「你们喃呒师傅负责超度先人，我们殡仪经纪负责超度活人.」
You priests transcend departed souls; we undertakers transcend their loved ones.
「不止死人要超渡，生人也需要破地狱，生人都有好多地狱.」
Not only do the dead need to transcend hell; the living need to break free too.
Being alive can be hell.
I accidentally chanced upon ‘The Last Dance’, a 2024 Cantonese blockbuster featuring an elderly Taoist priest in Hong Kong who was estranged from his children. It featured some themes including sibling rivalry, the clash of faiths between the older & younger generation and the deeply-rooted discrimination of the religious patriarchy against the feminine. There was also a 50-year-old protagonist who had no choice but to drastically switch careers from being a wedding planner to a funeral planner. The struggles he had to overcome, the compromises he had to make, the new things he had to learn, all struck me deeply.
There are a lot of old hierarchal religious structures that remain patriarchal till today, not just in Taoism but also in many other religions including Hinduism, Islam & Christianity. Some churches continue to insist that women should not speak in a church but remain submissive (1 Corinthians 14:34-35). Other churches play down the Bible verses and allow women to speak, but forbid them from becoming pastors. These regulations prevent women from expressing their faith confidently and contributing freely to the world.
God knows we need more women to step up, not just in the religious and spiritual spheres of influence, but also political, entrepreneurial and social. We men have messed up enough in many of these departments, especially political. 2 world wars and countless other conflicts including the Middle East, Russia and Ukraine have all been started by mainly men. Why not give women a chance?
I don’t want to come across as a male-hater. Yes, there are some evil women out there, and more than a few good men. All I’m saying is that we need to give good people more opportunities to shine, regardless of whether they are male or female.
In astrology, all signs have a balanced mix between the masculine and feminine. For Western, 6 signs are masculine, 6 signs are feminine. For Chinese, there are 10 Heavenly Stems – 5 Yang, 5 Yin – and 12 Earthly Branches – 6 Yang, 6 Yin. All signs, stems and branches alternate between positive & negative. There is no superior sign or inferior sign.
[There is one small exception in 奇門遁甲 (Qi Men Dun Jia), but the Heavenly Stem ‘Jia’ is not restricted to males only. ‘Jia’ can represent both male & female genders in a QMDJ chart. Some may contend that the 'Jia' being the first is evidence that the masculine is superior. But a deeper understanding of QMDJ will tell you that the system is not really meant to promote a patriarchal society but to protect what 'Jia' represents. It has nothing to do with masculinity.]
All signs exhibit the duality of human nature. We all need a balance of positive & negative in our lives.
I suspect this might be the main reason why we see a greater number of females who are either themselves astrologers or astrology enthusiasts. Some of them may have become disillusioned by the rigid patriarchy of mainstream religions. When they see the fair balance between the astrological signs, they intuitively know that this is what real spirituality should be like.
There is one small problem though. Even though all forms and branches of astrology imply there should be equality between genders, the earliest ancient astrologers were male.
Western astrology actually has its roots in Babylonian, Persian, Egyptian and arguably Vedic astrology, which in ancient times could only be understood by males who were educated enough. Chinese astrology largely developed on its own, but for a short period of time did try to incorporate Vedic astrology into its system. Similarly, the court astrologers in China were predominantly male, and even though Taoism’s central idea was the fair balance between Yin and Yang, women & their status took the back seat for a long time until only a century ago.
This may surprise you, but there are some aspects in astrological interpretation that are also influenced by the patriarchy. For example, for Bazi, some ancient texts state that natives with all 4 Yang pillars are good, and natives with all 4 Yin pillars are evil. Others claim that a female with strong 7 Killing stars (七杀星) should not get married because she is a loose woman who kind of sleeps around and will either curse or dominate her husband. (In most ancient cultures, wives must submit to their husbands.) But there is no mention that she would have strong leadership skills or become an official because females by default were not even given a chance to go to school no matter how good their Bazi chart is. How can they be good leaders or officials if they are not even educated?
There is a limit to what Bazi can see. If you are born a female in a patriarchal society, no matter how good your chart is, your chances are limited unless you move to another country that can give you more chances.
I say this as a male. We must evolve and be better than this. Giving women equal opportunities motivates them to prove themselves. We men in turn will not take our own opportunities for granted, and will work harder to compete with the women who are given equal standing. The end result is a better society and a more efficient economy which benefits from healthy competition.
