Confusion about Pillar of Destiny Report

[myfs_77438]

Hello Cecil,
According to the Pillar of Destiny Report, I was born in the year of the monkey, gua number is metal 7, birth element is weak water. This is totally different from the Chinese Astrology book that I read. According to this book, I was also born in the year of the monkey, but it said my birth element is fire.
When we input the birth time to get an accurate profile for these report on Geomancy.net, WHAT TIME ZONE is the birth time based on? Let's look at an example of one person who was born at 10:30 am in Vietnam and another was born at 10:30 am in the US in 1956. As you know, 10:30 am in Vietnam is definitely not the same as 10:30 am in the US.
Sincerely,
Hoa

[Cecil Lee]

Dear Hoa Luong,

Quote

Hello Cecil,
According to the Pillar of
Destiny Report, I was born in
the year of the monkey, gua
number is metal 7, birth
element is weak water. This
is totally different from the
Chinese Astrology book that I
read. According to this book,
I was also born in the year of
the monkey, but it said my
birth element is fire.

Please note that Chinese Astrology books usually provide you the element based on Year of birth.
For example, if a child is due or born on or after 12 February 2002; i.e. if the child is born on 13 March 2002; then he/she is considered as born under the Year of the FIRE Horse.
Pillars of Destiny not only consider just the YEAR of birth. A simple Pillars of Destiny chart also consider a person's MONTH, DAY & TIME of Birth.
Here, for example, the month could be water element; Day - wood element etc... and If one understands carefully each `pillar' i.e. Year, Month, Day and Time of birth has what is known as heavenly stem and earthly branch.
And as mentioned above, in a simple Pillars of Destiny chart: there are already 8 variables to look at. Not just Year = Fire etc...

Quote

When we input the birth time
to get an accurate profile for
these report on Geomancy.net,
WHAT TIME ZONE is the birth
time based on? Let's look at
an example of one person who
was born at 10:30 am in
Vietnam and another was born
at 10:30 am in the US in 1956.
As you know, 10:30 am in
Vietnam is definitely not the
same as 10:30 am in the US.

Please continue to read my reason for not
applying Time Zone at Geomancy.Net.
The use of Time Zone is not a traditional approach to calculating ba zi. (ie. add the GMT changes to the hour of birth, this concept is a new concept by some modern Feng Shui practitioners - perhaps to impress on others.)
There is only 1 traditional teaching on applying location factor, and that is to apply the location factor (long, lat) of the exact position when you are born to the lunar moon location. This is a complicated process for calculating and also for the people who are going to use it.
At Geomancy.Net we decided not to apply any changes because of the following factors.
1. How many people knows exactly the long & lat of where they are born exactly? Many people don't even know the hour of birth let alone the long & lat of birth. So if you don't know the EXACT long & lat, one slight change in 1 degree of any of the angle, will result in a even more in accurate analysis of your birth chart. Coz, a single degree of inaccurate can result in different hour pillar (or worst it might change your day pillar).
2. Any Four Pillars analysis (if they use GMT Timezone conversion) will again not be accurate because the GMT Timezone only use one factor of the location. And now in recent times several countries have adjusted their time zones e.g. by 1/2 an hour to an hour or more.
3. Next, this involves the fact about knowing how ba zi works.
If one knows how ba zi really works; one would be aware that even if one does not have the hour of birth it does not really matter.
4. What is the rationale for this?
4.1 With Hour of birth, you will get an additional House of Life (Advanced Pillar). So all in all you have 4 pillars and 2 additional Advance Pillars (this results in better determination of the element
strength).
4.1.1 Usually most people who basic 4 pillars are already weak or strong usually will not have much changes with the additional pillars unless that additional pillars really affect the overall chart (particularly the house of Life). This is quite rare, but we do find some people with such a change.
4.1.2 And with the additional pillars, what you can get is just further details of the chart itself. (Otherwise, if the birth element strength does not change at all, it. weak wood is still a weak wood despite having all the additional pillars) There will be absolutely no impact on the final luck pillar reading.
4.1.3 Thus, even if you exclude the Hour of Pillar entirely, it does not really matter much to the final analysis, only affects the
determinating of your birth element whether weak or strong.
4.1.4 Let us be realistic: not many people have a clue about their hour of birth; and even if they included their time of birth - there is a high chance that the time may be inaccurate. And this is an accepted fact.
4.2.5 If one has lived a full life; a Professional Ba Zi consultant can actually input only three variables i.e. Year, Month & Day of birth. And, work backwards to find one's Time of birth (based on the two hourly time intervals of Chinese hour.
4.1.6 Therefore the existence of the Hour Pillar is considered Optional (best if you know it, but not a really necessity if you don't know it.)
4.2 A Chinese HOUR pillar actually equates 2 hour. This means that there is already a 2 hour level of inaccuracy involved. This means
that even if you are 1 minute apart it will not affect the reading much unless your 1 minute is in the boundary of 2 different hours.
4.3 But when you apply the location factor, it can shift this hour pillar a lot so that there may be a great change in the hour pillar details. Therefore, I mentioned if you do it wrongly or you miss enter your Location factor, it will cause more inaccuracy than making it more accurate.
4.4 The Luck Pillars is calculated from the Month Pillar, so whether or not the hour pillar is there or not, it does not make a difference in the Luck Pillar analysis.
5. Therefore, because we have looked at it carefully and felt that there is really no need to include the " GMT " time factor - which in-fact would create more inaccuracies.
Warmest Regards
Cecil

Quote

On 2/4/2002 6:56:00 PM, Anonymous wrote:
Hello Cecil,
According to the Pillar of
Destiny Report, I was born in
the year of the monkey, gua
number is metal 7, birth
element is weak water. This
is totally different from the
Chinese Astrology book that I
read. According to this book,
I was also born in the year of
the monkey, but it said my
birth element is fire.
Sincerely,
Hoa