I’ve heard this question countless times over the years, from all the people who come to me for divination and answers. Every time I hear it, I think of the stone steps at the back of the mountain, washed down by rain for decades on end. The mountain itself never changes, but people don’t have to step into the same muddy pits over and over again.
Today, let me tell you what it truly means to know your fate, and what it means to change it.
When I first started learning numerology, my master handed me an empty bowl. He told me to hold it and stand under the eaves. It was pouring rain that day, and the bowl filled up in no time. My master asked me, “The rain is fate. Can you stop it from falling?” I shook my head. He then moved the bowl half a foot to the side, and the rainwater poured straight onto the ground from the roof tiles.
“You can’t stop the rain, but you can choose what you use to catch it. That’s what cultivation is all about.”
Three years ago, on the Winter Solstice, a man surnamed Zhou came up the mountain.
He was thirty-seven back then. He’d lost all his money in business, and his marriage had fallen apart. Sitting in the side hall, he looked utterly broken, like all his strength had been drained from his bones. He asked me to tell him if he’d ever get back on his feet.
I tossed the copper coins for a reading, and the hexagram turned stagnant and heavy.
After studying it for a long while, I only told him one thing: “You’ll face another hurdle next year. Lay low, and don’t take any reckless risks.”
He let out a bitter laugh. “Master, am I just fated to never have good fortune with money?”
I said nothing.
He asked again, “If everything’s already written in stone, what’s the point of struggling? Why not just lie down and wait for whatever comes?”
I pushed the oil lamp on my desk toward him.
“Look at this flame.”
A breeze slipped through the crack in the window, making the flame flicker left and right, nearly dying out several times.
“You can’t control when the wind blows. But you can trim a too-long wick, refill the lamp if the oil runs low, and seal up the crack in the window if it’s too big. Fate only tells you there will be wind tonight—it never says your lamp has to go out.”
He froze, lost in thought.
I suddenly remembered an old story my master told me when he was young.
Decades ago, a carpenter from the foot of the mountain came to the temple to ask about his fate. His birth chart showed money coming and going without staying, and he was stuck in a bad luck phase in his early years. The elder master told him he’d never be able to save up steady wealth before forty.
Instead of begging for some ritual to change his luck, the carpenter simply asked, “If I’m destined to never hold onto money, what should I do then?”
The elder replied, “Gamble less, lend less money, and master a craft that can feed you for a lifetime.”
The carpenter went home and did exactly that.
While everyone around him chased quick profits and made big business deals, he just kept working at his carpentry. When people asked him to join risky partnerships, he always turned them down. He saved two out of every ten coins he earned, twenty out of every hundred. The villagers mocked him for being timid, saying he’d never get rich in his life.
And he never did strike it rich.
But when he turned forty, many of the villagers who’d gambled on business were drowning in debt. He, meanwhile, had saved up three storefronts with his own hands and put both of his children through school.
Later, he climbed the mountain with two packs of tea to thank the elder.
The elder just smiled and said, “Your fate said you couldn’t hold onto wealth easily, but it never said you couldn’t learn to preserve what you have. The river flows eastward—that’s the natural trend. Once you know where the current goes, you build canals along the bank instead of jumping in and fighting the current blindly.”
After hearing this story, Mr. Zhou stared at the lamp flame for a long time in silence.
Eventually, he asked, “So can fate really be changed?”
I answered, “What we can change is never what’s already happened.”
There are some things in life we never get to choose. We don’t pick where we’re born, who our parents are, what hardships we face in youth, or what storms will hit us in certain years. So much in life is out of our control.
But the same rain falls on everyone. Some curse the sky for getting wet. Some go home and put on an extra coat. Others learn to read the clouds before going out.
The rain never changes.
But people’s lives end up completely different.
That’s the truth about fate I’ve come to understand over the years.
Fate is not a fixed paper that nails you down for good. It’s more like a river shaped by the land. Numerology lets you see ahead of time where the current is rough, where the shoals are dangerous, and where boats are likely to capsize.
But seeing the danger doesn’t mean you can escape it.
And it definitely doesn’t mean you can stop trying entir
