In the last three parts, we looked at wu wei, not contending, and having fewer desires. We can understand why forcing a situation, fighting over everything, and endlessly wanting more create problems. We can agree with the ideas and still find them difficult to practice.

Often, the problem is not that we do not know what to do. It is that something carries us away before we can do it. Desire, anger, comparison, or fear begins deciding for us. We think we have made a choice, but we have followed whatever pulled hardest at that moment.

This brings us to shou yi, or holding to the One. Before trying to define what the One is, I want to look at what it feels like to lose that continuity within ourselves.

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When Does Doing Something Well Become Having to Win?

We begin with an ordinary intention: do this job well, explain something clearly, or resolve a problem. As the situation develops, someone questions us. We become irritated. We start wanting to win, and eventually we feel that we cannot afford to lose.

The activity may look the same from the outside, but its purpose has changed. We are no longer asking what would help us do the job well. We are asking what would keep the other person from defeating us.

Imagine a restaurant owner responding to criticism of the food. At first, the owner wants to explain that the dishes taste good and are not simply prepared meals being reheated. As the argument continues, that explanation becomes a battle. The owner becomes more concerned with winning the dispute than with the food or the customers.

At that point, continuing to argue can feel like perseverance. Yet the original intention has already been displaced. The person is still putting in effort, but that effort now serves a different goal.

This is one way we get carried away without noticing it. Nothing dramatic needs to happen. A task becomes a test of our worth, a disagreement becomes a contest, and a result we wanted becomes a result we must obtain.

Are We Adjusting, or Just Being Pulled Away?

A single comment can make us doubt a path we had carefully chosen. One failure can make us want to dismiss everything we have done before it. We call this adjustment, but the reason for the change matters.

We may have been studying at a pace that suited us. Then we see a classmate finishing much faster and suddenly feel that our own pace is wrong. At work, someone earns more or gets promoted, and we begin looking for a shortcut. Advice promising rapid success becomes especially attractive when we are anxious about falling behind.

We can learn from other people. The difficulty is that comparison can replace the reasons we had for our own choices. We begin copying another person's direction without asking whether their circumstances or goals are ours.

The same thing happens with uncertainty. We commit to something that will take time, but once the outcome becomes unclear, we urgently want to change the plan. We tell ourselves we are looking for an opportunity. Sometimes, we are really looking for a way to stop feeling uncertain.

Changing course may be necessary. But a change made because we understand the situation better is different from one made simply because we cannot bear the feeling we are having. If every new fear produces a new direction, we can remain very busy while losing any continuity in what we are doing.

What Does It Mean to Preserve Softness?

The word shou means to guard or preserve. I read it here as protecting something, rather than controlling or suppressing it. It is not a demand to clench our teeth and force ourselves to be more disciplined.

Chapter 76 of the Tao Te Ching says:

At birth, a person is soft and yielding. At death, hard and stiff. The strong and hard are placed below; the soft and yielding above.

As we discussed earlier in the series, softness is not simply weakness. It can mean retaining the flexibility to respond, recover, and change.

Think of throwing a punch or swinging at a ball. Trying to force every part of the movement can interrupt its flow. The effort we feel is not always helping the action. Some of it may be our own tension working against it.

I connect this with preserving softness in ordinary life. When we tighten around a single result, we can make ourselves less able to respond to what is actually happening. Every difficulty becomes something to resist, and every adjustment feels like surrender.

Preserving softness means not turning ourselves into something that can only hold its position or break. We keep enough flexibility to reconsider, enough room to choose, and enough freedom not to turn every obstacle into a confrontation.

What Happens When We Lose Our Original Intention?

Chapter 16 describes the return of things to their root and says:

Returning to the root is called stillness.

For this discussion, I connect that return with remembering what we are doing and why. Often, the problem is not that our work has stopped. It is that we have lost the intention that gave it direction.

Someone starts making content because they want to make something worthwhile. When the audience does not grow, attention shifts toward traffic. Later, the question becomes how to make money, and then how to make money faster. The account is still active and the person is still producing content, but the work may now be organized around a very different purpose.

There is nothing inherently wrong with wanting an audience or earning a living. The question is whether these concerns serve the work or gradually replace what made the work worth doing.

We may keep defending what we are doing because it still has the same name. Yet the name alone does not tell us whether we are still doing it for the same reason.

Preserving the root means remaining able to recognize that change. It does not require treating every early idea as sacred. It requires noticing when the purpose we have consciously chosen has been replaced by something we simply drifted into.

Can We Change and Still Remain Ourselves?

Chapter 10 asks whether we can embrace the One without becoming separated from it.

There are different interpretations of the One. I am not trying to settle all of them here. For now, I want to stay with the experience the question points toward: circumstances change, other people act differently, fear or excitement spreads, and we do not lose ourselves in every movement around us.

This does not mean refusing to adjust. It does not mean being unable to admit a mistake. We can revise what we believe and still avoid being dragged from one direction to another by each passing emotion.

Consider an ordinary day. In the morning, we have a clear idea of what we intend to do. Then we are late on the way to work, receive a discouraging comment, or encounter a problem we did not expect. Our mood changes, and soon the plan disappears beneath our reactions.

Some events genuinely require a different plan. But sometimes the situation has not changed nearly as much as our feelings about it have. We have allowed frustration or fear to take over the day's direction.

The steadiness I am describing is not an absence of feeling. It is the ability to experience those feelings without having to rebuild our whole direction around each one. We can be affected by what happens and still remain able to choose our response.

What Makes a Changing Path Continuous?

Imagine someone walking toward a destination. Every interesting view and every side road draws them away. They keep moving, but much of that movement does not take them closer to where they intended to go.

Another person may also change direction. Their route may bend or zigzag as they respond to the terrain. But each adjustment remains connected to the journey. They do not have to walk in a straight line to keep going somewhere.

This is how I understand continuity here. A person can grow and correct themselves without becoming a completely different person every time they encounter a new influence. A manager can learn a new method without replacing the entire logic of the work whenever another method becomes fashionable.

The Tao Te Ching describes generation and change, including the Tao giving rise to One, One to Two, and Two to Three. Holding to the One need not mean freezing ourselves outside that movement. The point I am drawing out is that change does not have to become fragmentation.

Preserving softness keeps us able to respond. Preserving the root keeps us connected to what we are doing and why. Holding to the One brings these together as a sense of continuity through change.

This also connects with the earlier discussion of extremes. We can arrive at a position where no other choice seems possible because we have been pulled there gradually. Doing something well became having to win. Wanting something became having to possess it. Each step felt justified, while the original reason became harder to remember.

I have not yet fully defined what the One is. This part begins with the more immediate question: when circumstances, desires, and emotions pull at us, can we keep enough continuity to recognize where we came from and where we are going?

In Part 11, I will turn to the Tao itself.

I plan to keep this series going, and you can find the other posts on my profile. I’m also building Verso, a tool rooted in traditional Taoist divination that aims to offer another perspective when people feel stuck or unsure. It’s under development; stay tuned.

AI disclosure: English isn’t my first language, so I used AI to translate and help edit the English.

Reading Index: The Taoist Worldview and Tao Te Ching 101

In the last two parts, we looked at wu wei and not contending. Do not force a situation toward the result you have already chosen, and do not drag yourself and everyone else into endless conflict just to get what you want. The ideas sound simple enough. The real difficulty appears when we return to ordinary life.

The house could always be larger, the car could always be better, and who would object to having more money? Even in something small, we may still feel that we have to win. We can understand why forcing and contending cause problems and still find ourselves doing both. Desire keeps pressing us forward.

This brings us to gua yu, or having fewer desires.

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Why Can More Intensity Make Us Feel Less?

Chapter 12 of the Tao Te Ching says:

The five colors blind the eye. The five tones deafen the ear. The five flavors dull the palate.

These lines can sound like a demand for self denial: do not look, do not listen, and do not enjoy flavor. I read them as a warning about what happens when stimulation keeps increasing.

Something feels sufficient, then becomes ordinary. We add more, become accustomed to that, and soon need something stronger again. The threshold keeps moving. Eventually, what once gave us pleasure barely catches our attention.

Taste offers a simple example. Subtle flavors can reveal distinctions that disappear when everything is overwhelmingly strong. Increasing the intensity does not necessarily make the experience richer. It can make us less able to notice what is already there.

Desire works in a similar way. It does not only tell us what we want. It keeps changing our sense of how much is enough. We obtain something and discover that the feeling we expected has already moved further away.

How Does a Flower Become Something We Must Have?

Chapter 3 says:

Do not prize rare goods, and people will not steal. Do not display what awakens desire, and the heart will not be disturbed.

The problem reaches beyond one person's self control. When something is repeatedly presented as rare, expensive, and proof of status, we begin wanting more than the thing itself. We also want what having it appears to say about us.

Tulip speculation in the Dutch Republic during the seventeenth century offers an example. Rare colors and patterns made certain varieties especially desirable. During 1636 and early 1637, prices for some bulbs and related contracts rose rapidly. The expectation that someone else would pay more became another reason to buy.

The flower itself had not suddenly changed. What grew was everything attached to it: rarity, wealth, social standing, and the promise of a higher price.

At that point, wanting the flower and wanting to be the person who owns it become difficult to separate. We can find the same movement in much more ordinary things. A possession begins as something useful or beautiful, then becomes evidence that we are successful, that we belong, or that we have not fallen behind.

This is how comparison feeds desire. Someone else having more can make what we already have feel insufficient, even when nothing in our own circumstances has changed.

Does Having Fewer Desires Mean Giving Up Our Goals?

Chapter 46 says:

No calamity is greater than not knowing what is enough. No fault is greater than the urge to possess.

Having fewer desires does not mean eliminating desire. We can want a better life, try to complete something difficult, and seek wealth, recognition, or achievement. The danger begins when wanting something stops accepting any boundary.

At first, it says, “I want this.” Over time, that can become, “I must have this.” Waiting becomes harder. Changing direction feels like defeat. Failure becomes something we cannot allow, whatever the cost.

We begin forcing events toward the result we want and contending with anything that stands in the way. An ordinary goal is gradually pushed toward an extreme.

This is why I connect having fewer desires with wu wei and not contending. They are difficult to practice while only one outcome feels acceptable. We may tell ourselves to stop forcing the situation, but the desire underneath is still demanding that the situation produce exactly what we want.

When the voice saying “I must have this” becomes quieter, other choices become visible again. We can wait, reconsider, or decide that the cost has become too great. The goal remains, but it no longer decides every action for us.

What Happens When Ability Grows Alongside Desire?

Emperor Yang of Sui, Yang Guang, offers a historical example. His reign included major expansion of the Grand Canal network and the construction of the eastern capital at Luoyang. Some of these undertakings continued to matter long after the Sui dynasty ended.

Yet the scale of his ambitions also placed enormous demands on the empire. Major construction projects, imperial tours, and repeated campaigns against Goguryeo required vast amounts of labor and resources. Rebellions spread, and the dynasty collapsed.

For this discussion, the important point is that ability does not automatically give someone a stopping point. Being capable of carrying out a major undertaking does not mean that the conditions can support another one immediately afterward.

An achievement can become a reason to attempt something even larger. Resources that should have been allowed to recover are committed again. The question of what the situation can bear disappears behind the desire for another accomplishment.

The history of the Sui involves more than one ruler's personality. Still, this example makes the danger easier to see. When desire keeps expanding, greater power gives it more room to act and draws more people into its consequences.

This can happen on a smaller scale too. We complete one task and immediately raise the standard. We reach one goal and treat it as proof that we should take on more. Instead of helping us recognize what is enough, our ability becomes another reason never to stop.

Who Is Making the Decision?

Chapter 24 says:

Those who make a show of themselves do not see clearly. Those who insist they are right do not shine. Those who boast have no merit. Those who glorify themselves do not endure.

Having fewer desires does not require poverty or the abandonment of every goal. It means leaving enough room in our decisions to notice something besides the need to obtain, display, and prove.

We can pay attention to the situation itself. We can notice its limits and respond to the feedback we are getting. We can still want something while remaining able to change the plan or stop pursuing it.

A desire may point us toward something worth doing. But once we can no longer question its demands, it has begun taking over the judgment that should guide it.

I read gua yu as preserving that judgment. We still have things we want. We also remain able to decide which of them deserve our time, what we are willing to give for them, and when enough has been done.

In Part 10, I will continue with the idea of preserving unity.

I plan to keep this series going, and you can find the other posts on my profile. I’m also building Verso, a tool rooted in traditional Taoist divination that aims to offer another perspective when people feel stuck or unsure. It’s under development; stay tuned.

AI disclosure: English isn’t my first language, so I used AI to translate and help edit the English.

Reading Index: The Taoist Worldview and Tao Te Ching 101

In Part 7, I looked at wu wei and the difference between an action that belongs to the situation and an action we take because we cannot tolerate uncertainty. Once other people enter the picture, another problem appears. Even if we stop trying to force the situation itself, we can still be pulled into struggle by the need to defeat someone else.

This brings us to bu zheng, or not contending. Does it mean never competing, never refusing, never protecting our own interests, and always giving way? I do not read it that way. The more important question is what happens when solving the original problem is replaced by the need to win.

If you enjoy this series, please upvote, leave a comment, and share it with others. Every interaction helps us keep making the series and helps more people find it.

Does Not Contending Mean Wanting Nothing?

One common explanation of the early written form of zheng, meaning contention, describes two hands pulling at the same object. Duan Yucai later wrote in his commentary on the Shuowen Jiezi that contention means pulling something so that it returns to oneself. The image is simple: two sides both want the same thing brought over to their side.

Neither a character form nor one later commentary can decide the full meaning of Lao Tzu’s bu zheng. Still, the image gives us a useful entrance. The problem may not begin with wanting something. It begins when getting that thing becomes inseparable from pulling against someone else.

Not contending therefore does not require us to abandon every goal. Nor does it make every race, comparison, or disagreement wrong. People can compete without allowing the contest to control every choice they make. In this reading, contention begins when confrontation becomes the main road to the result and defeating the other side begins to matter more than the result itself.

Why Does Lao Tzu Use Water?

Chapter 8 says:

The highest goodness is like water. Water benefits the ten thousand things without contending. It stays in places that others reject, and so it comes close to the Tao.

Water is not powerless. It nourishes living things, changes the land through which it passes, and continues moving without needing to occupy the highest place. Its effect does not depend on proving that it is stronger than everything around it.

Chapter 22 says:

Precisely because one does not contend, no one in the world can contend with one.

This can sound like a promise that anyone who refuses a contest will automatically become unbeatable. I think the point is more practical. Contention is a relationship. It needs people to keep answering each other through the same struggle. If one person refuses to let every disagreement become a test of who must submit, that particular form of conflict can lose the condition it needs to continue.

That does not guarantee that aggression will disappear. Another person can continue to pressure, threaten, or harm us. Not contending is not magic, and it is not an instruction to remain in danger.

Chapter 73 adds another important line:

The Way of Heaven does not contend, yet it is skilled in prevailing.

Not contending therefore does not exclude results. But it should not be turned into a secret technique in which we pretend to step back so that we can defeat everyone later. If beating the other person still controls everything we do, contention remains at the center. It has only taken a quieter form.

When Does a Goal Become a Fight?

Contention often begins with a quiet change in purpose. At first, we may want a position, want to complete a piece of work, or want someone to accept a proposal. Once resistance appears, the purpose can shift. Getting the position is no longer enough. The other person must lose. Reaching an agreement is no longer enough. The other person must admit that we were right.

That shift is easy to miss because we can still use the language of the original goal. We may say that we are protecting the project, defending fairness, or insisting on standards. But more and more of our attention is now organized around the opponent’s next move.

Each side raises the stakes. More time, energy, and resources are pulled into the struggle. Eventually, the conflict is no longer serving the original purpose. The original purpose is serving the conflict.

This is one reason contention becomes difficult to stop. Every new move seems to require another response, and stepping back begins to feel like surrender even when the fight is already damaging the thing both sides wanted.

What Happens When Management Becomes a Contest?

Imagine that a company believes its employees are not committed enough, so managers begin measuring commitment through overtime. Employees learn to remain in the office while stretching out the hours. Management responds with cameras, records of how long people leave their desks, and checks on their computer screens. Employees find new ways around those controls, so the company introduces another rule.

The original question was how to bring more real attention and effort into the work. It has now become a contest between the company and its employees over who can control time and attention. The system grows more complicated, both sides spend more resources, and the work itself moves into the background.

Not contending does not mean abandoning standards or allowing an organization to drift. It may mean changing the structure so that good work connects more clearly with each person’s own rewards, responsibility, and growth. The goal is not to discover one perfect incentive system. It is to stop treating victory over the employees as though it were the same thing as running the organization well.

When management becomes a cat and mouse game, every new control teaches people to concentrate on the control. A better system gives them a reason to concentrate on the work.

Can We Refuse the Contest Without Doing Nothing?

A useful fictional example appears in the Chinese novel The Distant Savior and its television adaptation Tian Dao. After the company chairman dies, Han Chufeng faces two senior vice presidents who are competing for the top position. Ding Yuanying advises him not to contend.

Han does not give up the responsibility he wants, leave the company, or stop working. He refuses to join that particular struggle and continues doing the work in front of him. As the other two candidates fight each other, their choices damage the company and reveal what has become more important to them than the company itself. Once the cost of the conflict becomes visible, the person who can still do the work also becomes easier to recognize.

This is a literary example, not evidence for what the Tao Te Ching originally meant. But it shows the practical difficulty clearly. Once we enter a contest, our attention is repeatedly pulled toward the other side’s next move. Refusing the contest can preserve that attention for the thing we were trying to do in the first place.

This does not mean that stepping aside will always lead to recognition or success. Sometimes another person will take the position, the proposal will fail, or the conflict will continue without us. Not contending is not a guarantee that events will reward us. It is a refusal to let the contest decide what all our effort is for.

Can Not Contending Still Have Boundaries?

Not contending does not mean becoming unable to say no. We may need to refuse an unreasonable demand, leave a harmful relationship, protect our rights, or stop someone from causing harm. The concept should never be used to shame a person out of self protection.

The question is not whether an action looks gentle or forceful from the outside. The question is what the action is serving. Is it dealing with the situation, protecting something real, or restoring a workable boundary? Or has the desire to overpower and humiliate the other person taken control?

Sometimes the same outward action can come from either place. A firm refusal can end a cycle of contention. A polite silence can also hide a plan to punish someone later. Not contending requires judgment because it cannot be reduced to always yielding, always withdrawing, or always staying calm.

The struggle gives us a simple identity: I am the one who must win. Bu zheng asks us to give up that certainty without giving up the responsibility to act. Water benefits the ten thousand things without contending, but it never stops moving. It simply does not waste its strength proving that it deserves to stand above everything else.

In Part 9, I will continue with another idea that is often misunderstood: having fewer desires.

I plan to keep this series going, and you can find the other posts on my profile. I’m also building Verso, a tool rooted in traditional Taoist divination that aims to offer another perspective when people feel stuck or unsure. It’s under development; stay tuned.

AI disclosure: English isn’t my first language, so I used AI to translate and help edit the English.

Previous Posts

Part 1 of 23: How Should We Read It?

Part 2 of 23: Why Did Lao Tzu Choose to Observe the World?

Part 3 of 23: Why Do We Lose What We Try Too Hard to Control?

Part 4 of 23: Why Can the Soft Overcome the Hard?

Part 5 of 23: What Does “Reversal Is the Movement of the Tao” Really Mean?

Part 6 of 23: Why Do Names and Standards Push Us Toward Extremes?

Part 7 of 23: Does Wu Wei Mean Doing Nothing?

October 6 is a Settling Day in the traditional calendar. If something has been hanging in the air, today is better suited to letting it take shape. Making a relationship official, formalizing a collaboration, or completing an agreement that has already been discussed may go more smoothly. You may wake up with a little more ease, but the day still favors steadiness. Finish what has already been decided, clear the work you have been carrying, and avoid adding unnecessary plans halfway through. Marriage, travel, opening a business, and prayer or intention setting all fit the more constructive side of this reading. A simple morning wish is: “May the mind be settled and all things proceed smoothly.”

If you enjoy this series, please upvote, leave a comment, and share it with others. Every interaction helps us keep making the series and helps more people find it.

The caution is entanglement. Old matters can return like hooks, and a task may repeat, stall, or begin without reaching a clean ending. You may also feel strangely stifled. This is why the day is better for something planned well in advance than for anything that depends on speed, novelty, or an instant result. Say less and do more. An agreement that is already settled is different from a new contract placed in front of you under pressure, so do not sign or lend impulsively. Avoid reopening an old connection just because it suddenly reappears, and leave ten extra minutes whenever you go out.

In the Twenty Eight Mansions part of the reading, today falls under the Zhen Mansion and is relatively friendly to Virgo. Virgo may find the day slightly easier to work with, especially when quiet attention and careful execution are needed.

Best times

• Studying: 09:00 to 11:00
• Career and work: 15:00 to 17:00
• Relationships: 17:00 to 19:00
• Gaming: 21:00 to 23:00

Colors

• White, silver, and apricot
• Yellow, caramel, and coffee brown
• Green and teal

Chinese zodiac

• Snake, Rat, and Rooster: This is the more supportive group in today’s reading. Collaboration, expressing your feelings, handling ordinary financial matters, and asking someone for practical help may go more smoothly.
• Goat, Horse, Dog, and Dragon: Postpone major decisions if you can. Try to get home earlier and avoid unnecessary late night travel.

Western zodiac

• Aries: Your energy may run low, and several matters may require more patience than usual.
• Taurus: Your stomach may feel sensitive, and your rest or sleep could be interrupted.
• Gemini: Pay closer attention on the road. You may also notice irritation, inflammation, or allergy related discomfort.
• Cancer: An old issue may pull you back in. Keep impulse shopping under control.
• Leo: You may feel more emotionally sensitive. Watch entertainment spending, too.
• Virgo: You may become overly focused on details, which could make anxiety feel heavier.
• Libra: Procrastination may be tempting, and someone from your past or an unfinished matter may need your attention.
• Scorpio: Emotional push and pull may be stronger. Do not take someone else’s promise at face value too quickly.
• Sagittarius: Avoid impulsive decisions. Your sleep or eating schedule may also be disrupted.
• Capricorn: Be careful around hot surfaces and liquids. You may also receive some unexpected financial good news.
• Aquarius: Do not turn every disagreement into a contest. Be mindful of verbal conflict.
• Pisces: You may feel sleepy or distracted, and romantic dynamics could feel more tense than usual.

Five element notes

Today’s crystal pairings are symbolic suggestions, not promises of an effect.

• Metal: Pearl. Do not rush to define a relationship. You may also want to take ordinary care if you notice cold or cough symptoms.
• Wood: Green phantom quartz. Drowsiness or insomnia may disturb your rhythm, and someone could cancel on you.
• Water: Obsidian. Watch for emotional entanglement, gossip, or petty behavior around you.
• Fire: Amethyst. Avoid overly intense work, and take extra care during exercise or travel.
• Earth: Citrine. You may notice a subtle change in one of your relationships.

If any of this connects with your day, come back and tell me what actually happened.

I post Daily Forecasts and other series regularly, and you can find all of them on my profile. These daily forecasts will also become part of Verso, alongside personalized readings and other forecasting tools. Verso is designed to offer a second opinion and practical next steps when you feel stuck or unsure. The app is still in development, so stay tuned.

AI disclosure: English isn’t my first language, so I used AI to translate and help edit the English.

October 5 is a Balance Day in the traditional calendar. The mood is quiet, ordinary, and steady. That urge to push ahead may ease off, leaving you more inclined to stay where you are and maintain what you have already built. Keep up with everyday tasks and let your relationships follow their existing rhythm. You may be slower to reply to messages, slip into autopilot, or feel resistant to change. There could even be a passing “What is the point of all this?” feeling. Resting, watching a show, or simply taking the day as it comes fits the mood. A simple wish for the morning is: “May things go smoothly.”

If you enjoy this series, please upvote, leave a comment, and share it with others. Every interaction helps us keep making the series and helps more people find it.

The day also has a grounded, homeward pull. Interactions may feel smoother, and the sense of being supported is more about inner reassurance than anything happening around you. You may want the comfort of home and family, feel more physically sensitive, or find yourself reflecting on aging and the passing of life. Handle things during the daytime, then give yourself permission to unwind after 20:00. Spend more time with family and less time on social obligations. Practical needs also deserve attention, from home improvements and a relaxing bath to seeking medical care when needed.

In the Twenty Eight Mansions part of the reading, today falls under the Bi Mansion and is relatively friendly to Virgo. If there is a Virgo you would like to get closer to, let the connection develop naturally.

Best times

• Studying: 11:00 to 13:00
• Career and work: 15:00 to 17:00
• Relationships: 15:00 to 17:00
• Gaming: 17:00 to 19:00

Colors

• Green and teal
• Black and blue
• Yellow, caramel, and coffee brown

Chinese zodiac

• Ox, Monkey, and Dragon: Things you have been waiting for may begin to arrive. Communication with supervisors, people you supervise, and elders may feel smoother. This is the more supportive group in today’s reading.
• Horse, Rabbit, Goat, and Rooster: Small tasks may pile up. Leave room for travel delays and take care on the road.

Western zodiac

• Aries: Take a break from social apps if they are only adding frustration. You do not have to keep checking something that leaves you feeling worse.
• Taurus: Getting out of bed or leaving home may take more effort. Optional plans such as a manicure or getting your ears pierced can wait for another day.
• Gemini: Double check your belongings before leaving so you do not lose something or forget to bring it. Going out may also bring a pleasant surprise.
• Cancer: A relationship may feel different from before, and you could be especially sensitive to that change.
• Leo: Be careful with verbal disagreements. A few words could turn into more trouble than you intended.
• Virgo: Watch for perfectionism taking over. Be mindful of how you phrase things, especially when pointing out what needs fixing.
• Libra: Something that has been weighing on your mind may take a turn. Pay attention to digestive or period discomfort, too.
• Scorpio: An issue you put aside or tried to avoid may come up again.
• Sagittarius: Someone may cancel, or plans could change at the last minute. Leave yourself some flexibility.
• Capricorn: Following the rules may work in your favor. Pay attention to discomfort in your neck or lower back.
• Aquarius: You may feel tempted to avoid something painful that happens today rather than face it.
• Pisces: You may notice a gap between someone’s words and their behavior. Be careful with impulse spending, too.

Five element notes

Today’s crystal pairings are symbolic suggestions, not promises of an effect.

• Metal: Moonstone. Give financial matters some attention, but do not agree to everything just to keep other people happy.
• Wood: Green phantom quartz. Studying, creating, and planning may suit you today.
• Water: Obsidian. Your emotions may be close to the surface, and tears may come more easily. Take care around water when you are out.
• Fire: Garnet. Avoid rushing into major decisions or acting in the heat of the moment.
• Earth: Tiger’s eye. You may feel tired or slow to get going. Take care of your belongings, as damage could be an annoyance today.

If any of this connects with your day, come back and tell me what actually happened.

I post Daily Forecasts and other series regularly, and you can find all of them on my profile, feel free to check them out. These daily forecasts will also become part of Verso, alongside personalized readings and other forecasting tools. Verso is designed to offer a second opinion and practical next steps when you feel stuck or unsure. The app is still in development, so stay tuned.

AI disclosure: English isn’t my first language, so I used AI to translate and help edit the English.

In Part 6, I looked at how names become standards, and how standards begin shaping what people desire. Once a result has been named as beautiful, successful, loyal, or good, it becomes easy to keep pushing toward it even after the pursuit has started damaging the thing we wanted to improve.

That leaves a practical question. If we do not want to be driven endlessly by the goals we create, how are we supposed to act? One of Lao Tzu’s best known answers is wu wei.

If you enjoy this series, please upvote, leave a comment, and share it with others. Every interaction helps us keep making the series and helps more people find it.

Wu Wei Is Not the Absence of Action

Wu wei is often read as passivity, withdrawal, or simply doing nothing. But the Tao Te Ching does not describe someone who has abandoned every responsibility. It keeps placing wu wei beside affairs, teaching, and government.

One common explanation of the early written form of wei describes a person guiding an elephant. There is disagreement over whether the animal in that form is actually an elephant, so I would not use the character alone to settle the meaning. Still, it offers a useful entrance into the problem. Wei can suggest more than an event simply happening. It can suggest directing something toward a result and trying to make that result occur.

This is why I find non forcing more useful than doing nothing as a starting point. In the reading developed through this series, wu wei does not remove action. It removes the belief that every situation should be made to obey our preferred outcome through more control, more pressure, and more intervention.

Lao Tzu Is Still Talking About Doing Things

Chapter 2 says:

Therefore the sage attends to affairs through wu wei and practices the teaching without words.

The sage is still attending to affairs. The line does not describe someone who has disappeared from the world. Chapter 3 says:

Act through wu wei, and nothing will be left ungoverned.

Governing is still taking place. What changes is the manner in which it is done.

Chapter 37 says:

The Tao is always without forcing, yet nothing is left undone. If rulers could hold to it, the ten thousand things would transform themselves.

Chapter 48 approaches the same idea through subtraction:

In pursuing learning, one adds each day. In pursuing the Tao, one subtracts each day. Subtract and subtract again until wu wei is reached. Through wu wei, nothing is left undone.

I read this subtraction as the removal of accumulated desire, control, and unnecessary interference. It is not the removal of every action. When those extra layers are reduced, a situation regains some room to develop through its own conditions rather than being constantly redirected by our anxiety.

This does not mean that wu wei guarantees success. “Nothing is left undone” is not a promise that every wish will be fulfilled. Sometimes conditions are bad, information is incomplete, and intervention is necessary. The point is not that events always work out by themselves. The point is that our interference can become one of the forces preventing them from working at all.

Governing a Great State Is Like Cooking a Small Fish

Chapter 60 says:

Governing a great state is like cooking a small fish.

Cooking a small fish requires action. You prepare the heat, watch what is happening, and turn the fish when it actually needs to be turned. But if you keep touching it because you are nervous, it falls apart.

That is what makes the image useful. The problem is not movement itself. The problem is the extra movement produced by our inability to leave a process alone. We make one adjustment, then another, not because the situation requires it, but because waiting makes us feel as though we have lost control.

Sometimes the hardest judgment is not deciding what to do. It is recognizing that we are able to interfere and that this is still not the moment to do so.

Chapter 17 describes the best rulers as those whose existence is barely known by the people. Lower down come rulers who are loved and praised, then feared, and finally despised. A well functioning order does not always display the manager’s fingerprints everywhere. The more a ruler needs to demonstrate power and prove that something is being done, the more likely it is that the order underneath is not actually working.

When More Effort Makes a System Weaker

Imagine the owner of a restaurant company with hundreds of locations visiting one branch. The owner personally changes the position of the tables, criticizes the refrigerator, rewrites the menu, and corrects every employee.

This looks responsible. It also avoids the more difficult questions. If the equipment is arranged badly, does the company have a usable standard? If the menu is wrong, who is responsible for it? Once the owner has fixed this branch, what will happen in the other hundreds?

The staff may learn only one lesson: wait for the owner to give us the answer. The owner becomes busier, everyone below becomes less capable of judging, and personal effort quietly replaces a functioning system.

This is one form that excessive wei can take. A person wants the result so badly that every problem calls for another personal intervention. Each intervention appears useful on its own, but together they destroy responsibility, initiative, and the ability of the system to correct itself.

Effort still matters. Action still matters. But effort is not automatically wise simply because it is intense.

What Does Wu Wei Look Like on a Content Platform?

The same tension appears in creative work. A creator can pay attention to the quality of the work, learn from the audience, and change when the change makes sense. None of that conflicts with wu wei.

The trouble begins when every rise or fall in traffic demands a new identity. One format becomes popular, so it is copied immediately. Another account grows quickly, so its language and structure are borrowed. The goal is clear: more views and more followers. Yet even if this produces a large audience, the creator may have no idea why those people arrived or what they will stay for.

The account has grown, but its choices have narrowed. Every new post must repeat the thing that once produced the number.

Wu wei does not mean having no direction. A goal can point somewhere. It becomes dangerous when it replaces observation and turns every uncertain moment into a reason to push harder. Sometimes the part we can genuinely do is to improve the work, publish it, learn from what happens, and resist rebuilding everything around each short term fluctuation.

Wu Wei Is a More Difficult Kind of Action

Policies that allowed people to recover during the early Han are often used as an example of wu wei in government. This did not mean that the state ceased to exist or stopped governing. After years of war, reducing disruption and easing burdens gave society space to rebuild. That recovery had many causes, so I would not attribute it to one philosophy alone. What the example offers here is a question of timing: what does this situation need now, and which additional actions would disturb the very recovery we are trying to support?

This is why I think wu wei is harder than simply doing nothing. Doing nothing can come from neglect, fear, or a refusal to understand the problem. Wu wei requires enough attention to tell the difference between an action that belongs to the situation and an action that only relieves our anxiety.

Sometimes responsibility means taking another step. Sometimes it means removing the step we added because we could not tolerate waiting.

In Part 8, I will continue with another idea that is often misunderstood: bu zheng, or not contending.

I plan to keep this series going, and you can find the other posts on my profile. I’m also building Verso, a tool rooted in traditional Taoist divination that aims to offer another perspective when people feel stuck or unsure. It’s under development; stay tuned.

AI disclosure: English isn’t my first language, so I used AI to translate and help edit the English.

Previous Posts

Part 1 of 23: How Should We Read It?

Part 2 of 23: Why Did Lao Tzu Choose to Observe the World?

Part 3 of 23: Why Do We Lose What We Try Too Hard to Control?

Part 4 of 23: Why Can the Soft Overcome the Hard?

Part 5 of 23: What Does “Reversal Is the Movement of the Tao” Really Mean?

Part 6 of 23: Why Do Names and Standards Push Us Toward Extremes?

In Part 5, I looked at what happens when something loses its room to adjust and can only keep moving in one direction. But knowing that a pursuit can go too far does not always stop us. We can see the danger and still move toward it, one choice at a time. This time, I want to look at how that pursuit begins, through a word from the opening chapter: name.

If you enjoy this series, please upvote, leave a comment, and share it with others. Every interaction helps us keep making the series and helps more people find it.

What happens when we turn something good into a standard?

Chapter 3 says:

Do not exalt the worthy, and the people will not contend. Do not prize rare goods, and the people will not steal. Do not display what arouses desire, and the hearts of the people will not be disturbed.

Chapter 19 goes further:

Abandon sageliness and discard cleverness, and the people will benefit a hundredfold. Abandon benevolence and righteousness, and the people will return to filial care and affection. Abandon skill and profit, and thieves will disappear.

On a first reading, these lines can sound as though Lao Tzu wants to get rid of capable people, kindness, and wisdom. I read them here as a warning about what happens when a society takes one version of a good thing and makes it the standard everyone must meet. Once that standard is constantly praised, displayed, and rewarded, it starts shaping what people want.

Chapter 2 says that when everyone recognizes beauty as beauty, ugliness is already there, and when everyone recognizes goodness as good, what is not good is already there. A single accepted definition of beauty puts everything outside it on the other side. A fixed image of goodness can do the same to choices that do not fit.

That is the connection I want to follow in this part. We establish a standard, people begin pursuing it, and the pursuit can keep growing long after it has stopped helping them. This is one way of reading these chapters together, rather than the only explanation of what they mean.

What happens when beauty has only one answer?

Appearance makes this easy to see. We are shown how small a face should be, how thin a body should be, and which signs of aging should disappear. Very different people end up measuring themselves against the same narrow image. Looking good becomes something that can always be scored, compared, and corrected.

There is nothing wrong with caring about your appearance or choosing a cosmetic procedure. The trouble comes when there is no point at which you can feel satisfied. You spend more, accept more risk, or let the pursuit take over your daily life, and the answer is still that you are not close enough. A standard that was supposed to help you make a choice is now making choices for you.

Diamonds, luxury brands, and other status goods work in a similar way. Their appeal is not only in the objects themselves. We also attach love, success, and social standing to them. Enjoying something is one thing. Feeling that you cannot be complete without it is another. The useful distinction is between wanting the object and needing the identity it seems to promise.

Can a good reputation become another desire?

Someone can care very little about money and still be deeply attached to being seen as upright, loyal, or brave enough to speak the truth. That desire may be harder to notice because its name sounds admirable. Eventually, solving the problem can become less important than being remembered as the person who took the correct moral position.

The late Ming dynasty offers a difficult example. There were disputes over peace negotiations, moving the court south, and raising military funds, all under severe military and financial pressure. Those were real problems with no easy answers. But once supporting peace could be branded as weakness, moving south as disloyalty, or having money to contribute as proof of corruption, practical options became harder to discuss. People could end up defending their reputation for purity while the situation kept deteriorating.

I would not explain the fall of the Ming through reputation alone. The point is narrower: a moral label can make a course of action almost impossible to consider before anyone has properly examined whether it could work.

This is why I do not take “do not exalt the worthy” to mean that ability is bad. The danger appears when worthiness becomes an identity people have to win and defend. Benevolence and righteousness can also become badges, used to separate the loyal from the disloyal or to compete for recognition. Even a virtuous name can become something we cannot bear to lose.

What does “the name that can be named” mean here?

The opening chapter says:

The name that can be named is not the constant name.

The received text commonly read today uses chang, meaning constant or enduring. The Mawangdui silk manuscripts use heng. One common explanation is that heng was replaced with chang to avoid the personal name of Emperor Wen of Han, Liu Heng. That explanation does not settle every question about the wording or the meaning of the line.

For me, a useful starting point is that we need names. They let us communicate, share experience, and distinguish one thing from another. But naming also draws a boundary. A name does not contain everything the thing can be, and it becomes misleading when we forget that we drew the boundary ourselves.

Chapter 2 gives several pairs: being and nonbeing, difficult and easy, long and short, high and low, sound and voice, front and back. These are not all the same kind of relationship, but they draw attention to how much our distinctions depend on something else. Long is understood in relation to short. High depends on low. A name helps us recognize a difference; it does not make the two sides separate, permanent worlds.

Chapter 20 also questions the distance between good and evil. There are differences in wording between versions of this passage, so I would not build the whole argument on one English phrase. What matters for this reading is the habit of looking again at distinctions we have come to treat as obvious.

We still need to judge and act. The problem is forgetting how a judgment was formed and treating it as something that can never be reconsidered.

Does a different perspective make every judgment equally valid?

When a wolf kills a sheep, the shepherd sees a threat. Looking at the ecosystem, we see the wolf, the sheep, and the grass surviving in different ways. The wolf has not changed because the viewpoint changed. What has changed is the position from which we judge it.

Chapter 5 says:

Heaven and Earth are not benevolent. They treat the ten thousand things as straw dogs.

I read “not benevolent” here as a reminder that the natural world does not arrange itself around human preferences or grant special protection to the side we favor. Naming the wolf evil does not remove its place in the world. That does not tell us to be cruel or stop protecting what we care about.

Historical figures show another side of this. Dorgon was central to the Qing conquest and the establishment of the new regime. Within a story about the founding of the Qing, he could be remembered for his contribution. For Ming loyalists and communities harmed by the conquest, he represented invasion, oppression, and disaster.

Understanding those different memories does not make the facts interchangeable. It does not erase what happened or excuse harm. Perspective helps explain a judgment; it does not automatically justify it. I think that distinction matters whenever we talk about names, goodness, or moral reputation.

How can we use names without being controlled by them?

The movement I have been describing begins with something ordinary. We name things so that we can understand them. Those names divide the world into categories. Some categories harden into standards, and people begin pursuing what the standards reward. If that pursuit loses its limits, it can carry us toward an extreme.

There is no need to throw away language or pretend that all standards are useless. Life together would be difficult without either. But we can notice when a word stops helping us understand a situation and starts demanding that the situation fit it.

Beauty, success, goodness, loyalty, and strength can all express something worth caring about. They can also become images we spend our lives trying to satisfy. I take “the name that can be named” as a reminder to leave room to look again. The label may still be useful, but it does not get the final word on the person or situation in front of us.

In Part 7, I will continue with wu wei and the question of how to act without being driven by the standards we create.

I plan to keep this series going, and you can find the other posts on my profile. I’m also building Verso, a tool rooted in traditional Taoist divination that aims to offer another perspective when people feel stuck or unsure. It’s under development; stay tuned.

AI disclosure: English isn’t my first language, so I used AI to translate and help edit the English.

October 1 is a Closing Day in the traditional calendar. “Closing” carries the sense of drawing things inward, bringing matters to completion, and letting the mind settle. This is a better day for finishing what is already in your hands, settling an account, and bringing your attention back to yourself than for launching something entirely new. You may feel less social, slower to reply, or a little mentally foggy, and that is okay. Major decisions can wait. Be careful with scams, disappointing purchases, and situations that are not quite what they seem. Today’s line is: “May what is closed break open, and may nothing stand in your way.”

If you enjoy this series, please upvote, leave a comment, and share it with others. Every interaction helps us keep making the series and helps more people find it.

Pay particular attention to arguments, sudden problems, broken belongings, and cuts from knives, scissors, or other sharp objects. On the friendlier side, this is a useful day for dealing with old matters, finishing something you have delayed for too long, or letting go of what you no longer need. Ordinary work and necessary responsibilities can still move forward as usual.

In the Twenty Eight Mansions part of the reading, today falls under the Kui Mansion, and Scorpio receives the friendlier note. Scorpio may find that things move a little more smoothly. If there is a Scorpio you would like to know better, you can let the connection grow naturally.

Best times

• Studying: 7:00 to 9:00
• Career and work: 9:00 to 11:00
• Relationships: 13:00 to 15:00
• Gaming: 19:00 to 21:00

Colors

• Black and navy blue
• White, silver, and cream
• Red, purple, and pink

Chinese zodiac

• Snake, Rat, and Dragon: The day may feel relatively easygoing. You may have the relaxed sense that ordinary efforts are landing well and good things can happen without being forced.
• Tiger and Pig: Watch for unexplained irritation or the feeling that your kindness is being taken for granted. Try to make your boundaries and expectations clear instead of carrying all of the frustration by yourself.

Western zodiac

• Aries: Watch for impulse spending, and try not to let a communication problem with someone of the opposite sex turn into an argument.
• Taurus: You may be growing tired of an undefined relationship. Double check deliveries, takeout, and online purchases as well, since what arrives may not match what you expected.
• Gemini: Your schedule may change at the last minute. This is not the best day for a confession or for acting while emotions are running high.
• Cancer: Someone from the past or an ex may reappear. If you are prone to migraines, give yourself room to slow down and rest.
• Leo: Do not agree to someone else’s request too quickly. Check whether you really have the time and energy first, and pay attention if your skin is feeling more sensitive than usual.
• Virgo: Information at work may not line up. Confirm the details before acting, and be careful with arguments or misunderstandings.
• Libra: A cooperation issue may finally begin to resolve, but you could also spend money simply to save face.
• Scorpio: Even if you are on holiday, you may still end up handling work. Be direct if needed, but do not let your tone become unnecessarily sharp.
• Sagittarius: You may disagree with someone close to you. At the same time, this is a good day to deal with something you have postponed for a long time.
• Capricorn: It is a good day to ask someone for help. Important matters can wait, and you do not have to force yourself to settle everything today.
• Aquarius: If you are single, be cautious about attention from the wrong person. Fandom purchases and merchandise could also trigger impulse spending.
• Pisces: You may run into something genuinely challenging. Give your eyes a break, and do not ignore discomfort in your feet.

Five element notes

Today’s crystal pairings are symbolic suggestions, not promises of an effect.

• Metal: Moonstone. Decisiveness can become rigidity, so consider postponing any major financial decision.
• Wood: Prehnite. You may be carrying a sense of hurt or unfairness. Try not to read too much into every word someone says.
• Water: Aquamarine. Let the past remain in the past. If loneliness comes up, you do not have to force yourself to feel better immediately.
• Fire: Amethyst. You may second guess something after doing it. Keep track of your belongings as well.
• Earth: Citrine. The day is relatively steady, but it may help to be mindful of food and digestion.

If any of this connects with your day, come back and tell me what actually happened.

I post Daily Forecasts and other series regularly, and you can find all of them on my profile. These daily forecasts will also become part of Verso, alongside personalized readings and other forecasting tools. Verso is designed to offer a second opinion and practical next steps when you feel stuck or unsure. The app is still in development, so stay tuned.

AI disclosure: English isn’t my first language, so I used AI to translate and help edit the English.

September 23 falls on the Autumn Equinox and is also a Balance Day in the traditional Chinese calendar. The point of a Balance Day is not dramatic change. It is about doing familiar things steadily and keeping the day on an even course. Routine tasks and ordinary work should be easier to handle without major problems, although this is probably not a day of huge surprises either. The better approach is to let the day remain calm instead of creating extra complications. Air signs in particular may be full of new ideas, but not every spark needs to become an immediate decision.

There is also a protective quality attached to the day. If something important needs to be handled, earlier is better, ideally before 5:00 pm. Small snags may be easier to straighten out, and routine medical appointments, health related errands, or meetings with a supervisor fall on the friendlier side of the reading. These are still timing notes rather than promises about the result.

In the Twenty Eight Mansions part of the reading, today falls under the Ji Mansion and Aquarius receives the friendlier note. Aquarius may find it easier to move with the day rather than against it. If there is an Aquarius you would like to know better, this may be a good day to move a little closer naturally.

Best times

• Studying: 15:00 to 17:00
• Career and work: 15:00 to 17:00
• Gaming: 17:00 to 19:00
• Relationships: 21:00 to 23:00

Colors

• Green and teal
• Black and blue
• Yellow, caramel, and coffee brown

Western zodiac

• Aries: Gaming may test your patience if your teammates are not cooperating. Watch your words too, and do not let a moment of irritation turn into an argument.
• Taurus: Double check takeout orders and deliveries. Something may arrive mixed up or not match what you expected.
• Gemini: Something good may happen, and a plan or experience that feels fresh has a better chance of becoming real.
• Cancer: Pay a little more attention to pets, and do not ignore a small issue developing in a relationship.
• Leo: Someone may rub you the wrong way. Keep track of your belongings as well, since small items may be easier to misplace.
• Virgo: Procrastination, poor sleep, or a low mood may slow you down. Deal with one manageable thing instead of letting everything drift to later.
• Libra: Ordinary work may bring some welcome news, and the day could go a little better than usual.
• Scorpio: A flirtatious or ambiguous feeling may appear around you. Notice who is drawing closer, but you do not need to define it immediately.
• Sagittarius: Someone may cancel on you or fail to show up. Watch impulse purchases too, especially while browsing livestreams or limited time offers.
• Capricorn: Repetitive work may take up so much space that there is no room left to learn or improve. Lighten the load and remove tasks that do not really need to be there.
• Aquarius: A temporary sense of emptiness may surface, although encouraging news around money could also arrive.
• Pisces: Watch your sleep and your timing. Leave extra room before an important appointment so tiredness does not turn into lateness.

Chinese zodiac

• Ox, Monkey, and Dragon: Useful opportunities may be easier to notice, and creative work is especially well placed.
• Horse, Rabbit, and Goat: Take a little more care with bumps, minor accidents, and unplanned financial losses.

Five element notes

Today’s crystal pairings are symbolic, not promises of an effect.

• Metal: Selenite. Helping is fine, but do not take the blame for a problem that is not yours. Make the boundary clear.
• Wood: Moss agate. This is a good time to make a new plan or restart something that has been left unfinished.
• Water: Labradorite. Your mood may rise and fall with someone else’s emotions, so pause and ask which feelings actually belong to you.
• Fire: Amethyst. You may receive praise or recognition, and work may move in a friendlier direction.
• Earth: Amber. You may be more soft hearted than usual and too quick to agree to an unreasonable request. It is okay to say no.

I post these forecasts daily and keep the full series on my profile, along with other interesting series. I’m also building Verso, a tool designed to offer a second opinion and practical next steps when you feel stuck or unsure. It’s still in development,Stay tuned.

AI disclosure: English isn’t my first language, so I used AI to translate and help edit the English.

September 22 is one of the days that calls for the most caution this month. It is a Full Day in the traditional Chinese calendar and also carries the cautionary association of Xuanwu, or the Black Tortoise. A Full Day represents completion and abundance, so something that has remained unresolved may finally reach a smoother conclusion. But when water is filled to the brim, it spills over. The better things seem to go, the more important it is to stay modest and restrained. Do not let a small success make you ignore good advice, and watch for impulse spending or desires that suddenly feel stronger than usual. Leave yourself some room, stop while you are ahead, and avoid speaking in absolutes. Today’s line is: “May all restrictions fall away, and may hardship at its limit give way to better fortune.”

The Xuanwu association asks for extra care with anything happening beneath the surface. A situation may look calm while misunderstandings, withheld information, or delays are still developing. Double check money, cooperation, and important decisions instead of relying only on someone’s word. Unclear communication can also create suspicion in relationships, so ask for the facts before reacting to a fear. Major spending, interviews, opening a business, or plans that depend heavily on someone else’s trustworthiness may be better scheduled for another day. The same caution applies to construction or groundbreaking, weddings, major promises, and starting a new job.

In the Twenty Eight Mansions part of the reading, today falls under the Wei Mansion, often translated as the Tail Mansion, and Pisces receives a friendlier note. Pisces may find it easier to receive a positive response. If there is a Pisces you would like to know better, this may be a good day to move a little closer naturally.

Best times

• Studying: 07:00 to 09:00
• Career and work: 11:00 to 13:00
• Gaming: 21:00 to 23:00
• Relationships: 19:00 to 21:00

Colors

• Green and teal
• Black and blue
• Yellow, caramel, and coffee brown

Western zodiac

• Aries: What you fear may take up more of your attention than usual. Some Aries may also hear from someone from the past. Look at what they actually want before deciding whether to respond.
• Taurus: Bring your energy back to yourself and put it into your body and daily life. Try not to feed repetitive anxiety, and do not let yourself stay up too late.
• Gemini: Your mood may rise and fall quickly. Something could suddenly make you feel low or even bring you to tears, and you do not have to force yourself to stay cheerful all day.
• Cancer: You may feel less secure than usual. Pay attention to digestive or menstrual discomfort and give yourself a gentler pace.
• Leo: A sense of loss may be stronger today, especially around something you cannot have. Keep a lower profile and do not let frustration make your decisions for you.
• Virgo: Pay attention to allergies or other sensitivities, and do not ignore your sleep tonight.
• Libra: Something from the past may pull at you again, increasing indecision and quiet emotional drain. Keep an eye on small personal items too.
• Scorpio: A plan may fall through or someone may cancel on you. If you are in a relationship, do not let a cold silence replace an honest conversation.
• Sagittarius: You may unexpectedly run into someone from the past. Watch for unplanned expenses and small purchases that quietly add up.
• Capricorn: Brand new plans and genuinely important decisions may be better handled another day. Important communication with a manager, colleague, or someone you supervise may also benefit from waiting until the situation is clearer.
• Aquarius: You may run into someone unusually difficult. If a stranger disagrees with you, do not let a few words turn into an unnecessary argument.
• Pisces: You may be tempted to please others at your own expense. Watch for arguments, and do not let promises without action carry too much weight.

Chinese zodiac

• Tiger, Rabbit, and Goat: Help may be easier to find, plans may move more smoothly, and you may notice a promising financial opportunity.
• Snake, Pig, and Monkey: Watch for insomnia, overthinking, and arguments. Plans may also change suddenly, so leave yourself some room to adjust.

Five element notes

Today’s crystal pairings are symbolic, not promises of an effect.

• Metal: Clear quartz. Feeling too comfortable may turn into laziness or delay, while a small sense of nervousness may still sit underneath it.
• Wood: Green phantom quartz. Avoid meeting every disagreement head on, and do not force yourself through physical discomfort.
• Water: Aquamarine. Do not let delay cost you an opportunity or the help of someone supportive. Get out, move around, and engage with the world a little more.
• Fire: Garnet. Watch how much energy you spend. Forcing yourself to push through everything may create the opposite result.
• Earth: Yellow jade. Do not take every other person’s problem onto your own shoulders, or you may stay busy all day without moving your own life forward.

I post these forecasts daily and keep the full series on my profile, along with other interesting series. I’m also building Verso, a tool designed to offer a second opinion and practical next steps when you feel stuck or unsure. It’s still in development,Stay tuned.

AI disclosure: English isn’t my first language, so I used AI to translate and help edit the English.

September 16 is a Completion Day in the traditional Chinese calendar. “Completion” points to success, results, and seeing your effort pay off. Something you have been working toward may have a chance to come together today, but this is not a sit back and wait kind of day. You still have to take action.

Study, career matters, exams, interviews, contracts, cooperation, and telling someone how you feel all receive supportive notes. Today’s line is: “May everything reach a complete and successful conclusion.”

Words are the main caution today. Watch for unexpected conflict with strangers, disputes with merchants, packages that do not match what you ordered, and people talking behind your back. Take extra care while traveling, and make sure an old or unreliable vehicle is roadworthy before setting out.

In the Twenty Eight Mansions part of the reading, today falls under the Zhen Mansion, and Gemini receives the friendliest overall note. If there is a Gemini you would like to know better, this may be a good day to move a little closer.

Best times

• Studying: 07:00 to 09:00
• Career and work: 13:00 to 15:00
• Gaming: 19:00 to 21:00
• Relationships: 19:00 to 21:00

Colors

• Yellow, caramel, and coffee brown
• Red, purple, and pink
• Black and dark blue

Western zodiac

• Aries: You may become unusually fixated on a relationship. Financial matters receive a supportive note.
• Taurus: Something another person says may feel much bigger than it is. Watch for overthinking and difficulty sleeping.
• Gemini: You may feel ignored or singled out. Be careful with private information.
• Cancer: Try to loosen an unhealthy dependency. You may feel a withdrawal-like reaction as you do.
• Leo: You may meet someone who feels exciting but is likely to bring trouble. Also pay attention to physical discomfort.
• Virgo: Pay attention to digestive discomfort or period-related symptoms.
• Libra: Watch for conflict across a hierarchy, whether at work or elsewhere. Keep track of your belongings.
• Scorpio: Conflict with a partner may flare up. If an argument has already happened, the evening may offer a chance to make peace.
• Sagittarius: You may deal with people or situations from the past. Someone you have not heard from in a long time may suddenly contact you.
• Capricorn: You may find yourself quietly competing with someone. Watch for workplace or campus politics.
• Aquarius: Someone may cross a boundary, and you may be especially sensitive to controlling behavior.
• Pisces: An online purchase may not match the listing. Be careful not to be misled.

Chinese zodiac

• Monkey, Ox, and Rooster: Inspiration and clever solutions may come more easily. Used well, they can help you avoid unnecessary detours.
• Pig, Tiger, and Snake: Watch for unexpected financial losses or interpersonal disputes.

Five element notes

Today’s crystal pairings are symbolic, not promises of an effect.

• Metal: Clear quartz. Your words may come out sharper than intended and hurt someone.
• Wood: Green phantom quartz. An old issue may return. Resolve it thoroughly rather than leaving it unfinished again.
• Water: Moonstone. Your intuition may be especially sharp, so treat your sixth sense as a cue to pause and look closer.
• Fire: Red agate. Watch what you say and keep moving. Impulsive action is more likely today.
• Earth: Citrine. You may push too hard to make something happen. Protect yourself first.

I post these forecasts daily and keep the full series on my profile, along with notes on how the method works. I’m also building Verso, a tool designed to offer a second opinion and practical next steps when you feel stuck or unsure. It’s still in development,Stay tuned.

AI disclosure: English isn’t my first language, so I used AI to translate and help edit the English.

Today I want to share Black Myth: Zhong Kui from a Taoist perspective: the talismans, ritual swords, Five Camps, thunder magic, spirit summoning, and the folk legends and Taoist mythology behind them.

To understand what these techniques are doing, it helps to begin with Zhong Kui himself. Why would ghosts obey him? And how can a game compress a ritual involving an altar, talismans, incantations, ritual implements, and divine generals into only a few seconds of combat?

Zhong Kui riding a tiger in the game.

A man rejected by the human world who became its protector after death

The best known version of Zhong Kui's story begins with an examination. He was said to be a brilliant scholar who traveled to the capital to enter the imperial examination system, the route by which officials were selected in imperial China. Despite earning an excellent result, he was denied recognition because of his ugly appearance. In despair and fury, he killed himself by striking his head against the palace steps.

In this later and widely circulated version, the emperor regretted what had happened, granted him an official robe, and ordered an honorable burial. Grateful for that final act of respect, Zhong Kui vowed after death to capture every evil ghost he encountered. A man rejected by the human order because of his appearance became, in myth, one of the beings who protected that order. What the human world denied him, the legend gave back.

An earlier account tells the story differently. Shen Kuo, writing in the Northern Song, preserved a tale about Emperor Xuanzong of Tang dreaming of Zhong Kui. While ill, the emperor saw a small ghost steal Yang Guifei's perfume pouch and his own jade flute. A larger ghost wearing a hat and boots suddenly appeared, seized the thief, gouged out its eyes, and ate it.

The large ghost introduced himself as Zhong Kui. He said that he had failed the military examination and now wished to rid the empire of evil beings. Later generations gradually added the top scholar, green robe, sword, wedding procession for his sister, ghost soldiers, and tiger. The Zhong Kui we recognize today was built layer by layer through legend, opera, fiction, and painting.

Zhong Kui in traditional painting: red robe, heavy beard, sword in hand.

Why does he look fiercer than the ghosts while traveling with an entire group of them?

Zhong Kui is often painted with a leopard-like head, staring eyes, and a thick beard. He wears official robes and carries a sword, and he can look more frightening than the smaller ghosts around him.

That appearance is not meant to make him evil. It is meant to terrify harmful spirits. A protector capable of subduing ghosts must first be someone ghosts fear on sight. To spirits he is a fearsome enforcer; to human households he is a guardian invited inside to protect the door and the home.

More importantly, Zhong Kui does not only kill ghosts. He can subdue and command them. In folk legends, two ghosts named Han Yuan and Fu Qu serve as his deputies, while a bat scouts the road ahead. Some versions even say that he was appointed the Great General Who Expels Evil and Slays Demons, commanding three thousand ghost soldiers.

When Zhong Kui escorts his sister to her wedding, that ghostly retinue joins the procession. Ghosts in his stories are not always enemies. Once brought into order, they may become soldiers, attendants, messengers, and servants.

Zhong Kui with demons. Here ghosts are not only enemies; they may also become forces he has subdued and put to work.

The ghostly procession in “The Wedding of Zhong Kui's Sister.”

The idea of ghosts moving wealth also grew out of this wedding story. One popular version says that the King of Hell provided a dowry for Zhong Kui's sister and sent five small ghosts to carry it. Folk retellings developed that image into Zhong Kui as a wealth deity capable of ordering ghosts to transport riches.

This is how ideas such as “Five Ghosts Bringing Wealth” and “Five Ghosts Transporting Wealth” entered later Zhong Kui lore. In subsequent folk magic and esoteric storytelling, “Five Ghosts Transportation” became the ability to command spirits to move objects or wealth. But it is better understood as the result of several later traditions being layered together, not as a fixed “Five Ghosts Wealth Ritual” that Zhong Kui already possessed in early Taoist scripture.

Today, tattoo designs, commercial New Year prints, and online artwork often show “Zhong Kui Leading the Five Ghosts” or “Zhong Kui and the Five Ghosts Bringing Wealth.” Small ghosts carry chests, shoulder objects, lead a horse, or gather around him, combining protection from evil with wishes for fortune and wealth.

The theme has clearly become a living part of Zhong Kui's modern visual culture, but that does not mean it was one of his standard techniques from the beginning.

We should also distinguish the Five Ghosts from the Five Bats. In Li Shizhuo's album painting of Zhong Kui in the National Palace Museum, the five creatures around him are bats. Because the words for bat and fortune sound alike in Chinese, they symbolize the Five Blessings, not five ghosts.

Why does the Taoist mythological world resemble an enormous government?

One striking feature of the Chinese spirit world is that Heaven, the underworld, and the human realm often operate like parts of one enormous connected administration.

Heaven contains celestial sovereigns, divine officials, departments of thunder and fire, and generals assigned to different duties. The underworld has judges, ghost constables, registers, trials, and punishments. Local gods such as City Gods and Earth Gods oversee particular territories. Gods hold offices. Ghosts can be entered into registers. Problems are handled through memorials, orders, summonses, arrests, escorts, and judgments.

Within this order, Zhong Kui is both a general who captures harmful ghosts and a judge who decides how they should be dealt with. A Taoist priest communicates human requests to the gods and brings divine orders back into the human world.

If a house is believed to be disturbed by a harmful spirit, the priest may begin by purifying the space and establishing an altar. Through submitting memorials, writing talismans, reciting incantations, pacing ritual patterns, and using seals, the priest explains the problem to the appropriate gods. Divine generals are then summoned, boundaries are drawn, and the spirit is ordered to leave or is captured and escorted away.

The entire rite resembles an official operation between the human and celestial administrations. The talisman is the document, the seal is the credential, the sword represents the authority to enforce the command, and the divine general turns the order into action.

https://preview.redd.it/h3k21sv1wbph1.png?width=1600&format=png&auto=webp&s=dc84b79b7a8d0d9bfe38219a26e707537a8c3c46

A watercolor of a Chinese Taoist service altar, circa 1860 to 1900. The altar, ritual vessels, and instruments together form the space in which the rite takes place.

What is actually written inside a talisman?

Many overseas players call the marks on yellow paper “runes” or “magic words.” In Chinese culture, they are closer to fu or fulu, usually translated as talismans or talismanic writing.

A talisman may look like writing, but it can combine transformed Chinese characters, the secret names of deities, commands, star diagrams, thunder patterns, ritual signatures, and connecting lines. It is not an ordinary sentence. It works more like a specialized document sent into the world of gods and spirits.

https://preview.redd.it/9bil6qb6wbph1.png?width=1600&format=png&auto=webp&s=c13fb785dc2413023b2368af2f5857aa929b92dd

A woodblock “Talisman for Expelling Epidemic Disease” from a medical book published in 1737. The page preserves the talismanic form, incantation, and context of use together.

One common way of explaining a talisman divides it into several functional areas: the talisman head, the presiding deity, the body or abdomen, the talisman heart, and the talisman foot.

The head invokes the authority of gods or ancestral masters; the three hooks at the top of some talismans are interpreted as the Three Pure Ones. Beneath words such as “by command” or “ordered,” the deity responsible for the matter is named. The body states the purpose, such as blessing or expelling harmful forces. The heart is treated as the core that sets the talisman in motion. The foot closes, guards, or issues the command.

Together, these parts roughly answer four questions: Who is being called? What must be handled? By whose authority? And how will the order be carried out?

This is not a single template copied by every talisman. Different lineages, ritual spaces, and purposes change the form of the head, the presiding deity, the secret characters, the ritual signature, and the position of each element. Some talismans cannot be neatly divided into five sections at all.

The five-part model is best understood as a common introductory framework, not the one fixed grammar of every form of talismanic writing.

In stories and ritual, talismans may be posted on doors to block harmful spirits, carried on the body, used to guard a place, summon divine generals, or burned to transmit an order. Fire transforms visible paper into smoke and ash, symbolizing the dispatch of the command to gods and the spirit world.

The game takes this further by turning the talisman from background decoration into a combat medium. It can guide, bind, summon, mark a boundary, and connect a human action with another power.

https://i.redd.it/iz4374vlwbph1.gif

The game turns talisman writing, issuing commands, and forming a boundary into visible combat language.

The Five Camps: not five ghosts, but troops guarding five directions

The Five Camps and the Five Ghosts happen to share the number five, but they belong to two different systems.

In one documented zhongkui exorcism ritual, “establishing the Five Camps” is an important step in creating the outer altar's defensive force. The ritual calls celestial and terrestrial powers, draws Five Camps talismans, establishes the camps, uses five colored cloths for the five directions, and summons the heavenly troops of the Five Camps to guard the ritual ground.

The key ideas here are five directions, celestial soldiers, and defense. It is about building and guarding a ritual perimeter, not asking five small ghosts to move money.

An “Inner Five Camps Talisman.” The note at the side says that the talisman is written onto a command flag.

This image connects the talisman directly with the command flag. The talisman records the order; the flag turns the summoning of troops, establishment of camps, and guarding of the ritual space into physical action.

This particular image describes the Inner Five Camps, while the ritual record above discusses establishing the Five Camps around an outer altar. Different lineages may divide inner and outer camps differently, appoint different commanders, and use different talismanic forms.

This single page therefore helps explain what a Five Camps talisman is meant to do, but it cannot serve as the standard design used by every Taoist tradition.

If a game scene combines talisman paper, command flags, directions, and the deployment of troops, the traditional language of “five directional forces establishing camps and standing guard” gives us a way to read it.

But until the developers identify a specific design, there is no reason to force one game talisman into an exact match with this Annei Five Camps Talisman, much less call it a Five Ghosts Wealth Talisman.

Why can a ritual sword produce fire and call down thunder?

A sword in the hands of a Taoist priest is not merely a weapon. It is a ritual implement through which authority is expressed.

In Taoist mythology and ritual tradition, it can purify an altar, draw boundaries, point at harmful spirits, and trace talismanic forms in the air. Some blades carry the Big Dipper, the Twenty Eight Lunar Mansions, or other celestial patterns.

The sword represents the authority of the heavens and the power to cut down evil. If the talisman is an order, the ritual sword is the commander's baton used to issue and enforce it.

A Seven Star Sword in the collection of the National Museum of Taiwan History. Seven inlaid points on the blade form the Big Dipper.

Fire represents purification, transformation, and transmission. It burns talismans and written memorials, and in later mythology and tales of the strange it becomes divine fire rising along a weapon to burn away evil.

Thunder represents Heaven's power to punish wrongdoing, expel harmful forces, and correct disorder. The Thunder Department resembles an enforcement office within the celestial government, with thunder gods, thunder generals, and divine soldiers who carry out its commands.

Through talismans, incantations, ritual steps, visualization, and ritual implements, a Taoist priest summons these powers. When the sword points at a harmful spirit and thunder falls in response, the lightning is Heaven answering the order.

The sword judges and directs. The talisman transmits the command. Fire purifies and transforms. The generals of the Thunder Department enforce the order.

The game compresses an elaborate rite into a few seconds of movement: flame pours into the blade, talisman papers rise, and lightning travels along the sword toward the monster. A mythological order once hidden inside altars, incantations, and ritual actions becomes a combat language the player can see immediately.

Flame enters the blade.

As the white-robed Zhong Kui fights with his own sword, blue-white lightning appears along the blade.

Why can a divine general “enter” a person’s body?

“Inviting the gods” means calling a deity or divine general to the ritual space to protect, capture ghosts, or expel harmful forces.

In Taoist mythology and folk ritual imagination, a divine general may appear beside the priest as a separate power, or act through a human body. Through visualization, incantations, ritual steps, and physical movements, a Taoist priest may allow the body to temporarily represent a deity or general.

Chinese folk religion also contains stories of spirits descending into mediums, spirit-writing performers, or ritual specialists.

The body then becomes a temporary altar, a vessel through which the deity enters the human world. The person's movement, voice, and power change with it.

In a game, this can become possession, incarnation, transformation, or the summoning of another form during battle. The moment when a human figure overlaps with a much larger spirit turns the old idea of a divine general acting through a human body into an immediately readable visual spectacle.

https://i.redd.it/0uncp4pwxbph1.gif

The human body becomes a temporary vessel through which a divine general's power enters the world.

Why is Zhong Kui the right protagonist for this world?

Because Zhong Kui stands between every boundary in it.

He was once human and became a god after death. He looks like a ghost but protects humans. He kills evil ghosts but also subdues and commands ghostly followers. He wears an official robe but carries an exorcistic sword. He belongs simultaneously to folk legend, Taoist religion, painting, opera, and tales of the strange.

Even the tiger he rides continues the same logic. In Chinese culture, the tiger represents ferocity, protection, and the power to ward off evil. Traditional art also contains images of Zhong Kui riding a tiger or taking one on a hunt.

The tiger was never his one fixed mount, but it gives the game's final image an older visual echo. Zhong Kui is already frightening enough to make ghosts retreat. Placing him on a tiger doubles the message: this is a force even the spirit world must yield to.

https://preview.redd.it/zv8z0fx0ybph1.jpg?width=854&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9686380ddd1f35231ad673bb320d1741be457a1b

Ghosts are not only symbols of chaos. They can also be brought into an order maintained by a divine authority.

What makes Black Myth: Zhong Kui interesting is not only the question of why one character can summon fire, call thunder, or command ghosts. Behind those abilities is an entire mythological language of its own.

Heaven operates like a government. Talismans transmit orders. Command flags deploy troops. Ritual swords draw boundaries and enforce decisions. The Five Camps guard the altar. The Thunder Department punishes wrongdoing. Ghosts can be judged, subdued, and entered into an ordered hierarchy. A human body may become a path through which a deity enters the world.

The next time you see a yellow talisman, a Seven Star Sword, or a Taoist priest raising a hand to call thunder, those images no longer have to look like generic “Eastern magic.” They carry their own gods, implements, stories, and systems of authority, along with a cultural memory that is still alive today.

https://preview.redd.it/r1at26i3ybph1.jpg?width=854&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=aa9378576c4426e74783aba229c39e9904cdcf3a

Human beings, ghosts, divine generals, and the tiger that wards off evil all return to the same mythological world.

AI disclosure: English isn’t my first language, so I used AI to translate and help edit the English.

September 13 is an Action Day in the traditional Chinese calendar. The character behind this day carries the sense of carrying something out and taking charge. If a matter is already decided, the best approach is to move it forward step by step rather than changing it at the last minute. You may get the result you were hoping for and feel more in control of the day.

Agreements, major decisions, resolving disputes, and collecting money that is owed all receive a positive note. Work or study may also enter a renewed upswing, with both the big picture and the smaller details coming together more smoothly. Starting a business, beginning a new project, handling business matters, and taking an exam are all supported. There may even be a pleasant surprise or a sense that something you wanted is finally becoming real.

Today’s wish is: “Take charge with steadiness and peace. May everything move smoothly.”

One relationship caution: do not let confidence turn into controlling behavior, especially between partners.

In the Twenty Eight Mansions part of the reading, today falls under the Star Mansion, and Cancer receives the friendliest overall note. If there is a Cancer you would like to know better, this may be a good day to move a little closer.

Best times

• Studying: 09:00 to 11:00
• Career and work: 07:00 to 09:00
• Gaming: 09:00 to 11:00
• Relationships: 19:00 to 21:00

Colors

• Red, purple, and pink
• Green and teal
• White, silver, and beige

Western zodiac

• Aries: Avoid acting on impulse, and stay alert to unexpected trouble.
• Taurus: You may feel less secure than usual. Be careful with distorted information and trust your own judgment.
• Gemini: Write down today’s ideas while they are fresh. They may become useful later.
• Cancer: Your empathy may be especially sensitive today. Avoid acting while emotions are running high, and do not take every joke too seriously.
• Leo: You may feel uneasy or as if some things are slipping out of your control. You may also feel a stronger desire for romance.
• Virgo: Follow the plan you already made, but do not let a passing mood throw it off. Watch for arguments or gossip.
• Libra: Be careful not to depend too heavily on one person, and pay attention to any physical discomfort.
• Scorpio: Couples should watch for bickering and mutual suspicion.
• Sagittarius: Excitement may come with a sense of loneliness, and the pressure could feel heavier than usual.
• Capricorn: Someone may cancel on you or fail to show up. Check your phone in the evening because encouraging news may arrive.
• Aquarius: Someone may ask to borrow an item or money from you. You may also hear from someone from your past.
• Pisces: Watch for a sudden emotional crash or fantasies about someone who is not realistically available.

Chinese zodiac

• Pig, Horse, and Dog: Working with others may make things move much more efficiently. Notice the opportunities in front of you and act on them.
• Monkey, Snake, and Dragon: Be more alert to difficult people, lingering worries, and old disputes that may resurface.

Five element notes

Today’s crystal pairings are symbolic, not promises of an effect.

• Metal: Clear quartz. Several small problems may keep appearing, so deal with them early.
• Wood: Green phantom quartz. Avoid comparing yourself with others and focus on your own work.
• Water: Moonstone. Watch for sleeplessness or an emotional moment, and try to get some movement into your day.
• Fire: Red agate. Get out of the house and move around because something positive may happen.
• Earth: Citrine. Take extra care of your belongings because something may be damaged or misplaced.

Taoist's perspective to look at at Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius

Fire is the force that brings things into being. It starts, expands, and gives life momentum. But the three fire signs carry different kinds of flame, so they also lose their energy in different ways.

Aries is the first spark, like the first flame struck from wood. It carries the force of a new beginning. This is why Aries tends to come alive at the opening of something: starting a project, breaking through a stalemate, volunteering before anyone else does, or being the first to say how they feel.

That sudden urge to act may be an opportunity arriving, so Aries should not always dismiss it as “just being impulsive.” Its deeper frustration often comes from not doing what it genuinely wanted to do. The same thing happens when every action becomes only about winning. Either way, the regret is not having had the courage to be fully itself. When Aries feels stuck, the image of a seed breaking through the soil is a useful reminder of what its fire is for.

Leo is a bonfire. As a fixed sign, its flame lasts long enough to hold the energy of an entire stage and turn enthusiasm into something visible. Leo's creative force is at its best when it makes work that encourages, comforts, or inspires other people.

Leo's inner drain begins when all that light is used only to be seen. Its fire is not meant to become smaller, but it does need to illuminate something beyond itself. The sun does not lose its brightness by giving light. That is the stronger version of Leo: not merely shining, but helping life around it grow.

Sagittarius is a firework, a flame that rises. Its movement is upward through understanding, which is why Sagittarius is often drawn to philosophy, psychology, astrology, or any system that offers a wider view of life.

But understanding is not the finish line. Sagittarius becomes depleted when it uses ideas to go around an emotion instead of feeling it, or when knowledge replaces action. The emotion stays buried, while all that insight slowly turns into emptiness. Its lesson is to bring knowing and doing back together.

All three flames share the same quality: sheng, the force of life emerging. Fire signs tend to move in the right direction when their energy helps something begin, grow, or become more alive. Like singing, you have to hear the rhythm of your own life and enter on your own beat. Then you are both in tune and on your path.

Fire signs are also driven by spirit, so belief matters. Belief, conviction, and faith are not decorations around action; they are part of what helps the fire catch. Whether you truly believe you can do something, or believe that a situation can become better, changes what becomes possible. Sometimes that is where what feels like a miracle begins.

Which kind of fire feels most like you right now: the spark, the bonfire, or the firework, and where does it usually get stuck?

September 8 carries constructive, forward moving energy, especially around study and career. In the traditional calendar, it is a Jade Hall Establish Day. “Establish” points to building, beginning, and laying a foundation, so the way you start matters more than usual.

This is a good day to refresh your appearance, try a new haircut or look, begin a project, make a plan, or open a new chapter in your studies or work. Shopping and routine transactions also receive a positive note.

The wish for today is: “May your efforts build something lasting, and may the people and situations you meet move smoothly.”

The Jade Hall association also favors writing and paperwork. Exams, assignments, job applications, contracts, and business matters may move more smoothly when you prepare carefully. If you are traveling a long distance, take extra care and make sure your vehicle is in reliable condition before leaving.

In the Twenty Eight Mansions part of the reading, Virgo receives the friendliest overall note. If there is a Virgo you would like to know better, this may be a good day to move a little closer.

Best times

• Studying: 05:00 to 07:00
• Career and work: 11:00 to 13:00
• Gaming: 17:00 to 19:00
• Relationships: 17:00 to 19:00

Colors

• Black and dark blue
• White, silver, and apricot
• Red, purple, and pink

Western zodiac

• Aries: Your ability to act is strong today. Taking the first step may bring a better result than continuing to wait.
• Taurus: Stubbornness may keep you from recognizing someone’s goodwill. Do not let a small issue turn into lingering resentment or unnecessary tension.
• Gemini: This is a good day for brainstorming and creative work. Try not to let a minor physical symptom send you into a spiral of worry.
• Cancer: Relationship worries may lead to overthinking and emotional exhaustion. Be mindful of petty gossip or criticism around you.
• Leo: You may discover that something has been kept from you. If you are shopping online, double check the details so you do not end up with something that does not match the listing.
• Virgo: A good day to clear up unfinished matters. Go easy on very cold or spicy food, and pay attention to digestive or menstrual discomfort.
• Libra: You may feel offended or pushed too far. It is fine to refuse an unreasonable request, but try not to let the situation become a needless argument.
• Scorpio: Your presence may feel especially strong. Keep emotions from spilling over in public, and be prepared for a piece of news that may feel uncomfortable.
• Sagittarius: Take a little more care around unexpected bumps or mishaps, and pay attention if your feet feel uncomfortable.
• Capricorn: Avoid overdiscussing tensions between senior and junior people at work. You may also find yourself unexpectedly singled out or called on.
• Aquarius: You may slip into workaholic mode. Do not let work push family completely aside, and try not to let silence turn into a cold war.
• Pisces: Avoid making major decisions about relationships or money today.

Chinese zodiac

• Snake and Horse: Efficiency is high, romantic opportunities may be more noticeable, and both study and career matters receive a positive note.
• Goat and Dog: Take extra care to avoid accidental bumps or collisions. Inner pressure may feel heavier, and financial issues may need more attention.

Five element notes

Today’s crystal pairings are symbolic, not promises of an effect.

• Metal: Clear quartz. You may get stuck in one line of thinking. Avoid speaking or acting too absolutely, since direct confrontation may follow.
• Wood: Green phantom quartz. Good for making a new plan and carrying it out step by step. Avoid sudden changes that disrupt your own rhythm.
• Water: Moonstone. Pay attention to urinary discomfort or trouble sleeping tonight.
• Fire: Red agate. Pent up energy needs a healthy outlet. Save tabletop games for another day.
• Earth: Citrine. A few unplanned complications may appear, and something from the past may be contributing to your current pressure.

September 7 carries a quieter, more inward energy. In the traditional calendar, it is a Closed Day. “Closed” here points to drawing things inward, letting them settle, and completing what has already begun.

This is a better day for resting, keeping a low profile, dealing with unfinished business or old connections, and clearing out what you no longer need. It is less suited to forcing movement just for the sake of feeling productive.

The wish for today is: “May closed paths open, and may momentum begin to flow.”

The main source of friction is communication. Arguments, gossip, and misunderstandings may spread more easily than usual. Relationships are the biggest theme, and you may feel restricted by rules or worried about consequences. Give yourself a little space before reacting.

In the Twenty Eight Mansions part of the reading, Aries receives the friendliest overall note. If there is an Aries you would like to know better, this may be a good day to move a little closer without forcing it.

Best times

• Studying: 07:00 to 09:00
• Career and work: 13:00 to 15:00
• Gaming: 19:00 to 21:00
• Relationships: 19:00 to 21:00

Colors

• White, silver, and apricot
• Yellow, caramel, and coffee brown
• Green and teal

Western zodiac

• Aries: Taking one step back may help you see the whole situation. This is also a useful day for discussing money, budgets, or how resources are being shared.
• Taurus: Someone may cross one of your boundaries. Avoid turning it into a direct confrontation if a calmer response can protect your position just as well.
• Gemini: You may feel insulted or disrespected. Keep an eye on small belongings, since they may be easier to misplace today.
• Cancer: Give some care back to yourself. A small treat is fine, and travel or simply getting out of your usual surroundings may bring a romantic encounter.
• Leo: You may be good at mediating a disagreement or acting as the person in the middle. Good news may arrive later in the evening.
• Virgo: Your effort may bring a strong return today. You could also receive an invitation, possibly from more than one person.
• Libra: You are close to the center of the day’s energy. Help where you genuinely can, and take extra care if your skin is feeling sensitive.
• Scorpio: Trying to control something quietly from behind the scenes may backfire. Private matters may also be developing out of sight, so pay attention without jumping to conclusions.
• Sagittarius: You may meet someone you simply cannot communicate with. Long distance travel or travel plans may also change unexpectedly.
• Capricorn: Recognition or praise from a manager is possible. Be careful when lifting heavy objects and take care of your lower back.
• Aquarius: A relationship may need a more emotional and less analytical response. Logic alone may not be the best way to handle it today.
• Pisces: Emotions may come to the surface, so do not be surprised if you need a good cry. Take care if your hands and feet feel cold, and be cautious about lending or borrowing possessions or money.

Chinese zodiac

• Rat, Snake, and Dragon: Careful thinking is favored. This is a good day for handling complicated matters, and study or career progress may feel steadier.
• Ox, Tiger, and Pig: Plans may change suddenly, and your energy or mood may fluctuate more than usual. Leave some room in your schedule rather than planning every detail too tightly.

Five element notes

Today’s crystal pairings are symbolic, not promises of an effect.

• Metal: Clear quartz. Make decisions for yourself, and keep a healthy sense of distance in relationships.
• Wood: Green phantom quartz. Small issues may make you more argumentative than usual, and your mood may rise and fall quickly.
• Water: Aquamarine. Students receive a favorable note, but everyone in this group should choose their words carefully.
• Fire: Red agate. You may meet someone who catches your attention, so notice the opportunity if it appears.
• Earth: Citrine. Plans may be changed at the last minute, and someone may cancel on you or fail to show up.

September 6 carries a sensitive atmosphere, especially around study and work. This is a day to move with a little more care.

In the traditional calendar, it is a Closed Day. The idea of “closing” here is connected with completing a cycle, drawing inward, and allowing things to settle. The pace is better kept slow. Major decisions or important moves may be worth postponing, and a conservative approach will probably serve you better than forcing progress. Fatigue may rise suddenly.

This is a better day for inward facing matters: prayer or reflection, organizing, wrapping things up, and dealing with unfinished business from the past.

The wish for today is: “May the bad pass you by, and may the good find its way to you.”

There is some good news too. The day also carries a Jade Hall influence, which favors writing, documents, study, and recognition. Students may see encouraging progress with exams or assignments. At work, support or acknowledgment from other people may arrive. Long distance travel deserves extra care.

In the Twenty Eight Mansions system, Libra receives the friendliest overall note today. If there is a Libra you would like to know better, this may be a good day to close the distance gently.

Best times

• Studying: 09:00 to 11:00
• Career and work: 11:00 to 13:00
• Gaming: 13:00 to 15:00
• Relationships: 19:00 to 21:00

Colors

• White, silver, and apricot
• Yellow, caramel, and coffee brown
• Green and teal

Western zodiac

• Aries: Someone may bring up an old issue today. A minor physical symptom could also send you into an anxious search spiral, so try not to let fear build on itself.
• Taurus: Patience in a relationship may turn sharp or unkind. Pay attention if someone keeps testing your boundaries.
• Gemini: Take extra care while traveling. Someone from your past, possibly an ex, may contact you, with both sides still testing the waters.
• Cancer: Emotions may be harder to contain. Avoid falling into a cold war with someone close over a small matter, and watch what you say when upset.
• Leo: This is a better day for working behind the scenes. Someone close to you may also bring an unexpected complication.
• Virgo: Good news and pleasant surprises may arrive, especially in the evening.
• Libra: You may want to be the good person in a relationship, but clarity matters more today. Avoid social obligations that do not serve a real purpose.
• Scorpio: Your powers of observation are strong, and your intuition may be worth trusting. One to one conversations are favored. Watch for insomnia.
• Sagittarius: You may get trapped in the details. Be careful with arguments or misunderstandings between managers and team members.
• Capricorn: You may be pushed into social plans or travel. Be careful not to become too impressed by your own effort or sacrifice.
• Aquarius: Today may mark a turning point in an ongoing situation. A deeper conversation could help change its direction.
• Pisces: Your sixth sense may feel sharper. You could notice emotions that someone has been hiding, or realize that a person close to you is not doing as well as they seem.

Chinese zodiac

• Rabbit, Horse, and Pig: Work and study receive a favorable note. This can also be a useful day for handling relationship matters.
• Rat and Ox: Fatigue may be stronger, and interpersonal friction may increase. An old physical issue may also need attention again.

Five element notes

Today’s crystal pairings are symbolic, not promises of an effect.

• Metal: Black rutilated quartz. Judgment may feel clearer. A good day for making a decision or letting go of what no longer belongs.
• Wood: Green rutilated quartz. If you want to move something forward, look for the right support instead of doing everything alone.
• Water: Obsidian. Creative and intuitive work is favored. When a decision is needed, avoid circling around it for too long.
• Fire: Sunstone. Pay attention to insomnia, mental exhaustion, and mouth ulcers.
• Earth: Smoky quartz. Stay open to unfamiliar ideas or experiences. An older relative may contact you unexpectedly.

I’m also building Verso, a tool designed to offer a second opinion and practical next steps when you feel stuck or unsure. Stay Tuned!

AI disclosure: English isn’t my first language, so I used AI to translate and help edit the English.

September 5 carries a strong sense of opening. In the traditional calendar, it is an Open Day, associated with beginnings, movement, and things becoming easier to access. Someone or something may lift your mood, and matters that felt blocked may begin to loosen. It is also a day for leaving the old behind and welcoming the new.

Starting a new relationship, beginning a new job or line of work, opening a business, job hunting, and interviewing all receive a favorable note today.

The morning wish is: “May the day open to good fortune, and may everything go as you hope.”

At the same time, the day also carries a White Tiger influence, so this openness comes with some sharp edges. Watch your words, avoid unnecessary arguments, and take care with your belongings and your surroundings. The energy can feel hard or confrontational. Decluttering and cutting ties with people or situations that have already run their course may be useful. Confessing your feelings, traveling far, holding a blessing ritual, or signing a contract may be better left for another day.

Libra gets the friendliest overall note. If there is a Libra you would like to know better, this may be a good day to quietly close the distance.

Best times

• Studying: 09:00 to 11:00
• Career and work: 11:00 to 13:00
• Gaming: 15:00 to 17:00
• Relationships: 17:00 to 19:00

Colors

• Yellow, caramel, and coffee brown
• Red, purple, and pink
• Black and blue

Western zodiac

• Aries: Resistance may come from trying to control the pace of events. Pay attention to unspoken tension in close relationships.
• Taurus: An uncomfortable message or conversation may appear. Be clear about your boundaries in relationships.
• Gemini: Focus on one task at a time instead of trying to multitask. You may also receive a long message from a family member.
• Cancer: This can be a good day to affirm your own value, but a conversation about money may not end pleasantly.
• Leo: Something urgent or unexpected may interrupt your plans. Pay attention to any unexplained discomfort around your chest or back.
• Virgo: You may magnify your own flaws more than usual. Also watch for coughing or arguments over small things.
• Libra: A long awaited result may finally arrive. A bouquet of flowers or a green plant on your desk may also brighten the day.
• Scorpio: Working independently is favored. Clearing old resentment will require courage and determination.
• Sagittarius: Someone with poor intentions may mislead or distract you. Sleep may be difficult, and your mind could fill with big ideas before bed.
• Capricorn: Pay attention to joint discomfort. Short bursts of study or work may suit you better today. Avoid making decisions for other people or interfering with the consequences of their choices.
• Aquarius: Look for someone you can team up with. You may encounter an unusually difficult or eccentric person, and take extra care while traveling.
• Pisces: Do not overgive in a relationship. A message may arrive that makes your heart skip for a moment.

Chinese zodiac

• Goat, Dog, and Pig: An unexpected financial gain is possible, and things may move forward with fewer obstacles.
• Snake and Horse: Last minute matters may pile up. Couples may also be more likely to disagree or argue.

Five element notes

Today’s crystal pairings are symbolic, not promises of an effect.

• Metal: Clear quartz. A good day to deal with financial matters. Take care of dry or irritated skin.
• Wood: Green phantom quartz. Giving needs boundaries today. Avoid guaranteeing someone else’s debt or lending money.
• Water: Aquamarine. There is plenty of movement, but you need a clear direction or you may drift between too many choices.
• Fire: Red agate. Watch your language. Exercise, weight loss efforts, and activities that make you sweat are favored.
• Earth: Citrine. Someone may offer you an opportunity to make a change. Pay attention to digestive discomfort.

I’m also building Verso, a tool designed to offer a second opinion and practical next steps when you feel stuck or unsure. It’s still in development,Stay tuned.

AI disclosure: English isn’t my first language, so I used AI to translate and help edit the English.

September 4 looks like one of the stronger days of the month, but it favors discipline over spontaneity. In the traditional calendar, the day is associated with receiving, gathering things inward, collecting what is due, and bringing existing matters to a close.

Patience and effort from earlier may finally begin to pay off. This is a good day for collecting money you are owed, asking for repayment, wrapping up a project, starting a new job, or settling something from the past. Brand-new plans and sudden impulses are less favored, so leave yourself some room in both your words and your actions.

The day also carries a strong theme of kindness and doing right by other people. A difficult situation may finally begin to open up, and you may feel that things are quietly working in your favor. Avoid impulsive behavior, watch your language, and take extra care while traveling.

The morning wish is: “May everything go smoothly, and may good fortune fill your home.”

Scorpio gets the friendliest overall note today. If there is a Scorpio you want to know better, this may be a good day to quietly close the distance.

Best times

• Studying and work: 13:00 to 15:00
• Gaming: 19:00 to 21:00
• Relationships: 21:00 to 23:00

Colors

• Yellow, caramel, and coffee brown
• Red, purple, and pink
• Black and dark blue

Western zodiac

• Aries: Watch your tone and avoid being overly blunt, especially at work or with your partner.
• Taurus: Someone else may bring conflict your way. Try not to get pulled into an argument with people around you.
• Gemini: Keep your head down and focus on your work. Do not put too much trust in gossip, and be ready for an unexpected extra task.
• Cancer: Try not to use emotion to pressure someone. Be careful about problems involving someone you are seeing or flirting with, as well as filling in the gaps with assumptions.
• Leo: Small distractions may keep piling up. Do not let a minor issue turn into a much bigger problem.
• Virgo: Watch for insomnia, lateness, travel mishaps, or leaving something important behind.
• Libra: Someone may embarrass you or challenge your sense of dignity. Also be careful about being taken advantage of.
• Scorpio: An emotional filter may distort your intuition. Avoid publicly challenging someone or forcing a head-on confrontation.
• Sagittarius: You may argue over who is right in the moment or accidentally reveal a secret. Pay attention to your sleep as well.
• Capricorn: You may feel targeted or receive passive-aggressive remarks. Socializing could be draining, so some time alone may help.
• Aquarius: A decision you have been weighing may bring good news. A job change or the end of a relationship could also move things in a better direction.
• Pisces: Watch for impulse spending, especially on electronics or beauty products.

Chinese zodiac

• Ox and Rooster: Support may arrive when you need it, with possible progress in money or study.
• Monkey: You may also receive support and make progress in money or study, but be especially careful with travel, major decisions, large purchases, and contracts.
• Pig and Tiger: Be cautious with travel, major decisions, large purchases, and contracts. If something can wait, postponing it may be the better choice.

Five element notes

Today’s crystal pairings are symbolic, not promises of an effect.

• Metal: Black obsidian. You may notice that someone is lying or contradicting themselves. This is also a good day to work through a complicated problem.
• Wood: Prehnite. Trying too hard to win could damage a relationship. Postpone major decisions if possible, and be careful not to overestimate the potential return.
• Water: Moonstone. A good day to resolve something that has been left hanging, although an unsettling message may arrive later in the evening.
• Fire: Red agate. Competitive games or sports may get you overly worked up. Watch your temper, and ranked games may bring a losing streak.
• Earth: Citrine. A person or situation may finally push you into action. Be careful not to become overly defensive because of fear.

AI disclosure: English isn’t my first language, so I used AI to translate and help edit the English.