Baxter is confused about the difference between weather, climate, and season, which could be easily cleared up by consulting a dictionary. In addition she has confused Western cosmology and the Chinese concept of season.

Chinese science envisions local climatic changes as fundamentally connected to the movement of Beidou, which regulates life in the philosophy just as Nandou, the Southern Dipper (in our Sagittarius), regulates death. Through Beidou and the four major asterisms (bird, tortoise, dragon, tiger) the essences of the seasons and the primary elements are generated.

As the heavens rotate about the north celestial pole, the seasons and elements descend to Earth. Because the four asterisms are divisions of the ecliptic (the four points of the year marked by equinoxes and solstices) it is not possible to arbitrarily swap them as Ms. Baxter suggests.

The "four points" indicate the zodiacal constellations that rise heliacally at both equinoxes and solstices. These are the points that determine an"Earth" as well as compass directions. The "flat" Earth generalized on Shipan and Luopan and in the Chinese mandala is the implied plane through the ecliptic which generates the four compass directions.

Every world-age has its own "Earth" which syncs with precession, as Professor von Dechend demonstrated in Hamlet's Mill (1998:235) and which is apparent in Chinese science.

In the Rigveda the "fire" in the fire drill referred to the circle reaching from North to South Pole on the celestial sphere. This cosmology is common in Europe, Polynesia, and China among other cultures.

Saturn is the "genie of the pivot" to Chinese — Huangdi, who presides over the same title given to the Pole Star. Huangdi supposedly established the calendar (that is, he established the obliquity of the ecliptic) and measured time. In all cultures the planet Saturn is associated with weights, measures, and time.

Saturn is the outermost planet the ancients were able to see, and the one closest to the fixed stars. Saturn as Huangdi communicated motion to the universe and was, in that sense, its "emperor."

Archeologists know that ancient China wasn't focused on the Yellow River Valley. The Shang empire covered parts of Mongolia, Vietnam, Tibet, and Burma, between the Tropic of Cancer and 40 degrees latitude. Agricultural centers were located at 100 degrees longitude and below 30 degrees latitude.

Yangshao culture, which exhibits the oldest Feng Shui-related artifacts (including burials and building alignments) was located around 41°,19' north, 119°, 30' east.

Seven walled cities have been excavated in Henan Province along with massive settlements in Shandong and Laohushan in Inner Mongolia (that's above 40 degrees north latitude).

This raises another conundrum. Do we change the calendar by adjusting it forward or backward? How do we determine which way it should go?

Do we adjust the cycle by six years so that 1998 is actually the Year of the Sheep in the Southern Hemisphere? Do we go backward or forward and change the stem?

And do we change Zi Wei astrology as well? Dates and time are a function of longitude. How does a change of latitude alter them?

You will notice that none of this exacting material has been addressed. That is because the concept has not been carefully thought out. No calculations have been attempted by Ms. Baxter because she is incapable of making them.

The Coriolis force does not affect the geomagnetic field so it is not reflected in the compass.

Coriolis Force acts only on objects moving with respect to the
Earth's surface — birds, planes, missiles, etc. — and it is significant only over long distances (thousands of miles) and time spans of 12 hours or longer.

On Earth, the Coriolis Force is more noticeable when you travel from pole to pole (like a migrating bird). As our planet spins eastward, so does the "target" — such as a wintering ground or breeding ground. The deflection relates to the movement of the planet, the movement of the object (the flying bird), and the latitude.

As a high-pressure air system in the northern hemisphere draws in toward a low-pressure system, the Coriolis Force bends the air mass to the right in a counterclockwise
whirl around the low-pressure system. However, as the air gains speed on its inward curl, the Coriolis Force pulls it off to the right. In the southern hemisphere the Coriolis Force works just the opposite of this description. Air masses move left, not right.

Coriolis Force is strongest at the poles, weakest at the Equator, and just about equal in the tropics. A cyclone can't form at the Equator because there is no Coriolis Force.

It seems Baxter is confused about the difference between the Earth's magnetic currents, the currents in the ionosphere, and the magnetosphere.

Ninety percent of the Earth's magnetic field is created inside the Earth by the so-called geomagnetic dynamo. The ground-based magnetic fields are not greatly affected (if at all affected) by the Coriolis force or by the seasons. Fluctuations and anomalies have other origins.

We are unaware that NASA by itself has demonstrated any "cosmic effects." Does she mean cosmic rays, solar flare activity, background radiation, or specific problems associated with particular bands of the electromagnetic spectrum?

NASA operates in collaborates with a wide range of scientific disciplines. NASA initiates and commissions research, and groups within the scientific community often hire NASA to do research. What is she deciding is relevant to her version of Feng Shui?

Cosmic rays are not "caught" in the Van Allen Belt and then deflected. They enter the magnetosphere at the so-called ionospheric trough located at either pole.

The Van Allen belt lies at the Equator. Charged particles are concentrated in this area but they are not deflected. They concentrate and dissipate over time. The influx of cosmic rays at the poles interacts with the ionosphere.

"Opposite but equal directions" doesn't make any sense. How can they be equal if they are opposite — another confusion of terms. The opposite directional flows of ionospheric currents do not appear to have quantitative or qualitative effects on life. Radiation affects matter.

Chu and Sherrill's book, The Astrology of the I Ching, is a marginal text and cannot be regarded as authoritative. Their argument for change, which is confined to Chinese astrology, is as flawed as Baxter's.

We have already demonstrated how out of date Chung's arguments are. In addition, ffarington Hook's books do not question the traditional Chinese order of things — she merely explains the traditional material in depth and in a way a Westerner can easily grasp.

How Baxter managed to construe that ffarington Hook sees the need for change in the Southern Hemisphere is beyond the scope of this material.

This would appear to be a red herring; there is no relationship with the hemispheres of the planet.

ffarington Hook says that in Shao Yong's book, the four hexagrams corresponding to the compass directions (hexagrams 1, 2, 29, 30) are omitted to make a sixty-year cycle instead of a sixty-four (I Ching and You:85). Inside trigrams are in blocks of eight in the Hetu (Hook:84).

Interestingly, Baxter does not tell us which version of the arrangement of the hexagrams she is using to distill her ideas. The original four bigrams (xiang) evolved into a synthesis represented by the trigrams. R.L. Wing in the I Ching Workbook says that "the various pairings of the eight trigrams led to the sixty-four hexagrams:8 x 8 = 64." (1979:15) Moreover, the ruling lines vary from hexagram to hexagram.

And, as Katya Walter reminds us, "The ancients taught that a trigram's most important line is its central line." (Tao of Chaos. 1994:126)

This is far too general. Prevailing winds show a much more complicated pattern — take the westerlies and trade winds as an example.

Water in general does not flow in an "opposite way." The flow of the major currents is around continents.

Seasons do not "flow," nor are they affected by the Coriolis force. The tilt of the Earth on its axis and its movement around the sun create the seasons.

We feel our previous comments regarding Beidou (the Dipper) adequately state the traditional position. These comments by Ms. Baxter only serve to weaken her position.

Sima Qian wrote in
the Shiji

The
28 xiu preside over the 12 provinces;

the 7 stars of the Plow rule over all:

this knowledge is very ancient."

The archeological and historical record proves our position — unlike Baxter's, which blows away like confetti in the wind.