The horoscope

After exchanging a few polite greetings, Hoàng asked the horoscope master:

• Master, according to the art of casting horoscopes, each person born at a given hour, day, month and year is influenced by certain stars, for which the art has found rules that let it read each person's life, and people believe it is fairly accurate?
  The master took a puff of his cigarette, blew out smoke, and said:
• In the sky there are countless billions upon billions of stars, but in the horoscope there are only 108. Then the art of horoscopes arranges those 108 stars in a chart with 12 palaces to calculate the stars' influence on a person's destiny. If we understand the stars in the horoscope as the very stars in the sky, that would be unfair to the stars in the sky. How could we know, among those countless billions of stars, which are the 108 stars of the horoscope system? We must understand that STAR here is only a code number, a parameter, a code, a factor. In the old days there weren't many words to express it, so the word Star was used to make it easier to accept. Now that we are more civilised, we should understand it differently: a Star is only a parameter in the equation of a person's life.
  Hoàng asked again:
• Master, can the 108 Star codes, as you say, really decode a person's whole life?
  The master inhaled and blew out smoke again, then replied:
• If not all of it, at least sixty or seventy per cent. If the art of horoscopes had no value, it wouldn't have survived to this day.
• Master, what about the fortune-tellers who say that each year a person is hit by stars like La Hầu and Kế Đô and so on, and so must make offerings to the stars at the start of the year to ward off misfortune: is that right or wrong? That too has existed for a very long time.
• Haven't you noticed? The horoscope only decodes your life and destiny for you to know, so that you can find ways to change your destiny by doing meritorious deeds throughout the year, throughout your life. As for those others, and there are many of them, who say that if you hand them money at the start of the year to make offerings to the stars to ward off misfortune, you'll have peace during the year, that is just a way of making a living.
  Normally people exchange things in this way: you give me something, and I give you money. Someone gives me a hope through a lottery ticket and takes tens of thousands from me. Someone gives me fear and takes a million from my family. The misfortune stars at the start of the year are a kind of offering of fear to bring in money. This line of business isn't taxed.
  When you hand money to those masters to make offerings to the stars and ward off misfortune, do you know what rites they will perform to ward it off?
• No, I don't.
• Then do you know whether those masters have the power, that is, enough virtue, to intervene in heaven and earth and ward off misfortune for you?
• I'm not close enough to know about those masters' morality.
• Then do you know what they will use the money you offer for?
• No, I don't.
• Then do you know how a dozen or so invented stars could govern all 8 billion people on this planet?
• No, I don't.
• The art of divination is extremely complicated, because each person's destiny differs, so the way of calculating each reading and fortune differs too. It isn't simply that whoever is born in a certain year gets one misfortune star shining on them that year. Nearly a billion people with the same star ruling their fate? How can a mere few simple stars take money so easily from the world? And do you know the origin of how people made up only a dozen or so stars and have taken countless sums of money from them for several hundred years?
• No, I don't.
• Then do you know what class and level of society are those who plunge into believing in the stars ruling their fate each year, then update each year and pay money to those masters?
• No, but there are so many of them.
• Then do you know that, after paying a little money for offerings to the stars to ward off misfortune, people develop a psychology of dependence, so that they feel no need to cultivate themselves or do good, and for the whole year easily live negatively?
• No, I don't.
• Then do you know for certain what bad luck you will have that you must make offerings to ward it off, or are you only vaguely anxious and pay for the offerings to feel at ease?
• No, I don't.
• Then do you know the ability, level, qualifications and methods those masters use to make offerings to the stars and ward off misfortune?
• Well, it seems the masters chant sutras from Buddhism, or sutras of unclear origin that we don't understand the meaning of, but hearing the masters chant on and on we feel reassured that there must be something sacred in it.
• Then do you know which deity the masters are appealing to when they chant like that?
• That's the masters' specialty, so I don't know exactly; I only hear them calling out many names, Buddha, saint or spirit.
• So you can't call out yourself, but have to ask someone else to call out for you?
• I don't practise anything, so if I called out, probably no one would listen.
• So you're sure no one would listen, meaning that you think there is a private line between the deities and the masters, while ordinary people don't get the deities' attention?
• I'm not sure, but the masters call out often, so they're probably heard more easily than I am.
• Then do you know whether the deities listen to someone sincere and moral, or listen to someone false who keeps calling out? What I mean is: a moral person who calls out little, compared with a false person who calls out constantly, which will the deities listen to more?
• I think they would probably listen more to the person of morality.
• Do you have morality?
• I haven't done anything wrong, but I don't know whether I have morality.
• Then if you pray sincerely, do you think the deities would listen?
• I think the deities would probably listen if anyone is sincere.
• Then think: each person praying with sincerity, compared with a few people rapidly reading out names at speed on behalf of ten thousand people, which would draw the deities' attention more?
• Probably each person praying with sincerity would be noticed more than a few people rapidly reading out names on behalf of ten thousand.
• Do you know which star is ruling your fate this year?
• The other day a master who read my chart said that the star La Hầu rules my fate, which is very dangerous, and that I must pay a million to ward off misfortune. But I've just given the whole five hundred thousand to a poor old woman, so I don't have enough money for the offering to the stars at the start of this year, and I'm very worried.
• Come on, tell me your hour, day, month and year of birth and I'll see how your horoscope looks.
• Yes. I was born on...
  The master counted on his fingers, then said:
• This year you have Hóa Lộc shining on you, so you will have unexpected money. When you have money, try to share it and do good, and your merit will last long.
  Hoàng said:
• Thank you, Master. ⭐️

There are still many people in this world who are easily convinced.