Making use of the Useful God

When it cames to the practicality of applying and using BaZi knowledge, a common confusion amongst students and some practitioners is how *exactly* to make "use" of the Useful God.

The Useful God essentially refers to the single most useful element in your BaZi chart. It is the element in your chart that will help balance out all other factors in it. (To view your own BaZi chart, you'll be able to plot it here.)

With the proliferation of inspirational and empowerment-based New Age BaZi concepts, we can be forgiven for the missing the wood for the trees. For example, Betty has determined that the element that would bring crucial balance to her life - her Useful God - is Wood. A New Age practitioner would suggest to Betty to wear green clothing or carry a green handbag (purse, wallet or other accessory of choice) to improve her luck, as the colour green can be associated with the Wood element. Suppose the Wood element is also Betty's wealth element, then the wearing or carrying around of green items would also supposedly improve her "Wealth Luck!"

However... is this the most effective or sensible way to use the Useful God?

A crucial step is in the understanding the 10 Gods of BaZi. In BaZi, each of the 10 Gods can be categorized into specific actions, behaviour traits and relationships vis-a-vis the person's Day Master. For example, let's assume that Mark's Day Master is Jia Wood (ie. Yang Wood). As such, the element of reversed polarity with feeds this Jia Wood is Gui Water which is the 10 God termed 'Direct Resource.'

Among other things, Direct Resource represents formal education, physical comfort, health and wellbeing and also... it represent a person's mother! If Direcr Resource is indeed Mark's Useful God, then we know that in order for Mark to be successful and happy with his life, he has to ensure that he gets a good education, stays well-rested in a comfortable home, takes good care of his health and even... yes, live with his mother.

Despite the risk of being branded a 'Momma's Boy', Mark will indeed benifit by being close to his mother and taking advice from her. This is how we effectively make use of Useful God... by taking the appropriate action, exhibiting more of a specific character trait or effectively managing a benificial relationship.

If Mark needs psychological reminders on his Useful God, he can use whatever reminds him of "Water"... wear blue clothing, for instance. He can also paint his bedroom blue - provided Mark likes the colour blue in the first place and feels a personla affinity/liking to this colour. 'Momma's Boy' Mark can even frame a picture of his mother in blue to be placed by his bedside!

However, it is wise for Mark (and for all of us BaZi practitioners) to remember that the colour blue (or even the picture of Mark's mother) by itself has insufficient "Qi Power" to directly influence the cosmic energies that affect Mark's fate and destiny. Ultimately, it matters most that having identified the element that acts as a Useful God to our Day Maste, we take the appropriate action and methods to modify our behaviour as necessary.

You'll be able learn more about the Useful God, how the elements interact in your chart, and all about the 10 Gods in Joey Yap's upcoming BaZi class this May. Studying BaZi enables you to know HOW these factors work in your chart in your chart, which can help you determine what your chart means - both for the immediate short-term, and your long-term future!

MA Cosultant