Sheng Pin Kai's Story

What I Practice

• Western Astrology, in the Hellenistic tradition
• BaZi (Eight Characters, or Four Pillars)
• ZWDS (Zi Wei Dou Shu, or Purple Star Astrology)
• Feng Shui, for interior and exterior environments
• Divination: the 64 hexagrams of the I Ching, and Qi Men Dun Jia (QMDJ)

My Background

I grew up in a small rental apartment, a single tiny one-bedroom place in a rough neighborhood. It was the kind of place where people got by and few thrived. The police were regular visitors, arresting neighbors. Sometimes our utilities were cut off because we could not pay. My parents fought frequently, and I grew up in a home filled with tension, fear, and anxiety.

As a kid, I had no real direction. My parents were too caught up in their own struggles to guide me. I spent most of my teenage years drifting, spending time with a couple of close friends who came from similar backgrounds. I was painfully shy, struggled with insecurity, and had no real sense of who I was. I chose my school subjects just to stay close to my best friend. I got into some trouble (nothing serious), but looking back, I can see how easily things could have gone a different way.

A turning point came when I met a group of guys who pulled me into their circle. They introduced me to the gym, and for the first time, I had something to channel my energy into. I loved training with them, but deep down I felt like I did not belong. They came from better backgrounds, had more confidence, and I convinced myself I had nothing to offer. Eventually, I drifted away again, back into that sense of being lost.

Something unexpected happened during that time: one of those moments that seems random but later makes you wonder. A group outing led me to meet an old astrologer. She looked like someone out of a storybook: wise, weathered, and eerily perceptive. I did not believe in astrology at the time (I thought it had no basis), but she started describing my life, my family, my inner world, and it stunned me. How could she know these things? Her words stayed with me long after the encounter. She told me my life belonged to "the unseen world" and that my path involved work connected to something larger than myself. She encouraged me to explore astrology and metaphysics. I walked away skeptical but intrigued.

Looking back, I was fortunate. My teenage years in the late 1990s could have gone much worse. My parents were largely absent, yet I somehow avoided serious trouble. Years later, when I studied my natal chart, I could see the protective patterns that had been there all along. That realization left me grateful. With so much unstructured freedom, I started reading about astrology, first out of curiosity, then with growing fascination. I taught myself Western and Chinese astrology, borrowing books from the library, searching for whatever I could find online. The more I learned, the more I saw how these two systems, so different on the surface, were pointing at the same things.

Hellenistic astrology reads both character and life circumstances, and shows when each comes into play. My own chart showed me that my core pattern was a deep sense of being unheard and powerless. That explained so much about my childhood and the decisions I made in my early adult years.

In my twenties, I tried to follow a conventional path. I worked in engineering, climbing the corporate ladder. But something felt persistently off. I could not shake the feeling that I was meant to do something else. Still, I resisted. Perhaps it was my scientific background, or perhaps I simply did not want to accept that astrology, something so intangible, could be my calling. I continued studying in my spare time, but I did not commit to it. I had a respectable career, a scientific education. Astrology was not a real profession, right? So I pushed it aside and told myself I was entirely in control of my direction.

When life wants to teach you something, it does so with precision.

The lesson I will never forget was the kind that strips you bare and forces you to confront who you are. I took on a major business venture, far beyond my capabilities. At first, it felt smooth, almost too easy. I assembled a solid team to compensate for my inexperience, and their competence gave me false confidence. I poured everything into it, took on enormous debt, and ignored the quiet voice inside me warning me to stop. When things fell apart, they did so completely. Like dominoes collapsing, everything unraveled at once. My marriage crumbled, I nearly lost my home, and I found myself staring at the wreckage of my life.

Hitting rock bottom clears away all the noise. Failure is brutal, but it is also clarifying. It strips away illusions, wishful thinking, and pretense. It simplifies your life down to its essence and shows you what matters. It tests your relationships too: only the people meant to be in your life will remain. In my case, I was fortunate enough to keep my home (a protective pattern visible in my natal chart), but my marriage could not be salvaged (also visible). The separation was inevitable.

While I would not wish that kind of pain on anyone, I also would not trade it. Would I advise people to avoid risk? Not at all. Taking risks is the only way to know yourself. Just as a blade must go through intense fire and hammering before it becomes sharp, we have to go through transformative experiences to find our direction. The key is to release attachment to the outcome. Expectations are the surest route to suffering.

If you have decided to change course, do it. Do not look back. Do not look too far ahead. Focus on the present. As the I Ching says: "Everyone reaches the same place by different roads; there are a hundred thoughts but one end" (天下同归而殊途，一致而百虑). And so, here I am, right where I was always headed. A career in astrology, metaphysics, and serving people through the frameworks I have spent years mastering.

Losing everything was the most important thing that happened to me. Even though I struggled for years afterward (paying off debts, rebuilding my life), I was grateful. The confusion had lifted. My direction was clear. Over time, I was fortunate to learn from skilled masters in China and Taiwan. My understanding deepened. I learned to integrate the insights of both Chinese and Western astrology, which gave me a comprehensive approach to understanding people's life patterns.

Life works in unexpected ways. Sometimes we run in circles only to arrive where we were always headed. But I would not change anything in my path. Every mistake, every loss, every painful lesson: it all led me here. And here is exactly where I need to be.

My First Principles

Through years of study across both Eastern and Western metaphysical traditions, I have distilled three foundational principles that underpin everything I practice. These are the philosophical bedrock of my work, the framework through which I understand charts, timing, and life patterns.

I have written about these in detail in a separate article: The First Principles of Metaphysics. In brief, they are:

1. The Heaven Principle: All that exists, seen and unseen, is energy. Everything is in motion, and attachment to fixed outcomes creates suffering.

2. The Earth Principle: All energy is interconnected. Nothing exists in isolation. A shift in one area creates ripples elsewhere. This is the foundation of astrology.

3. The Human Principle: Energy moves in recognizable cycles. Nothing happens by chance. Understanding these cycles is what allows us to move through life with more clarity.

When we live in alignment with these principles, life tends to flow. Like a great river, we can learn to move with power and flexibility. When an obstacle appears, the river rises or flows around it. It is always moving, always alive.