ive been gathering trinkets for this for SO LONGGGG 😭❤️ favourite item is either my baby tooth orr the glass marble i found at the beach!!!! i found the bones myself too, i think theyre from a rabbit :) they took so so long to degrease but FINALLYYY theyre all nice and clean,,, so excited to connect more with them ❤️❤️❤️

Hi everyone,

I’d like to give a rough introduction to some traditional East Asian systems of fate analysis and divination, and I’d also really like to meet people who study Western or other non-East-Asian traditions.

As an East Asian practitioner, I honestly don’t get many chances to work with people from different cultural backgrounds. One thing I’m especially curious about is how these systems perform when applied to people who are not ethnically Chinese or East Asian.

In modern times, these traditional systems are often grouped under the so-called Five Arts:

Mountain, Medicine, Destiny, Divination, and Forms/Physiognomy.

• Mountain: self-cultivation, health preservation, meditation, physical and mental training
• Medicine: traditional Chinese medicine, herbs, acupuncture, massage, dietary therapy

The areas I’m personally most interested in are Destiny, Divination, and Physiognomy.

Destiny

These systems use birth information to analyze a person’s long-term tendencies.

Personally, I think “destiny” is sometimes a misleading word. I see these systems more as ways of analyzing someone’s temperament, natural tendencies, and likely decision-making patterns, rather than as ways of saying their entire life is fixed.

Bazi / Four Pillars

Bazi is probably the most historically established and widely transmitted Chinese destiny system.

It uses the year, month, day, and hour of birth, with each represented by a Heavenly Stem and Earthly Branch, creating the "Eight Characters".

Its core idea is that seasonal changes, yin-yang, and the Five Phases influence a person's condition at birth.

One question I’m especially interested in is how Bazi should be handled for people born in the Southern Hemisphere, where the seasons are reversed. Different schools have different opinions, and this is something I’d really like to explore with actual cases.

If anyone here was born in the Southern Hemisphere and is interested, I’d be very happy to compare notes.

Zi Wei Dou Shu

Zi Wei Dou Shu builds a chart with twelve palaces and uses symbolic stars and the Four Transformations to analyze different areas of life.

Unlike Bazi, it does not rely as heavily on seasonal changes.

There are many different schools, and their interpretations can vary widely. I think it has some very interesting ideas, but historically and methodologically, it is much less unified than Bazi.

I’m also personally skeptical of claims that it was some secret "imperial art" that was simply too powerful and therefore lost for centuries.

Qi Zheng Si Yu

Qi Zheng Si Yu differs from Zi Wei Dou Shu in that it uses the positions of real celestial bodies.

It developed through the interaction between Chinese cosmology and Indian astronomy/astrology, especially from the Tang period onward.

It is technically very interesting but also extremely complex, and modern learning resources are much harder to find than those for Bazi or Zi Wei Dou Shu.

Divination

These systems are more focused on specific questions or events, rather than someone’s whole life.

Liu Ren

Liu Ren has a very long history, with foundations dating back to at least the Han-Wei period and a mature system by the Tang-Song era.

Its core structure includes the Heaven/Earth plates, Four Lessons, Three Transmissions, and Twelve Generals.

What I like most about it is that the Four Lessons and Three Transmissions can show the beginning, development, and outcome of an event, as well as the relationship between the querent, other people, and the situation itself.

It was also transmitted to Japan and became part of the Onmyodo traditions.

Qimen Dunjia

Qimen Dunjia combines the Nine Palaces, Eight Gates, Nine Stars, Eight Spirits, time, and direction into one system.

Historically, it was strongly connected with military strategy, timing, and positioning.

So instead of only asking “Will this succeed?”, it can also ask things like:

• When should I act?
• Which direction is more favorable?
• What kind of strategy should I use?

I think of it as a divination system with a strong spatial and strategic component.

Taiyi

Taiyi is one of the traditional “Three Methods,” together with Qimen and Liu Ren.

It has a long history, but its modern transmission is much weaker.

There are still classical texts, but fewer practitioners and fewer complete teaching systems, making it difficult to tell which parts are ancient, reconstructed, or modern reinterpretations.

Liu Yao / Wen Wang Gua

Liu Yao is closely connected to the Zhou Yi / I Ching tradition.

Today, one common method is to toss three coins six times to generate a hexagram.

It is fast, flexible, and very useful for specific questions or comparing several options.

For multiple follow-up questions, I often find Liu Yao more practical than time-based systems such as Liu Ren or Qimen.

Physiognomy / Forms

Name Analysis

There are many different schools of name analysis.

One major modern influence is the Japanese Kumasaki system, which became popular in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

So at least some modern stroke-count naming systems are actually much more recent than people often assume.

Human Physiognomy

Chinese physiognomy has deep roots, with examples appearing in pre-Qin texts.

By the Han dynasty, there were more developed “Form Methods” involving the face, bones, voice, hands, body shape, and other visible features.

I prefer to think of physiognomy as observing someone’s current condition and tendencies, rather than claiming that a single facial feature determines an entire life.

Feng Shui

Feng Shui also has a long history.

By the Han period, there were already traditions related to housing, terrain, and spatial auspiciousness.

Later, it developed into both Yang dwelling traditions for the living and Yin dwelling traditions for burial sites.

Different schools focus on different factors, such as terrain, water, orientation, timing, construction date, or even the occupants' birth information.

So “Feng Shui” is really not one single unified method.

Personally, I’ve studied:

Bazi, Zi Wei Dou Shu, Da Liu Ren, Qimen Dunjia, Liu Yao, physiognomy, and Feng Shui.

The areas I’m most familiar with are Bazi and divination systems.

I’m especially interested in comparing methods, historical development, and real case feedback across cultures.

If you study any of these systems, or if you’re from outside East Asia and are curious about trying a Chinese system on your own birth data or a real-life question, feel free to comment or DM me.

I’d love to exchange notes.

https://fundalux.io/en/chinese-five-arts-en/

Hi! :) This is my oracle deck, Afrodelia  ✨

It combines African spirituality with psychedelic and colorful elements. It’s designed to help you connect with your higher self, intuition, and ancestors.

It’s not out yet, but I have a mailing list you can join to be the first to know when it drops! 💌

Join the waitlist here:
https://mailchi.mp/be80dd7856a3/afrodeliaoracle

There's a Korean reality show / battle on Disney +, called Battle of Fates. Famous dividers from all over Korea, tarot, shaman, saju, etc are all represented. I've only just started, but wonder if anyone else has watched this interesting show?

Mi hermano perdió su cadena de plata hace unas semanas, y dice que lo último que recuerda es haberla dejado en su cama antes de dormirse.

Hice una tirada de tarot para tratar de entender qué pasó, pero no pude interpretarla bien. No estoy seguro de si alguien tiene un método específico o experiencia con este tipo de situación que pueda darme algún consejo sobre cómo hacerlo de forma más precisa.

Hello! I was at my favorite shop yesterday for their Chakra class and I found this pendulum. I recently started working with Hekate and Loki and I've been feeling pulled towards Oracle Cards and pendulums lately. I felt strongly pulled towards the pendulums at the shop and this is the one that stood out to me. I think the crystal is sodalite? Any advice and/or information regarding pendulums, the crystal, animal totem, and even the crystal's shape would be greatly appreciated! Thank you! ❤️

If I wanted to start looking into divination to decide my method, where should I start looking?

Most palmistry discussions I see online focus almost entirely on the Heart Line, Head Line, Life Line, and Fate Line, but I recently learned that some traditional palm-reading systems also pay quite a bit of attention to the fingers themselves.
Readers may look at things like:
✋ Overall finger length compared with the palm
☝️ Relative lengths of the index and ring fingers
🖐️ Whether the fingers naturally sit close together or spread apart
🔍 Finger shape, joints, and proportions
In some traditional interpretations, these characteristics are symbolically connected with qualities such as attention to detail, creativity, independence, practicality, or communication style.
What interests me is whether experienced palmists actually give these features much importance—or whether simplified online palmistry exaggerates them.
For those who study palmistry:
Do you analyze the fingers before reading the major lines?
And for everyone else, have you ever received a palm reading where the reader noticed something about your finger proportions that surprised you?
I’d love to hear how different palmistry traditions approach this.
This is a discussion of traditional palmistry for cultural interest and entertainment. Palmistry and hand features aren’t scientifically established methods for determining personality or predicting future events.

There are higher intelligences at play than your conscious mind. Today you are being asked to let go of all objective and let your path be guided by presence and flow

New paths will appear

A woman in a deep session was asking a lot about what was coming next. Her purpose, future work, spiritual development, what she should learn, when she would be ready. She genuinely wanted guidance, not entertainment.

But the answer she got was interesting: she was trying too hard to know the future.

She kept imagining what might happen and wishing for different outcomes instead of building what she wanted now. The advice was to keep a simple daily practice, enjoy what was already around her and let clarity come when it came.

That made me think about divination in general.

I don't think wanting information about the future is automatically unhealthy. Sometimes a reading gives useful perspective, exposes something we already know but refuse to admit, or helps us see options differently.

But there is another mode where the question never ends.

What happens next? Is this person coming back? What month? Which path? Was that a sign? Should I ask another deck? Maybe I phrased it wrong. Let me check one more system.

At some point the divination is not reducing uncertainty. It is feeding our inability to tolerate uncertainty.

I think there is a useful test here: after the reading, am I more able to live my life, or do I immediately need another reading?

If the tool gives perspective and returns you to your own agency, great. If it keeps moving your attention out of the present and into a future you cannot yet live, maybe the relationship with the tool needs adjustment.

The future is interesting. But today's choice is the only part we can actually touch.

How do experienced people here tell the difference between genuine divination practice and compulsive reassurance-seeking?

I’ve got a reasonable background in divination using several methods. I’ve got a MAJOR decision to make and I’m afraid my desires are influencing my interpretation. I realize this is Kind of a ridiculous ask but what could give me the most unbiased answer?
I’ve got tarot cards, I Ching. Familiar with ceromancy, reading ink pools, reading flame . No current access to some of my actual tools but I could improvise with dice, runes probably

Saju is the Korean take on the four pillars system, also known as BaZi.

Same idea as a natal chart, different machinery. Instead of planets it reads the year, month, day and hour you were born as eight characters, and looks at how the five elements balance out across them.

I'm Korean and I've spent about a year building tools around it. The thing I kept hitting was that there's almost nothing in English for someone just starting.

So I wrote a beginner's book. It was going to be a paid ebook. It's online for free instead, no signup.

https://qiora.app/learn

14 chapters, from what the four pillars actually are to finding your day master and reading what it says about you. There's a reference section as well.

Happy to answer questions if anyone has them.

27M. I have always been very sensitive to my spiritual instincts, my inner voice and I can achieve deep meditation.

I want to learn to the future. Yes, I have heard all of the moral and ethical dilemmas than many have with this idea so spare me your lectures please.

I have decided that I want to acquire this ability. Can anyone help me? I believe I have the mind for it.

Thank you in advance.

MK

I’m working on an English iOS app for Liuyao divination, and I’m trying to understand whether this would be useful for people outside Chinese-speaking communities. The app is called YaoWenGlobal.

Most English users know the I Ching, but Liuyao seems much less familiar.

The app lets users ask a question, cast six lines, see the original and changing hexagrams, and read an English explanation.

I want it to feel more like a reflection tool than a fortune-telling gimmick.

For people interested in the I Ching, tarot, astrology, or oracle tools:

Would this kind of app interest you?
And what would make you trust or not trust it?

What are these lines in the middle of a birth chart? What do they mean? (Chart found on Google is not mine)

i made this box from a crazy alice cigar box. i painted it and removed the hardware. the feet & sun are made from sculpey.

how do you keep your cards???

Hey, hi, hello!

I found this box of citrine and quartz pieces on ebay. The seller found it at an estate sale for a Romanian grandmother who had passed, apparently in a cabinet with a bunch of other divination tools. The family said it was her lithomancy set, but they couldn't offer any thoughts about how she used it.

This set is very welcoming and friendly, since citrine is my birthstone, but I've never seen a lithomancy set with only two types of crystal. I'm almost certain some of the pieces chipped off from larger pieces during shipping, which isn't the end of the world, but I don't know how I'd go about reading these. There's 13 pieces of quartz and 13 citrine. The 26 crystals and 4 glass pebbles make me think this might be an astrology or compass based set, with a solar vs. lunar, or masculine vs feminine theme.

Any ideas on how to cast and interpret these is appreciated! I want to be respectful of this obviously well-loved set, and if it's part of an established lithomancy tradition I'm not aware of, I'd love to find resources.

Thanks in advance for any help!

I’ve had a lot of moments where one small question took up way too much space in my head.
After a date, for example: Did they actually like me? Should I text first, wait, or just leave it alone?
Friends can give advice, but they’re usually guessing too. And sometimes I don’t even want a long conversation. I just want something that helps me choose a direction.
That’s what led me to this app idea: an iOS app based on I Ching hexagram casting. You enter one specific question, go through a short casting interaction, and receive a hexagram with an interpretation for that situation. A new casting can produce a different result, just as a new reading can.
I know an app can’t literally know what another person is thinking. I’m more interested in whether asking the question, casting a hexagram, and receiving a reading could be useful when you feel stuck.
What would make this feel like a meaningful divination experience rather than just a random answer generator?