Forgive me if after Chinese New Year’s Day and Valentine’s Day the mood hereabouts continues to be more upbeat than downcast. Look up at the clear blue skies, or the indigo-blue with a trillion stars (mostly in our dreams now that light pollution has deprived us of the joys of star-gazing).
As I have been reminding persons close to me, make a bank deposit, no matter how small, tomorrow, Feb. 17, a red-letter day in every feng shui calendar that says it’s the day for “welcoming wealth abundance.” Think that’s silly? It’s your business, but you’ve ruled out magic in your life.
When I sent that message to astrologer ZS, her reply was that at 8:18 a.m. on the 17th Moon will enter Taurus, the planet of money and growth. Bingo! Eastern mysticism and Western astrology agree. “That’s right,” she said, “there’s only one solar system,” adding that it’s fakes and charlatans with their wide-of-the-mark forecasts who create conflicting readings and conclusions.
If human beings believe that out of all the billions of people on the planet there’s one singular soul who loves them and will love them until the end of time, why can’t they believe that there are good days and bad days in the planetary system? Fr. Aristotle Dy, SJ, president of Xavier School, doesn’t qualify as a dreamy romantic with his head in the clouds, but he’s justly optimistic that better times are ahead in this Year of the Metal Ox.
Father Ari has written books on Chinese culture and how Chinese-Filipino Catholics practice their faith. Now he has a theory on why, now that “2020 is gone, we hope that pandemic, hardships, disease, and death will also be gone.”
As he sees it: “There are 20 strokes in the Chinese characters for pandemic; 20 strokes in the characters for pain/ hardship; 20 strokes for illness/ disease; 20 strokes for life and death, survival and demise.
“On the other hand, 21 strokes in the characters for health; 21 for happiness; 21 for wealth; 21 for harmony; 21 for industry; 21 for ascendancy.”
Scholasticism? Mysticism? Wishful thinking? What’s to lose if you hang in there and hope for humanity’s sake that “2021 will be a year of health and happiness”?
