Star of the Month September : Fiv Liow

Well, welcome everyone. We are here with the star of the month and I want to bring on a very, very special person that has been the longest standing student, first student to ever graduate from Uva. And I know all of you are going to want to know a little bit about Phi Lau and he is in Singapore. And I wanted to bring on Phi just to give us a little information about who he is. How you got into Vedic astrology and came on board with the University of Vedic Astrology. So, so let me open up with a beautiful welcome to Phi Lau and tell us a little bit Phi about your life, who you are, how you got into astrology.

Yes. Hi, I'm Phi from Singapore. I think that my story is kind of similar to some students or some astrologers. Previously I always thought that I'm a Libyan because of my sun sign. So I followed casually reading the western horoscope. Like everyone else, I wasn't a strict follower, but I read it from time to time on magazines, on website and other places. Little did I know that there is something called Vedic astrology. I found out that my ascendant is no longer Libra in the Vedic chart because of the sidereal calendar. I'm still very Venusian, but the whole skills tip over when all the planets rest in different houses. I was beginning to see my life in a very different perspective when I tried to read the new chart, trying to understand my life. All the planets are in different signs and different houses. And then I began to pick it up myself.

I worked on computer stuff previously and I studied abroad for a few years. Many of the things that I got into, I didn't really plan for it or that I have other plans. So something like Alan Saunders, I think he said something like life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans. So that phrase kind of applies to me. In some of the jobs that I got into, some were recommended to me or that they were just waiting there for me. So astrology was what happened to me. UVA was what happened to me while I was busy making other plans. So I think Alan Saunders phrase applies to me.

And somewhere along the line I saw Joni through the web. I don't remember where because Joni, you, you were everywhere.

So I searched from the web from somewhere else. Joni is everywhere. And I found that her explanations on astrology were brilliant. A splendid mix of Vedic astrology and Western astrology with Vedic astrology as the foundation. And then finally I told myself to get a reading from you. So I think part of my story is very similar to some other students.

So all this starts all the way back to year 2016 or 17. I remember at the time I had gotten a reading from you, you were saying that Uranus represents astrology among many other things. Well, Uranus with his transits in those years, it did his job for me there with Jupiter transits as well. You said a lot of stuff and I began to comprehend things, did some self introspection. You also said that there will be a solar eclipse on my career planet many months later after the reading. So there could be great changes in my career.

You said many stuff. So those are some of the many stuff that you said. And at the end of that reading you told me that you're starting a new school teaching astrology in the coming weeks. Take a look to see if there's something for you. I don't remember what I thought at the time, but I just joined right away.

It's so funny because you were the first student to sign up and I.

Was like I was the first one.

You were the first one? Yes. You didn't know because I had all of the outline for the entire course. But there were some of the videos I hadn't even done yet, remember?

Because there's 40 videos to the whole university, UVA. The videos that are pre recorded that you watch, you take your test. And I hadn't completed all of them. And I was like, oh my God, now I've got to do it. So I have to give it to you. You are part of the reason why UVA is today. I wanted you to know that.

I thought I was the first graduate. I didn't know I was the first to sign up.

You were the first to sign up? Yes. And you were the first graduate too. We took care of you, didn't we?

Yes, indeed.

And so I think at that time the first batch of UVA students was formed. And in the first semester of the very first lesson. In those days we all have to wait for Joni to release the lessons week by week. I think it was week by week, right? One by one, just lessons were in the making. It wasn't already, like you said. So if you join UVN now, actually the students are quite lucky. Now they can fast track all the learnings, different lessons at their very own pace. Because I was in the first batch, the students there at my time, we didn't have the advantage to fast track the learning. We have to wait for the lessons to be ready available week after week.

Yeah, because did I film them I had to have them edited and everything. And it's like, yeah, that's funny. I didn't know that you. You knew that I was making them, but you didn't know that this was all brand new. This was like the beginning was in 2016 and into 2017. Yeah, it's funny. But anyway.

And we readily and eagerly wait for each lesson to be release. I even had a trip to Australia and I still log in to join the classes all the time. It's like I didn't miss it, even though I was on the trip. So if the students are that keen to learn, they will do that.

Yeah. And so you have so many. You're a tutor now with uva and you have graduated so many students. Because here's how UVA works. In case everyone doesn't know, you are assigned a live tutor. And after each video, which are sporty videos, you take a test. And Fee is one of our, I have to say, one of our top tutors. Everyone loves you. It's true. That has you as a tutor. He is so kind and always there to help his students that he tutors and. And consequently you brought a lot of people forward to finish uva. You're one of our favorites. I want to tell you, V in terms of being a tutor, tell us a little bit about your experience with.

That.

As a tutor. Yes, well, I think that. About the course, I think that the concepts are. Some of the concepts are very advanced. It may be. It may not be very appealing to someone who is not interested in astrology. But I think there is a shortcut for everyone. The course is comprehensive. I went through some astrology details courses. There are tons of information out there with different techniques, astrology techniques available and you can search for them yourself. But I think Joni has streamlined everything to those astrology techniques that work, that are effective. So I think through all your years of experience and trial and errors, those methods that are straightforward, those methods that work, they are all in the course. I mean, they work. I don't see any techniques that don't work. I think you ferreted those complicated and less effective techniques out of the course. Right, right.

Right. I think that lessons saved me a lot of time trying to learn different techniques from different courses, different sources, different teachers. All the useful techniques are packaged into this one course. I tried to look for astrology contents here and there and then I tried to see to check that this is something new. I read it, I tried it, it works. But later on to find it. It doesn't always Work. It doesn't work on other charts, but your techniques are pretty straightforward and effective.

Thank you.

And you streamline everything for everyone. So we are actually tapping onto your experience in some ways. So I think it's very streamlined, effective. They work. It's very structured and easy to comprehend.

Yes, thank you.

I find this very appealing to beginners. The course not only empowers astrologers, it also helps the individual to understand his or her own life. So if you go to an astrology in the future of the course, if you just know like 10% of what you have learned in the course, you can empower yourself tremendously. You know why you behave in certain ways, how you react to different situations. You can know much more about yourself and this time in depth. You will know all your strengths and weaknesses and you can really appreciate now what your astrologer is telling you, finally.

So I think another point is that there is a very strong support system for learning. We learn not only from Journey from the tutor, but also from the rest of the students. They all have different knowledge and perceptions and there are always new insights. So I learned from all the students as well. I think it's a very strong learning support system for everyone in the school. Everyone is learning from everyone else. And we are all connected in uva.

Yeah, we are. We are. We have a great community because we meet every week with live webinars. Aside from the recorded videos, we have live webinars every week and we also have a telegram group where everyone connects. Have you been on the telegram group a lot? And met a lot of people and people that can connect even. There was another student that graduated in Singapore. And you guys know each other now, right?

Yes, that's Manus Pong. Yes.

Yeah.

And she's a student as well?

Yes, she's a graduate, so.

It'S a community. But it's funny how many people around the world connect to each other because find out they live in the same city.

I believe. When I graduated, I you invited me to join the group of tutors. And because I was the first graduate, I joined the three other tutors. And that was when my native son was very nicely touched by Jupiter and some other aspects. And then I also started my own astrology service roughly around that time, I think after I graduated and joined, Carol from Canada joined?

Yes, after me. Yes.

Remember Carol?

I remember Carol. How could we forget Carol?

She's fun. Yeah.

All over the place. All over the world.

Yeah, all over the world.

And previously I worked for my boss halfway around the world and Now I'm working with Joni halfway around the world again.

Yes.

I mean, I didn't pick the people that I work with.

Well, I'm hoping that one of these days when we have a in person conference that you'll come and be part of it. I know you will one day. I know that we're connected. We've got some good probably past lives together, Fee, because we've been connected for a while.

Tell everybody about your books. You have written two books. I always encourage my students to do writing. First I got you to write for Astrologic magazine. And then you went off and you wrote two amazing books. Tell us about that.

Well, I think that's the time roughly when I start the astrology service. Things just happened. My neither sound was very nicely touched. After that, my writing house was also nicely touched and I keep. I kept on writing. I wrote a few articles, I put them all on my website. And I've written two books as well. Actually, I wrote it and by the time I wrote it, I wasn't sitting in a very ergonomic position. So my arm hurts after all the writing. My arm birds.

Yeah, yeah.

And I have written two books. It's called Guide to the Future.

From Year 2020 to 2024. That's the first book. It's on my website. It's on predictions for every single zodiac sign from Aries to Pisces. And there are also some other information besides the prediction. And actually the name guide to your future is recommended or rather suggested by Gauri. So I just took it.

Good.

And the other one, the second book is from year 2025 to 2029. That one rests with my editor for the time being. It's all written, so it needs a bit of touch up. So I haven't put the second one out yet. Slowly worked on by my editor. A really kind soul there.

Good.

So while I was writing, doing all the writing, some years ago, there was an underdog. While I was writing my book, my kid nephew had a glimpse of it, possibly wondering why I was always typing on the computer. So he asked me a question, an astrology question. He asked me, why are there so many houses? How can someone have so many houses?

I wrote the 9th house, the 10 house, and all the different astrological predictions, analysis, all the different transits.

The 12th house.

So he's thinking, you have a lot of good real estate. Right.

I'm not the top 1% of the population who have that.

Yeah, yeah. Has 12 houses.

So I'm so glad that the whole birth chart only has 12 houses. It cannot be exaggerated further.

Yeah, that's interesting. It's funny.

From a child's viewpoint of astrology, Right?

Yeah. I didn't know how to answer that, so I didn't.

It could have gone a whole lot weirder. I mean, imagine that he read the line, mars in the fourth house. Mars in the house like you have.

I don't know how Mars could fit in my house.

That's funny. Well, that's cute. That's really, really cute.

Yeah. So it is still an astrological question, just that I couldn't answer.

And so I am also a tutor in UVA ever since.

There's always new things to learn in astrology, and we learn a lot from each other. I learned a lot from the students assigned to me as well. They had, like, from time to time, amazing insights. So I learned a lot from them, too. So that's astrology for me, too. And I think that I'm so blessed to have Joni as my teacher. So I thought I must have done something good in my past life. So I thought maybe I have a good Jupiter or a good ninth house or a good knife ruler or something of the like.

Yeah, yeah. But, you know, I always encourage all of my graduates to become tutors because just as you're saying, you learn as you're teaching and as you're tutoring, because you have to come up with the answer. And maybe you got to research it somewhere, but it forces you to learn more, just as you're saying. Yes, it's a wonderful thing.

So all in all, it's a very empowering experience. I think in uva, the knowledge of astrology was not readily available to everyone, but now it is.

Yeah. Oh, my God.

Yes.

Yes. If you would have seen before the Internet, how the books that I had to study from, it's amazing anyone learned back then because they were. They weren't good. You know, the old Indian books weren't written well. Everything was misspelled in them, but still made it through. And you know what? I don't know if I told you this before, but I decided because the books were so bad that were out there, when I first started studying, I wrote my own book. And that's.

How do you know that.

Yes. Eastern astrology for Western minds. Because I felt like there was nothing out there that was easy for us to understand. And especially from the perspective of me coming from Western astrology, it made it so much, you know, how people could understand making this transition from Western tropical astrology to Vedic sidereal Astrology and that became the textbook to the university.

Yeah. You know how some people host the Yogananda's book.

Autobiography of Yogi. So like how Steve Jobs only have that book.

So some people could have eastern astrology for western.

Book only, right?

Yeah. That's funny. So you were gonna, you were telling me something earlier about. Well, you know as well as I do that Vedic astrology is called Jyotish which is literally interprets to the science of light. And you were talking about the Rajistic quality as the satva qualities and all of that and how that had so much meaning for you with, with your understanding of astrology.

So I think that the world that we are living in now is a very regressive place. The three gunas of nature that you mentioned, the Rajasic, the Tamasic, the Satvit. So currently we are in the Dvapara yoga, kind of like the industrial age. So we are still growing until the lightening age thousand years later. So now everything is about action and passion. It's all about activity. You just need to.

Need to know what, what activity you're going to go to. So some parts of the world are more Thomasic, kind of like darker in nature, like the dinosaur era. It's a fight or flight response. You just need to survive. And some parts of the world are more subvit and there is more light and you're more aware of why you do certain things. You're more refined and you tend to reject or at least resist immoral or illegal activities and there's more meaning in what you do. So generally in the subvic type of activities you are building up good karma. And I think that UVA is like a trigger that gives you this sense of awareness through astrology. It raises the sense of awareness in you and changes your perception of the people and the things around you. And using astrology first by knowing yourself, how you behave and the energies in your birth chart will describe you. So that is the you that you have mold yourself over many years, many lives. And UVA I believe has its own path in an occult science astrology manner. It's like a beam of savage light that raises your awareness and consciousness. Compared to someone who doesn't know astrology or doesn't believe in astrology, they will continue to live by default, autopiloting their life, you know, like being zombified, autopiloting their life every day, living like zombie, totally controlled by the planets. So when you know who you are and why you do certain things, you become more aware of your own behavior, of your own existence and how you live. There is less autopiloting. That is, if you make use of astrology, you have more control over your life and you can tap deeper into free will. So I think that people are living in the drama of the cosmic dream through astrology, right? Happy smile, sad frown. So if you know astrology, you know what's going to happen tomorrow to a certain extent, through the energies of the planet. And you can choose to for some people to enjoy the drama, you can introspect yourself and master your own life. So in uva, everyone is learning something from everyone. So after applying astrology, you're beginning to transform your life for the better. And you can introspect self introspect and know how you behave. Your decisions may change for the better. And that is just the beginning. And that is the trigger to the awareness of how you live. And you do not autopilot anymore. So I think that after knowing who you are, the next thing that can help you to man your fortune along with it is the will to live.

The will to change your life.

That is to exercise the free will to change yourself. And slowly, subtly, your future will change. Some changes in this life and others in the far future. So events may still be deterministic, they may remain the same, but the magnitude can change because you're more aware now. And I think people say that these are uncertain times, but because the planets are always moving constantly, everything is cyclic. So all times are uncertain times. That is why astrology is useful. And as above, so below, the planets are all moving that impact us and our life will never become stale. So that's why we use astrology. And I think that your life is either going to be pleasant or unpleasant. And most of the time is like dangling in the middle. You have some sweets and some bitters of life.

So I think if you receive a piece of news from astrologer, it's either going to be good news or bad news. But most of time is mixed. So what do you do when you have different news? A piece of good news and a piece of bad news. So when you receive a piece of good news, let's treat the future event very uncertain and it frightens you. It's like going to battle. So you will want to go into battle knowing that you will win. And you imagine the unknown future as a battle. When you know that you are about to go through a good time, you would have won before even step into the battlefield. Because we know what's going to happen tomorrow. Right before the event even begins. What are the good transits to your life? Your personal abilities and skills would always play a part. But then you leave the fortunal portion out of the picture. That makes you very vulnerable and you're not prepared. And the best person in the world in a certain area, when he's down in his luck, it doesn't matter how good you are anymore. You're not going to win. And you will want to know when you can go all out.

So that's when you receive a piece of good news and what you can do about it. Those are your advantages. You have already won before it even starts. And the more difficult part is when you receive bad news. You know, when luck is not on your side, no matter how good you are, you can get mentally prepared for the worst. You can do all the activities to remedy the situation. Vedic rituals. You can do material backup to back all your resources together to prepare for the worst situations. You can get mentally prepared for a possible setback. And you can remain spiritually strong. And then you leave it at that because astrology tells you that it's got to be bad. So once you have done all that, you can, don't probe and worry about the results again and again. Because your job is to take action and respond in the best way that you can. The result is not your burden to bear. You know, don't. Don't take it up. Don't let your heart be burdened. So the last thing that you can do after that, all that you have done is just endure. I mean, this is a world of duality. When you know that you're about to go through some bad times, try not to take life so seriously, you know?

Yeah, life's a dream.

Yeah. Cosmic dream.

Cosmic dream, exactly. That's what I have to remind myself of when I know I'm going to go through a difficult time. Realize, you know, it's a cosmic dream. What's. What's the reality? Our spiritual truth is the only reality there is. So thank you for your words of wisdom. Is there anything else you want to add before we close voice?

Yeah. So I want to say just open up yourself, be less skeptical, and join us in uva. So my sentiments are, know yourself, change your life.

That's beautifully said. So beautifully said. Such pearls of wisdom. Thank you. And thank you for sharing your gifts, your words of wisdom with all of us. And one thing I want to add is thank you so much for being part of uva. It would not be the same without you. And I mean that. So. Thank you, Fee.

Thank you, too, Joni.

Okay, bye.

Bye, Joni.