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The Tao Of 9 Star Ki, Part 1

Some terms used in this article:

• Bigram = a mystical diagram consisting of two lines, either both solid, both broken, or one solid and one broken.
• WuXing = The Chinese term for the 5 phases, commonly called the 5 elements. They are 5 stages in the evolution of Ki (Qi) represented in human experience as Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water.
• Qi, Ki, Chi = Some regard it as the 'vital force'. Not unlike Prana, it is associated with breath. Put simply, it is that which animates. Watch for future articles defining these terms.

Since the Japanese protected the 9 Palace Fate Calculation during the years it was ignored in China, we will use the term Ki throughout all articles concerning that art as a way of honoring the Onmyoji and their contribution. The Japanese call this method 9 Star Ki or Kyusei, while the original name translates roughly from Chinese as 9 Palace Fate Calculation.

Part 1 - Emergence and Return

TAO is probably the most misunderstood word in the language of Oriental metaphysics. Some translators have even substituted 'god', where TAO has nothing to do with deities. TAO does, however, have something to do with how whatever deities are out there behave, because it is the way of things. By things, I mean existence, by way I mean behavior - what nature (the universe) DOES.

Qi (Ki) is what animates the forms that TAO takes - in other words, the motive and mobile energy of the universe. This is why we see many teachers diagrams designed such that TAO is pictured in a circle, with Yin and Yang (the supreme ultimate, or Tai Chi, representing the primal transformation that expresses TAO) directly under that, and the various subdivisions of Yin and Yang into bigrams, trigrams and so forth, on up to the hexagrams of the Yijing (I-Ching). But what does this all have to do with 9 Star Ki (9 palace Fate Calculation)?

When we look at the mystical diagrams in most textbooks, TAO is depicted as being at the top, but its true position is the center. Like the Sun is at the center of the solar system, which revolves around another star within this arm of the Galaxy, which revolves around millions of other stars in the Galactic core, all principles revolve around TAO. This does not mean that a view of the universe based on center and periphery is absolute. It would be more correct to say that these examples remind us of the TAO, because in reality, all points in space and time are the center - the source of all possibility; the point of emergence from potential into manifestation.

Ki also emerges from the center (TAO is the center, Ki animates from the center). You could say that Ki (Qi) and TAO are the same from some respects, but those learned in the way of the ancients would disagree, reminding us that the Ki emerges from the center only because that is its TAO.

TAO sets the pace, motion, and direction, yet Ki and Tao follow each other in a course which seems to move in opposing directions. When Ki is active, it moves to the central palace, the point of origin. When TAO is active in any of the palaces, the Ki of that palace becomes the energy of return. TAO creates Ki, and Ki creates objects; objects are to Ki as Ki is to TAO.

In working with numbers as symbols, the numbers, or Stars, depict Ki as taking on binary attributes. On the one hand the primary expression of manifestation as Yin and Yang further subdivides into bigrams, trigrams and so forth - and each of the WuXing (5 phases) has a Yin or Yang quality. However, in the number system expressed by the ancients, we have 9 numbers, not an even amount which can be divided in such a way as to represent Yin or Yang, and all ideal forms must be in balance when at rest - so what does the 5 Earth Star represent? Naturally the TAO is represented by the number 5, which holds the central position, the balance point of the 9 numbers.

In 9 Ki astro-numerology, 5 Earth gets no trigram (because it has neither Yin nor Yang attributes), while the other 8 numbers are assigned a trigram each. To explain more fully, 5 Earth is neither Yin nor Yang, because it represents the point of balance at which Yin and Yang transform into one another; the point from which they appear to 'emerge'. The universal Lo Shu has 5 in the central palace, and when each Star, due to a change in the time cycle, enters the central palace, the events, forms and actions that are initiated during that particular time cycle are dominated by the QUALITY of that Star.

The palace in which 5 Earth is located also is very influential, because that palace becomes the "eye of the whirlwind" or the point that is attempting to impose balance and order on the set of 9 palaces. In the Universal Lo Shu, with 5 Earth in the central palace, the points of emergence and return, or initiation and cessation, or creation and destruction are the same, but in all other charts, the Star ruling the palace occupied by 5 Earth represents the kind of Ki responsible for the return of things and energies to the Tao, while the Star in the central palace is the Ki that imbues things created during the cycle of the chart with its particular quality. This seems like a very abstract way to come to tangible conclusions, but it is not unlike talking about the Sun's "movement" or "travel" along its northern and southern courses throughout the year.