Yue Lao Oracle Lot 66 · Fair

驚起卻回頭，有恨無人省。揀盡寒枝不肯棲，寂寞沙洲冷。 Startled into flight, it turns to look back, its sorrow understood by no one, it tries every cold branch and will not settle, on the lonely sandbar, cold and still.

The lot

Text notes (in Chinese): 流通本作「揀尺寒枝」，依蘇軾原詞改「揀盡」.

Background: what the original says

A lone wild goose, startled into flight, looks back with a grief no one understands; it rejects every cold branch and would rather rest on a bleak, chilly sandbar.

In 1079 Su Shi was accused of mocking the government in his poems. After more than a hundred days in prison in the Crow Terrace case, he was banished to Huangzhou in a post with no real power, and at first lodged at Dinghui Temple. This song lyric, to the tune "Busuanzi," was written there; some date it to his first months, others a few years later.

The first stanza is a silent night: a waning moon hangs in a sparse wutong tree, and a recluse walks alone, his shadow like a solitary wild goose. The second stanza belongs to the goose. Startled into flight, it keeps looking back, its grief understood by no one; it tries every cold branch and will settle on none, choosing a lonely, chilly sandbar instead. Readers take the goose as Su Shi himself, unbent by his ordeal. In poetry that aloofness is integrity; in love it becomes the habit of turning everyone down, and that is the side the oracle draws on.

What it means

Being too picky or too aloof means you keep choosing and never settle down, and in the end all that is left is loneliness.

Reminder: It is fine to have standards, just not ones so high that nobody can meet them.

This is a plain reading of the words and their source. How it applies to your own question is best settled with the interpreter at the temple where you drew it.

How to ask Yue Lao for a lot

1. Yue Lao, the Old Man under the Moon, usually has a side shrine inside a larger temple, such as a City God temple or a Mazu temple. Follow the temple's route: pay respects to the main deity first, then go to Yue Lao.
2. Tell Yue Lao your name, birth date and address, describe where you are in love right now, and state the one question you want to ask (for example, "Will this relationship last?" or "When will I meet someone?").
3. Cast the moon blocks (jiaobei, two crescent-shaped wooden blocks) to ask whether you may draw. One face up and one face down means yes; then pull one stick and cast again to confirm it. Many temples ask for three yeses in a row; if not, draw again.
4. Collect the slip with the matching number. Yue Lao lots are quotations from old books, so the meaning often depends on the original passage. If it is unclear, ask the temple's interpreter.

Ask about one thing at a time; the more specific the question, the easier the lot is to apply. Yue Lao lots are for love and marriage only; for other matters, use the temple's general fortune poems.

Common misunderstandings

Previous: Lot 65; next: Lot 67.