Guanyin fortune stick
8
Upper stick
Pines and cypresses in a thick wood are flourishing;
rain, snow, wind and frost can do them no harm.
One day, suddenly, they are put to great use,
grown into beams and pillars, their merit made.
jadealmanac.com
Pine and cypress in a dense wood is the image, and here the story trail runs cold. Most mainland lists title this lot Yao Neng Meets an Immortal, and at least one of them admits the tale itself is lost. Master Sean Chan's edition attaches Pei Du instead, a story best known from Yuan-dynasty drama. As a poor young man, Pei Du found valuable jade belts at Xiangshan Temple and waited until he could return them to their owner. The good deed, the story says, changed his fate; he passed the examinations and rose to chancellor under the Tang emperor Xianzong, leading the campaign that ended a long revolt in Huaixi. A man of steady character becoming a pillar of state is the pine made into a roof beam, and the reason the stick ranks upper.
Pine and cypress are the evergreens of Chinese moral writing; Confucius noted they are the last to wither in the cold. A thriving stand of them pictures steady character in good health.
Rain, snow, wind and frost are the full year of hardship, and none of it harms the trees. Readers take it as protection against setbacks and gossip during the waiting years.
Great use, for a tree, means being felled for a building. The suddenness tells temple readers that recognition will arrive with little warning once it comes.
Ridgepole and pillar timber is the stock image for a person fit to carry an institution. Merit and name achieved points to office, career standing, or a respected public role.
茂林松柏正兴旺
雨雪风霜总莫为
异日忽然成大用
功名成就栋梁材
Seven characters a line, as printed in the BW Monastery edition.
Sources for the story: https://www.k366.com/guanyin/28785.htm; https://services.shen88.cn/chouqian/guanyin-8.html; https://www.masterseanchan.com/guanyin-oracle/lot-8/; 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 8, "Pines and Cypresses in a Dense Wood", is a upper stick, a favorable stick. The road runs open and your whole life bears fruit; fields and silkworms ripen, and the household prospers.
Success.
Average for investments; business thrives.
Things go your way; study bears fruit.
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.
