Friday, April 30, 2010

New ebook


These days I have been busy with compiling a new ebook - Chinese Destiny Stars.

This book is a translation of Master Ghost Valley's work which may be a good guideline to see what we face in the future. The book may not really be Gui Gu Zi's work but it surprised a lot of scholars in the past as the description of their lives were amazingly similar to what was written in the book.

It took Foon and I many months to translate the book into English. Please go to my website to take a look:

http://www.astro-fengshui.com/misc/Destiny%20Stars.html

Joseph

37 comments:

joey said...

joseph do you know password 620? it seems Foon is out for the weekend

paulo

The blog of Annie Peheva said...

Congratulation to both of you!
The cover of the book is very nice.
Wish you success!

I also just finished my book on Symbolic Stars and it's nicely printed. Today the printer brought it to us at home.

joey said...

Hi Joseph

I was amazed at some of the accuracy.Very specific for soething that is supposed to be cryptic. Some verses ae not so clear. "people appreciate you are in the southwest.They will help bring you to the capital ciy".
I think I once readthat in I ching language SW has nothing to do with direction but i cant remember what.

The most striking " at the end of rat year eveything will be to your hearts content all because of meeting a good friend in a strange land".
This happened in January 1996 in Australia when I met a girl who lived in the Double bay are and in december 2008 when a foreign girl here in Portugal helped getting one of my current jobs
Sadly as my chart says I try to be skilfull but am inelegant.Need a lot of hard work

Joseph Yu said...

Hi Paulo,

Sometimes we get the ahha only after something happened but no clue at all before it did. It needs intuition to catch the message before something happens.

JY

joey said...

Thanks
In year-hour i get number 74
Should I also look at the reverse Hour-Year which is number 38?

It says in Ox and Horse years I`ll meet people born in Bing years who will help advance socially,which actually happened in the two last Horse years

Joseph Yu said...

Hi Annie,

Congratulations to you too. Since the cost of postage is getting intolerable, will you consider packaging your book into ebook format?

JY

joey said...

Doesn`t "people appreciate you more in the SW" stand for "active, hard working people will appreciate you more as the Chinese believed the South is more productive. I think I read something of the sort when I was in the UK

The blog of Annie Peheva said...

Hi Joseph,

My book is in Bulgarian. I plan to translate it into English as well. Still have to think about how to publish it in English, but I will consider your suggestion as well as Danny's. He always gives good and practical ideas.

Greetings,

Annie

joey said...

SW could also be humble,yelding people, from the lower classes as in hexagram 2.But capital city? I dont thin it`s fame. Fame is bright Moon. How do one finds out what the meaning iswhen thee are so many possibilities?

Regarding life path, not all rat and ox years were lucky. 72 and 73 were miserable. Uprooting home moves and consequent loss of childhood friends and the beginning of bullying at school and at home as my dad was in a bad mood in those years.

joey said...

You should have a look at Bill Gates`reading. It`s number 18.

I know a girl who is working for the military in Beirut. Again in her life path there is a cryptic " you have a friend in the northwest" or something.
could this be someone in authority, a mentor?

LunaticTrader said...

Hi Paulo,


What do you expect?
If the reading only depends on year and hour of birth, then for any given year of birth there are only 12 possible readings. And only 144 different readings in total.
So by definition it will be very vague and cryptic.

And one can easily project all kind of meanings on short poetic verses, especially in retrospect.

In Western astrology you have something similar known as the "sabian symbols", which assign a small poem to each of the 360 degrees of the zodiac.
Then you look up in which degree the Sun was when you were born, and presto, there you have your sabian symbol poem.

Mine is 10-11 Aries : "The ruler of a nation"
That's probably enough to tell you how reliable such poems are.
Here you have the whole list:
http://www.cafeastrology.com/sabiansymbols_degreemeanings.html

Some people like that kind of things.
It can provide some entertainment on a rainy winter day.
But of course, nobody would expect a detailed life reading from a system that can produce only 12 different readings for a given year of birth.
Be realistic when you buy this type of books.


Danny

BaZi said...

Hi Joseph

I just made a purchase.. a password will be mail to me? or i need to download from somewhere..?


thanks
Giggs Lim

joey said...

Hi Joseph
In the chapter about what different things,animals,plants etc mean in divination, ther`s nothing on directions.
Is it like in Feng Shui
NW - authority, father
SW - humble people, mother,
East - dont know, lthough you talk about Eastern winds which is a different thing

thanks

joey said...

Danny
It appears to me you didnt read the link to the book where Master Yu had the idea of translating the original Chinese upon discussing destiny redings with Foon?!!

joey said...

Annie
I read that at the moment the best selling book in Bulgaria is "The formula of god" by Jose dos Santos,which I read years ago. He broadcast local news and used to do assignments for CNN and BBC.
An excelent book

joey said...

Danny
Funny that your chart is number 3,like the example chart of Elvis Presley. Only the hour branch is different. I dont know if you bought the book but one of the things about this chart "when you want to be alone you can`t,when you want to socialize you can`t"

Foon Chik said...

Dear Giggs Lim

Please see the private email I sent you about sending me the password number.

Many Thanks,
Foon

Foon Chik said...

Dear Paulo

Thank you for taking such an avid interest in the Destiny Stars.

With regards to your question on directions, the meaning is open to interpretation, for as you point out the directions have a variety of associations and would have led to many a discussion in the olden days.

A suggestion is that you draw upon your intuition.

Best Wishes,
Foon

LunaticTrader said...

Hi Paulo,

I didn't buy the book.
Annie told me she has a copy of it in her mother's library, so I will take a look at my reading when we have nothing better to do.

I never had problems to be alone when I want to. And also don't see much similarity between my life and Elvis Presley.
So it doesn't make me very optimistic about it.

I did read the introduction page on Joseph's site.
I think it would be good to mention how many pages the ebook has.
And also, since this is a system most people have never heard about, many will probably want to see some sample chapter or reading, before they decide if they want to fork out $45 for it or not.
Let's not forget that ebooks typically sell in the $10 range, so people will have questions why this ebook costs so much more.


Danny

joey said...

yes it`s expensive, since it has only 100 pages. I dont know enough charts yet to comment, and after we pay we`re left with comments of the "use your intuiton" type from the authors.

joey said...

Elvis had a different hour and year branch but your comment is relevant because it applies to your chart even with different branches

joey said...

The only client I had in recent years is a lady who spent 2 years in the Swiss mountains doing a menial job after losing her secretary job at a Hotel here in 2002. She has chart 47.
The Harvest comment says " it is your destiny to go back to the monutains". I keep telling her that she oughta go abroad as her Zi wei chart suggest she should and her family despises her in spite of her help(just like the chart says)
However harvest is wrong when it says Horse years are good cause thats when she lost her job, unless here Horse stands for early life.
She was born on 13 june 1958 on Tiger hour

Joseph Yu said...

Hi Danny,

Pricing is based on a mathematical function:

Return = Unit price x unit sold

The art of pricing is to maximize the return.

It has nothing to do with how much effort you have put into making the product. It has nothing to do with the value of the product as "value" is the customer's subjective assessment. The seller has to estimate how many potential buyers will find the price "under-valued" to project to the number of sales.

Our pricing can be right or wrong but it has nothing to do with the average price of $10 for ebooks as there are even more ebooks that are for free. If the pricing is right, we have maximized the "return" and if it is wrong, then we suffer from less return. That is all.

JY

joey said...

talking about E books there`s a site called Bubok in Portugal and Spain where one can publish his books online and gets 80% of his sales. Is thee such a thing in the english speaking world?

thanks

Unknown said...

Dear Joseph and Foon, congratulations for your effort, patience and good will! Thanks to you both, we - not knowing Chinese - can read genuine pearls.

"Destiny Stars" is a valuable part of beautiful and mystic metaphysic puzzle. For me as a consultant - it is great help in my work; it gives interesting, additional hints concerning clients' lifes. Sometimes we don't know the hour of birth and sometimes that hour can be the key to read the chart.
The more methods and techniques we know, the easier and more profound will be our reading.
Up to now I helped myself using Qi Men Dun Jia, Na Yin and I Ching. Today I got new valuable tool - the little but so precious and exciting ebook.

Thank you once more for that chance to widen my knowledge to my own and my clients' advantage.

Joseph and Foon - you are great!

All the best for you!

Unknown said...

Joseph and Foon,
Congratulations and thank you. I just want to make sure you know how excited I am for this new ebook and how much I appreciate your knowledge, talent, time and effort to make this ebook available to us all. I am looking forward to reading it!
Janean

joey said...

your right danny. In previous E books the chapters and number of pages were metioned. This time they weren`t. You may guess why

Marianna Halassy said...

Hi Paulo, Danny and all,

Drawing upon your intuition is the right answer. In metaphysics - no matter how refined a system is - we have to use our intuition. Further more you can even refine it to the point when you don't need any 'metaphysical tools' to understand yourself and your calling in life. If you are 'lucky' then you were born with a heightened spiritual ability and you can even give advice to people without using any system, just depending on your intuition alone....anyway, I did an experiment with the "sabian symbols", which I never used before, without checking the degree of my Sun position, which was in Capricorn when I was born, to see if I can find the right degree by the poem, to see how 'well oiled' my intuition is today.
As I was scrolling down the poems I stopped at 24-25 - that must be it!
My Sun was in Capi 25 degree 16 minutes 16 seconds...you can say I should read the 25-26, but no, this is it, that was me and was actually amazingly revealing!
Any 'vogue system' is very useful to refine your intuition, which is the gate to reveal the 'secrets' of your 'own universe' and even more. I like Plum Blossom.

Joseph and Foon, congratulations!

Marianna
www.creativehealinginstitute.com

Kate Burns said...

Joseph/Foon, I have played around with this destiny number for 9 people I know very well, how surprisingly accurate it is.I was surprised yet disappointed and relieved in some of the conclusions. 3 of the people I considered have already reached that stage in life were it is almost over, the analysis was still correct. What a lot of hard work has gone into this project. I intend to use it as an inspirational working document, just to see if my own interpretation of all the other methods I use produces similar results as this method does. The other systems I use are 9star ki, Zei wei, and 4pillars, I think it will fill in the gaps for me when viewing a clients chart anticipating the path that lies ahead.
I am clairaudient/clairvoyant when I read the destiny passage to each individual the words were very powerful to me in the verses, in some of the people I chose to analize 2 of their destinies held sadness, but knowing the individuals in the passage this so far has been correct. I havent had much time to read cover to cover but what I have seen so far is worth every penny. Well done and thank you for sharing.

Joseph Yu said...

Paulo, Danny,

No need to guess.
This ebook is more like a software where you can insert your birth data and the Destiny Number will be shown. Clicking the number will direct you to a webpage which, if printed, will occupy 2 full pages.
The ebook, in printed version, will be over 200 pages.

There is one chapter explaining how to find the Destiny Number manually. There is another chapter explaining how to interpret the Destiny Reading. There is yet another chapter devoted to explaining the traditional use of animals, plants and other things special to the Chinese culture.

I am not an expert in marketing and I do not want to brag about how rich the materials in the ebook are to justify the cost.

JY

joey said...

thanks for clarifying that Joseph

LunaticTrader said...

Hi Joseph,


We don't expect you to be an expert in marketing, and that's why we give our feedback.

Personally, I don't feel respected by the authors if they expect me to buy a book without seeing even a single sample chapter, and without having any idea about how many pages the book has.
Then I simply refuse to buy.
Do you buy $45 books blindly?

There is no need to brag about the quality of the materials. Offering a chapter solves that problem too. When we can see a sample chapter, then we can judge for ourselves if this is the type of materials we want to pay for or not. Simple and fair.
This way you also avoid problems with possible customers that may be very disappointed with the book.
If they have seen a chapter then they have at least some idea of what they are buying.

And you see what happens.
Rumors appear that may be untrue.
Now the book has 200 pages instead of 100.
Paulo has posted a few quotes from the book.
At first sight they appear like they could be straight from the weekly astrology column in the newspaper to me.
But maybe these quotes are not representative for the real quality of the book. I don't know.

But I do know that people don't like to buy cats in sacks.
So if you want this ebook to sell outside your circle of existing students, then offering a sample chapter will be a must.


Danny

joey said...

At the risk of sounding like I agree with everyone and have no personality, I think Danny has some good points.

But I would add that normally most authors would deem the materials in their books rich and worth more than their cost.
There`s a book called "mathematical Chinese astrology". It is short but it costs 300 uS dollars. I wonder why the chinese author would charge so much?

joey said...

http://www.amazon.com/Chinese-Mathematical-Astrology-Reaching-Institute/dp/0415297591/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1273254258&sr=1-1#noop

In fact if you read appendix I of the book i mentioned in "look inside" he says Astrology wasnt made for the individual but for the emperors. Hence the use of names like Emperors star etc

LunaticTrader said...

Hi Paulo,


The book you mention is listed at $195.
It is published by the Joseph Needham Institute, which is a department of Cambridge university.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Needham

So this is a scholarly type of work, with lot of cross-referencing and an extended bibliography, as is typical for such publications.
University publications usually go in that price range, because these books are not bought by the broader public, but mainly by other researchers, historians and university libraries.
So the market for their books is generally small.

But the book illustrates the point I was trying to make.
If you click on the "look inside" then you can see several chapters, a table of contents, and so on..
This allows the customer to decide if it is a book he wants to buy for that price.

And all but the cheapest books on amazon now have such a "look inside" feature, because otherwise very few people will buy without seeing.
Which is what I have been trying to say.


Danny

joey said...

I`m trying to get the chart for the Euro cuirrency. There seems to be more than one possibility but the chart for the date it began to be used by all EU citizens is 71 that is for 1 jan 2002 00.00.
But apparently there are two othe possible dates, all them for midnight too.
This is why I have some suspicion about the arbitrary use of charts for male and females born in yin or yang years. If you draw a BAZi or Zi wei chart for something neutral like countries how do you define if they are male or female?
thanks

joey said...

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081201081915.htm
from what ive read here and given your recent tendency to make so many moral judgements, i think you havent been washing yourself too often Danny (grin)