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Fire corresponds to the Heart Meridian, relating to heart system diseases, with symptoms such as fever 🔥, dry throat, and dry mouth.
Water pertains to the Kidney System, associated with kidney issues, manifesting as chills 🌊, night sweats, and nocturnal emissions.
Metal for Lungs, Wood for Liver, Earth for Spleen and Stomach—imbalance among the five elements leads to diseases in corresponding organs.
In hexagram symbolism, weakness indicates mild illness, while strength signifies severe illness; moving lines suggest worsening conditions and physical suffering.
Wild Crane’s Comment: This is the foundational theory of illness divination from The Golden Strategy, but I regard it as a “door-knocker”—a method one must use for ordinary inquiries. For accuracy, one should cast separate hexagrams for auspiciousness and inauspiciousness; relying solely on this hexagram to determine life or death is not credible. Those inquiring about illness seek to know prognosis, cause, and treatment; merely guessing fever or chills is futile. Hence, I have deleted this chapter as it only discusses symptoms without addressing treatment.
My Approach: First, cast a hexagram for auspiciousness—if auspicious, recuperation will lead to recovery; if inauspicious, seek medical help. If the ghost line overcomes the useful god, then cast another hexagram to inquire about ghosts, spirits, or ancestral graves, identifying the offending entity and its resolution. Only then does one fulfill the inquirer’s needs.
Juezi Says: When divining about ghosts and spirits, if the ghost line is dormant, empty, broken, buried, or cut off, it is not caused by ghosts or spirits.
Ancient methods used the five elements to name deities (e.g., metal ghost as Guan Gong), but I believe there are many martial deities, and customs vary by region, making exhaustive description impossible. The patient should suspect unfulfilled vows to a temple or defilement, then verify through divination. A strong, moving ghost line confirms the deity’s disturbance. Offer incense, flowers, and paper horses to righteous deities; for evil spirits, use paper money and send them away quietly at night in the specified direction (e.g., metal ghost to the west 🌅).
Wild Crane Adds: Rituals for epidemic diseases can be effective, but illnesses like madness, consumption, qi stagnation, and alcohol or lust-related ailments are unrelated to ghosts and spirits. Moderation in diet, abstention from desires, and nurturing the spirit are fundamental. Having traveled widely, I have seen people impoverished by sacrificing livestock to deities, and harming life to save life only compounds the sin. Scholars believing in evil spirits is truly inexplicable—Shennong tasted hundreds of herbs to save people, yet never advocated killing creatures for healing.
Li Woping Criticizes: Yimao identifies metal ghosts as Guan Gong, while Supplement associates the Azure Dragon with Guan Yu, but what deities existed before Guan Yu? Deities that demand worship for blessings and punish neglect are evil spirits. Righteous deities do not act this way. This book is logical overall, but its chapter on illness discussing ghosts and spirits is unconvincing. However, since people first inquire about ghosts when ill, I reluctantly follow convention. The wise should discern carefully.
Fire corresponds to the Heart Meridian, relating to heart system diseases, with symptoms such as fever 🔥, dry throat, and dry mouth.
Water pertains to the Kidney System, associated with kidney issues, manifesting as chills 🌊, night sweats, and nocturnal emissions.
Metal for Lungs, Wood for Liver, Earth for Spleen and Stomach—imbalance among the five elements leads to diseases in corresponding organs.
In hexagram symbolism, weakness indicates mild illness, while strength signifies severe illness; moving lines suggest worsening conditions and physical suffering.
Wild Crane’s Comment: This is the foundational theory of illness divination from The Golden Strategy, but I regard it as a “door-knocker”—a method one must use for ordinary inquiries. For accuracy, one should cast separate hexagrams for auspiciousness and inauspiciousness; relying solely on this hexagram to determine life or death is not credible. Those inquiring about illness seek to know prognosis, cause, and treatment; merely guessing fever or chills is futile. Hence, I have deleted this chapter as it only discusses symptoms without addressing treatment.
My Approach: First, cast a hexagram for auspiciousness—if auspicious, recuperation will lead to recovery; if inauspicious, seek medical help. If the ghost line overcomes the useful god, then cast another hexagram to inquire about ghosts, spirits, or ancestral graves, identifying the offending entity and its resolution. Only then does one fulfill the inquirer’s needs.
Juezi Says: When divining about ghosts and spirits, if the ghost line is dormant, empty, broken, buried, or cut off, it is not caused by ghosts or spirits.
Ancient methods used the five elements to name deities (e.g., metal ghost as Guan Gong), but I believe there are many martial deities, and customs vary by region, making exhaustive description impossible. The patient should suspect unfulfilled vows to a temple or defilement, then verify through divination. A strong, moving ghost line confirms the deity’s disturbance. Offer incense, flowers, and paper horses to righteous deities; for evil spirits, use paper money and send them away quietly at night in the specified direction (e.g., metal ghost to the west 🌅).
Wild Crane Adds: Rituals for epidemic diseases can be effective, but illnesses like madness, consumption, qi stagnation, and alcohol or lust-related ailments are unrelated to ghosts and spirits. Moderation in diet, abstention from desires, and nurturing the spirit are fundamental. Having traveled widely, I have seen people impoverished by sacrificing livestock to deities, and harming life to save life only compounds the sin. Scholars believing in evil spirits is truly inexplicable—Shennong tasted hundreds of herbs to save people, yet never advocated killing creatures for healing.
Li Woping Criticizes: Yimao identifies metal ghosts as Guan Gong, while Supplement associates the Azure Dragon with Guan Yu, but what deities existed before Guan Yu? Deities that demand worship for blessings and punish neglect are evil spirits. Righteous deities do not act this way. This book is logical overall, but its chapter on illness discussing ghosts and spirits is unconvincing. However, since people first inquire about ghosts when ill, I reluctantly follow convention. The wise should discern carefully.