Resource in Ba-Zi: Why do we get sick? (Maelinhon)

You know who I really can’t stand in life? People who try to motivate you with their personal example. Look, I did it, so you can too! I wasn’t sick with anything at your age, and I used to run barefoot to school for 15km in freezing weather! And I didn’t sleep for three days! And I smoked two packs a day! And look, I’m healthy as an ox! Not like you!

— Ha-ha, — I say sarcastically. — Others at your age have conquered half the world, and you’re just smoking and running around like a fool. And Hitler was already dead at your age. Take his example!

Jokes aside, the topic of resources in Ba-Zi and astrology is a vast field for exploration, amazing discoveries, and equally amazing adjustments to your life! A lot of interesting questions and answers arise from this branch of metaphysics. Why do some people get sick and others don’t? Some are lucky, while others barely drag themselves through life? Some give birth to five children and are back at work within a week, while others take years to recover from giving birth to just one? And then there are all those jerks who brag about smoking all their lives and having lungs like a young athlete. How do they do it, and why is their example a classic survivor bias?

The fact is that everybody is born with a certain set of natal characteristics. You can spend a long time digging into them and categorizing them by planetary stuff, but if we continue the topic of pockets in a natal chart related to health and long life, the situation looks like this:

— You are born with a total energy resource for your body, let’s say 1000 units. The ideal level is 1000 energy units for a hypothetical 100 years.

— Each of your organs and systems ideally has its own battery with a resource, say, 100 units. If an organ is lacking, it draws from the overall resource.

And here’s the important thing: everyone is born with DIFFERENT parameters for each type, from severe deficiency to pathological excess. Simply put, you might have a body resource of 350 out of 1000, while someone else could have 8000. At the same time, your liver might be working at 600, while your brain operates at 30. You can glimpse all of this splendor in your natal chart, even without outside help.

This entire resource needs to be stretched out over your ENTIRE life, because the overall resource doesn’t replenish (or replenishes minimally), and the resources of your organs are difficult, challenging to replenish, and sometimes even impossible. We manage to somewhat recharge the overall “battery” when we do things that are important and enjoyable for us, when we experience joy and positivity, when we are in love and receive love in return… Every time your eyes light up and you feel so good that you don’t want to go to sleep, even if you’re engrossed in work.

Correspondingly, we lose resources when we push ourselves too hard. We force ourselves to go to a job we hate, get little sleep, eat poorly, don’t change our environment, endure things we don’t want to, and don’t treat illnesses. Because normally, you spend, let’s say, 1 unit of resource per month, plus or minus replenishment, resulting in about 90 years of normal life with minor ailments. But when you don’t sleep for days, push yourself beyond your limits, endure, and carry the burden on your own health, you spend, for example, 20 units per month. Women spend 50, even 100, during childbirth. You also save quite a bit when you get treated on time, don’t let illnesses fester, take supplements and vitamins, and help your body maintain balance.

And I want to tell those idiots who are proud of coming through an illness without medication, pushing through it on their feet and not sleeping for days, where to get off. My dear idiots, of course you could handle it! You’re amazing! The problem isn’t that you’re weak and “can’t handle it”, the problem is that without medication, treatment, and maintaining a routine (including emotional well-being), you paid for that illness with 5-10 years of your hypothetically healthy life. Just to clarify: you won’t die 10 years earlier, you’ll start chronically getting sick 10 years earlier. Do you see the difference? At 20, you have tons of bodily resources. You can drink, do crazy things, stay up all night, eat poorly, and your body will handle it. But if you deplete your reserves in your 20s and 30s, you could end up with zero in your 50s. Literally, your body will have no resources left to support regeneration. That’s how we get full-fledged invalids at 50: there’s nothing left to draw from, but they stubbornly pushed through pneumonia on their feet and sleepless nights for money in their 30s.

This is where the beautiful fairytale of equality ends: one person is born with triple the strength and regenerative power, and can easily go for a week without sleep, while another is born with a deficit. Both can have their own unique imbalances, for example, a super-strong heart and a barely functional digestive system. Or no reproductive system, which collapses from the slightest chill, but an exceptionally resourceful brain and nervous system. I recently had a patient with a pathologically low resource of memory and brain function (very specifically, the element of Fire in her chart). And after working for several years at sea, sailing for months as a cruise ship staff member, she completely depleted her already small Fire resource – surrounded by water and cold metal, week after week, month after month. The result was a severe inflammation of the nerves and a pathological deterioration of memory and attention, which cannot be explained medically. The person simply has no more resources to work with in these areas.

This also applies to smokers. Lungs are the element of Metal, and people who have a lot of Metal in their chart, especially strong Metal, can confidently brag that they’ve been smoking since they were 10 and at 80 have an X-ray like a healthy young man. But their “healthiness” is survivor bias, because others might not have that resource at all. And that’s when “smoking kills” for them, and quickly. I, for example, could also take all sorts of substances and smoke like a train, without addiction or even a hangover. But that doesn’t mean everyone can do that – we are all different, and it’s incorrect to compare a train to a toy penguin. Just as it’s incorrect to compare the initially different potentials of people.

And one last interesting aspect: cancer and obesity in Ba-Zi.

The cells and tissues of the physical body are also a kind of organ system. Saturn governs them, and the potential for cell regeneration is ALSO a quantity, and also a resource. A person could be born with a normal cell renewal potential, say, 100 (or 3-4 elements of Earth in the Ba-Zi chart) – their wounds heal normally, tissues and health recover relatively quickly. But we are interested in imbalances!

The fact is that the resource can be unused for some reason – there’s no need, you don’t want to, etc. For example, you can be successful with the opposite sex, but not start a relationship. Or be very smart and talented, but not work or not get paid for it. For various reasons, we might not use what nature has given us. Another possibility: we have nowhere to invest it. So, an imbalance of cell resource in a positive direction means that you have, say, 900 units of regeneration resource, but you have nowhere to put it – there aren’t enough injuries or opportunities to cash in on your potential. Then the cells start to go crazy and try to pour that excess into the growth of new cells because they find it hard to breathe from “overeating” on energy. This results in growths, papillomas, elephantiasis, leads to benign tumors or obesity. In severe cases, it manifests as cancer. It means, the body invests where it can, but it doesn’t have many options.

Ba-Zi can actually find the answer to cancer, but only if we forcibly spend this surplus at least a couple of years before the critical time. Then, when the acute period arrives, the cells will respond normally to the influx of the Earth element and won’t try to grow excess, malignant tissue.

But the imbalance of resources in a negative direction is the real crux of the matter. This question has been bothering me for a long time, and I think I’ve gotten to the bottom of it. Any organism is not stupid, but a fully intelligent machine that always knows exactly what it needs and what it lacks. People rarely lack cars, apartments, or money for their health – those are rational desires, and they don’t really replenish the resource of life. It’s a fleeting joy. A year later, you’ll have to buy another apartment, an even cooler car, a bigger mansion – but it hardly affects the joy of life. Why? Because for health, we often lack something else – love, warmth, a loved one nearby, for some – children, experiences (especially!), a sense of purpose in your work, creative realization… In short, things that are irrational and immaterial, but those that make the resource grow, renewal bubble, Qi (life force) abounds, and your eyes sparkle with a healthy light.

When a person doesn’t have all this for years, he starts accumulating various substitutes, giving them the value of what they lack. Some start collecting things. Some hoard cash under the mattress. Or acquire a flock of lovers. Some, with the persistence of a hamster, buy a 7th pack of laundry detergent, 40th pair of jeans, and another pack of toilet paper “just in case.” And some sink so low that they collect junk and garbage, giving it value for lack of real value. And the body, like the psychic’s backup singer, starts collecting… weight. You collect clothes, it collects fat. Its choices are limited – stones, water, or fat. But “everyone’s rushing to accumulate resources, and so am I,” the body says.

The good news is that practically any map pathology can be corrected. The bad news is that if the disease has already crossed the line of regeneration and irreversible changes have occurred in both the physical and mental realms, then it’s too late to decorate with vases and hang amulets. The resource is gone. And without fuel, the car won’t go.

(c) Mylene Maelinhon \ Archaic Heart