Walking Zewei Constellation (步紫微)

Astrology has many applications in Taoist magic, date selection and Feng Shui.

 

Zewei astrology (紫微斗數) is one branch of Chinese astrology widely used amongst the Taoist for many purposes.

 

First, Zewei is used as a diagnostic tool to find out about the ups and downs of a person. It can also be used for Feng Shui purposes.

 

Below is an example of Zewei astrological chart:

 

A standard Zewei chart

 

Taoist rituals can be introduced to ward off bad or disastrous lucks by praying to the North Plough (北斗). Taoist believes that the North Plough rules over death; and the Southern Plough (南斗) watches over the living (北斗注死， 南斗注生). The simplest form to pray to the North Plough is to light 7 oil lamps for a consecutive of 7 days.

 

Once this ritual is done, the Taoist should perform a ritual to “walk the Zewei constellation” to check if the ritual is effective. This ritual is also called “stars gazing” or 觀星:

 

 

 

 

 A Zewei constallation

 

In performing this stars gazing ritual, the Taoist will hold his ritual sword with both hands and walk the stars one by one until he sees the stars with his mind’s eyes. Then he will sit on the particular star and meditate on the color and the brightness of the star to determine if further action is required; if not the Taoist will end his ritual by completing his Zewei walk. The whole ritual may take up to 3 hours hence not many people is willing to do this ritual now-a-days. This Zewei ritual is also good for balancing the elemental energies of a person or to replenish the lacking elementals as indicated in the Zewei star chart.