tan's personal column on how her life was dictated by her superstitions in fengshui and the Chinese Horoscope, I couldn't help but notice some parallels in her belief and mine.
See, I'm also fascinated by the Chinese horoscopes and fengshui. Someone please tell me if this is against the Christian faith.
Though I'm fascinated, I'm not obsessed. I've never engaged the service of Geomancer into my home to make my home or its occupants lucky. That would have been too drastic. But I'm thirsty for books on fengshui and the Chinese horoscopes and have in fact bought a couple by the famous fengshui author Lilian Too.
When my office shifted to its new location two years ago, I consulted Lilian's book on the direction my new cubicle should face, armed with a compass. There was more I consulted. Should my desk be facing the pillar? Where should my rubbish bin be? Within sight? I love greenery, should I keep cactus on my desk? And what about dry flowers? In case you're wondering, the answers to the all above is NO. Most of my colleagues saw what I did, they borrowed my book and my compass, and followed suit. It made me realise that, like it or not, many of us are superstitious. And can you blame us? Nobody wants bad luck to befall us.
When 2006 beckoned, I purchased Lilian's latest book on “2006 Fengshui and Luck Outlook” for the Chinese zodiac sign of the Dragon, the year in which I was born. I also bought one for the Slim Lady, on the zodiac sign of the Horse. The book was in Chinese and I have a fair bit of difficulty trying to understand all the chapters due to my limited command of the Chinese language. But I somehow managed and what I've read so far is cold comfort.
According to the book, 2006 spells nothing but trouble for those born in the year of the Dragon. The Dragon's crime? It has fan tai sui (犯太岁). I don't really know what's 太岁 , but I guess it means offending an entity of sort.
The more I read the book, the more paranoid I become. But I couldn't put it down, for it's like taking a peek into the future - my future, on my career and family life. This is beginning to sound very un-Christian-like, I know. The bible did warn us against dabbling into the unknown...
The book says because Dragons have 犯太岁, those born in the year of the Dragon will be down on their luck. They will suffer in health and wealth. They will lose some of their close friends, get backstabbed by colleagues who are consumed by jealousy over the Dragons’ brilliance and competence. And horror of horrors, Dragons will be accident-prone in some months in 2006. It mentioned the month of February in the Lunar Calendar, May and the 2nd half of the year!
And believe it or not, last Friday, driving home and waiting at a junction for the traffic to clear, my car slide backward and "kissed" the car behind me. That kiss was simply a "peck on the cheek" but it was enough to leave some deep scratch marks on the bumper of my car. My NEW car! Coincidence?
The book also said I'd be troubled by an inter-departmental reshuffle in the office. Indeed, a reshuffle is soon to take place according to my office management. What I heard today through the grapevine confirms my worse fear. Coincidence again?
I know how easy it is to lose our head and become all irrational and paranoid when it comes to fengshui and the horoscope. It sometimes bothers on the silly. The Slim Lady doesn't have it better. The book on Horse says that she's likely to be robbed of her money this year. Now she’s afraid to carry cash and taking the lift alone. I regretted buying her the book :(( and have to tell her not to believe everything that's written in there. Or not to believe anything at all.
When I related the “kissing” incident accident to Victor, he asked me why did I go and make the prediction from the horoscope come through? He obviously thinks the book is crap. I want to believe the book is crap, too.
Category: Musings
10 comments:
Chris, does Lilian Too's horoscope book come separated into 'good' and 'bad' sections? If not, I strongly suggest that you request her to write future books that way. I can foresee (sorry for the pun) that sales figures for her horoscope books would sky-rocket if she does. This is because positive people like Chun See can then choose to read only the good sections (especially the part about lucky 4-D numbers and make them come through, I mean true). And negative people like you and yours truly can read only the bad sections and try to make the prophesy come true, like yourself.
haha grandpa victor, u r still NOT first!
Bad loser, granddaughter. The first post was also mine ok. Beat you to it this time, hee. Deleted the comment because I made amendments mah (tweaked my comment to be even more sarcastic, hehe). Chris can verify this, since he receives e-mail alerts for every comment made, Chris hor?
Btw, the 3 grandpas are waiting patiently for your homecooked popiahs. Our necks are very long already, don't make them any longer, haha.
sorry lor...popiah is alot of work..somemore gotta go until joo chiat to buy the skin. i got no car lor, not like u all. unless u wanna volunteer to buy for me...then its another story. otherwise, who noes i might eventually hv to make my popiah in the year 2009.
Ok Evan, don't say I 'too much'. Let's make a deal. I'll go buy the popiah skin (1 kg enough?). I offer to pay for it as my contribution to the gathering. You just fix the date and time, preferably on weekends when all 3 grampas are free. Incidentally, may I ask, are the grammas and erm... the papas and mamas (our kids lah) invited too? Chris offer to drive Chun See and I to your venue i.e. if our families are not invited. And Chun See can buy the fruits? (I can eat D24 durians.)
Don't forget to e-mail us your residential 'addy' if you accept this challenge, Evan.
so 'on' izit.....ok lor...can lah all are invited...but not at my place muahhaha. see which grandpa wanna volunteer his house for gathering LOL. ok lah since u suggest, grandpa victor shall volunteer to let us use his house for the popiah feast.
Yes it is against the Christian faith. Only God knows the future - Read Daniel Ch2.
"But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets".
chris, i'm suprised u believe such things...consider that you're a christian yourself! and you know so much about such stuffs...better not believe such things lah..
Yes, I am very aware of the dragon's predicament this year. I am treading my way through the year with great care.
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