Guanyin fortune stick
25
Middle stick
Several rounds of worry and danger are now behind you.
From here you start again, and it won't come to nothing.
An easy heart finds its own easy plan.
Meet someone wise and you will do great things.
jadealmanac.com
Editions disagree even on this stick's title, and the story most mainland lists give is Li Guang's escape. The Han general, famous for his archery, was wounded and captured in a battle with the Xiongnu, who carried him off in a rope sling slung between two horses. He lay as if dead for some distance, then sprang onto a passing Xiongnu rider's horse, pushed the rider off, seized his bow, and galloped back to his own side, shooting down pursuers as he went. The episode is recorded in the Records of the Grand Historian. Coming through danger after danger is the poem's opening, and getting home through calm and skill is its promise. Master Sean Chan's edition names Li Jing withdrawing from office, and a Taiwanese list has Wu Zixu slipping through the Zhao Pass.
Passing through several layers of worry and danger places you just after a hard stretch. Temple readers take the line as confirmation that the worst is already behind you.
Starting again from now, never empty, promises that a fresh foundation will hold. Readers apply it to a rebuilt business, a second attempt, or a household starting over.
An easy heart has its own easy plans: a proverb-like line saying calm produces good ideas. The usual reading is advice to stop anxious planning and let solutions come.
A high person is someone of greater skill, rank or insight. Meeting one and achieving great merit tells interpreters the success comes through partnership with a mentor.
过了忧危事几重
从今再立永无空
宽心自有宽心计
得遇高人立大功
Seven characters a line, as printed in the BW Monastery edition.
Sources for the story: https://www.k366.com/guanyin/28883.htm; https://services.shen88.cn/chouqian/guanyin-25.html; https://www.masterseanchan.com/guanyin-oracle/lot-25/; https://ask101.tw/result/25; https://www.fatekeep.com/blog/3640.
Optional: the temple way
At a temple the stick is not yours until two moon blocks agree: one flat side up and one round side up, a holy cup.
Stick 25, "An Old Well Finds a Spring", is a middle stick, a mixed stick, good with conditions. Lawsuits end in your favor, illness heals, and in all your comings and goings an old well finds fresh water.
Warm and harmonious.
Blocked for now; think the whole plan through.
Open your mind and ask others for guidance.
Draw another stick , or for a straight yes or no, throw the moon blocks
The verse follows the BW Monastery edition of the Guanyin set; the English rendering and reading are Jade Almanac's own. A drawn stick is a tradition and a prompt for reflection, not advice about health, money or the law.
