The recent tragic death of movie star Paul Walker on Saturday 30th November 2013 in a spectacular and fiery car crash just north of Los Angeles makes for an interesting study from the perspective of the Chinese Four Pillars of Destiny. When such unexpected deaths occur, especially with the famous, it’s natural to wonder just what influences might be contributing to their deaths.

In the image at left of Paul Walker, note what appears to be a blemish on his right eyebrow at the spot of age 40 in Chinese Face Reading.

The ancient Chinese system known as the Four Pillars of Destiny is just such a method for analysing these unseen influences. The system is based on the unique traditional Chinese calendar known as the Xia Calendar which has a distinctive way of calculating time. In this system the passage of time is marked by two separate, but inter-connected factors: the cosmic or heavenly and the earthly or temporal. These in turn are based on the traditional Chinese matrix of Heaven above, Earth beneath and Man in between. Time therefore is discerned in a bi-fold manner. The Heavenly or cosmic aspect, known as the ten Heavenly Stems is based on the five element system and counts each of the five elements of Earth, Metal, Water, Wood and Fire in either their yin or yang form. Thus we have yin earth, yang earth, yin metal and yang metal, etc etc, one giving birth to its following element

The Earthly aspects are also expressions of the same five elements but are expressed in terms of the twelve animal signs of the Chinese zodiac. These are known as the Twelve Earthly Branches. Each animal is related to one of the five elements in either its yin or yang form. It is their combination which allows us to gain an understanding of exactly what influences are likely to be at work in a person’s life, what happens to us at any particular moment in time, or, as in the case of major events, what the contributing factors within the four pillars might be to that event. Further to this, a set of Luck Pillars then adds this information and allows us further insights to the passage of time though the person’s life. These Luck Pillars are ten years each in length. 

In this case, and looking specifically at any factors within the system that might throw light on his death we find the following: Born on the 12 September 1973*

• Current 10 year Luck Pillar: 2004 -2014 
• Yin Fire 
• Snake 

From my analysis, his personal element is strong metal. Such people are usually described as attractive, loyal and with strong masculine attributes but with good hearts that lend them well to leadership roles and defending the weak and downtrodden. Paul Walker was well known for being a very loyal and compassionate person involved in many charitable raising organisations by his friends and associates. He was very involved in raising funds for Haiti there after the dreadful earthquake in 2010 and had just come from a fund raiser for Filipino victims of Typhoon Haiyan.

When it comes to looking at Paul Walker’s death it is the information held within the Day Pillar of his natal chart that reveals the most important information. Being born on the day of the Pig, he was in Penalty against both the period of his current Luck Pillar of Yin Fire sitting on the Snake and the fire inherent in the Snake of the current year. This is a lot of fire. Added to this is self penalty of the Pig of his day of birth against the month of his death. Self penalty when in a period of clash can result in death. Added to this is the hour of his death which was reported as about 15:30, the hour of the Monkey. In this current year of the Snake, this Monkey hour can combine with the snakes of the year and his 10yr Luck Pillar to create a strong fire penalty. This is a very serious penalty and is related to accidents and crashes with fire. Since the snake is reminiscent of trains it is usually predicted that in Snake years we can expect more than usual train accidents. Several of this year’s fiery rail accidents are good examples of this fire snake penalty.

Hercules Street Santa Clarita - showing the two very wide bends at the lower left of the image that the car in which Paul Walker tragically died had just traversed. Such bends are known as Drawn Bows, infamous for their violent sha qi. These two act like scissors.  Image courtesy of Google Earth

There are three other rather intriguing factors I have noticed in this case. The first is that he appears to have had a small scar or blemish over his right eyebrow, exactly on the spot taken to represent the age of 40yrs in a man’s life. Any such flaw is always taken as a negative sign in traditional Chinese Face Reading.

The second is the bright red of the Porsche in which he was killed. Feng shui masters usually advise against red as a colour for cars, especially sports cars, simply due to the association with fiery explosions.

The third is the location of the crash. It occurred along a perfectly straight length of roadway on Hercules Street, Santa Clarita in Valencia California. (There is perhaps a strange irony in the name of this street, given the victims were both guys with something of action-man reputations.) However, the car had just traversed double, wide-sweeping bends before careering out of control, crashing into both a tall street lamp; coming to rest wrapped around a tree planted on the berm. These wide sweeping corners are known in classical Chinese feng shui as drawn bows from a location outside their swathe. They are dangerous things and well known in feng shui terms for the violence of the qi they emanate. One such here in New Zealand and which road engineers have never understood, runs along the banks of the mighty Waikato River between Mercer and Meremere, known informally as the Highway of Death. Two act like scissors. 

I notice some commentators are linking his most famous role in the Fast and Furious movies to the manner of his demise, although I think that is in fact a link too far. That said, who can deny the fascinating coincidence of Helmut Simon, the German hiker who in 1991, found the stone age ‘Iceman’, later known as Oetzi; and who was himself to be found dead, face down in a stream half frozen in ice after a 100m fall on a site very near where he had originally found Oetzi in an identical face-down position. Oddly scientist studying Oetzi, now say he had a remarkable diastema, a wide gap between incisors, said to be a sign of bad luck in old age in traditional Chinese Face Reading.

For further reading on Drawn Bows, readers may wish to refer to Chapter 7 Jade Belts, Drawn Bows of my book Strange but true Tales of Feng Shui available at: http://www.fengshui88.co.nz/

*I have not been able to establish Paul Walker’s hour of birth.