Answers without, answers within

The recent death of David Carradine and all that speculation and mystery surrounding it prompted me to take a look at the not-so-young Grasshopper’s Ba Zi / Paht Chee / Four Pillars / Eight Characters chart. The results were eye-opening.

Take a look:

First, you might notice the missing pillar - one’s time of birth is not something easily found, so we’re going to have to make do with a partial analysis, based on the Day, Month and Year pillars.

Or perhaps your eyes were drawn to the three red stars, a convention I have adopted to indicate the presence of Peach Blossom Stars.  I’m not sure if there’s a special significance of having three of a kind, but to have three is really not the best situation: whatever X-factor, charisma, sexuality, attractiveness, magnetism etc present is more than likely to warp into something negative.

In fact, the Peach Blossom Stars help explain David Carradine’s career as an actor, as well as his string of failed marriages. Their presence might even support the rumoured kinky sexual appetites he had; I remember having read that one of his ex-wives claims to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of her marriage to him.

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Self-Element and favourable/unfavourable elements

From the (incomplete) natal chart, we can still surmise that David Carradine was probably a (strong) Yang Wood Self-Element.  He was born in Winter when Water reigns supreme and Wood is strong, and thus the season strengthens his Self-Element.  You’ll notice that there is a much-needed Yang Fire in the Year Heavenly Stem which serves to warm up the otherwise pretty cold chart.

From Joey Yap’s website, here’s the generic description of a Jia (Yang Wood) Self-Element:

… typically steady, forthright, direct (sometimes even tactless), stern, and generally not very animated … can be a little obtuse in perceiving what is going on around them, and sometimes appear unfeeling — not because they are unfeeling, but because they are not tuned in to what’s going on around them … don’t typically make changes until changes are forced upon them, and this sometimes hampers their personal development. However, Jia Wood types typically spring back from a change — although it might take some time.

Mr Carradine’s favourable elements were probably:
* Earth (correlating to Wealth / Financial Success)
* Metal (correlating to Influence / Recognition, Power, Rank)
* Fire (correlating to Output / Intelligence, Creativity)
and his unvafourable elements were probably:
* Wood (correlating to Companions / Friends, Foes, Colleagues, Competition)
* Water (correlating to Resource / Support, Authority)

Interactions with the current Luck Pillar and Annual Pillar

David Carradine passed away at age 72, thus putting his death in the 70-79 Pillar, with Yin Fire in the Heavenly Stem and the Goat/Yin Earth in the Earthly Branch.

David Carradine’s Luck Pillar at age 72

The way David Carradine’s chart is set up, if there’s an interaction between a Luck Pillar and Rat, that interaction is seen threefold.  Well, guess what?  Goat interacts with Rat in the form of a Harm.

Harms usually involve feeling of betrayal, with tormenting, lingering after-effects.  And while a Harm indicates an incident, said incident usually comes out of nowhere, and is difficult to be prepared for.

In this case, as the Harm involves Water, or the Resource factor, Mr Carradine might have been susceptible to depression, or might have faced challenges relating to his thoughts, his work-related superiors, and support network.  These issues would likely manifest in separate ‘incidents’ involving his spouse, his parents and his extended family.

Also, since the Harm involves Peach Blossom Stars, the incidents/issues might have something to do with his X-factor, charisma, etc. Then again, this can be said for any and all interactions with the Rats in his chart: as such, I wonder just how much of David Carradine’s ups and downs can be correlated to such interactions.

2009 Annual Pillar at age 72

Now to take a quick peek at what was going on in 2009, with a Yin Earth Heavenly Stem and an Ox/Yin Earth in the Earthly Branch.

Ox interacts with Rat in the form of a Combination (with the potential of producing Earth, although in this case I doubt the circumstances are right for that to happen.. if the transformation did happen, though, then it might indicate a period of Wealth rolling in .. Mr Carradine was definitely keeping busy with quite a few projects in 2009…).

So the three Rats in the natal chart — already interacting with the Goat in the Luck Pillar — had additional interactions with the Ox in the Annual Pillar to deal with. Again involving the spouse, parents and extended family. Again involving the Resoucre factor. A very busy time. Messy. Everything’s in flux.

Does all this point to a death?

Not to my inexperienced eyes!

… but it does paint a picture of someone who probably experienced far-reaching ups and downs in life: if something was good, it was really good and benefited him, his spouse and family; conversely, during down periods, they would negatively impact him, his spouse and family.  As the interactions mostly involved Peach Blossom Stars, I take this as an extreme example of how these Stars might manifest and impact one’s life.

And for you, dear reader, I hope this serves to show you how open the BaZi is open to interpretation.  On one hand, an experienced Master Practitioner might look at all these interactions and immediately predict or anticipate such a tragedy; on the other hand, the best one might be able to do is what I’ve tried above - seeing indications of a whole bunch of messy interactions, but not being really sure about what they all point to.

The mystery surrounding David Carradine’s death might never be truly solved. I do hope, however, that his soul is at peace.

You will be missed, Grasshopper.

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