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A Ship to Cross the Sea of Suffering – Qì in the Year of the Yáng Water Tiger, Rén Yín, 壬寅 – Year 2022/4720

1/26/2022

FATE IS NOT ACTUALLY CREATED (HAS NO BEGINNING) BUT
IS THE PREDISPOSITION TO RECREATE AND SOLIDIFY KARMIC PATTERNS.
THE EVER-PRESENT OPTION/DISPOSITION TO OPENLY EXPRESS OUR TRUE NATURE IS FREEDOM.
TOGETHER FATE AND FREEDOM CONSTITUTE THE NATURALLY DYNAMIC
DIMENSION WE ARE IN.
-Liu Ming

道 – Dào/View

Birth is the cause of death. Everyone ages, falls ill from time to time, and eventually dies. Old age and illness, however, are not the cause of death but simply a natural unwinding of the polarity (yīnyáng) that temporarily holds together human jīng (substance) and qì (energy) as shén (experience).

Ming once said - death is a fish returning to the water after a leap into the air and is a natural returning home. It is neither tragic nor mistaken. For although death can appear gradual (as an illness) or sudden (as an accident), no one has ever died from illness or injury – they died because they were born. The experience of our “life,” in fact, is a constant alternation of birth and death, like inhale/exhale, awake/asleep.

Everything that comes together comes apart, and all rivers return to the Sea. And just as the Sea, again, becomes the rivers – death is not permanent, nor is it a “stop.” How could it be?

The “story” of death in traditional cultures often sounds like a journey, one that starts with an end and ends with a start (as in re-birth). As such, life and death alternate in an endless circle. Everything flows, carrying momentum from start to finish and from finish back to start.

To hear this story of endlessness may sound like a punishing wheel (samsāra, full of ignorance and suffering) but it is also a nameless and incomprehensibly permissive Reality, animated with endless presence. In Chinese Astrology, the “story” of this endlessness, the immortality of our presence, the complex interaction between life and death, is called “Fate,” 命, and Fate is a “possession.” We are all possessed.

Possession is an accepted “cause” of illness in all forms of traditional medicine throughout the world. But what is possession?

Human beings have common and distinct characteristics of internal integrity, which we call “health.” Health is the maintenance of this internal integrity through normalizing patterns of relating, eating, breathing, circulating, and moving. When our integrity is compromised, “gaps” appear, and these gaps can be “possessed.”

But what possesses us? Foremost our ANCESTORS – dis-embodied human impulse/memory called, guĭ, 鬼, ghosts, or the “unsettled” dead. Predisposition for illness, addiction, and abuse in this case are a kind of internal possession – patterns that modern medicine calls “genetic.”

This sort of illness/possession contains a causal factor or constitutional predisposition that is present in our basic ancestral body, which we inherit at birth. The illness may be seen as the uncomfortable/painful “story” or conflicted mental/emotional state of the ancestor who died physically but was unable to complete the process of death emotionally. These unresolved emotions and thought patterns, are called ghosts, and they do not “stop” in death. Rather, they lose the body/mind/qì context that generated them, and without the reference of human embodiment, they lack the capacity to resolve, and so seek embodiment to “finish.”

An ancestral ghost can “possess/visit” a descendant and take them towards or through the ghost’s incomplete death, attempting to re-live and resolve these conflicting emotions that are stuck out of time. This may cause illness or temporary or chronic compulsive addictive behavior that is not ordinary for the living person.

Another form of possession occurs as the result of SHOCK and trauma, which causes us to dissociate from the body. This breach in our integrity comes because of a sudden, excessive, or consistent grievous challenge to our integrity. This may come in the form of fright – fear at a level that seems fatal, or more subtly from conceptual fear created by the constant ways we disassociate, leak, and squander our energy.

In this case, very strong emotions tear at our integrity, and one of many possible “spirits” enter the gap as a result. Humans possessed of such spirits may also consistently abuse other humans and create new patterns of cultural, social, and ancestral illness. In this case, a person’s dis-integration is less “physical” and is expressed through “locked” and inappropriate emotional states. These emotional states often do not respond to logic or ordinary change in circumstances but follow conditioned patterns of emotional attachment and aversion.

Traditionally, spirits are said to reside in places that humans reject – graveyards, battlefields, swamps, deserts – true wilderness areas, etc, but they are also loose in the wilderness of the Mind – the rejected, unintegrated, transpersonal recesses of the psyche. Spirit Possession takes the form/flavor of Six Realms – hell, ghost, animal, human, titan, and god. And today, these spirits are loose in the wilderness of the media; they come to us through television, smart-phones, and the internet, through the rhetoric of ideas, beliefs, information, advertisements, movies, and social media. But most importantly, they are loose in the ocean of unresolved ancestors at work in our deeply traumatized/confused culture.

Whatever you have not finished is the ghost you will become. The coming Year offers a profound capacity for exorcism and catharsis - a Ship to Cross the Sea of Suffering. But it also presents a gale force of fear. The Water Tiger asks – what possesses you? What possesses us? Do you have the courage to let go? Or will you be swept up in the current?

Liu Ming once asked his teacher what could be done to exorcise the ocean of illness and injury related to possession; he looked slyly and said: “Kindness.” We can all take responsibility for the unevenness of life by being as kind and gentle as we can.

The big picture here reminds us that creating and maintaining an orderly society, lacking selfishness and aggression in our relationships to each other, is good for our health.[1]

[1] This section adapted from Liu Ming’s teachings on Sleep, Dream, and Death

Rén Yín, 壬寅– Year of the Yáng Water Tiger

Welcome back to Rén Yín, 壬寅, Year of the Yáng Water Tiger, the “Roaming Tiger,” which begins officially on Tuesday, February 1st, 2022! As always, I must remind you that Astrology is not fortunetelling. Divination is a dance between Fate and Freedom via the medium of symbols, symbols which describe the cyclical flowing dynamics of nature itself. There is nothing other than an immortal present – no past or future can be found. But the eternal Now has a multi-directional flow, called Qì, which can be interpreted (loosely/playfully). For what we perceive as the future is broad and unfixed, yet once you pass through it, the future can become a narrow door.

Before I begin, I must admit that I am more hesitant to write and publish this than ever before, and this may be my last New Year’s blog in this format. Public discourse and opinion are so divisive that if I am to offer my opinions freely, or mention anything about the *unspecified virus of unknown origin*, I risk alienating half my audience and provoking a deluge of argument and disagreement between pro or anti this and that. And I have no interest in this.

However, I cannot interpret these symbols without at least some commentary on the world as I see it, and timid is not the Tiger way. Tigers are brave. So, I offer the following as a daring, bold, and creative re-visioning of things, and I encourage you to take it with a grain of salt. I will keep the political comments to a minimum. These are, of course, my interpretations and reactions based on my unique conditioning, education, and personal experience, and it should also be said that this commentary is aimed at the USA.

Please just remember to be kind and remember – nothing is established in the way that it appears. There is no “real world” and no “abiding self.” What we call a self and world are a kind of mirage created by the conceptual mind. Things only have a relational or contextual existence, while being “empty” of any kind of independent existence apart from their inter-relational context.

I am excited to write this review of the Water Tiger because I am a Fire Tiger (hence the name Tiger's Play). As a Tiger, I am closer, more intimate with this Qì than with any other (although Water and Fire are the most different of Tigers). Therefore, this cannot help but be more personal than my previous blogs, so bear with me if I get emotional, lol.

The Yáng Water Tiger is a profound and powerful symbol. The Qì of this Year is not for the faint of heart. Water Tiger is something like a tidal wave or tsunami propelled by a hurricane or volcano, or perhaps even a nuclear bomb. It is a force of nature, so grab a surfboard, strap on a helmet, and get ready because things are about to get wild.

Metal Ox Reflections

Before delving into the Water Tiger, we should take a moment to reflect on the Year of the Metal Ox, which we are now exiting. I encourage you to re-read my blog on last year and reflect…how’d it go? We are each pre-disposed by our Character and Fate to digest each Year differently, so experience will vary widely, but the themes are consistent if you zoom out.

Metal Ox and Water Tiger make for a strong contrast, and the two balance each other out in an interesting way. Think of Metal Ox as a mighty dam and Water Tiger as a powerful river, potentially overflowing and bursting the dam. If the dam is well built, the water powers the dam. If it is poorly built…!

You may have noticed that while it seemed like a lot happened in the past year, not much really happened. We seem to be stuck in the same predicaments, but a lot of work has been going on. It is hard to say what this work has or will accomplish, but such is the work of the Ox…a field has been plowed, but no harvest is yet available.

The Metal Ox is a rather boring symbol – it is a slow, sturdy, containing energy that seeks to build, establish, and continue/uphold a foundation – boundaries, borders (like the Berlin Wall built in the last Metal Ox year/1961), rules, regulations, timetables, etc, that represent deep and broad social values like duty, responsibility, loyalty, and self-sacrifice.

Metal Ox has a strong, overbearing, and authoritative tone. Last year I warned that Ox Year would have an “Orwellian” overtone to those uncomfortable with authority (Americans, lol, Protest-ants). Metal Ox is like a stern father figure telling you what to do because it builds character, because it is good for you, which for children is a hard pill to swallow.

I also suggested that the rules, mandates, and structures to come were, believe it or not, impermanent and represented a natural unfolding of the cycles of Time. I suggested that perhaps there is a natural wisdom to these impulses and that collectively, it would behoove us to, for the time being, admit our ignorance and lack of control, give authority the benefit of the doubt, submit to a few well-meaning rules and mandates, and refrain from rebellion, even if we disagree with the rules. Not because you believe the people in power are perfect and know what they are doing, not because you blindly trust that scientists are infallible and make all the right decisions, but for the Qì of cooperation and for the timing. With this broad view in mind, a self-sacrifice for the “greater good,” (and not narcissistic martyrdom) even if it means putting yourself at risk, is a temporary act that creates a fertile soil for future growth, expansion, and diversity. This view requires some degree of selflessness and insight into the fundamental emptiness of our situation.

There is a time to follow orders/cooperate and a time to rebel. The wise know when to wait and plan. The View of Astrology here suggests that if we go with the flow of Time and follow the above Metal Ox themes, then when the natural push of rebellion, growth, and renewal we call Spring (now in the form of the Tiger) comes, it will be productive, and the passive Yīn work of the Ox (Winter), will have tilled the soil for new growth. We will have built a solid dam that now becomes a source of power. However, if we are petulant and impatient, if we exhaust our energy struggling against the boundaries of the Ox Year/Winter, creating a premature rebellion, then our dam will burst. Our seeds will not take root and grow. Our sprouts will have burst through their husk into barren soil. Our revolutions will ultimately fail and make a mess of things.

So, regarding how we as a culture are responding to the *unspecified virus of unknown origin*, I put this forward as something to contemplate. We are of course, split/divided. Many people are willing to cooperate, and many are not – hence the news. We’re all at the mercy of our media conditioning, left to discern between many arguing narratives. Many are understandably impatient. Many are howling like ghosts, desperately trying to figure things out and justify one narrative or another about what is happening and so are spinning their wheels endlessly in a situation out of control/beyond understanding.

Science is, of course, flawed. The processes by which we determine what is true and false in our society is deeply flawed. But the rapid, emotional way that misinformation spreads in our culture is tearing it apart. It appears often that feelings are immune to facts. The complexity behind this is, of course, too multifaceted to analyze here, and I am not qualified to do so. I merely offer these as symbols of a larger context to reflect upon.

The Ox symbol is deeply rooted in Confucian teachings on social harmony, stability, and convention through relationship and responsibility. The Ox teaches us that for a society to function, especially in the face of Winter/Death, which is where we are energetically, we must work together, cooperate, and sacrifice some degree of personal safety, comfort, and autonomy to ensure our survival. If the foundation of a society is everyone for themselves, it is doomed to collapse in times of hardship when we must rely on others. If we are to live with others, then we have duty towards them, and the “strong” have an obligation to protect those who are vulnerable.

In conclusion to the Ox Year, then, I offer this for contemplation – never attribute malice or evil to that which can be adequately explained by ignorance, lack of information, neglect, stupidity, or incompetence. This is called “Hanlon’s razor.” Goethe wrote similarly in 1774, “Misunderstandings and neglect create more confusion in this world than trickery and malice. At any rate, the last two are certainly much less frequent.”

This heuristic is a useful tool for intelligent cognition. Applying Hanlon’s razor in our day-to-day lives and to the political/social situation at large allows us to better develop relationships, become less judgmental, and it improves our rationality. Hanlon’s razor allows us to give people, of whom we are otherwise critical/judgmental, the benefit of the doubt and have more empathy.

I say this because if I were to pick out the most glaring themes of this year, they would be that of personal liberty in a pandemic (where that liberty has the potential to harm others via a contagious illness) and the distrust of authority. The sheer force of people’s conflicting emotions in reaction to these are overwhelming. As far I see it, how we deal with these emotions moving forward is a key factor in Ox turning to Tiger, and I fear that people will warp the Water Tiger’s image into more American rugged individualist "free-thinking" nonsense and bemoan the Ox year as people being herded/lead to the slaughter, which is ridiculous.

Therefore, I opened this exploration with a traditional view on death and possession because it appears that we have all become quite possessed! My social media feeds have become a parade of Six Realm possessions, full of people proudly and unapologetically turning their internal trauma fixations inside out – Hell Realm delusions of persecution, blame, and anger at authority, Ghost Realm paranoias, fears, and inadequacies, Human Realm pride full of assumed knowledge and attachment to ideas, Animal Realm tribalism, laziness, and ignorance, Titan Realm competition, domination, and belittlement, and finally, God Realm beliefs that everything is part of a perfect divine plan, collective awakening, or providence under a saintly ruler.

So, let’s apply Hanlon’s razor. Let’s not attribute malice to that which can be adequately explained by ignorance, neglect, or incompetence. Going forth, without being naïve (b/c obviously the world is full of greed and corruption), let’s assume that scientists are doing the best they can, trying to form reasonable consensus with the information they have, which is constantly changing, and that most people in positions of power are trying to make the most informed decisions they can so that they can benefit the most people. We’re making mistakes; things are messy, but everyone’s trying their best. Assume that what appear to be sinister motives may just be ignorance, and don’t be so quick to assume you have the right answers. Because it is likely we’re just as ignorant, lol. This is called the Dunning-Kruger Effect, and it's everywhere – the cognitive bias where people with little expertise or ability assume they have superior expertise or ability, an oversimplification that occurs from not having enough knowledge to know that you do not have enough knowledge.

Why must we deal with these projections of malice? Because the Water Tiger is coming. The Water Tiger is the supreme launching forward energy! For better or worse, this next Year is going to propel us all forward, and if the foundation we have built for the Tiger’s rebellion is based on the anger, fear, and attachment, then this rebellion will be a disaster and could even turn violent. If approached with basic sanity, the Water Tiger is a vessel, a life raft in a flood, so let’s hope it’s seaworthy.

To fully understand the life raft available in the Water Tiger Year, we must look to its symbolism, Qì dynamics, manifestation, and applications.

象 – Symbolism

The Chinese love the Tiger, but it is in many ways the antithesis of China. It therefore holds a special place in Chinese Cosmology. For the Chinese have always welcomed chaos because no healthy society can function without destruction and renewal. This is called passing the torch to the next generation.

In my last blog on the Metal Ox Year, I mentioned that the Ox is a symbol of China as it represents the virtue of the heroic preserver, the continuity, stability, and convention of Tradition. The Tiger is, then, a symbol of rebellion against everything the Ox stands for, energetically speaking, just as youth always rebels against authority with each new generation. If the Ox represents the stability, continuity, and consistency of Yīn Earth, then the Tiger, whose nature is Yáng Wood, represents a forceful breaking away from all these qualities, for Wood eats/destroys/controls Earth in the Five Element Cycle.

Historically, the Tiger is the most successful predator of humans, and conversely, humans are the only successful predator of Tigers. At one point, there were hundreds of thousands of Tigers in Asia. Many of the earliest recorded human remains have been found with the bones of Tigers, which has puzzled archaeologists for years. They’re not sure who killed whom.

In the Han Dynasty, the number one cause of death among peasants listed in medical records (besides war) was Tigers. They roamed freely and would wander into villages at whim, eating anything that came in their path. In short, Tigers disrupted the day to day functioning of orderly society.

The Han Government waged war on Tigers, and in less than a century they used the military to systematically hunt and kill thousands of them. This trend continued, which is why the Tiger came close to extinction in Asia, although it has recently been coming back. Famous Generals were depicted wearing Tiger skins as a symbol of their fearlessness in battle, and killing a Tiger earned you the title “Tiger.” The symbol of the fearless general riding first into battle, inspiring the troops, and then going off into the mountains as a hermit to write the Art of War is a classic metaphor for Tiger Qì. There and back again – to leave the world and return with wisdom is the Tiger way.

The Chinese character for Tiger’s Earthly Branch, 寅, depicts a bow drawn and about to fire, implying a long history of hunting Tigers. Energetically, the drawn bow represents the tiger stalking its prey, waiting, crouching in the tall grass, ready to be unleashed.

We can call the early religion of China “Animism,” which later became Daoism. Rural and tribal religion was officiated by Animist Priests who were great arbiters of the Spirit World. Today they are known as “Red Hat Daoists.” “Black Hat Daoists” are the later Orthodox Priests who uphold the more official/orthodox lineages. Liu Ming very much started as a Black Hat Daoist in his early years, but later shifted toward a much more animist or Red Hat View.

Alive, Tigers presented a great threat, but dead they were considered the most powerful of spirit protectors. Part of the war on Tigers, then, was to “put them on the other side,” so to speak. After the systematic hunting of Tigers, Daoist priests would then work to command Tiger Spirits. Zhang Dao-Ling, the founder of Orthodox Daoism, is depicted riding a Tiger, symbolizing this command of the Spirit World, in control of the uncontrollable. Similarly, the second Patriarch of Chán is always depicted sleeping on a Tiger.

This trend is also found in Tantra, for Tigers were just as common in India, and great Tantric Masters and Deities are often depicted sitting on Tigers/ Tiger skins, wearing Tiger shawls, using Tigers as pillows, and so on. This symbolizes that a practitioner has conquered their fear and impulsiveness. Tiger Qì is considered the Wisdom of Fearlessness and the Victory over Danger, and Tigers have long been associated with the great Yogis/Yoginis of the Non-Dual Meditation Traditions. As a symbol of Wisdom, in contrast with the gentle Guān Yīn image of the Ox, the Tiger represents the fierce, cutting, and wild/crazy wisdom of the great Mahāsiddhas.

Still to this day, it is common in China to write the Chinese symbol for Tiger, 虎, on doors or amulets to ward off fire, theft, illness, and possession. The Tiger is a symbol of exorcism, dispossession, power, and warriorship. In many Martial Art traditions, the Tiger is depicted with the Dragon in a Yīn-Yáng Symbol, in a push-pull battle for dominion of Heaven and Earth.

When we look at the actual animal, the first thing we see is that the Tiger is striped, and this is, perhaps, the key to understanding the symbol. Tigers wish they could be lions or panthers (i.e., one color), but they cannot; they have stripes. And as the saying goes, a Tiger can't change their stripes, and this symbolizes a fundamentally dual nature, which Tigers seek their whole lives to reconcile. So, perhaps, the most important thing we can say about Tigers is that they’re striped. This will be explored in more detail, but first, we must get behind the Qì dynamics of this Year to understand what makes the Water Tiger tick.

For an extensive study of the Tiger symbol in Chinese Cosmology, please see this masterful work by one of my teachers, Heiner Fruehauf

http://classicalchinesemedicine.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/fruehauf_lungtiger.pdf

氣 – Qì Dynamics

To understand Water Tiger Qì, we must understand its Native Element, Yáng Wood, and its relationship to Yáng Water. What is Water Element and how does the Water Tiger differ from other Tigers?

Yáng Wood is the first element in the cycle, which is why the Tiger Moon coincides with the Chinese New Year and the season of Spring Begins. The Tiger is, therefore, the symbol of Spring, representing the impulse of birth arising out of death, the raw force of the sprout bursting through a seed, or a chick breaking open an egg.

The force of Yáng Wood is the fresh, dynamic, naive, innocent, pliant, new, unformed, spontaneous, impulsive, and forceful arising of movement from complete stillness. Yáng Wood is invisible, pure; it represents birth, initiation, renewal, potentiality, creativity, and adaptation. Force arising from stillness—this is the Tiger. Imagine a cat, still and unmoving, then pouncing on their prey.

Tiger Hour is from 3-5am.   Here, we emerge from the dreamless state of Ox Hour to express wild, symbolic, creative, and fearless dreaming. This is when we can fly and visit other worlds; this is when we are most likely to have “weird” dreams, the kind that make no sense whatsoever. Tiger dreams are a pure expression of the creative impulse of the unconscious.

So, beneath this year is the primal impulse of movement, and the Tiger Year, like the Tiger Moon, is the first great push forward in the Cycle. Although the Rat and Ox come before it, they are retrospective, evaluating the past and planning/working for the future. The Tiger, however, is done with all that and impulsively, impatiently, and unapologetically lurches forward. Therefore, we can say that this Year is the first real “start” we have had since 2014 (Wood Horse). Everything since then has been a negotiation. And with tidal force of Water behind it, it is one hell of a start.

水生木 – Water Generates Wood

This is a Water Tiger Year, so what does that mean? Water is the “mother” of Wood in the Five Element cycle, meaning the energetic direction is generative, supportive, and nurturing. It is forward moving and unconflicted about this. Watering the soil gives birth to new sprouts. Seeing as there is no conflict or control in this dynamic, there is a naturalness and ease to the Water Tiger’s display, which is an exaggerated and bigger than life version of the Wood Tiger. For it sits behind the impulse of Wood, paradoxically representing the force of Death that implies Life. The Water Tiger is the bridge between death and re-birth, the transitory states, what Tibetan Buddhism calls the Bardo.

Water is the Wisdom of old age and contains the memory of the whole elemental cycle. Yáng Water represents return, resolve, completion, and death. It is the force of death that is beyond reckoning (terminal), and Yáng Water is the fear of death that causes us to rage against it (do not go gentle…rage against the dying of the light).

Water Element is the falling apart aspect of our experience, the collapsing of things into undifferentiated soup. If things did not end, nothing would move; there would be no room for anything new. The constant dissolution of our experience constantly makes way for the impulse of Wood, for newness/freshness. Associated with winter and blue/black, the image of Water Element is like water itself, describing the flowing, liquid, malleable, interconnected, fluid nature of life.

Water Element is the recognizable, dramatic experience of change. Usually, we do not notice change until things collapse and dissolve. Water Element is therefore associated with drama and emotion. But nothing can end permanently, so dissolution naturally generates the impulse to manifest again, for nature abhors a vacuum. So, Water being the mother of Wood, which are both contained in the Water Tiger, offers a powerful beginning.

Water Element adds drama, emotion, sensitivity, generosity, and scale to any Year. The main themes of the Tiger, then, – courage, will power, enthusiasm, imagination, competition, dedication, honesty, luck, dignity, and generosity (on the positive side), and – restlessness, impulsivity, moodiness, stubbornness, egotism, rebellion, indecisiveness, sensitivity, pride, and vanity (on the negative side), are all blown out of proportion and exalted to a grand, profound, magnanimous, hyperemotional, almost uncontrollable scale.

While the Qì Dynamic of last Year had an atmosphere of heavy wet snow that was slow and sleepy, like plowing through the mud, this Year’s dynamic is forceful, fast, and frenetic, like suddenly getting knocked down by a wave at the beach, forced under the water in a flurry of bubbles, simultaneously being dragged down by the undertow while being propelled forward by the wave. Yáng Wood is the direction of outward expansions, while Yáng Water is a forceful contraction inward.

Furthermore, as we will now discuss, the Wŭ Yùn Lìu Qì, or “weather patterns,” of the Year have a very strong influence of Excess Wind, which drives the force of Wood/Water like a hurricane. And remember, we are talking about this dynamic in the form of a Tiger, an 800lbs predator capable of eating half its bodyweight in a single day.

五運六氣 – Wŭ Yùn Lìu Qì

The Wŭ Yùn Lìu Qì, or “Five Movements and Six Climates,” is said to govern the distribution of the annual Qì as weather patterns and their effects on living beings as resultant illnesses. While the effect of the Tiger Symbol is broad and can be applied everywhere, the effect of Wŭ Yùn Lìu Qì is much more “physical/medical” and for students of Chinese Medicine, it is worth studying. We can apply this prediction to weather and potential natural disasters and as an influence on disease. What follows is only a brief discussion of potential patterns; for a more personal assessment – see your local Chinese Medical practitioner!

Annual Yùn - 太角 Tàijué ‘Major Wood-tone’ - Excess Wind

The annual Yùn is determined by the yearly heavenly stem and is said to influence the climate over the entire year. The Annual Yùn for this Year is, 太角, Tàijué ‘Major Wood-tone,’ which is said to produce excess Wind element.

The terms 太 Tài ‘Major’ and 少 Shào ‘Minor’ are notes of the Chinese pentatonic scale are traditionally used to represent the movement of Qì. Yáng stem years (like this year) are called 太过 Tàiguò “Excessive” and are associated with more violent climate changes from the host damaging the controlled element.

Here the overall tone of the Year is Excess Wind. In Chinese medicine we say that “wind is the captain of the hundred diseases.” My CCM teacher Bryan McMahon on Wind, “Take a quick moment to bring on an experience of wind. Don’t only imagine with your mind but try to experience the sensations in your body as well. How would you describe its essential nature? I think we would all agree that while it can’t be seen or held, it can certainly be felt. Chinese medicine summarizes wind as pure movement without shape or material substance. It can range from a gentle breeze to a howling tempest, making it both the most powerful and unpredictable force of nature. In the body, wind is the dynamic force that keeps all life activities churning, from the cellular level of gene expression and energy generation to the systemic level of heartbeat and blood circulation.”[1]

This blood circulation is deeply connected to the Juéyīn system of the Liver and Pericardium. If our blood is deficient or weak in substance, then wind fills the vessels in its absence. Internal wind creates chaos and dysfunction in the body and mind. It agitates and becomes destructive, creating strange symptoms with sudden onset and changes, like skin rashes that come and go, restlessness in the body with twitching and muscles spasms, restlessness in the mind that causes insomnia, anxiety, and poor focus. If the blood is healthy, then the Liver stores and clarifies it, and emotional excess is soothed, calmed, and then released by the pericardium.

If the relationship between nutritive and defensive Qì is weak, then external Wind, which is increased this year, can invade the body, the joints, the lungs, mixing in the various seasons with cold, damp, or heat, creating all kinds of discomfort. As the Tiger is a Symbol of the Lung, it is likely that this excess in Wind Wood will overact on the Lung and exacerbate respiratory illnesses.

Appling this overarching influence of Wind in Excess to the symbol of the Tiger, we get a strong pattern of unpredictability, chaos, and change, the kind of change that cannot be seen or detected but comes out of nowhere and from any direction. Wind spreads seeds far and wide, so the influence here is pervasive and extends beyond the ordinary. The possibility of contagion spreading is, unfortunately, increased, but so is the possibility to extending treatment, testing, and supportive endeavors.

Guest Qì - 少阳 Shàoyáng –Ministerial Fire & 厥阴 Juéyīn – Wind Wood

The Guest Qì is better understood as the Climatic Factors or Atmospheric Influences. It is determined by the year’s Earthly Branch and represents meteorological changes in upper and lower halves of the year. The Host Qì of each Year progresses naturally as Seasons starting in Spring with windiness (February – March), followed by imperial heat (April-May), ministerial fire (June-July), dampness (August – September), dryness (October-November), and coldness (December-January).

The 主 Zhǔ or “Host” of the natural season hosts the 客 Kè “Guest” Qì, which descends from above during the 1st half of year and is then joined from below in the 2nd half of the year.

So, the first half of this Year is governed by 少阳 Shàoyáng – Gallbladder/Triple Burner Ministerial Fire and the second half is governed by 厥阴 Juéyīn – Wind Wood, all within the context of the 太角 Tàijué ‘Major Wood-tone’ - Excess Wind, interacting with the natural progression of the above Seasons.

In Chinese Medicine, Ministerial Fire is a synonym for our basic vitality. Created by the Heart and Kidneys, it is an overflow from our deeper vitality called Imperial/Sovereign Fire. The fire that overflows from the Heart/Kidneys is catalyzed by the Gallbladder and circulated throughout the body by the Triple Burner, so that it can assist and support the day-to-day function of all the organ networks.

The pathology of Ministerial Fire is associated with disharmonies of the Liver/Gallbladder, especially in cases of Kidney and Liver Yīn deficiency, which causes Liver Yáng to rise and Ministerial fire to become hyperactive. Hyperactive Ministerial Fire is generally associated with patterns of “constrained heat.” Li Shi Zhen on Ministerial Fire, “anger is created in the qì level, illness develops, producing irritability and fullness with qì counterflow, hiccupping obstruction, chills and fever resulting from injury by external cold and deep lying fever.” In the first half of the Year, then, we can expect patterns of constrained heat, anger, irritability, and so on, to be stoked further by the power of excess Wind.

The second half of the Year is identical to the overall theme of the Year, Juéyīn – Wind Wood, so these symptoms of Wind can intensify and grow in intensity as the year progresses. In other words, the Year will get more intense as it goes along, and the destructive aspects of wind may be worse going from Summer into Autumn and Winter.

Yún Qì 岁会 Suìhuì meets - 同天符 Tóngtiānfú

Just like 2020, this Year the Heavenly Stem creates what is called Tōng Tiān Fú, 同天符, which means that Qì has the generally tendency to become excessive, so there will be greater changes in weather, more acute diseases, and the overall tendency of the Year will be somewhat forceful and chaotic. We can expect the recent tendencies of extreme weather to intensify further, and the likelihood of natural disasters is also increased this Year (evidenced by the recent eruption of an underwater volcano followed by a Tsunami that hit Tonga). So too is the tendency for all matters of public discourse and action to go to chaotic extremes.

[1] https://www.thewanderingcloud.com/the-archives/calming-the-wind

Dynamic Opposites

Finally, it is worth mentioning that if we take the signing of the Declaration of Independence as the “birth” of the United States, July 4th, 1776, then the USA is a Yáng Fire Monkey, and this Character can be said to govern the growth, activity, and conduct of our country. Well…the Fire Monkey is the diametric, 60-60, opposite of the Water Tiger. Water Tiger is, therefore, antithetical to the United States. Not only are Monkey and Tiger opposites, but Fire and Water make for an explosive, albeit important, controlling cycle. Water controls Fire, so in this case the Tiger is in control, but the Fire Monkey is still a wily adversary, and we will likely see it do everything in its power to squirm and evade the Tiger’s pounce.

Opposites in Chinese Astrology are not considered bad but rather mirror like. And mirrors can be very uncomfortable to look at it. The relationship of opposites can be extremely revealing, for they show to us what we do not normally see about ourselves. The relationship of opposites is usually mutual and creates very strong attraction, but without self-honesty and reflection, they can easily turn to repulsion, because what we hate most is usually something unintegrated within ourselves. Opposites create passionate, wild, romantic relationships that have an equal potential for growth and/or disaster.

I bring this up because this relationship of opposites creates the possibility that this year above all others could be explosive for the USA in a way that brings our country a kind of reckoning. It could exacerbate the violent potential in the Tiger image, and the dynamic of opposites will likely expose/reveal a lot of deep underlying problems in our culture, you know…more so than usual, lol. However, as this energy is antithetical to the USA, the results could be positive, pushing to rectify systemic problems that plague our culture. I hope that it isn’t an issue, so this is a word of warning…things could get weird, for the Tiger-Monkey dynamic is a powerful one.

形 – Manifestation/Character

Before, I delve into my specific “predictions,” let’s explore how the Water Tiger Character manifests in people—what about babies born in this or any Year of the Tiger? (I know of a few in the making). This year, these characteristics are more available to everyone! Try to imagine what these qualities would be like applied to the whole world, what if we’re all a little more “Tigery?”

We must first understand that Tigers feel the full force of primal hunger energy with startling intensity, and this creates the impulse to break free, innovate, create, destroy, jump headfirst, etc. This impulsive lurching often causes inconsistent and unreliable behavior, which confuses others. This impulse is always present, even when still, like a cat about to pounce, waiting for the right moment.

This behavior is often perceived as aggressive because the Tiger is a predator that needs to hunt. But really, Tiger Qì is in a constant intimate interaction with its surroundings, deeply sensitive, drawing all other energies into it, alert to minute changes, moods, emotions, ready to pounce in an instant. Even when resting, Tigers are like a loaded weapon. Without challenges, they can be champion loafers, lazy housecats, but they are always primed to jump and knock things over.

Tiger Qì is very physical and embodied. By nature, Tigers possess strong constitutions and boundless energy, which can express complete stillness, meditative equipoise, alongside an immense physical capacity, vitality, and endurance. Tiger Qì is fully present, ready for action, but it is also naïve; Wood Element is always naïve. Liu Ming told the story of a Tiger running through the jungle, leaping over obstacles—suddenly, the Tiger leaps off a cliff. Halfway down, the Tiger realizes—oh, I’m falling! In other words, Tiger Qì lurches, jumps eagerly into danger, and often doesn’t realize its mistakes until too late. It does this because it is king of the jungle and assumes it’s on top of the game.

This stripiness and impulsiveness makes Tigers difficult for others to understand. The stripes denote a powerful need to act, to connect, to be in the world, to love, and at the same time to run away, to hide, to be still, and to hide alone in their cave. For Tigers are solitary animals. They are independent and need huge territories in which to roam. In the wild, Tigers mate and then go their separate ways. If there are too many cubs born, the parents may kill a few as not to encroach on their hunting territory.

Tigers are pillars of strength and capacity, but then they disappear. They can be the life of the party, and then you may not see them for months. They often jump full force into things, and then abandon them before completion, and then they must abandon their abandoning, and so on.

Yáng Wood is spontaneity, creativity, and innovation. Tiger Qì may not be reliable, but it can change things, break the mold, think outside the box. Tiger Qì rebels against everything no matter what; it hates to be confined, and it hates expectations and answers to no one. This rebellion is impossible to control and can only be handled with self-discipline. Tiger Qì must see outside itself and choose self-discipline. The Tiger finds its Qì power when fear becomes transparent, and their power turns to natural discipline and then fearless leadership.

With training, Tigers make tremendous warriors, soldiers, fighters, shaman; they are heroic and noble defenders. Without training, the impulsive force of the Tiger can be disastrous. Violence is the available in the Tiger (also in Dragon, Horse, Pig, Rabbit, and others), for some of the Characters must be willing to fight, and all people born in the year of the Tiger need to recognize this part of themselves and accept it to be whole.

The influence of Tiger Qì is powerful; Tigers have a magnetic, hypnotizing quality, and they are often charismatic, dynamic, and innovative leaders and great orators. Their inconsistency and unreliability, however, dictates that they should not be in charge. Tigers are meant to inspire, dazzle, and then disappear. They are exemplars of power, action, and creativity.

Out of all the animals, Tigers, Goats, and Monkeys are considered the most creative and artistic (of course everyone can be artistic). Yáng Wood as imagination creates an immense appetite for knowledge, information, and expression, so Tigers are always seeking creative outlets. Tiger Art is very “Jackson Pollock,” very modern. The impulse to splatter paint on a wall and call it art to break convention is a Tiger impulse. And of course, once this becomes convention, the Tiger would happily return to the classics to break that convention.

Because of their stripes and impulsiveness, Tigers are seen to have a great capacity for self-destruction. The alternating quality of their stripes and their forceful internal impulse can cause inner conflict and turmoil, and they can be their own worst enemies. It is hard for Tigers, with their unpredictable, impulsive creativity and strangeness, to find a place in the world, to accomplish anything and remain consistent, which goes against the grain of ordinary culture that expects them to get a job and be the same person all the time. Tigers rebel, and without the proper environment and support they self-destruct.

Tigers need unconditional acceptance, love, and tolerance. Therefore, Pigs are a great support, for they are the most tolerant. Others need to know that Tigers will always “let you down” if you expect consistency from them. It may sound harsh, but the only way Tigers can be in relationship is if others manage to not need them. They will do their best, but they will most likely show you their stripes, and as the saying goes, a Tiger can’t change their stripes.

Because of the Tiger’s dual nature and tendency towards inner conflict and self-destruction, they tend toward great spiritual awakening. Many Tigers become mystics hell bent on the spiritual path, seeking the reconciliation and union of their opposites. Many Tigers become famous spiritual teachers, many of which have been an inspiration to me. My personal favorites—Alan Watts, Thomas Merton, Walt Whitman, Namkai Norbu, and my teacher Dharmabodhi to name a few.

So now we get to the Key Words. The first are courageous, daring, brave. Tiger Qì, again, represents fearlessness, a kind of Samurai mentality, hurling into danger, charging into the unknown, seeking adventure. This courage comes from a deep flirting with death in the core of their being, for Yáng Wood emerges from death (Yīn Water). This courage lends to being strong-willed, seeking to conquer the fear of death, and despite our impulsiveness, Tigers have famously terrifying will power, usually to accomplish or study strange and unusual things.

Tiger Qì is energetic, passionate, and enthusiastic. The force of Yáng Wood is both physically and mentally expressed in the Tiger. Physically active, even hyperactive, Tigers can be balls of energy, freely expressing themselves in all kinds of uncontrollable ways, which is why they need self-discipline early in life. Discipline forced upon them will most likely be rebelled against.

Mentally and energetically, this unstoppable energy bubbles forth as enthusiasm and dedication.   Tigers usually get really, really into things and champion what they love. Once they love something, or someone, they become incredibly dedicated. However, this dedication rarely leads to mastery.

Tiger Qì is competitive. Tigers are always looking for opportunities to demonstrate their strength, mostly to themselves. The Tiger’s motivation often derives from inner conflict, however, from their dual nature, as a need to prove something to themselves. So often, they compete with themselves and test this competition through others.

Tigers are honest due to their naivety. Yáng Wood does not have maturity or discretion, so Tigers tend to wear their hearts on their sleeves. They usually don’t make very good actors, due to an inability to be anything other than what they are (or, like Tom Cruise or Bill Murray, play the same character in every movie). Because of this they can be incredibly vulnerable. As Cubs/kids, Tigers are very vulnerable, and if traumatized they can get stuck in arrested development.

Tigers are often very dignified in their expression. Imagine a big noble jungle cat. Or just look at any house cat that spends all day cleaning itself. This dignity lends to what Ming called the “Awesome Deportment,” and Tigers often find great value in cultivating and expressing a powerful or impressive image. Places, things, skills all must have power, meaning, and significance to add to the Tiger expression, otherwise they’re not interested. Tigers can treat people this way too; they love everybody, but to get them really interested, they must be mesmerized and impressed.

Finally, Tigers are considered lucky and generous. Luck is a very Chinese idea, and some Characters are considered to have it more than others. Luck is defined by being in the right place at the right time, which is usually a matter of Fate. At their best, Tigers are gregarious pleasure seekers who love sharing their luck with others.

So now we get to the flipside of all this—of course, this is about self-reflection, so we must admit to the depleted qualities of Tiger Qì.

As I have already mentioned, their impulsiveness can turn to a profound restless/rebellion. All Yáng Characters are prone to be restless, but Tiger restlessness is scary and goes hand in hand with feeling confined, stuck, in need of exploding out of your situation. If Tigers do not have problems/obstacle, they often create them to have something to rebel against, something to break out of, something to pounce on. Tigers are rebels without a cause, their own worst enemies. Tigers, especially Water/Fire Tigers, can be risk taking landmines of passion and emotion. Uncontrolled drama and half-baked scheming can make their lives calamitous. Something usually becomes a “savior,” whether it is a teacher/mentor, a partner, a child. Tigers need to be regulated, so family is good for them if they can settle down. At their worst, Tigers are indecisive, always second guessing, so having others take over, a strong partner for example, can be a blessing.

Often, Tigers are so busy generating problems that they are inconsiderate of others. At their best, Tigers are incredibly generous, and part of their path is to learn to give, let go, and see outside their own problems to a bigger picture. Tiger inconsiderateness can come from being self-involved, morose, negative, and moody. Tiger Qì can become very dark, but it always comes back to the light.

Tiger restlessness can lead to a unique kind of stubborn egotism, thinking and being utterly convinced they are right (Ox, Horse, Dog, and Goat do this famously as well). Tigers are unchallenged in the wild; they have no natural predators. Tigers get flustered, confused, and bewildered when challenged, for in the end, Tigers are sure they’re right, and they’re going to do what they want. It is difficult to convince Tigers otherwise unless they can adopt things as their own idea. Because of their strength, Tigers usually want to dominate situations, be in charge, which can come across as aggressive, egotistical, and overbearing.

Finally, the Tiger’s dignity and deportment can lead to tremendous vanity and pride. Tigers can be very concerned about their appearance and the opinions of others, although they’ll never admit it. Tigers are very sensitive to criticism and rejection and can be wounded deeply by others if they do not possess a strong sense of self-love/self-possession.

The Water Tiger is also called the Roaming Tiger, for they are the “most” of all these qualities. Fire Tigers are close second but burn out more quickly in their expression and lack the Water Tiger scale of influence. The Water Tiger is the most dramatic, moody, morose, and cathartic of all Tigers. They are perhaps the least able to control their impulses. But they also possess the greatest potential for wisdom through transcending their fear of Death, which propels them in life to “Roam” far and wide in search of victory over their deepest fears and insecurities.

器 – Synthesis, Application, and “Predictions”

Okay, so, what’s going to happen this year!? I have no idea! No one does! With everything I have written so far, the potential here may sound a bit scary. I will admit, I’m a tad worried (but generally optimistic). However, we should not jump to conclusions or project fearful fantasies. There’s enough of that going around, and I do not wish to add more of this nonsense.

As always, the goal of this blog is to present the symbols and enough about the different dynamics at play for you to make your own interpretations and apply them to your own life. What follows is my playful interpretation based on everything I have written so far.

In general, Tiger Years are explosive, bold—a time of extremes when life is experienced on a grand scale with drama and excitement. The classics say — expect political rebellion and military coups, lol.

If there is one major theme this year it is (eek!) DRAMA, and it is UNPREDICTABLE, big forward moving change, upheaval even, and it could come quicker than we expect. The Qì is like a sudden urge to move after sitting for a long period of time, like cabin fever, like a welling up inside so strong that you can’t sit still; it causes you to roam (hence the name Roaming Tiger). I think it is fair to say we have personal and collective cabin fever, and the likelihood of people rebelling against stagnation this year is so strong that some upheaval is likely.

Rat and Ox Year were, again, a preparation – the Rat is an accountant that analyzes and evaluates the past, and the Ox takes that information and works to build a foundation for the future. The Tiger now propels us forward – it leaps off that foundation (whether sand or stone) into the future, boldly going where no one has gone before. The Tiger leaps, often without looking, for it is on the hunt, and it is hungry.

With the inception of Spring this year, initiated by a Water Tiger Moon, and with the overwhelming strength of the Wind element and its power of distribution, the Water Tiger could arrive like a tsunami. The question is – are we ready? Have we built a stable foundation?

Remember, the Tiger is striped, so in all the following considerations, the possibility is “maybe.” Things are very either/or this year, and decisions/actions could take us in wildly different directions, personally and collectively. If things are going well...wait! If things are going poorly...just wait! Don't get attached to outcomes because they are all likely to change dramatically.

This is the year to lurch, to make sudden/dramatic change. Anything big you’ve been planning for, waiting for, hoping for, afraid to do, hesitant to act on, unsure if you should reach out – this year is the time to do it, and you may even be compelled for better or worse. When in the Year to act is, of course, on a case-by-case basis, but new beginnings, initiations, fresh starts, big moves, bold risks, wild adventures, passionate romances, and so on, are all supported by the Water Tiger. If you have taken such action in previous years, it is likely that the results were mixed. Now they will still be mixed, lol, but the impulse/force behind them could be much stronger and somewhat unavoidable. Is this good? Maybe.

This Year, we are on the hunt, possessed by our ghosts, our unfulfilled desires, our frustrated plans, our deepest longings/yearnings, our primal hungers, and we are compelled to act on them. Results could be disastrous, or they could be wonderful, and both could happen simultaneously, such is the Tiger way. Fortune favors the bold, as they say. Our bravery is enhanced and our capacity to wait, to hold back, to stop, to not make leaps of faith is hindered. If Metal is restraint, Water is release, and there has been a lot building up behind the dam. Metal and Earth Tigers are good at restraint, crouching in the tall grass, waiting, but Water Tiger is the maw of the death drive, eyes rolled back, sinking its teeth in.

It is very easy for Water Tiger to leap over its own experience in a leap of faith. So, self-awareness before rash decisions or compulsive action is advised. However, this is the kind of year where you are likely to say, “fuck it,” and just go ahead anyways. Then, when you’ve made a mess, you’ll have to deal with the consequences. Water is, again, the element of drama. And there could be a lot of drama and consequences this year.

I mentioned last Year that these two years were ruthless in their “Waking Down” quality. Metal Ox offered a sober, harsh, and potentially bleak look at hard truths because the force of the coming Water Tiger may possess us so strongly, that without strong basic sanity, we will likely be forced to learn things the hard way after we make a mess of things.

Our capacity for creativity, invention, re-invention, innovation, and thinking outside the box is greatly enhanced, and Water adds a depth of wisdom, maturity, and sensitivity to these endeavors. Our ability to take risks could lead to bold innovation on all fronts. Again, they say fortune favors the brave, and Tigers are brave. So, use your imagination; we could make radical new decisions and introduce new ways of thinking, for better or worse. The question is whether community has been established so that our innovations become inclusive, because if it hasn’t, then our actions are likely to be selfish/delusional.

1962 Revisited...The last Water Tiger Year (1962) was packed with Drama; we saw the first man in space (launching a rocket into space is very Tiger), extensive worldwide nuclear testing (178 detonated! the most of any year), massive floods like the North Sea Flood or the great flood of Hamburg, major Civil Rights riots with landmark reform, the Cuban Missile Crisis (which brought us to the brink of nuclear war), which was stopped by President Kennedy, who was then out to create world peace, making bold, radical decisions (in Tiger fashion) to end the Vietnam War, splinter the CIA, and fracture the military-industrial complex. Then next year, in very sneaky Water Rabbit (1963) fashion, he was murdered for this (his assassination was probably the most Water Rabbit thing to ever happen), and the Vietnam War then started for real, and the military industrial complex took hold of the USA for good.

So, new policy, new law, the rise of new (or old) charismatic political leaders, explosive foreign policy…if there was a year to go to war, this is it.  This is a kind of wild card year. The last wild card year was 2016 in the form of the Fire Monkey, and we all know what that got us. Tiger/Monkey are very similar in that they offer radical change but in different ways. The Monkey is a kind of trickster that gave us a trickster politician who forever changed the face of politics.

Since the USA is a Fire Monkey, 2016 was kind of emblematic of our culture. As America’s opposite, Water Tiger Year offers the possibility of something revolutionary and completely antithetical to the American norm, like JFK out to create world peace in 1962, but anti-American revolutionaries can be a mixed bag as people like JFK, MLK, and Malcom X unfortunately found out.

Many Americans foam at the mouth at the prospect of participating in a revolution and can be easily persuaded with the rhetoric of patriotism. Everyone wants to be a hero on the right side of a battle between good and evil like in all our movies, and there are a lot of hell realm fantasies out there blaming big faceless evils for our problems. Ox Year had the aura of being called to war and Tiger Year is like the charge into battle, and we could see more people storming, charging, and rallying the troops to fight in various crusades. Expect protests; expect fighting.

Again, (talk about Drama) the last Water Tiger Year brought the world to the brink of nuclear war with the Cuban Missile Crisis. The possibility of tension between world powers and increasing standoffs between the USA, Russia, and China could be in the works, as we are already seeing in Ukraine. We could see all out conflict, the toppling of regimes, and major upsets in voting and voting rights, which are seriously under threat (such as in the 2022 mid-term elections). Internal tensions in the USA could be at their highest, and if there was year to initiate civil war or for states succeeding, this is it.

In terms of culture, I would expect across the board breaking away from convention, “influencers” pushing new trends/products, challenging you to redefine yourself with new looks and skills and goals and so on. Most of what is marketed in this regard is absolute nonsense, and you should probably ignore it. But the feeling of freshness, newness, and moving forward with appeals to emotion will be very compelling. With the added Water element, definitions, labels, categories, and the like, will be very fluid and malleable.

Like the first human in space, this is the kind of Year where sci-fi/fantasy becomes reality (let’s go James Webb Space Telescope!). Romantic escapism, “subverted expectations,” and people who say they “think for themselves” or “do their own research” (lol) will be empowered and push worldviews that either make them feel heroic and defiant or that push huge universal messages of love or apocalyptic messages of doom. Products, advertising, and media may try creative new spins with big, sappy emotional appeals with the same kind of universality or fear mongering.

Hopefully, we will see more creativity in movies and televisions rather than the creatively bankrupt re-hashing of old franchises, endless re-boots, re-makes, and so on. As a culture, we will want/demand new stories, new ideas, and new heroes, hopefully with well written, meaningful, and powerful characters. Nostalgia is out this year and will not have the same effect – we must let the past be and try to come up with something new to inspire us.

The kind of art we are capable of this year is transcendent, of a depth and power normally hidden, so I highly encourage individual artistic endeavors. While the last year was flat and inspiration may have been hard earned, there is a well of imagination available to those capable of tapping it. Meditation and contemplation can make profound use of the imaginal and bring to life radical visions. But please add a dimension of play and ease, for the feline disposition is one to chase string between naps in sunbeams. Let poetry, music, visual art, dance, and so on, express the ease and delight of a cat in the present moment with the past/future providing nothing other than a canvass.

In terms of economics, I would expect radical fluctuation, potentially even collapse. This is the kind of year where people bet everything and either win big or lose big. The tendency to put everything on the line is encouraged, and all kinds of wacky investments, testing the market for new giz-widgets like virtual reality or ideas even weirder and stupider than NFTs, things that defy convention like cryptocurrencies, all get a push in Tiger Year. And the emotional investment behind them is personal and operatic.

In terms of politics, we have the possibility of real forward-thinking change, as we have the possibility of making new decisions that benefit future generations. However, we also have the probability of waffling back and forth, crippled by indecision, only to make last minute compulsive decisions with disastrous consequences. The fear of death and the madness that overtakes people at the prospect of annihilation is looming this year, and we could be frozen in terror; we could run around like chickens with their heads cut off, or (hopefully) we could be brave like Samurai and able to make clear decisions in battle. Again, we must ask – have we created a foundation for change? If so, then we can implement it, if not, attempts will likely be met with frustration, competition, and fighting.

If there is a theme to the power of Wind this year it is (re-)distribution. Wind picks up seeds and spreads them to germinate. Everything has the power to spread far and wide this year, and it is my great hope we realize that our power to create an equitable society is in the redistribution of the abundance we already have. If this year is to be antithetical to American culture, then undermining the selfish, everyone out for themselves competitive threat of capitalism is an imperative, one that will be met with a lot of resistance because Tigers are also very competitive. So, the tension between cooperation and competition is a major theme, and the outcome is largely influenced by our compassion and inclusion.

Generosity, however, is an important Tiger virtue, and Water represents an overflowing of the cup. Metal Ox generosity is like a soup kitchen, a little bit of the same meal for everyone. Water Tiger generosity is about the grand gesture, and the re-distribution of land, wealth, profits, food, healthcare, and shelter is important and could come in the form of big donations or the founding of philanthropic organizations. Ultimately, Tiger Year is about breaking away from rigid ways of thinking, and just as important is the distribution of things like respect, voice, belief, safety, and status, for it is our ideas that govern our culture, and systemic problems are not solved with stuff. We must change out thinking, and this year we can.

Okay, word of warning…I want to talk a little about the *unspecified virus of unknown origin*. If the pandemic of the Metal Rat/Ox Year revealed anything, it was how we live and behave under stress and with the possibility of never going back to “normal.” It asked the question – do we have patience? What is your lowest common denominator when shit hits the fan? For this reveals your true spiritual maturity. Patience was a huge virtue in the past year. Patience is very difficult in a Water Tiger Year, so my suspicion is that things could get wildly out of control and force a messy resolution.

First, with the power of the Wind element to spread things far and wide, as we are already seeing with Omicron, we could see the rest of the Greek alphabet with more highly transmissible variants with infection rates skyrocketing. Most virologists tend to agree that the virus will follow a similar evolutionary trajectory to the four endemic coronaviruses that cause the “common cold.” Although virologists seem to be uncertain as to the timeline of this process, models suggest that the quicker people get exposed, the quicker we get to that mild state. My uneducated suspicion is that a lot of this process could happen this year. I also suspect that we are going to see growing rebellion against rules and mandates, but I think it will be mut, because the influence of the virus will be pervasive/unescapable but get milder to survive. Okay…that’s all I have to say.

In terms of physicality, this is a very energetic, embodied, active year. So, get moving! Tigers must use their body, and for them, work is play! Tigers also alternate between extreme rest and activity, so both are important. Tigers are very good at alternating between action and inaction, so learn to go with the pivot. When the urge for action comes, act, and the same with rest. Tigers don’t do all that well with structure unless they choose it, so choose it. When Tigers get dedicated, they are unstoppable.

In terms of mental health, there is a huge potential for moodiness. Water Tiger is a bit gloomy and dramatic, and the potential for Qì stagnation/frustration and operatic emotions are very high. Remember, the Tiger is striped, so both anxiety and depression are in the works, so it is kind of manic/depressive year. Fear and frustration, desire and isolation, hope and despair…emotion comes in opposite pairs and the flip flopping back and forth may create tensions and indecision.

The desire to be social could alternate – both companionship and alone time are needed. Friends may come and go. People may be in your life only to disappear for months. You may feel a heightened desire to seek solitude followed by fomo. Explosive emotions could split friendships or causes rifts at work. Opportunities and options may be ruined my moodiness. Family relations could be shaky. But, fun and adventure with deep meaningful connection and shared passions/interests are elevated. Follow and champion your passion and others will participate!

In terms of romantic relationships, this year supports wild, passionate, romance, and/or unconventional relationship, casual sex, poly-whatever, ethical non-monogamy, and it undermines more traditional relationship norms. In the wild, Tigers mate and part ways, and often the female tries to kill the male after, lol, so there may be high divorce rates/breakups. Infatuation, love at first sight, meeting the “one,” charging into partnership only to have the honeymoon bubble burst is likely to ensue. This is a year for the old “spice up your relationship” trope, so take trips, go on adventures, up the excitement in the bedroom, and so on. Committed partnerships could be strained by boredom, familiarity, and comfort.

Spiritually speaking, this year is potent for sleep, dream, death practice, and dispossession. Tigers are a symbol of the meditation and Yoga of the Mahāsiddhas. This means a serious and very personal approach to spiritual matters is auspicious and fruitful this year. “Responsible Citizen” doesn’t work at all in the Water Tiger year, as you will be driven to crawl into a cave. Forget sorting out the Sangha’s business and head for the hills. It is a year in which you may rely on the spirituality inherent in your own heart – no doctrine, just a direct and extreme approach works.

While, the past year emphasized impermanence and aging, the Water element this (and next) year represents death and dying. The Water Tiger drive for awakening is in response to death. How does your ego react when confronted with annihilation?

Last year, I suggested The Four Thoughts that Turn the Mind (impermanence, suffering, karma, and precious human birth) as a great Ox Year contemplation. This year, I suggest dispossession/exorcism through an exploration of the Six Realms – the six major categories of possession (hell, ghost, animal, human, titan, and god). I also highly encourage the cutting clarity of Buddhist Logic and Emptiness teachings as they are a primary antidote to conceptual confusion, which plagues our social media driven society.

There is a lot of confusion about being a “free/independent/individual” thinker, so let me save you the trouble – no one is, lol. All thinking is conditioned, and there are no isolated/independent individuals. All your thoughts are constructed with language and ideas that are communal. We do not need independent thinking, we need inter-dependent thinking - self-aware, clear, logical, and equanimous thinking, thinking conditioned toward the Dharma rather than toward solidifying an abiding self. To do this, we must be dispossessed.

As I already mentioned, the character for Tiger is used as an amulet to ward off possession. So, what possesses you? Look at your own mind. Look at your dreams. Look at your narratives and beliefs; how do you create and justify the stories in your mind? Where did it all come from? Look to the stream of birth and death you come from. In Chinese Astrology, your Fate is the result of your Ancestors. Are your they (you) angry victims howling for sovereignty, autonomy, and recognition? Are they paranoid and fearful of persecution? Are they full of despair, doom, and nihilism? Are they fearful of others, diversity, and difference, attached to the safety of certainty, unable to hear anything but what they already know? Are they full of greed and competition, ableist, convinced of survival of the fittest and afraid of weakness/vulnerability and cooperation? Are they unable to deal with pain, hardship, or loss, unable to look at/acknowledge their own suffering or the suffering of others? How are you playing out these patterns in your thinking and behavior?

Spiritual awakening this year comes in the form of feeling and death. It presents as overwhelming chaos and catharsis. It is about realizing the interconnectedness of all beings/things, what is indivisible and inexpressible – profound universal inspiration. This Year presents the tumultuous path of acceptance and rejection, adaptation by overcoming the fear of illness and death, releasing generations of burden, liberating our ghosts, and feeding our demons.

Remember, everything is a dream. Tiger Hour, from 3-5am, represents our most wild and creative state of dreaming. During this stage of the night, our true symbolic potential is unleashed. Our unconscious and subconscious mind flow together like rivers bringing forth wildness, merging ideas and feelings into symbols that morph language and image, place and time, color and texture…if you record these dreams, you are likely to find them full of strangeness too brilliant to put into logical wake world order. And this rules the year.

Dream practice of all sorts is heightened over the next two Water Years, and Tiger Year brings forth our fearlessness, for you cannot be harmed in a dream. In Tiger dream, you are limitless and your mind unrestricted, free for you to work out all the scattered pieces of your reality with abstract strangeness, only to wake and forget it. For reality is truly strange. When we lock our minds into flat, grey boxes with lifeless limited views of our humanity, beaten into us by consensus reality, we take for granted how absolutely bizarre we psychotic apes truly are, honking articulate nonsense noise at each other, making ourselves mad with incoherent strings of scribbles scratched into paper, staring at swirls of light coming out of electric rectangles, in a frenzy to amass a pile of numbers, rub our genitals together, all while eating life and shitting death in a violent beautiful multiverse of madness.

Finally, please remember that you’re going to die, and that death can come at any moment. Ask yourself – if I were to die right now, what would I regret? You possess nothing, and the only thing you take with you in death is a final moment of mind. There is no reincarnation, only rebirth – no “you” survives death. What is reborn? Your bad habits. You cannot truly grow up until you contemplate and accept death. Until you do this, you will continue to hurt people trying to establish and protect a self that doesn’t exist. If everyone in our culture did their death work, the world and the current situation would look a lot different.

So, that’s my take. What do you think is going to happen on this dirtball inhabited by psychotic apes? Will it be destructive madness, or will we boldly go where no one has gone before, launching into a creative vision for the future? Don’t know!

With all the possibilities this year, we will need a lot of forgiveness towards ourselves and each other. So, give people a lot of territory to roam. Give your heart a lot of territory to roam. Choose kindness, and when forming opinions, opt for collective wellbeing, err on the side most compassionate. And remember, never forget how swiftly this life will be over, like a flash of summer lightning! Live brave, live bold, and take plenty of naps!

12 Animal Forecast

Outer Elements:

Water Signs (+++): your outer element matches the year; you flow and adapt more easily

Wood Signs (++) child of water: generative/supportive relationship; you are empowered and bolstered

Metal Signs (–/+) mother of water: you support and uphold the dynamic, but this could be draining

Fire Signs (–/+) water controls/extinguishes fire: you may feel stifled, but this could be good b/c you should probably calm down anyway, lol

Earth (+/–) earth controls/contains water: contrasting energetically, but you are in control and able to stay grounded/equanimous

Rat: 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996, 2008 – Auspicious/Neutral – Potentially a good Year if Rat can avoid negativity and doomsaying. Rats expect the worse, and the worse could happen. Generally, Rat and Tiger are a supportive pair, for the Rat’s attention to detail and frugal practicality help to ground the Tiger’s brashness, and Tiger’s boldness empowers the Rat’s timidity. All Rats share the element of Yáng Water, so they share a fundamental wavelength with the year. Rats are at home in chaos and assume the ship is sinking. So, in a Year like this, Rat Qì is needed to help manage resources, account for the details everyone is leaping over, and encourage people to work together to right the boat. Tiger enjoys Rat’s wry and observant humor, and this Year it goes a long way for levity. If Rat goes too far into the ship is sinking, panic mentality, or gives into fear, then they can go off the rails and start hoarding for the apocalypse. Avoid isolation; do your best to create/be with community. Express your precision with art and lean into the fruitful contemplation of death. Structure and planning help a lot to smooth out the unevenness of the Year.

Ox: 1949, 1961, 1973,1985, 1997, 2009 – Neutral – Could be a tough year but Ox probably won’t notice because it is their nature to just keep plowing forward. Tiger’s work mentality/ethic can rival Ox if they are dedicated, so big projects demanding lots of work could call Ox to contribute. Watch out for gloominess as to not sink too far into depression. Your routine will keep things normalized but watch out for resentment of the rut. As Tiger represents a rebellion against the Ox, Ox could be offput by the ensuing chaos or disruption of the norm. Everyone will look like an idiot, you know, more than usual, so keep the judgment to a minimum and offer constructive feedback. You can accomplish a lot this Year as you can use the Tiger’s strength but without getting caught up in the drama/competition. Lot’s of people will look to your solidity and attempt to jump on your back, so be prepared for a heavy load.
Tiger: 1938, 1950, 1962, 1974, 1986, 1998, 2010 – Very Auspicious/Very Inauspicious – The auspice of this Year for Tigers all depends on how you have made peace with your stripes. Tigers have a dual nature, an inner conflict between action and stillness. This Year will embolden all your best and worst tendencies with an added dimension of emotionality. So, all the things that people criticize your for will likely come at you hard. This is a big Year for self-reflection and growth and possible a watershed year in the overall path of your life. This year has all the lurching, impulsive energy you yearn to unleash but are always holding back due to indecision or because society tells you you’re too much. The problem is going overboard with excitement/enthusiasm. You may very well make big decisions/changes that land you in hot water. Things could either go very well or very poorly. So, restraint is recommended for Tigers above all, but also don’t be afraid to go for it – it’s your Year. Lean into your light stripe and bring out all the Tiger virtues. You may be called upon for bravery, and now is your time to shine.

Rabbit: 1951, 1963, 1975, 1987, 1999, 2011 – Neutral/Inauspicious – Rabbit is the natural outcome of Tiger Qì, but the force of Tiger is a bit much for Rabbit, who could misinterpret the Tiger as a predator out to get them. Danger and drama rule the day, and Rabbits will do their best to hide and play it safe. Rabbit falls between Tiger and Dragon and contain the heart of both. However, without safety, the Rabbit hides their power. So, this is a year of strategy. Prepare for unevenness and unpredictability by securing the nest. Get your home, finances, job, relationships, and so on in order and learn how to use Yīn power – wield it from behind the scenes, delegate, distribute, and give orders. Rabbits make excellent bosses because they are bossy, and Tigers need orders to follow, otherwise they make a mess. Just wait, for next year is your time to shine.

Dragon: 1952, 1964, 1976, 1988, 2000, 2012 – Auspicious/Inauspicious – Similar to the Tiger, this Year could either go either way for Dragons, depending on their capacity for self-reflection, humility, and generosity. Tiger and Dragon are very similar, and they are competitive with each other, hence the classic depiction of them fighting over the ring of power. Tigers are considered terrestrial Dragons; the only difference is that Tiger’s dark stripe gives them a kind of restraint that Dragon lacks. But it also means that Tigers make mistakes and Dragons do not...couldn’t be bothered. Dragons, therefore, feed off the strength and force of the Year and this empowers their bigness and bravado. Dragons will feel the call for adventure and excitement, and without reflection, their impulsivity could go off the charts with operatic drama and destruction. This is the kind of Year Dragons could ruin relationships, jobs, or finances, unaware of the consequences of their actions. Dragons are notoriously aloof and self-centered but also capable of magnanimous social influence. Like the Tiger, if they have self-awareness and think carefully about others before acting, then this is also the kind of year where they could have landmark success on all fronts. Think, wait, plan, then act – learn to feed off the energy of the year without letting it drive you.

Snake: 1953, 1965, 1977, 1989, 2001, 2013 – Neutral – The dark stripe of the Tiger is very similar to the Snake disposition. Snakes feel at home in a Year as gloomy as this and have no problem lying still while all the drama just washes over them. Snakes are capable of great precision, “striking force,” with their keen intellectual observation. Tiger’s striking force is like a freight train, while the snake is like a scalpel. Carefully timed, well calculated actions and decisions go very well this Year. The potential for spiritual insight and transcendental experiences is off the charts. Snakes can slip into trance, vision, or penetrating insight without precedent. The danger this year is depression and nihilism. The closeness of death and the potential for darkness can lead to crippling inaction, laziness, or despair. Snakes do well to have some goals and go with the alternating quality of the Year – rest when at rest and go all in when in action. Solitude can be wonderful in a year like this, so don’t feel guilty for shutting the doors – learn to contribute from behind the scenes.

Horse: 1930, 1942, 1954, 1966, 1978, 1990, 2002 – Very Auspicious – You are the royalty of the year.  As part of a Trine of compatibility with Tiger and Dog, Horses are the most able to benefit from the Year. It’s time to gallop and run off into the sunset. Horses get the wind in their sails, for this is the most energetic and productive Year in a long time. Horses love to be independent and self-reliant and should find that all their aspirations, goals, projects, and creations go well this year. Others will look to you for your strength and skill and run after you. Horses would do well to just get busy and ignore bumps in the road. There is a danger of jumping over your own experience, but you’re going to do that anyways, lol. Sometimes, you must run wild, so go for it. Plan/do something big.

Goat: 1931, 1943, 1955, 1967, 1979, 1991, 2003 – Neutral/Auspicious – the last year and this one could be a bit frustrating for Goats (don’t worry, next year is much better). Coming out of your opposite year, a year with such an uncompromising bottom line, you may feel a bit flustered/frustrated at the world, as it seems to lack your elegant and refined ideals. Goats want to change the world, but they want everyone at the table for negotiations. Tiger wants to change the world too but is willing to smash things, kill/eat sacred cows, tear down walls. Goat can get behind destruction if it aligns with their ideals, so this is a year to speak up, plan some coordinated mayhem, get active, get your voice out there and bring people together. Goats (not Ox) are the true herd animal and have the best, most egalitarian, fair, balanced sense of what is best for the collective. If chaos ensues this year, we will need you to be a voice of reason and inclusivity to broker treaties and forge alliances. This is a great year to practice what you preach and empower and uplift others. You are a bridge. However, if things don’t go your way, if the revolution is a bad one, then Goats could get cantankerous.

Monkey: 1932, 1944, 1956, 1968, 1980, 1992, 2004 – Inauspicious – Monkey and Tiger are opposites, so this could be a rough year for Monkeys. I maintain the view that the mirror relationship is spiritually beneficial but potentially uncomfortable, and in my experience, Monkeys have the hardest time looking in the mirror (sorry Monkey friends, I love you all). Monkeys may feel attacked by the energy of the Year, like it is hunting them, out to get them, creating heightened anxiety, paranoia, or feelings of persecution. Last Year was tough but good for maturing/growing up, and this Year will require a lot of self-reflection because the hard lessons could continue. Monkey and Tiger are very similar; they are risk takers and creative revolutionaries. While Tiger is charging headfirst into danger, Monkey is doing everything they can to escape danger. Monkey fears consequences and will do whatever they can to avoid the seriousness and heaviness that can follow in the wake of their antics; their instinct is to escape/run away, joke about it, re-direct the attention, but Tiger Qì can be unrelenting in its pursuit. Lots of hard work and risk-management will be required to stay afloat this year, and perhaps a little self-honesty. Look in the mirror. Take stock of your life and everything that’s happened in the past few years. Eat bitter and face up to any problems you’ve caused for yourself or others. This is a year to hide, rest, heal, and reflect, so stay put and don’t jump for any new branches/go looking for new fruit. Your playful, curious nature will serve you well this year because it will be hard to escape the seriousness, so go ahead and pull the Tiger’s tail and run back up the tree but do so with caution, lol.

Rooster: 1933, 1945, 1957, 1969, 1981, 1993, 2005 – Neutral/Auspicious – Like the Rat, Rooster precision and focus benefits the Tiger’s strength and power, and Tiger strength bolsters the Roosters competitive bravado, which is often just hot air. In Gōngfu, the Rooster represents the precise crane that balances the heavy paw of the Tiger. Roosters have the key to make use of the thoughtless impulsive energy of the Tiger year. To make use of this year will require all your skills and powers of observation and precision. Focus is key. Exact is key. When chances arise, and they will, strike hard when you have insider knowledge. Roosters may feel more competitive, argumentative, challenging, and critical, so relax, and don’t start too many fights. Your ability to dominate/rule the roost is heightened, so productivity and progress in your personal and professional life is available. Step into positions of leadership and help steer the ship.

Dog: 1934, 1946, 1958, 1970, 1982, 1994, 2006 – Auspicious – As part of a Trine of compatibility with Tiger and Horse, Dogs are very apt to do well this Year but with a few more conditions than Horses. We all know that loyalty is very important to the Dog, but Tiger’s loyalty is unreliable. If relationships and life structures are in order/solidified, then the productive, forward moving strength of the Year goes very well, and Dogs run happily alongside Tiger/Horse with tails wagging. If you are looking to make new alliances, form new bonds, find a new job, etc., then the year could be challenging due to the unpredictability. However, it is also possible that a true friend, partner, or leader to follow may show up, so be on the lookout and sniff appropriately. Like Tigers, Dogs can have a lone wolf/solitary nature and may only trust a select few. They may be pushed this Year toward solitude/individuality or display their weird, highly personal, artistic side – think Freddy Mercury, Prince, and David Bowie (all Dogs). So, find creative new projects and let your unique personality shine. You do a lot of work for others, and this year you could get some recognition.

Pig: 1935, 1947, 1959, 1971, 1983, 1995, 2007 – Auspicious – Pig and Tiger are a Confucian pair that greatly benefit one another. Pig resiliency and adaptability make the Tiger Year auspicious, and the strength of the Tiger brings out Pig’s more serious hard-working side. You will feel more focused and productive in your humanitarian efforts. This is a tremendous Year for accomplishment and completion. The key is to be less distracted and indulgent and more financially/personally responsible. As always, you will be greatly needed and called upon to help, and your tolerance and acceptance will be deeply appreciated by others. We need your empathy and compassion; we need you to remind us of our humanity. So, throw parties, brings snacks, and remind people that they can enjoy their lunch, even if the sky is falling.

I wish you the all the best in this New Year!

Thus, the Buddha launched the ship upon the sea of the sufferings of birth and death. Unfurling its sails of the three thousand realms on the mast of the one true teaching of the Middle Way, driven by the fair wind of “the true aspect of all phenomena.”

Every harmful action I have done
With my body, speech, and mind
Overwhelmed by attachment, anger and confusion,
All these I openly lay bare before you.
While circling through all states of existence,
May I become an endless treasure of good qualities--
Gathering limitless pristine wisdom and positive potential.
May all beings have happiness and the cause of happiness.
May they be free of suffering and the cause of suffering.

May all beings remain in boundless equanimity, free from attachment and aversion!

Sarva Mangalam!!!

Illustrations (in order):
1. "Tigers" by Lasha Mutual Fine Art
2. Tiger and Dragon - Bavarian State Library, Cod.tibet.896.
3. Tiger Robot, 2018, Chitra Ganesh
4. Wang Yi Guang (王沂光)
5. Grandmothers of the Tiger Clan by Nicholas Breeze Wood
6. Mahasiddha with snake, skull cup seated on a Bengal Tiger circa 1350 AD from Portrait of Jnanatapa surrounded by lamas and mahasiddhas
7. The Ocean's Roar by Jim Warren
8. Yin-Yang Tiger, Monkey, Liz Collado
9. Norman Catwell by Lucia Heffernan,
https://www.instagram.com/luciaheffernan/
10. Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson
11. https://imgur.com/gallery/ACudcIZ
12.https://traditionalartofnepal.com/shop/masterpieces/tiger-thanka-painting/

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Re-establishing the Foundation – Qì in the Year of the Yīn Metal Ox, Xīn Chŏu, 辛丑 – Year 2021/4719

2/11/2021

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道 – Dào/View

Astrology, 星命家, and Geomancy, 風水, are two premier subjects of the Chinese Traditional Mantic Arts. Their development in China over the last 2,500 years continues a tradition whose history is incalculable.
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The situation we find ourselves in is a cosmic soup in which all Time and Space are an Irresolvable Chaos, called Húntún, 餛飩.

When we look closely at our situation, we find no concrete time, place, or self, but the patterned appearance of these factors bewilders us for lifetimes. Reality appears to be ordered/patterned, but close analysis brings no certainty, and the illusion/assumption of knowledge becomes big trouble when things fall apart.

Analysis/scrutiny brings with it an irresolvable confusion that humans have debated about since time immemorial, called Religion/Science. The precision of modern Science/Scientism tells us that we are close to figuring it all out, but I’m not too sure. When we look closely, chaos appears to be the source of all things, and this is the Paradox that lies at the heart of our experience—Qì strands of Time (Yáng) and Space (Yīn) weave together to form an unreadable, constantly changing astro-geomantic pattern the Chinese call “Dào.”

What is the unknowable Dào doing? Constantly displaying itself as the dualistic, ephemeral, impermanent, and dream like phenomena that we call a self-world. What appears to be knowable and that which is unknowable are in fact not different, for the dual world is a continuous expression of the non-dual. The microcosm of our personal Fate mirrors the macrocosm of the nameless Dào. Through relaxed observation this becomes apparent.

The spiritual path of the Mantic Arts and the true purpose of this tradition comes through embracing this irresolvable paradox at the heart of all experience. Relaxing our need to know/understand becomes the direct path to wisdom. The dual world we are divining, through an Astrology Chart/Calendar, which appears to be comprehensible, reveals Pattern within Chaos and Pattern as Chaos. Astrology becomes a mirror that reflects our Original Nature which is beyond concepts (the very meaning of Chaos).

Our practice is to observe the matrix of patterns that make up our experience through the symbols of Astrology without meaning making or naming. Without the compulsion to predict, fix, or improve any particular part, our false notions of an abiding self and world unravel. Chaos is never vanquished; Samsara is never fixed/improved. It is revealed as Dào.

The Mantic Arts are a non-dual revelation of things as they are. Life is revealed as an ever-flowing phantasm of light that cannot be named/known, and we accept our “karma,” agreeing to be swept up in whatever has been “pre-ordained” by our Ancestors.

After last year, it would be helpful to have answers and generate a story of great meaning and purpose, a “reason” why everything happened, but perhaps there isn’t one; perhaps this is all Dào. This Year reveals how structure/order re-appears from chaos/groundlessness.

Xīn Chŏu 辛丑 – Year of the Yīn Metal Ox

Welcome back to Xīn Chŏu, 辛丑, Year of the Yīn Metal Ox, which begins officially on Friday, February 12, 2021! After the events of 2020/Metal Rat Year, the task of prediction in the coming year seems daunting to say the least. But of course, as Liu Ming always said, Astrology is not fortunetelling; we’re in the business of symbols here! And the symbols have been spot-on!

With 20/20 hindsight, the Year of the Yáng Metal Rat perfectly expressed the essence of its Chinese Astrological Symbolism, and before you read on, I suggest you re-read my blog from last year and reflect on your experience of the Metal Rat. I think you will find it most revealing.

In short, last Year was all about the bigness of small/hidden/unacknowledged things going to extremes. The Heavenly Stem combination called Tōng Tiān Fú, 同天符, generated the atmosphere of excessive Yáng Metal Qì in the form of the Rat, which together created a razor-sharp dismantling force of titanic proportions.

Unfortunately, the image of the Rat as a harbinger of disease came to pass, and the Metal Rat’s association with Confucian social harmony, justice, and order inversely played out on a global scale. Here in the USA, the pandemic, the protests, the election, and so on, all initiated massive social change so profound that the consequences will take decades to unfold let alone understand. I will emphasize that last year was a time to initiate change, but it was not a year to make change, and this is an important distinction.

Here, we can understand all these events as nothing other than the natural unfolding of the cycles of time. Many would like to propose the narrative that our global consciousness is evolving toward a higher vibration, but the spaciousness/openness of the Chinese View denies this with any certainty, for evolution is only temporary in cyclical time. With open space/emptiness at the center of everything, the auspice of all movement is unfixed and without reference points to give us certainty. We are left only with our perception, and we are driven by the mind and its concepts/conditioning.

So, how do we proceed after such a year? The same way we always do, lol. No matter the situation, the practice of Path Astrology remains the same – we study the symbols of the Calendar; we study our own Character and Karma/Fate, and we engage in natural flow of our experience as it unfolds from moment to moment, reflecting on this multifaceted interconnected web of relationships that have no weaver. When combined with a stable meditation practice and good spiritual hygiene, this engagement catalyzes a process of insight into Nature, Dào 道, and Self-Nature, Dé 德, that can free us from the misperceptions of an abiding self and world.

In such complex times, astrology becomes most valuable when we stop trying to predict and control what will happen and get back to the essence of symbols as a gateway into Nature. I thought it fitting last year to begin my exposition of the Metal Rat with a discussion on Confucian teachings and social harmony, and although the Metal Ox in many ways continues and strengthens those themes, the destructive/dismantling force of last year prompted me to open this Year’s discussion with a return to the fundamental View Teachings on embracing the chaos and paradox at the heart of all experience. Wisdom would suggest that we embrace chaos and uncertainty rather than spin a positive outlook to make ourselves feel better.

Predict as you would like, as I will offer my take, but I think the previous Year surprised all of us. The Ox symbol, though, appears surprisingly stable and boring by comparison. But the last thing I want to inspire is hope, lol. I would rather inspire wisdom. And wisdom has no preferences, for it knows that everything is 自然 “self-resolving.” Everything from here on out is a confident “maybe.”

As I mentioned last year, Metal Rat is the first of the 4th 12-Animal sequence, so it was a renewal, a jumping off point, a catalyst for change somewhere in the middle of the 60-year cycle. The Yáng Metal Rat was a new beginning, and although I said it would be a small one, it felt pretty damn big. The Rat is an accountant that moves forward by evaluating the past , and we got quite a report. The fruition of this change has not yet arrived, evidenced by the ongoing uncertainty, and in the sequence, it does not get a push forward until Water Tiger Year, which in a Fire Monkey Country (1776) is set to be explosive (60-60 diametric opposites).

However, the first step of the Rat is always very important. The Metal Rat was retrospective, an evaluation of the last 12-year cycle, and so is the Ox. The Rat looked backward, analyzed, and took things apart to be rebuilt more efficiently. We are now looking at the framework of our society lying in pieces on the ground. The nuts and bolts of American culture have been laid bare, and we are all left with the question – what now?

The Ox answers – to build anything enduring, we must first re-establish the foundation, and to do that, we must acknowledge our lack of control. We do not control Nature, but we can learn to work with it; such was the experiment of Chinese agricultural society, and such is our task now. If there is a positive outlook to take on the current situation, it is that we can re-build, re-shape, and re-establish our world. But will we? Maybe. No guarantees.

To fully understand the foundation available in the Metal Ox Year, we must look to its symbolism, Qì dynamics, manifestation, and applications.

象 – Symbolism

In many ways, the Ox is a symbol of China, for if China is anything, it is perseverant, and its traditions are enduring. Dynastic China was the longest continual civilization of the modern era. China and the Ox represent the virtue of the heroic preserver, the continuity, stability, and convention of Tradition. In the face of Chaos, it represents a return to the wisdom of the Ancestors, who survived countless generations.

In the scheme of the 10 Heavenly Stems, this continuity of tradition is represented by the Ox and its Native Element Yīn Earth. The Chinese character for Earth, 土, tŭ, contains two horizontal lines, representing a surface and a deep sense of stability. There is no Earth season in Chinese Astrology, but rather Earth represents the continuity or ground beneath the changing seasons. And while Earth suggests solidity, the Chinese Earth element is also like Space, the indestructible openness in which all things happen.

The symbol of the Ox is related to the Yīn (rather than Yáng) aspect of Earth and expresses the malleability or spacious quality of Nature represented by the strength of the plow animal, shaping the Earth beneath us. Medieval China was the old world’s greatest agricultural society, and the Ox was the main event which made this possible, breaking away from tens of thousands of years of nomadic culture.

In the process of become agrarian, the Chinese attempted to domesticate the Mongolian Horse, but after hundreds of years, the wild nature of the Horse could not be made to plow. After the unifying of tribes, the Ox Clans brought the Ox up from the swampy regions of southern China, and as soon as they attached reigns to it, they were amazed to find the Ox walked in straight lines, plowing even furrows with no goading.

Farmers could let go of the reigns, and the Ox would plow forward, turn around, and come back on its own, making more even/straight furrows. Because of the Ox, then, China’s agricultural productivity and population increased exponentially, and in a few centuries, China became the most successful and wealthy society on earth. The Ox was always then associated with the rewards of consistent hard work and the Confucian value of perseverance in what is right. It came to represent a new contract with Nature to shape the Earth and create a new human realm, free of the hardships and uncertainty of nomadic existence.

The Ox is a gentle giant, embodying a natural/Yīn strength achieved through gentleness rather than aggression. In Asia, it is not uncommon to see children running fearless side by side with these enormous animals. Oxen are strong, made of confidence, but they are not aggressive, and this is a valuable symbol for interpreting Ox Qì.

The Ox represents “the way things are done,” exemplified in farming, craft, religion, martial arts – systems of knowledge and custom passed on and preserved through the repetition of skill and experience. To preserve these systems, tradition must maintain an integrity that is unchanged, lest they be altered and lose their strength, becoming something altogether different. Animals like the Tiger, Monkey, and Goat represent innovation and revolution, but the Ox represents the integrity of conventions and customs that are unchanged by time.

In Classical Chinese Medicine, the Ox is associated with the Liver and likened to a General. It is associated with hard work ethics, physical/mental endurance, and with the strategizing and responsible decision making associated with the military. As such, it is a stern, disciplined, and rather serious symbol, representing the stable foundation that cultures need to maintain integrity.

However serious, like the animal, this strength is peaceful and gentle in nature, and in Chinese Spirituality/Religion, the Ox is often associated with Guān Yīn, the goddess of compassion and wisdom. Lăozi is depicted riding an Ox, representing the natural wisdom of Wúwéi. In Chán Buddhism, as depicted in the 10 Ox-Herding Pictures, the taming of the wild Ox is an ancient simile for the discipline of meditation practice that leads to humility and service. Likewise, in India, the Cow is revered and worshiped as a symbol of abundance, nourishment, non-violence/harm.

This Year represents a natural return to convention and stability; we fall back to whatever it is that supports our continuous presence here. To move forward, we must look back and remember…but remember what? For now, I pose this as an open-ended question, for many of the values and conventions of our culture are being challenged. So where is the thread? What stays valuable regardless of circumstances? What is proven effective? How can conventions change and still maintain their positive integrity?

氣 – Qì Dynamic

To understand Metal Ox Qì, we must look to the Tōng Shū or Chinese Calendar. The Ox rules the 12th Moon, the dead of Winter (roughly January) and the hour 1-3 am. Ox exemplifies the still, silent, calm, and slow power of Winter. In the cycle of the day, Ox represents the middle of the night, the time of deep sleep, rest, and rejuvenation. So, what is it like to have this Qì dominate the entire year? Rat Year was a kind of retrospective dream (11pm-1am), but Ox is dreamless sleep.

Everyone knows they should be asleep at 1-3 am. Qì wise, this is the time of day when we are most able to get deep sleep. Ox hour draws us deep into the dark silence of “don’t know,” where the unconscious automated functions of the body are most efficient. During Ox hour, you should be like a catfish, hidden in the murky depths of your unconscious.

The Native Element of the Ox is Yīn Earth, which is described as sedated, solid, nourishing, grounded, sleepy, calm, and stable. Ox is the wisdom of orthodoxy and establishment, of thoughtlessness, steadfastness, and automation. Yīn Earth represents alliances, wealth, leadership, mothering, and balance. It is the center, Yīn and Yáng unified, associated with borders and boundaries defined by the empty space at the hub.

The Native Element of the Ox is Yīn Earth, but the Heavenly Stem for this Year is Yīn Metal. Since Earth is the mother of Metal, the elemental balance of this Year is supportive and generative, which means the positive attributes of the Ox are more available, and we are less likely to struggle against them. They are empowered and strengthened for better or worse.

Since Earth generates Metal, the direction is of the inward moving outward while the outward moves inward (which is the opposite of last year). The Metal Ox is less outspoken, but more forward moving, and opinionated than the other Ox. It represents a hardening of the Ox Characteristics, like ore smelted to gold. Metal, then, adds refinement, discretion, and fastidiousness to the Ox image. The Metal Ox is therefore more withdrawn, confident, and self-reflective than other Oxen. The Metal Ox is both outspoken and opinionated but has great thoughtfulness, maturity, and restraint (Obama, for example is a Metal Ox), contrasted with an image like the Fire Ox, who struggles with being too brash, blunt, and belligerent (comedian George Carlin is a great example of a Fire Ox).

Yīn Metal is associated with the downwardness of falling leaves and the dryness/decay of Autumn, and its representative emotion is grief/sadness/loss. The burden of grief is heavy this year, and the great loss we have all endured will continue to bereave us all. We have lost lives, relationships, institutions, businesses, communities, personal freedoms, and so on; our culture has changed irrevocably. This is no small event. We are deeply encouraged to continue to contemplate the death and mortality initiated by the Metal Rat.

In the Wŭ Yùn Liù Qì, the Elemental configuration of this Year is called Tōng Suì Huì, 同歲會, or “Total Annual Agreement.” This means the Heavenly Stem of the Year aligns with the unfolding phases of Qì throughout the seasons, creating a stable alignment of Qì that is milder and more temperate than the Tōng Tiān Fú from last Year, which generated chaotic extremes.

Beneath the atmosphere of Yīn Metal, this is a Year of Tàiyīn Damp Earth, which governs the first half of the year, with deficient Taìyáng Cold Water governing the second half. Since Earth controls Water, the weakness of Water will create an overall increase in Cold/Dampness. The whole year has an atmosphere of heavy wet snow, and the dynamic is slow and sleepy with an element of drowning.

For all you Chinese Medical folk, this may lead to an increase in symptoms like diarrhea, stomach aches, low appetite, fullness of the abdomen/chest, chest pain, heaviness of the body, lower back and leg pain, stiffness in the knees and hips, cold in the lower body/feet, swelling and edema in the lower body, swelling in the jaw, and difficulty with urination. Kidney and Heart disease may increase along with sexual dysfunction, and any weakness in the Lower/Middle burner will be bogged down by damp earth and poor water circulation/metabolism.

The Qì dynamic of this year is overall very different from the last, and we should keep our eyes open to both the positive and negative potentials given the current situation.

形 – Manifestation/Character

Before, I delve into my specific “prediction,” I will first explore how the Metal Ox Character manifests in people—what about babies born in this or any Year of the Ox? This year, these characteristics are more available to everyone! Try to imagine what these qualities would be like applied to the whole world, what if we’re all a little more “oxy?”

In terms of the Five Elemental Ox, Wood “destroys” Earth, so the Wood Ox would be the least “Oxey” Ox, and my Wood Ox friends (1985) tend to identify the least with the following Ox characteristics. Fire Ox are like brooding teenagers and tend to manifest Ox qualities in the most explosive and forceful manner. The Earth Ox is the natural/most characteristic Ox, and the generative direction means that the Metal Ox is the most exaggerated of all Ox since Metal is the refinement/distilling of Earth.   Water Ox are the most mystical, strange, and hard to define of the bunch. Regardless, all Ox personalities manifest the following qualities in relation to the qualities of their respective birth hour.

The first quality of Ox Qì is calm, in the modern parlance “chill.” Ox is by nature easy going and relaxed. This easy-going nature comes from the symbol of the Ox’s size and strength—not much can kill an Ox. They are not intimidated or scared easily. Their strength is unquestionable and therefore unhurried, unrushed, and natural. Left alone in the wild, Oxen tend to just stand around eating grass, but when put to work they can do anything. Ox Qì, Yīn Earth, is grounded and steady. Qì wise, this comes out as a kind of natural dignity/confidence, at home in their self and skin.

The natural strength of the Ox demonstrates as a kind of self-assured confidence. Oxen tend to believe resolutely (and often unconsciously) that their way of seeing the world and their way of doings things is normal. “Doesn’t everyone do that?” or “this is the way we’ve always done it” are very Ox statements. In the Classical Tradition, this is again described as “conventional.” Even the strangest Oxen I have known do their strangeness in a conventional, consistent, and dependable way. Most of them think their strangeness is normal and are often perplexed when others do not share their views.

This confidence often demonstrates as being just and committed. The Ox is a symbol of the Confucian values of family, society, and nature, which are fundamentally rooted in equality and the fair distribution of resources. Oxen often possess a strong sense of justice, which makes them good leaders. Oxen are natural born leaders and are at their best when in charge and constantly challenged. Without challenge, work, or responsibility, they will create it to demonstrate their worth/value. Oxen need to work/be busy all the time or else they feel useless.

Oxen are the most likely to receive criticism for being “stuck in their ways,” for not growing/changing/improving/etc. The consistent and dependable nature of the Ox is natural and the least apt towards innovation, which is not to say they are not creative. It is detrimental to expect an Ox to change based on abstract notions of self-improvement. Their wisdom comes from their consistency, and it is harmful to force them to change.

The calm nature of the Ox often expresses as quiet and reserved, but this is not always the case. I have known plenty of extroverted Oxen. Ox Qì tends towards a kind of “sleepiness,” which can be literal. Oxen are often champion sleepers and can cure most illness with deep sleep. They often possess strong physical constitutions by nature and are long lived, rarely taken out by illness or injury.

Ox Qì is unflappable (my favorite word in the English language btw) and “thick skinned.” Of all the Characters, Ox are the least likely to be traumatized. Ox Qi has a tremendous capacity to undergo hardship and difficulties and come through unscathed, and they can shrug off the most painful of circumstances.

Despite the calm nature of Ox Qì, they are tenacious and uncompromising. Again, it is the nature of the Ox to work, to plow forward, to lead, and to take on responsibility. They need tasks, and they need to be constantly challenged, otherwise their strength is wasted and stagnates. Without something to do with their strength, their tenacity can be destructive to themselves, and without self-reflection/honesty, it can become harmful to others. They can become slavedrivers, dictators, tyrants, or an asshole boss who only cares about the bottom line.

They often have a strong work ethic and lead lives of great accomplishment. By nature, they are dependable, reliable, consistent, punctual, and so on, all characteristics of Yīn Earth—the manifestation of smooth, steady, even Qì. Although they are often materially successful, they usually lack attachment to material things because they are self-sufficient and do not need much.

As a work animal, the Ox is independent and yet carries others. Oxen are not usually loners, however. They do not rely on other people but rather others tend to rely on them; they are protectors and providers. They take it upon themselves to do things for other people and rarely ask anything in return. The independence, strength, and conventionality of the ox cause them to assume responsibility for everything. They can see it as their mission to carry others, and they often feel as if they carry the world on their shoulders.

Ox Qì is also loyal and supportive, sometimes to a fault. It is hard to get on the bad side of an Ox, and if you become a jerk they probably do not notice. Once they accept others, they usually do so for life and will protect others until the end. Sometimes, they can stay in difficult situations or abusive/dysfunction relationships for a long time out of misplaced feelings of duty or responsibility.

Oxen tend to be outdoorsy and at home in nature. The natural element of Yīn Earth lends to a deep connection with nature and a desire to connect to the wilderness and seek refuge in solitude. I have known many an Ox with a strong sense of adventure.

Ox is sincere, humble, and often sweet; they are sometimes naive. The image of the Ox is a gentle doe eyed cow. Generally, Oxen are honest and straightforward and not mysterious or confusing in their intentions. They mean what they say and are always honest and sincere in their beliefs and efforts.

Ox Qì can tend toward a kind of seriousness, and Oxen tend to grow up very fast. They often miss out on childhood and become children later in life, especially the Fire Ox. This seriousness can also turn sullen, depressed, and even humorless. Oxen are, perhaps, the most susceptible to “toxic seriousness” and their experience can become very heavy and downtrodden (Wood Ox being the least susceptible).

The heavy and dense quality of Yīn Earth can turn to a kind of insensitivity and thoughtlessness. Many of the Oxen I know have been accused of being oblivious, unaware, and clueless to the feelings of others. Oxen tend to “not notice” things, people, situations, and they can hurt or offend others by become aloof and dull.

The routine, conventional, and consistent qualities can easily get “stuck in a rut.” Oxen possess an immense capacity to do the same old thing, and they can become slaves to their own conventions—physically, mental, spiritually. Their confidence in their beliefs can be quite convinced and unwilling to change. Furthermore, they can be fearful of change and resist the messages of others for a long time.

Oxen can be ruthless if crossed. As I mentioned, it is hard to get on the bad side of an Ox, but when you do, they can become belligerent and hold grudges for a long time, fixated in their opinions about others and situations. They can have a difficult time letting things go, bringing up the past, repeating patterns of negativity, stuck in a loop. Once drawn into confrontation, Ox Qì can be a scary and formidable adversary (Hitler was a Fire Ox!).

Finally, they can be too strong for their own good. If they are not challenged, they can use their strength to deplete themselves without noticing and break down in old age. Or they can generate problems and challenges where there are none and become their own worst enemies.

Ox Qì has a tremendous capacity for resolving Fate. I am always impressed by Ox characters, and I have been blessed to know many in my life.

器 – Application and “Predictions”

Now for the fun part! What’s going to happen!? I’ll be honest – I am finding it difficult to step into this New Year with any sense of inspiration or hope. Last Year, I was very inspired and put a lot of idealism into my exposition of the Metal Rat. And while, my predictions felt accurate, I did not at all expect things to go the way they did.

A Year like the last forces us to confront the Impermanence and Emptiness of our situation. It forces us to come to terms with the fact that we are not separate from Nature and thus have no control over it. Chaos is not opposed to order but rather its source and arbiter.

The only thing you can control is your mind, and you may have noticed it is noticeably out of control. Reality, Dào, is beyond concepts/unknowable, and death/disaster can come at any moment to anyone regardless of their “good” karma. Empires collapse, good/innocent people die, and we have no rights other than the ones we give each other. Nature goes the way it goes and is just way bigger than our human agendas. In the face of this, the last year asked us all the question – what do you/we do when things fall apart?

The only sane answer from the Metal Ox perspective is – you put things back together, you just keep going. YOU LEARN FROM THE PAST, you rebuild, you get back to work, and you do your best to do it better the next time, knowing full well that it will all fall apart again. Everything is impermanent and constantly in flux; cyclical time demands that all things grow, decay, and die in endless cycles of renewal, and Autumn/Winter demand that we face our mortality. Ideally, however, we should not invoke entropy before its time.

The sequence of years alternates from chaos (yáng) to order (yīn) and then back to chaos, and last year yáng/chaos was out of control going to extremes, as if all structure dissolved, and it seemed like everything became particles flying around in space, disconnected from one another. This year, order comes back strongly into focus, like a grid or blueprint, solidifying and containing yáng, offering us the adage – the ground on which you fall is the same ground on which you stand. The Ox represents the stability of the ground beneath our feet, so it is time to stand back up.

This is a year to WORK. But this is not a year to work hard; this is a year to work smart. The Ox demands hard work, yes, but we are talking about the hard work of Winter when resources are the scarcest. Hard work in Winter will simply exhaust you. The Metal Ox is precise, calculating, judicious, and meticulous. It calculates when and where to expend effort, and it does so slow and steady without working up a sweat.

Our culture is left in shambles – we are deeply divided, our economy is a mess, and we are amid a pandemic we made a mess of and that only appears to be getting worse. Our efforts from here on out must be well calculated, planned, and executed with precision if we are to gain any stability moving forward, and there is no clear way to do this given our current situation.

The Metal Ox response, thankfully, is not about the "new scientific data" but rather about remembering the countless ways human beings have responded to and resolved crisis throughout history. For example – in 1947, New York city vaccinated 6 million people for smallpox in under a month, and this was the last outbreak of smallpox in America. If we have done something like this before, then we can do it again.

Rat Year saw millions of Rats arguing about the cause of a sinking ship; fear and blame got the best of us. But the Metal Ox is the definition of calm and collected. The Metal Ox takes RESPONSIBILITY and holds others ACCOUNTABLE, for their sense of justice is cold, emotionless, and logical – think Spock from Star Trek; this year is very “Vulcan.”

This Year we must sober up, take responsibility for the messes we have made, and hold people accountable for their actions. The Metal Ox is like a wise old judge or an impartial magistrate who takes in all the evidence and upholds the standard of law. The Metal Ox tallies the votes and makes sure that the majority rules, even if their side lost. This is a Year of brutal honesty, and the truth will prevail.

The Ox tills the soil, meaning there are no crops yet. The hard work of the Ox, of plowing ahead, looks forward with the knowledge and memory of a thousand growing cycles. If we want a harvest, we cannot skip planting seeds. We must take care of the soil if we want crops to grow, and that means getting down and dirty. This is a Year to put in the thankless work that will benefit yourself and others long into the future. This is not a time for immediate gratification but rather a time to persevere in what we know is best for us. Children find it difficult to accept that their elders know best, but they usually do.

This is a Year to “take our medicine,” so to speak, a time to listen to elders, experts, and the educated, and do what they say. The internet has made experts out of us all, but maybe rethink that expertise, lol. Maybe stop forming/arguing emotionally charged opinions after reading articles on the internet. In fact, if you really want to make the best of Ox Year, better to get off the social media and smartphones altogether; they’re a huge waste of energy.

It goes against every fiber of my being, but this a year to trust authority or at least give them the benefit of the doubt. Follow the rules and refrain from rebelling. Last year was all about protest, and we did the shit out of that, so I know it’s hard to stop. Water Tiger Year (2022) will be a tsunami of rebellion, and if it goes well, it can usher in the “roaring 20’s.” But for now, in the in-between, we must err on the side of order and do what is best for others. Let the dust settle. Let others take the reins. We must be conservative and humble in our actions. Reluctance is power in Ox Year.

Of course, in the world of “fake news” everyone is convinced their perspective is correct, and we don’t know who to believe. The vortex of Metal Rat fear showed us that under the right circumstances sane, rational, and well-adjusted people can be persuaded to believe outrageous ideas and groundless conspiracy theories. It showed us the power of cult psychology, and the “social dilemma” of the internet is a wild beast out of control. Qanon and the storming of the capitol are, perhaps, perfect examples of Rat Year gone mad. Metal Ox will hopefully bring the hammer down, demand that information be protected, and free us somewhat from the psychological warfare being waged through cyberspace. If we cannot agree on facts for the sake of social convention, we are doomed, paralyzed in a slippery sea of relativity asking - who decides what is true?

Metal Rat produced a whirlwind of conceptual proliferation, and without self-awareness, Metal Ox can harden our views into perpetual loops and/or obsessions. Metal Ox is here to slap some sense into us, but I am afraid this year might have a strong “Orwellian” feeling for those prone to conspiracy theories and extreme views, on either side.

For sure, a lot of angry Trump supporters who think the election was stolen are only going to get angrier and feel that all the coming restrictions, regulations, and policy changes from the new administration are stealing their freedoms, or whatever. I suspect, though, that many will snap out of the Trump cult and abandon him as a failed icon.

The extreme left, of course, has its own conspiracies and will likely have a real difficulty with the “law and order” aspect of the Metal Ox, continuing the themes of protest from last year. I fully support re-thinking and re-forming authority, which is a major theme of the year, and the way we “police.” This year offers the possibility to re-structure and solidify new foundational patterns of shared social responsibilities, so that police need not be burdened with work more easily allocated to social and mental health care workers. All the idealism of the protests of Metal Rat year can gain feet with the Metal Ox, provided they appeal to ordinary convention; the energy of a million rats marching, however, will not have the same power, and rebellion will likely incur more negative consequence.

My great wish is that extreme views fall out of fashion, and that healthy humility and genuine compassion return. May social media lose its power over us. May we all admit that we “don’t know,” take a step back, relinquish our internet expertise, take the advice of educated people, and err on the side of whatever view is most kind, cautious, and considerate of others, especially the most vulnerable.

This Year exemplifies what the Chinese call “Eating Bitter.” Sweet just isn’t sweet without the bitter. Metal Ox is painfully sober; it represents the hard-earned lessons and maturity that come from falling on your ass, so that you can learn to stand back up. Metal Ox is a cold shower and a slap in the face. All the lessons we have not learned will come home to roost. So, get your shit together. Put your affairs in order, especially at home. Metal Ox is a year to “grow up.”

Rat Year was a time to organize and plan, and now is the time to put your nose to the grindstone and get the wheel turning. Ox believes in achieving goals, step by step; this is a Year of iron will, grit, and determination. However, it is not a year of fruition but rather selfless service and work without thought of reward. Ox serves because it needs to be done and does not seek approval/recognition.

Ox is self-reliant and independent. Unfortunately, the communal aspects of Rat Year had a kind of inverse/paradoxical effect – we were forced to learn all the profound lessons about community and connection through isolation and quarantine. Well, the Ox is used to doing everything alone and does not expect others to help, although they will often complain about this after the fact. They see what needs to be done, and they do not wait for others. They have a deep sense of faith in their own ability to get things done, and they set the standard for diligence and integrity.

So, if isolation continues, Ox can handle it and will be there to support others at a distance. The Metal Ox is big enough to carry massive loads on their back and will trudge on. Ox is a loyal friend, so this is a Year for alliance and showing up. Ox takes care of others because they assume others are incompetent. So, let’s carry each other and persevere. You have the strength. In terms of romance, this is a Year for commitment, marriage, and conventional/conservative choices all around (and I’ll leave it at that, lol)

Generosity is big in the Ox Year and has the capacity to be magnified to a grand scale. Please, find a way to be generous. But don’t announce your generosity; do it in secret. Anonymity is power in Ox Year. Many people are in dire straits right now and need help. Acts of giving are meritorious and will generate ripple effects far beyond ordinary perception.

Dependability and routine are key. This is a Year for monotonous repetition and boring routine. Strict is in. “No” and “stop” have great power. This is a time to get strict with ourselves and others with some tough love (just a little, lol). Parents should be strict/firm with children. Despite some new age beliefs, humans need and crave structure and routine, and we need to face consequences to grow. Rebellious signs like Monkeys and Tigers may find this aspect of Ox unbearable, but the boredom of doing the same thing day in and day out is survival in Metal Ox Year. Create tasks, routines, and timetables and follow them religiously. The capacity to focus in and block out/ignore white noise this year is immense/intense, so ride the wave into the zone.

Regarding health and the pandemic, the Qì dynamic is Metal like last Year, continuing the energetic theme of the virus, but it is much more stable, so there’s hope. Last Year afflicted the upper burner/respiration, and this year is lower burner/kidneys, so the effects of the virus can deepen. Acute conditions in general can go chronic.

Conventional medicine has more power, which means whatever is conventional to you. This is not a year for strange unfamiliar medicine, wild experimental treatments, or miraculous cures. If your Momma put Vicks VapoRub on your chest every time you got sick as a kid, regardless of whether that was a good idea, it will help in a year like this, so spread that shit everywhere, lol. Ox is prone to nostalgia for the good old days, and this kind of sentiment can cure what ails you. If going to a Shaman is normal for you, then go for it, but if it is weird/strange, in a year like this it will probably make your tumor bigger.

The first Metal Ox response to the pandemic – personal responsibility, just focus on ordinary, time tested, boring health routines, for they will make you big and strong like an Ox. Cement in a routine this year and it can be with you for the next 60 years. The second ox response – standardization; everyone gets an N-95 mask, for example. If we are sloppy, wearing handkerchiefs, reusing old cloth masks, and so on, nothing will change. We get big solid standards in place, things will change. There is no “correct” solution. In Ox Year, it’s not the new scientific data but the consistency of standards that creates the possibility for change, so calm down about all the new data.

If we can lock into Metal Ox standards and regulation then the pandemic can start to resolve, but the Metal Ox DEMANDS SUPPORT. Without stable long-term financial support, no number of rules/mask wearing/hand washing will help. Last year the small (Rat) took apart the big, and now it is time for the big (Ox) to support the small. Last year, money was everything in the sense of scarcity, and now the Ox must become the great provider. Metal = money, and it’s time to take care of people.

In terms of politics/the election, last Year was about fuck the leader; it was about the mob and the madness of crowds. This Year is about follow the leader. Metal Ox is a responsible, natural born leader. Despite our deep divide, no matter how you feel about it, our democracy has spoken, and we officially have new leaders who at least appear to be sane and capable of empathy. Sure, Joe probably has onset dementia, lol, but whatever. The Qì of Metal Rat was dismantling, but behind the madness it was pushing to shed/prune what no longer serves us, and he’s out, despite half-baked insurrections.

Now it’s time for those who will come to power to STEP UP AND BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE TO THEIR WORD. We must hold leaders and institutions accountable, and this year is ruthless with a vengeance. Hypocrisy is out, and everything will be under intense scrutiny. No more mob mentality; no more blame and mistrust. We asked for a revolution and this is what we got; time to make the best of it. Metal Ox is laying the foundation for bigger things to come, and this is at least a shift in a more promising direction.

More on the protests – Metal Rat brought up all the inequality, racism, and injustice in our world, and the Ox must do the work for real change. This work is BIG, like the Ox; it is systemic, and it involves the restructuring and reallocation of both resources and thought. Ox is about personal responsibility. Metal Rat laid bare the mechanism of our inequality, but the only way the Ox knows how to respond is through conduct – be the change you want to see rather than calling others out. The work of changing the world must start inside, and the Ox also provides possibilities for the inner work to become policy on a big scale. It can’t just be a bandwagon and source of virtue signaling; the real change must take place where it matters – in our conduct and in actual policy and social infrastructure.

On work/career – this is again not a year for innovation, changing jobs, or reinventing yourself – that was last year, and while we all felt pressured to do this, few could take advantage. We did, however, see tremendous innovation in fields like medicine and technology. This will, of course, continue, but this year there is less power in trying to invent new gizwidgets and more power in huge, large scale application and automation. This year could be a major transition ushering in the AI future, so what are we to do? Are we all to become coders and software engineers?

In the economy at large, I see this year as a major push forward in automation. Metal Ox perfectly exemplifies the value of robotic assembly lines and automated services. The more we push towards social distance and the more advanced automation becomes, the more we will see the very foundation of the economy change towards displacing human labor. Many economists say that we are in the middle of a silent automation revolution, and the Qì of this year will do a lot to push this forward, causing us to deeply rethink the way our society works because everything is becoming automated – truck driving, clerical work, phone work, retail work, medical and dental procedures; what are we going to do when these jobs disappear?

The Metal Rat fragmentation answered this with an individualist mentality that has been pushing everyone to become unique entrepreneurs. We all feel pressured to brand ourselves and market our soul gift, but unfortunately, this disgusts the Metal Ox. The trend of everyone having a blog, a website, a podcast, a YouTube channel, and so on, in a world where everyone is an entitled self-made internet expert is not sustainable. Metal Ox askes us – can a beautiful flower grow in midair? Where is the soil? Without cohesive unified cultural values and tradition can a society of entrepreneurs and Instagram stars flourish? Can we all be rock stars? Of course, there will always be rock stars, but Metal Ox says – when quantity goes up, quality goes down. Not everyone needs a podcast.

Everything alternative, trendy, or individualistic will look flimsy and foolish this year. Old fashion/retro is in. Traditional/classical/old world knowledge and nostalgia has big power to the Ox. The wisdom of the ancients/ancestors is the new app. And we must ask ourselves – in a brave new world of automation in which rugged individualism and entrepreneurship has no roots, what kind of society are we creating? What human skill, craft, knowledge can never be automated? What should never be automated? What are our real values here? Is entrepreneurship the answer? I do not have an answer, but Ox suggests that technical, vocational, and apprenticeship work is the way forward, and it should be on the rise this year.

This is a Year to watch out for bleakness and repressed emotion. Stubbornness, seriousness, and gloom prevail, and they don’t get much better next year with the moody Water Tiger. Watch out for depression, but more importantly watch out for repression. This year we are more likely to bury/ignore our emotions rather than feel them because the grief may be too much. So, keep checking in and take care not to work/push through your feelings. We must work hard to acknowledge and deal with all the mental emotional repercussions of the pandemic/quarantine.

Spiritually speaking, the next two years are ruthless in the name of BASIC SANITY and waking down. Waking up is out; it’s time to wake down—reestablish the foundation, and I don’t mean embodiment/re-wilding/getting back to nature, and I don’t mean high minded non-dual direct whatever, I mean ordinary self-reflection.

In Buddhism this is called contemplating the Four Thoughts that Turn the Mind.  Ox is uninterested in high, eloquent, profound teachings but exemplifies ordinary, ordinary, ordinary – impermanence, suffering, karma, and the preciousness of human birth - very boring and depressing to contemplate, but simple, basic, fundamental and holds immense power. A Non-conceptual approach and practice is also deeply empowered, and meditation retreats are very auspicious. Sit-walk, sit-walk, sit-walk…very OX. Ox also highly values the three R's - respect, responsibility, and resourcefulness; my teacher would add gratitude.

Hypocritical and shallow spirituality will crumble. If you’re not practicing what you preach, shit’s gonna hit the fan, if it hasn’t already. I know we all mean well, but I would encourage self-proclaimed teachers/gurus, advice/life coaches, academics/translators using a PhD as spiritual authority, and weekend workshop/internet certified whatevers to maybe re-think things, especially giving spiritual direction (obviously, I include myself in this reflection). For example, it takes 13 years of rigorous traditional study and 3+ years of solitary retreat to become a Khenpo/Geshe in Tibetan Buddhism…any volunteers…show of hands? Today, many people study so that they can become teachers and market themselves as masters of what they’re learning as soon as possible. The entrepreneur mentality is pushing us to market and sell our expertise as soon as possible. Maybe, rethink this? Slow down? My great wish is that we stop rushing to offer new workshops, teacher trainings, podcasts, and so on, and perhaps go back to the foundation and honor the immense spiritual inheritance already available in ancient traditions. We don't need to reinvent the wheel. Discover and follow the Ox's footprints.

This is a Year to honor, venerate, and study the “ways of the elders.” Traditions have, by and large, failed in America, and they are dying out all over the world. They must of course be edited/updated to suit the place and time, but rather than throw out lineage and take spiritual advice from random people on internet forums, perhaps we can support tradition this year in their own terms so that they don’t die out for good. Monasteries, churches, shedras, hermitages, mosques, temples, synagogues, etc., – established institutions of traditional learning – offer them humility and support.

Rat Year brought out all the little/subtle things that are enormous in the ways they control your life. It stirred up tremendous wind. Therefore, if it isn’t already your norm, again, this is not a Year for new age eclecticism, magic, spirits, shamans, vision quests, ayahuasca, and the now popular trend of invent/appropriate your own spiritual path, for strange and/or new things will only make more wind. Ordinary human experience and self-reflection are the doorway to liberation, as are the well-established paths/traditions that have endured the centuries. Without ordinary human happiness, trying to be spiritual by imagining spirit worlds you have never experienced or tripping balls on ayahuasca may turn you into a ghost, just sayin...

In a year such as this, don’t wait around to you turn into a version of yourself that you like better; just accept yourself as you are and do the work of self-improvement. As Shunryū Suzuki once said, you’re all perfect the way you are, you could just use a little improvement. You’re already the fruition, so relax and do what you can actually do – the absolute best practice is the one you can do every day without fail.

It’s been a rough one for all of us, so be kind and forgive each other. The New Year is a time to forgive people and start over; wipe the slate clean and offer resolution. We’re at the end of our history, so don’t expect much. In Ox Year, the remedy for all troubles is - expect less. All this may sound very serious and heavy, but there is a lighter side to the Ox that we can call “second childhood.” Ox often grow up very fast but become like children in their old age.

After all the hard work, there is a simplicity to Ox that sees the world without the complication or burden of speculation. The Ox is the champion of not noticing things. Simplify; strip yourself of the complication and conceptual nightmares of the Metal Rat. The sky may be falling, the world may be on fire, but the Ox just plows on. In a Year such as this, being oblivious might just be enlightenment.

12 Animal Forecast

Rat – Very auspicious; coming out of your own year is a bit messy – this a year to ride the back of the Ox like in the classic parable (Rat is first because he rode Ox to the finish line and jumped off to win!). This is a Confucian special pairing, as Ox offers a very stable container to support Rats plans and detail-oriented cleverness. You have a heightened capacity to work, manifest, and actualize plans. You were unable to actualize your social skills last year, but this year your capacity to entertain and bring people together will be in-demand and needed in new and unforeseen ways. Routine, organization, and structure empower and give strength to the rat. Seek out, create, and rely on community and you will do well.

Ox – Auspicious; Oxen do well in their own year because they finally feel like their sanity is being recognized/appreciated; a lot of people will be relying on you and you will feel more empowered and obligated to carry others, carry the situation, take on more responsibility, etc. The workload this year will feel heavy, but it will be rewarding and fulfilling because its Ox work. Learn to delegate and teach others to be like the you because you can’t do it all yourself. Your capacity for leadership and management is heightened and everything in life can be productive and efficient. You are more likely to overwork and ignore signs of fatigue. The main suggestion is to lighten up and let go of seriousness, or else the Year will be very grumpy.

Tiger – Neutral/Inauspicious; a year of frustration; Ox is the stillness before the Tiger lurch; tigers want to jump/move forward, and this year is very slow and does not have impulsiveness or passion available—you will hit a wall if you are impulsive and do not think things through. This year matches your dark strip, which is patient like a tiger stalking its prey. You relied on it all last year to survive, and it continues; this is a year to stalk future endeavors, wiggle your butt in the tall grass before pouncing on the deer. Tigers hate working for others, but if you are well cultivated, then you can utilize your enormous capacity for anything you put your mind to, but you must conform within convention/rules. So lay low, be patient, expect frustration, and be very strategic with work and rest. Conserve and wait until Tiger Year for big lurches forward.

Rabbit – Neutral; but not a negative year overall; you are out of style. Ox is totally oblivious to Rabbit intuition and feeling. Rabbit’s feelings are complete nonsense/gibberish to the Ox. Rabbits may feel unheard/listened to and frustrated with the lack of depth and nuance this year. Everything is on the surface and straightforward, and gossip will have negative repercussions. But you will benefit greatly from the solid and secure nature of the Ox. Metal Ox is a fortress of solitude, so Rabbits should fully embrace their nesting instincts, organize/clean up their life, shed clutter, and solidify relationships in preparation for the future. Tiger Year greatly empowers the Rabbit towards their authority, and Ox Year is a time to cultivate your inner power in hiding. Please remind people of what lies beneath the surface, so we don’t all get steamrolled beneath the dullness.

Dragon – Neutral; you are also out of styled but empowered by the strength and bigness of the Ox. You are likely to compete everywhere in attempts to demonstrate your strength. Ox Year is very terrestrial and boring, and you are celestial and radical. Grandiosity and displays of ego and individuality are out; Ox does not respond well to dragon’s charisma; Dragon strength will do well to downplay themselves and exalt others. Dragon is also very capable of carrying others on their back, but they must choose to do it and must want to participate. This is a very good year for self-discipline, cultivation, and growth. Humble yourself to the incompetent hordes and self-efface. You can accomplish huge tasks, create, bring things into being, but not with your usual magic. You will have to come back down to earth and stand in line with the ordinary folk. This year, Dragons train to be emperor through magnanimous compassion and generosity.

Snake – Very auspicious; you are part of a trine: Ox-Snake-Rooster are good buddies. Ox offers a very comfortable space in which to hide in plain view; pulling back, hiding, and reluctance are very natural to the snake and go well because they can do this both at home and in public life. People will demand and expect less of you, so you don’t have to pretend so much; we all know you don't want to be here. You can move incognito and operate very freely; everything goes smooth this year. The penetrating and visionary insight of the Snake has the capacity to strike to the heart in the worldly arena and appear very profound, so you will be a great advisor and resource to others. Snake’s wisdom is depressing for ordinary folk, and it’s a year to look at depressing truths. You can be in the world but not of the world more easily than usual.

Horse – Neutral/Auspicious; You are coming out of your most challenging year; the least productive in 12 years. Last year was a cage, and this year you are strapped to a yoke. Ox is much more supportive to the work ethic of Horse, but there is still very little room for running wild like you secretly want. Horses run fast and hard, while the Ox plows slow and steady. You are very susceptible to burning out fast and running too hard out of the gate in Spring, so slow and steady. Lean into the Horse’s love of training and put aside the wild stallion; embrace the equestrian. Horse wants to get back to work, so start projects, get productive, for you will be called upon this year. Carefulness and planning are the way to go; if a horse breaks their leg, they are done, no more racing days. Think blueprints, bucket lists, timetables, and skill building. Next Year you are greatly empowered and can run wild.

Goat – Inauspicious; this will be your most challenging yet best year for spiritual growth. Goat is the opposite of Ox; you are very similar, but mirror like in your differences. Ox seeks standards and opposes forward moving innovation; they look to past while goats look to the future to anticipate change; goat seeks refinement and wants to negotiate, compromise, and cooperate, while ox wants the hard bottom line. Goat will want to fuss over details and find the best possible solution, while ox wants rigid order and standardization. All your gifts will feel stifled and your attempts to harmonize, decorate, and further refine your life may be stunted. So, expect to get flustered and head butt people. That makes this a great year for self-reflection, insight, and spiritual growth. Best to go with the flow and not get flustered/argue.

Monkey – Inauspicious; this year may feel oppressive, not a fun year for monkey antics/risk taking. Monkeys will be very tempted to mess with the Ox’s seriousness and will provoke a lot of backlash from the ox police. Monkey antics/causing drama will have serious repercussions for monkeys if they aren’t careful, and past grievances may come to haunt you. You are very changeable and always switching directions in life/relationships, trying new things, swinging from branch to branch, but that doesn’t work this year. This is a good year to “mature” and stick to one tree for fruit. Focus and simplify; use your creativity, wit, and intelligence to stick with a plan and embrace your limits. This is not a year for risk or adventure. Boredom is not the end of the world. All the stillness may feel ominous, like doom/disaster is coming, but calm down. Patience and planning are important because next year could be rough; Tiger Year will be a big mirror.

Rooster – Very auspicious; you are part of a trine: Ox-Snake-Rooster are good buddies. Your intelligence, planning, and advising are very helpful and useful and will be welcomed all year. There will be lots of work to do and lots of opportunity to display your eloquence and expertise. This year many people will be sobering up and rely on experts to lead the way (hopefully). You may take on a lot and be in high demand, so watch out for burn out and overwhelm. The Ox calmness counteracts your rooster overthinking, so rather than going into manic overdrive, you have a heightened capacity for focus, peace, and clarity. Pace yourself and ride the Yīn Metal (your natural element) theme of editing and organizing. Roosters shine bright, so enjoy it.

Dog – Neutral/Auspicious, Ox is a great leader and loves loyalty. Dog is a very good sidekick and is ready to take directions and get to work. Dog’s work ethic is empowered and may even go to extremes. You will probably find a lot of opportunities in every aspect of life if you go with the flow and follow your nose. Lots of people need help and support, and this is what dogs do best. Watch out for getting stuck in bad alliances, relationships, or ideologies; be careful and vet who you follow; don’t hop on bandwagons too fast. Eagerness is your downfall this year. The lone wolf/highly individualistic aspect of the Dog is out of fashion, so it is best to sniff out and find an object of devotion and inspiration and throw yourself in, whether it is a job, partner, or personal project. Generosity and a big heart go a long way. Love everyone; no growling/barking. Dogs may feel guarded, betrayed, and hesitant after last year, but we need you to lend a hand.

Pig – Neutral/Auspicious; Pigs are very available and needed to show up for others, but this is not fun year for pigs – this year pulls on your deeper humanitarian callings. Ox takes care of people but is not very cuddly. Pigs are cuddly and will show up with snacks. This is a year to bring a picnic because we’re all exhausted and sad. Your humanitarian impulse and generosity will go along way – you are the most available for generosity and will be drawn to help everyone and are therefore the most susceptible to burnout and giving too much emotionally. You may be pulled in all kinds of directions putting out fires, giving back rubs, bringing sandwiches, empathizing. Pigs love to have fun and this year is a bit bleak, so bring the party! Pigs can be very hardworking and heroic only to give everything away, so bring to life your greatest aspirations to help and serve others. There is a lot of traction this year for your projects and altruism. Don’t get too down when everyone else is getting gloomy, for next year will be one of your best, and you will be needed even more.

I wish you the all the best in this New Year!

Every harmful action I have done
With my body, speech, and mind
Overwhelmed by attachment, anger and confusion,
All these I openly lay bare before you.
While circling through all states of existence,
May I become an endless treasure of good qualities--
Gathering limitless pristine wisdom and positive potential.
May all beings have happiness and the cause of happiness.
May they be free of suffering and the cause of suffering.

May all beings remain in boundless equanimity, free from attachment and aversion!

Sarva Mangalam!!!

FATE IS NOT ACTUALLY CREATED (HAS NO BEGINNING) BUT
IS THE PREDISPOSITION TO RECREATE AND SOLIDIFY KARMIC PATTERNS.
THE EVER-PRESENT OPTION/DISPOSITION TO OPENLY EXPRESS OUR TRUE NATURE IS FREEDOM.
TOGETHER FATE AND FREEDOM CONSTITUTE THE NATURALLY DYNAMIC
DIMENSION WE ARE IN.
-Liu Ming

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Qiūfēn, 秋分, Autumn Equinox

9/23/2020

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Welcome back to Qiūfēn, 秋分, the Season of the Autumn Equinox, and day of my birth! Qiūfēn is one of the classical Eight Gates of Chinese Astrology – the Eight times of Year that rectify the Annual Qì. This period is one of only two times a year that yīn and yáng, day and night, are in a relative state of balance. As I have said before, balance is a taut situation, nothing other than a temporary fulcrum in an otherwise imbalanced and dynamic continuum of constant movement.

The Autumn Equinox is a time of peaceful stillness preceding our full decent into the yīn of Winter. Yáng begins now to drain down and in as the environment grows cooler and drier. The nights grow longer as the world around us becomes more dreamlike, and the power of imagination begins to dominate the landscape. The Qì of this time is quiet, focused, and reflective.

In short, this temporary state of balance offers us a capacity for rest and recalibration that comes only twice a year; so, make good use of it. The rest is a kind of still clarity, like the surface of a pond becoming smooth and reflecting the sky above it. The capacity to take stock of life and to self-reflect is enhanced in the mirror of Nature. This time zeros out the scale.

As Yīn takes charge, the world changes as outward productivity and creation are reversed. To the uninitiated, the craziness of our world goes on, it seems, unchanged, but beneath the surface, the reversal of Yáng to Yīn moves the available Qì from generative to re-generative, just like every day, when we must at some point cease productivity and prepare to sleep and dream. The world is now of the same quality as 5-7 pm. In the grand scheme, the harvest should be complete, and everything begins the slow process of storing and planning. Will we survive the coming Winter?

Yīn takes the form of Princess about to become Queen. In the coming months, she reverses all the Emperor’s mandates for productivity and expansion and instead turns our focus local to the art of being human, to our personal relationships, and to the mandate of our Ancestors to keep the wheel turning.

Although modern culture allows us to be independent, for most of our history, no human being survived the Winter alone and without community. From here on out, the collective Qì, the interwoven tapestry of human relationships is brought forward into the realm of necessity. For better or worse, we in this together!

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Báilù, 白露, White Dew,

9/7/2020

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Welcome back to the season of Báilù, 白露, White Dew, an important seasonal shift that heralds the accent of Yīn. The heat of Late Summer has ended, the growing west wind is cool and carries migrating birds; the appearance of White Dew and occasional cold in the early morning reveals fresh Yīn Qì, a fragile glimpse of snow, and a signal of the coming Celestial Presence of Winter.

A time of stillness and clarity, Báilù has always deeply inspired the poets and hermits of China, for amidst the now busy time of harvest and preparation, the outer aggression of Yáng subsides, allowing for Yīn to grow unnoticed and in secret.

This gentle unnoticed Yīn is envisioned as Nymphs, playful spirits who inhabit the seas and forests, who emerge now from their hibernation in the summer months to play on flower petals and blades of grass. Their presence brings a cool and misty shimmer to the morning light and makes way for the Celestial Realm of Autumn and Winter, for the dreamlike Yīn that will blanket us following the Autumn Equinox.

This is a time of inspiration and preparation. Summer's Light remains, but the cool dry wind brings a much-needed change. Our Qì naturally turns inward, and we begin to remember the mortality and impermanence of all things. Autumn is coming, so the work of the Summer Harvest must continue – the memory of a thousand Winters reminds us of true value, of what will sustain us in the coming months.

Togetherness and cooperation are crucial. Farms and families come together to celebrate their bond and the bounty of the harvest. The annual Qì is strongest from 5-7 pm, as the nights begin to grow longer. Make room for the night, make room for the imagination, make spacious your inner space.

Nymphs are on the wind, whispering magical vision. Keep busy but stop and listen to the sound of rustling leaves, for we live on a living planet, and the myth of the city makes this easy to forget.

Behind all the drama and upheaval, the unrelenting dismantling force of the Metal Rat continues to unscrew the nuts and bolts of our foundations. It does this to make way for new foundations of lasting value, but there are no guarantees, for this vision is as fragile now as morning dew; are you gentle enough to see it?

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雨水, Yŭ Shŭi - Rain Water

2/19/2020

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Welcome back to the season of 雨水, Yŭ Shŭi, the time of Rain Water. As Spring awakens, Heaven and Earth renew their Immortal romance – this is the first Yīn response to the impulse of Yáng to emerge in the coming year. Moisture, rain, and nourishment seep into the Earth, where Yáng is still trapped in the form of “seeds.” If Yáng has been properly stored in the Winter, the seeds of Life burst open and now begin to take root. If Yáng has been weakened, decay, rot, and mold may occur (in every sense of the word).

The Qì of this season is mild, gentle, friendly, and receptivity is being asked of us. Can we open and receive the nourishment of nature? This is a time of renewal when rain fertilizes the dreams of Winter, and our visions begin to take root. If the following year is to be fruitful, we must water the seeds and tend carefully to the soil, which must be properly aerated.

In other words, loosen up; let Yīn and Yáng play – open to others, open to the world, open and receive the rain, the messages of life that you have been ignoring all Winter. The friendliness of this season offers us a wonderful chance to eat humble pie and graciously admit that we know nothing, that we were wrong, that we made mistakes. No matter your age, we’re all just kids on the playground right now, nothing serious.

The element of Wood is soft, supple, and pliable like a newborn, and it sucks up the rain in order to grown. Like a child, it is hungry for growth. Newness and curiosity are key, and new actions are auspicious. Take in new ideas, see new movies, read new books, talk to new people, or simply relate to the same old people in a new way. What if every time you meet is the first? You're not who you were five minutes ago!

Cultivate the strength of Spring Qì through weakness; we’re all babies right now. It’s okay for babies to be weak. Their job is simply to take in the world in wonder.

Spring is renewal, but it is caution rather than enthusiasm that encourages growth. Seeds don’t need cheerleaders; they need responsible farmers. Impulse is the pathogen of this time. Yáng is given a boost, and we can be all too eager to rip out the seeds and eat them before they have had a chance to grow. The seasonal Qì is no longer pernicious but our impulses, our inner Yáng, is immature and eager. So, avoid being “very productive,” and instead be a kid again.

Take in the rain. You can’t fill a pot with water if the lid is closed. Nor can you fill a pot without a base. Neither can you fill a pot filled with old water.

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Virtue of the Small – Qì in the Year of the Yáng Metal Rat – Gēng Zĭ 庚子 – Year 2020/4718

1/23/2020

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道 – Dào/View

Astrology, 星命家, and Geomancy, 風水, are two premier subjects of the Chinese Traditional Mantic Arts. Their development in China over the last 2,500 years continues a tradition whose history is incalculable.

The teachings of Kŏng Fū Zĭ, or Confucius, are at the heart of Chinese Astrology. Are we isolated individuals? Or do we live as the center of interpersonal relationships? These are the fundamental questions of the Confucian Tradition. Today, we must ask these questions more than ever, for we are more isolated than ever before.

Confucius established a secular, non-theistic society in which the Dào is unknowable, and all Gods/spirits are equally unimportant in the light of our primary goal – learning to be human, 仁.

In contrast to Western notions of “basic brokenness” (Original Sin), in the Confucian Tradition, human beings and nature are intrinsically good, and there is no salvation or enlightenment required of us. Our original nature is complete and found self-existing, already within.

In the Confucian Tradition, the self is a dynamic center of Creative Transformation defined by relationship. We possess no abiding self that is separate from our relationships with nature or with our ancestors, family, community, country, world, and universe.

The starting point of the Confucian path is Self-Worth derived from education and Self-Cultivation for its own sake. The impetus and commitment to change the world must come from within. Therefore, Self-Cultivation is not done for social improvement; it is an end rather than a means to an end.

The central teaching of Confucianism is, however, Human Relatedness where community is the most necessary vehicle for human flourishing. Personal development expresses within an open-ended series of concentric circles of relatedness.

The creation of a society in which everyone is taken care of, has a place, and has the freedom to cultivate themselves and actualize their full potential is the goal of Confucian spirituality.

We should not, therefore, choose to be loners, for the dignity, autonomy, and independence of each person need not be based on individualism. Human fellowship does not undermine our individuality, but rather each human being reaches their highest potential through communication and communal participation with other human beings.

This worldliness is, then, the core Confucian value. Nature is our Home, revered for its generosity and grandeur. The fair use and distribution of our natural resources is the primary responsibility of each generation, and one that we must see to now.

Transcendence is found in Immanence – what is the unknowable Dào doing? Constantly displaying itself as all phenomena. In other words, what is apparently knowable and absolutely unknowable are not different. The ordinary world is the unknowable Dào, manifesting in and as the cycles of Time. A natural morality is therefore defined by our relationship to Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter.

In the Confucian Tradition, people may worship whatever god/s or spirits they choose if those beliefs do not interfere with the responsibilities of human relatedness. However, non-theism states that knowledge of an Ultimate or the existence of a one true God are not required to return to Dào. We need only to cultivate our humanity with other humans. No god/s or spirits need be supplicated.

In the Unknowable Dào, everything is 自然 “self-resolving.” Everything that goes out returns. Everything that is compound dissolves. Everything that struggles exhausts itself. Human beings, then, cannot be “perfected.”

We do not evolve toward any kind of ideal state, but rather we are cyclical, and our life is a dynamic rhythm (yīnyáng), sometimes wonderful, sometimes painful. Since we cannot be perfected, we are relieved of any permanent notion of progress or self-improvement.

Without a creator or an event of creation, without sin or salvation, without beginning or end, without any notion of perfection, we simply respond naturally to the ever changing present, the Immortal Procession, here and now.

The Confucian paradox – all human beings are inherently and inevitably a Sage, 聖人, but no human being can ever become one. Education in our humanity never ends.

This Year of the Rat will bring forward the inescapable reality that we are not isolated individuals. We are defined by our relatedness.

Gēng Zĭ 庚子
Year of the Yáng Metal Rat

Welcome back to the year of the Yáng Metal Rat, Gēng Zĭ 庚子, also known as the Rafter Rat, which begins officially on January 25th! As always, it is important to remember that Astrology is not fortunetelling! There is no auspicious year, for each time and place must be read against the unique Character and Fate of the individual. What follows are broad generalities and suggestions.

Before we continue, I encourage you to reflect, briefly, upon the major themes of the Yīn Earth Pig in both a positive and negative sense--family, rest, sleep, nourishment, sex, comfort, protection, luxury, food, the senses/sensuality, indulgence, honesty, completion, endings, tolerance, generosity, humanitarianism, compromise, care, intelligence, storytelling, luck, humor, hard-work, lethargy, will power, joy, and depression to name a few.

The first and most important aspect of this year’s transition is that we have completed and are now entering into a new 12 Year Cycle. The Earth Pig was an ending, a demonstration of everything you have cultivated over the past 12 years. It was a year of completion and (hopefully) resolution, albeit a sticky one. How did that go? Chinese Astrology teaches us that everything is self-resolving, but the idea that things resolve well is naïve!

Last year was not one to move forward or start over, but this year is! Look back over the past 12 Years – Pig Year was the fruition. Metal Rat is a new jumping off point…but wait!

The Yáng Metal Rat is a new beginning, yes, but it is a small one. Momentum has not yet arrived. However, the first step in any journey is still important. The Rat is retrospective; so is the Ox. It looks backwards, observes the details, and plans for the journey ahead.

In order to fully understand the Metal Rat Year, we must look to its symbolism, Qì dynamics, manifestation, and applications.

象 – Symbolism

A famous Chinese story describes a contest set by the Buddha, or sometimes the Jade-Emperor of Daoism—a race to determine who would be the first Animal in the Cycle of Time. At the end of the race, there was a mighty river. Ox was the only animal strong enough to cross. Rat, small yet clever, jumped on Ox’s back. Undetected by Ox, clever Rat jumped off his nose just in time to cross the finish line first. Rat won the honor to be first in the cycle, and the Character of Rat, or Rat Qì, came to represent the wisdom, virtue (Dé), and resourcefulness of all things small.

Of the 12 Zodiac animals, some are small, and some are large. The difference in size symbolize the Chinese view that strength comes in all shapes and sizes. Every perspective is valuable and has a proper place.

As a cycle of View Teachings, the 12 Qì Characters are a study in perspective and represent 12 (or really 60) ways of viewing the world. We find wisdom by learning our own perspective in contrast/relation to others. The tallest rat will never see the same world as a Horse. Which perspective is correct? The question is of course meaningless—both are valid and describe different perspectives. Rat Qì represents the perspective of little creatures, the most “zoomed in” quality of life. Most importantly, it represents the fact that all beings must make alliances to survive.

The Natural Element of the Rat is Yáng Water—the power of the weak, the yielding, the adaptable, the soft, the pliant to overcome all obstacles, like water carving the Grand Canyon. Water may be weak, but through diligent perseverance it carves canyons, and in great mass, water can devastate. This is the Yáng Water nature of Rat Qi--the paradoxical strength of weakness.

Rat represents “start,” but it starts at the end (Water). Rat Hour is from 11 pm to 1 am, a time when we are supposed to be asleep. Pig Hour 9-11 pm, is fall asleep, Yīn Water, and Yáng Water is an active time of dreaming in which we disassemble and process the previous day. Rat, therefore, represents the active imagination of “backward” dreaming. The Rat and this time of day are also associated with the element of Yáng Wood and the Gallbladder in Chinese Medicine, which is responsible for catalyzing and rectifying the movement of Qì in the body. Rat Hours, Rat Months, and Rat Years, then, catalyze and initiate change.

This Year, however, the Heavenly Stem is Yáng Metal, the mother of Water and controller of Wood, so the Qì Dynamic takes on the quality of Metal giving birth to and restraining the natural Rat elements. I will examine this dynamic in more detail later.

Rat Qì is Yáng, active, dynamic, and the power of the Rat is ambitious and unstoppable like water, so don't let the image of smallness fool you; Rat Qì is anything by “mousy.” Yáng Water also represents synthesis, sentiment, sensitivity, reflection, cooperation, persuasion, and effectiveness, among other virtues.

Of all the 12 Animals, I find people most dismayed to find out they are Rats. This is due largely to the image of the Rat as a rodent, vermin, and carrier of disease in Western culture. In Asian cultures, the Rat has a much different image that I would like to encourage.

The Rat of Chinese Cosmology was well known to farmers as the “Grain Rat.” Grain Rats would appear with the harvest. So, in Asia, the Rat has always been associated with prosperity, wealth, resources, and with the rewards of diligent hard work. In many forms of Asian lore, the Rat is the God of Wealth, and Rat Years in Asia are expected to be profitable in every sense of the word.

The symbol of wealth is important and often glossed over. People are all too quick to associate wealth with money, especially Americans. Understanding wealth, however, is essential to understanding Rat Qì. What is wealth? In short, wealth is resources—material, food, energy, land, intelligence, labor, and so on. Money is an abstract symbol measuring these tangible/demonstrable realities.

But why are resources important to the Rat? Because they are tiny.

Individually, Rats are small and weak, so they always appear in groups and work together to manage resources. Together, Rats can undermine an entire building by gnawing and nibbling away at the foundations, piece by piece. For this reason, Rat Qì represents the Confucian teaching that all humans must make alliances to flourish. Alone, we can’t do much, but together, we can accomplish anything.

In the Chinese View, individuals are redundant. It is only through alliances that we do anything. No person ever did anything great. Period. Our culture exalts heroes, saints, sports stars, and so on, but all sports stars play on a team.

So, Rat Qì is the antithesis of American Individualism and demonstrates the ideals of the Confucian Tradition, for it views social life as central to existence and represents the human virtue of community. Sociability is required to survive, and no person is special. This is a “Rat realization. Rat Qì, in a sense, stands for the little guy, the underdog, the meek, and the unacknowledged, and it abhors the abuse of the strong over the weak. The Character Piglet from Winnie the Pooh represents this Virtue of the Small, and there is a popular book on this very subject.

Rat Qì represents a fundamental insight into the nature and value of “things,” appearances, stuff—the resources that compose the world. And in order to work with resources, Rats must take them apart. Not to analyze them (that’s Rooster), but to make them small enough to carry.

Rat Qì represents the most “zoomed in” quality to life—the Rat is very close to everything and, therefore, sees how everything works, how everything is composed, sort of like a magnifying glass or microscope. The impulse to “zoom in” in order to understand is a Rat impulse. The impulse to take apart, dismantle, and dissect are also Rat impulses, again not to analyze but simply to observe, look closely, and take in the details. Modern science is very “Rat,” and I in fact know many Rat scientists.

Rat Qì probes, inquires, and studies in order to make sense of the overwhelming amount of data we perceive through the senses. Rat power breaks everything down into bite sized manageable pieces. This ability allows for incredible “productivity” in the Western sense, and as such, Rats are very capable people.

Rats (the animals) tend to have big bulging eyes, and they make short, quick, twitchy movements. Rat Qì has a nervous quality due to its constant observation, evaluating safety, taking stock of their surroundings.

Rat Qì is the wisdom of the compound nature of things, that everything is composed of pieces ad infinitum. This wisdom communicates that everything compound is impermanent, which is the source of the Rat’s power and fear.

Rat Qì restarts the Cycle emerging from the Pig. If the last year of the Pig represented dissolution, everything falling apart, then Rat Qì this year represents everything coming back into fragments, still dissolute but active, the dust cloud settling, coming back into focus, starting over. Pig is the final blowout, the party, the big bang, and Rat is left to pick up the pieces.

氣 – Qì Dynamic

The Native Element of the Rat, as I have already mentioned, is Yáng Water, but the Heavenly Stem for this Year is Yáng Metal. Since Metal is the "mother" of Water, the elemental balance of this Year is supportive and generative, which means the positive attributes of the Rat are more available, and we are less likely to struggle against them. They are empowered and strengthened for better or worse.

Metal adds refinement, discretion, and fastidiousness to the Rat image. The Metal Rat is more withdrawn, confident, and self-reflective than other Rats. Spiritual, political, and intellectual matters are enhanced, and transcendent mysticism is more available. Since Metal precedes Water, the Metal Rat waits on the precipice of action in a penetrating state of observation.

Yáng Metal represents the process of refining ore from the Earth into precious metals. It therefore represents transformation, distillation, fermentation, maturation, and examination. All the Rat qualities are therefore sharpened, focused, and actively internalized in the following year.

This is an excess Metal Year, with dry and cold as the fundamental Qì dynamics. This Qì is sharp and subtle, a noticeable change from last year, which was murky, muddy, and sticky. This year is not so warm and fuzzy; it is clear and clean, which offers great virtue to the themes that are available.

Emotionally, we can expect to dry out a bit. Last year was juicy, albeit heavy and overbearing emotionally. This year we may feel parched, stretched thin. Our mental/emotional energy may race and run wild, but we may also be capable of greater focus and tenacity.

In Chinese Medical terms, Lung and Large Intestine Qì are in excess and the Liver and Gallbladder are damaged. Anxiety and depression are elevated, respiratory conditions – cold, coughs, asthma, flu, fatigue, and the like, may be exasperated. Hypochondriac, chest, shoulder, and back pain are on the rise, so are problems with hearing and vision. Women’s health is challenged. Skin conditions can flare.

Th first half of the Year is governed by Shăo Yīn Imperial Fire, the second half by Yáng Míng Dry Metal. The first half of the Year, then, will give rise to heat symptoms in the Upper Burner, highlighting the mental/emotional turmoil available, especially in the form of grief and sadness, so there may be more problems sleeping due to counterflow and rising Qì. This inner heat will dry out in the second half of the Year, with a second dose of Dry Metal, which in Fall will highlight the excess Metal dryness attacking the Lung and Liver symptoms described above.

This Year the Heavenly Stem creates what is called Tōng Tiān Fú, 同天符, which means that Qì has the generally tendency to become excessive, so there will be greater changes in weather, more acute diseases, and the overall tendency of the Year will be somewhat forceful and chaotic. Overall, the Qì dynamic of this Year will be a sobering jolt, a wakeup call from the sloppiness of the Earth Pig.

形 – Manifestation/Character

Before, I delve into my specific “prediction,” I will explore how the Rat Character manifests in people—what about babies born in this or any Year of the Rat? This year, these characteristics are more available to everyone, which I encourage you to observe!

Rat Qì, embodied in individuals, is first and foremost charming. As astute social observers, Rats make fantastic actors, mimics, and they love being center stage, especially when they can play at being someone else. For Rats, other people are valuable resources, so Rat charm is a kind of social power, and it is often their greatest resource in life.

Rat Qì is fundamentally social/community oriented and cooperative but more in the sense of making things happen than out of pure enjoyment. That being sad, Rats are fun loving and funny, and they often possess a rye kind of wit derived from their astute social observations.

Rat Qì is and methodical and “detail oriented.” Many of the professions we value in our culture are very “Rat.” Engineering, accounting, “I-T,” consulting, what we can call information work, anything that requires manipulating data, money, or numbers, moving around bits and pieces, filling out spread sheets and forms—all of this is Rat work, busy work, and it goes to show that our culture actually exalts and highly values Rat Intelligence. Math and the sciences—chemistry, physics, biology, and western medicine are also very Rat like, what we can call "reductionist disciplines."

Rat Qì revels in detail. And although I have mentioned science and math, Rat Qì can be wonderfully artistic. Rats can spend hours painting and penciling in detail, focusing in and fleshing out pattern, shade, and texture. A famous architect once said, “God is in the details;” this is a very Rat sentiment. Shakespeare, in theory, was born in the Year of the Rat, and he invented thousands of words by taking apart existing words and putting them back together into new formations, words like auspicious, sanctimonious, and multitudinous. Shakespeare also exemplified the poetic nature of Rat insight.

Rat Qì also exemplifies the Chinese Virtue of industry, diligence, and perseverance. Imagine you’re on a long journey and come across a mountain in your path. Some characters might go around; some might climb to the top heroically overcoming obstacles; some might wax philosophical and never go anywhere. Rat Qì would probably get a shovel and carve a path through the mountain one shovel-full at a time. You may laugh at such an approach, but Rat Qì can move mountains in this fashion.

At its best, Rat Qì is diligent and patient. Perhaps your family lost everything in a war, exiled to a foreign land with nothing. So, the family bands together and starts a small dry-cleaning business. For three generations the family perseveres and eventually builds back their fortune. This is Rat work ethic—eventually the little things pay off. Since Rats are famously discrete and frugal, they can manage resources, money, and make a little go a long way.

As you can imagine, the virtues of Rat Qì have their opposites. Rat charm and social observation can turn to nervousness and complaining, seeing endless faults and problems in themselves and others. Rat Qì can be self-conscious, worried about appearance, nitpicky, and overly critical of details.

At its core, Rat Qì is very susceptible to the fear of impermanence, deficiency, and loss, which can turn to a panic over resources. This can turn to scheming, manipulating situations, people, things, money, and so on, in order to create safety and security. This can also turn to emotional and material stinginess and selfishness, and Rats are often stereotyped as hoarders, living in clutter, developing strong attachment to material possessions.

Rat can turn cowardly, afraid to take risks. Rats can easily become overwhelmed with details and so become paralyzed, over analyzing and never acting. “But…wait!” is a very Rat like response. Rat Qì can feel small in a big scary world. Alone Rat Qì is vulnerable. Without a nest—resources, friends, partners, family, or a support system, Rats are at their weakest and can wander, felling lost and depressed.

Rat Qì at its best has an immense ability to focus, but depleted, the close-in quality of Rat Qì can turn fidgety and restless; it can turn to over-concentration and a racing mind, endlessly thinking, reevaluating, second guessing, a kind of mono-focus or tunnel vision that can be obsessive.

Because Rat Qì is fragmented, Rats can compartmentalize their experience. They can put memories, feelings, thoughts, emotions, and so on into categories and boxes and “think” their feelings. If traumatized, this compartmentalization can become detached, unemotional, and unable to connect.

The fundamental impulse of Rat Qì is to make sense of the world. Rat Qì represents active dissolution, characterized by Yáng Water, what we can call “activated impermanence,” a primal fear which can easily turn to the spiritual path, and I have met many Rats with a strong spiritual bent. Rat spiritual insight awakens through deep observation, breaking down appearances.

This observant quality of the Rat is available to all of us all through the following Year. It is also especially available during Rat Month, which is in the beginning of winter, every Rat Day, and every Rat Hour, which is between 11pm and 1am.

器 – Application and “Predictions”

Now for the fun part! So, what’s going to happen! I began this exploration of the Rat with teachings from Confucius because the first and most important theme of this year is to re-value and dismantle our society, personally and globally, for our survival and relationship to resources come to the forefront. Dismantle! Change! The media is already telling us our survival is in danger, and it just so happens that this theme will come front and center. A few politicians are already branding the perfect Rat Year slogan, “not me, us!”

Metal Rats have a strong personal sense of moral and spiritual values, and it's time to stand firm. Our social responsibilities must be examined. We can do all the self-cultivation we want, but no human being can be separated from their social context. Confucianism teaches us that we simply cannot heal and become whole human beings alone and adrift in a disordered, individualistic society of “everyone for themselves.” Inequality, poverty, lack of access to food and health care, social isolation…these will be felt like a sharp knife. Metal Rat is a fragmentary energy. Will we step up and unite to dismantle our systems of oppression? Or will fear get the better or us?

An acute awareness of our long-term situation will be felt sharply in all aspects of life. There may be a subtle air of panic this year. We all know the saying, “first rat to abandon a sinking ship.” Rats can sense when danger is coming, especially the portentous Metal Rat, and this Year we may feel said danger, even when it isn’t there.

Foresight is strong; anxious, nervous anxiety about the future is, unfortunately, more available, so watch out for the sky is falling apocalyptic doomsaying. We need to band together and speak up, but we cannot lose our cool. Pressing your face into the dashboard doesn’t get you there any faster. Dystopia isn’t part of this cosmology. For that matter, neither is utopia, so calm down.

It is an important time to act, but panic will breed chaos in a year like this. The Metal Rat offers us clear, rational decision making. The political world has been feeding off people’s gut feelings, but in order to move forward, we need to ignore our gut reactions and invoke critical thinking. Last year was a “feeling” year; this is a “thinking” one. The Metal Rat is disciplined and structured, and for the Rat, last year was sloppy and gross, frankly speaking.

It is difficult not to read this symbol considering the current political climate. Global social themes, environmentalism and climate change, universal health care, affordable housing and education, increased minimum wage – these are all perfect Rat themes because if we do not change the world, we might not survive. The real question is – do we want to? Are we supposed to? What are we saving? Pig Year should have revealed this, and without knowing true value, what are we working for?

Remember, according to Chinese Cosmology, everything we do is a natural adaptation to our situation, and right now we are committing suicide as a species. Why? In this Cosmology, no individual is important, and “leaders” are nothing other than symptoms of how we collectively adapt to Time. What kind of collective inner state are we adapting to by producing people like Trump, Putin, Bolsonaro, etc., and their opposite in people like Bernie Sanders?

Cultures all over the world are in a position to change, and there is an opportunity this year to initiate a total reformation of our social structures. Wood Goat Year (2015) set a precedent (feel the Bern?), but we have not had the momentum to initiate real change until now. So, the election this year is well timed. But I’m not predicting anything in that regard…lol

This is a time to start over, to re-fresh, to reset the dial back to zero. In doing so, it is important to look back and take stock of everything, so that we can edit. This will be a deeply reflective year. Introspection, analysis, and self-reflection will be high on everyone’s radar.

Deeply examine your life. Hold a mirror up to everything and be honest. But watch out for self-hatred and self-cherishing. American life is plagued by the view of original sin and salvation. So many of us struggle with self-worth, which is why so much of the popular self-help rhetoric out there preaches the self-affirmation that we are enough, that we are just fine/complete the way we are, because so many of us do self-work out of a deep sense of self-loathing.

We have deeply internalized the “basic brokenness” and judgment day of salvational Christianity and perpetuate it through the media. We also go to the other extreme and can demonstrate dangerous forms of selfishness in the name of self-care. Remember, the Confucian Path begins by establishing Self-Worth through education and cultivation assuming our basic goodness. You can love and accept yourself and enact constructive self-criticism at the same time (with practice).

Most importantly, examine your relatedness – are you an isolated individual? Or do you live as the center of interpersonal relationships? Keep asking this repeatedly because it is very easy to feel alone in this culture. We have become a society of floating heads. We connect wirelessly, but in reality, we connect very little. It has become easy to ruin relationships with little other than a text.

During Pig Year, our job was to forget our past grievances, to love, and to enjoy each other’s company to the best of our ability. Pig Year was not a time to complain, nit-pick, or analyze, which is why many did so ad nauseum, lol. It was time to rest and forget, to fall asleep all year in a sense. Now that we’ve fallen asleep, it is time to dream. This is a year of practical vision.

In theory, now that Time has fallen asleep, it moves forward in a kind of uninhibited, dream like state of retrospection and analysis. Usually the first dreams you have upon falling asleep in Rat Hour, from 11 pm to 1 am, the time of Yáng Water, are full of wake world reflections, taking apart the previous day. If you record these dreams on a regular basis you should find this to be the case. This is followed by deep sleep in Ox Hour and visionary dreaming in Tiger Hour.

This kind of dreaming is an editing process that allows us to let go and get to deep sleep, and often these dreams are the most honest and telling we have. They show us our fears, regrets, and desires in a way that is often brutal to admit. But these are the important reflections.   What are your deepest fears and regrets?

This Year make a list of all these and do something about it. Apologize to that person; apologize to yourself; what are you really afraid of? Where are you an absolute unmovable fortress? Get all that stuff out, so you can let it go and move on. Leave behind everything that doesn’t support you. Don’t drag the garbage of the past 12 years into the next 12 years. But don’t be too eager to throw out the baby with the bathwater. Revalue – some things/people are worth saving, some relationships are worth mending, and some are not. Who shows up without you having to ask? Who loves you unconditionally despite your flaws? These are the keepers.

The Rat is a pivot point between the last 12 years and the next 12 years, a kind of rectification of Qì related in CCM to the Gallbladder. How we choose to advance determines everything; timing is everything. And the central theme is relatedness in the sense of the Confucian five relationships – to your family, partner/s, community/friends, country, and world.

What works for you? What doesn’t? Are you in the right place? Are you on the right path? With the right person? On the right team? Create a plan. Make a dream team. It’s time for the old interview question – where do you see yourself in 5-10 years? How are you going to get there? Who is your support? The Rat realization is – WE DON’T ACCOMPLISH ANYTHING ALONE! All humans must make alliances, and our alliances make or break us. So, extend some olive branches. Connect and get busy.

This is a very social year, but in a much different sense than the past two, which were much more touchy-feely. This year is practical.   This year is about social structure, hierarchy, order, alliance, responsibility, and obligation. This sounds like a drag to Americans, but remember, the most successful culture in human history (ancient China, arguably) was successful because of Confucian social order, which is again based on examining our social responsibility.

Clubs, teams, and networks, at school, work, religious institutions, or in political and social arenas – these are highlighted this year. Join a cause, go to an event. Protest! March in the damn streets! Alone, rats can do very little, but together, they can gnaw away the foundations and bring down a whole building! There is power in numbers. And there are more of us.

But you may be the one who needs to get the ball rolling! Reach out and get people together. Party! Rats love social gatherings, tea parties, group events, and so on. Connect people; let’s use social media as a tool rather than an addiction.

I titled this exploration – the Virtue of the Small. This year is about the small, the weak, the meek, the poor, the unseen, the unacknowledged, the forgotten, the oppressed, the powerless, the young, the old, the marginalized, the women, the people of color, the LGTBQ community, the disabled…you see where I’m going with this. It’s time to speak up and fight with and for these people. The Metal Rat carries forward the humanitarian themes of the Pig into itinerary action.

This is a Year to zoom in and pay attention to the details. In order to survive, we must break everything down into small manageable details that we can accomplish. Rats are clever, so get clever! And get to work!

This is a year of arts and crafts, of doing small precise work with our hands. Unlike the craftiness of the Horse, Rat craft is more of an artistic meditation rather than a functional project. This is a great year to learn new precision skills like making jewelry, sewing, tattooing, drawing, computer coding, and so on.

This is a fantastic Year to start new projects, to start a business, to start school, to initiate new relationships. Firm, clear goals, passions, aspirations, and ambitions will pay off. The year is all around good for work, productivity, and industry, but mostly for information work. Physical/manual labor is not particularly auspicious though, for it is a trait related more to Rat’s opposite – the Horse.

Most auspicious, perhaps, are financial matters. Metal equals money, and Rats are ruthless and calculating in matters of finance. The world economy will fluctuate widely, but overall, expect the year to be financially viable. So, invest, save, buy, sell, all financial plans/moves are fruitful, but no foolish risks! Rats are extremely cautious, careful, and frugal. Save risks for Tiger or Monkey years!

As always, do watch out for burn out, stress, and anxiety. The excess Yáng Qì of the Year may push people into manic overdrive, and our ambition may get the best of us. We may bite off more than we can chew. Remember, small bits. Rats are tiny. So, take care of yourself. The themes of rest and nourishment from Pig Year don’t stop; we always take Time with us. Metal Rats often have meticulous personal habits, so ride the wave. Metal Rats internally brood and worry over the slightest things, so please take care of your mental health and watch out for the mental health of others. Mental illness is a big theme this Year. Check up on how your “strong” friends are doing. They may be the most vulnerable.

Although this Year is great for minutia, it is not great for organizing. Rats tend to accumulate, so watch out for mess, clutter, hoarding, and the like. Extra attention to cleaning will go a long way.

This Year is most Auspicious for Dragons, Monkeys, Rats, and Oxen, especially if your Outer Element is Metal or Water. Dragons, Monkeys, and Rats make a trine of basic compatibility. And Ox is a special Confucian pair…remember the story of the Rat riding the Ox to win the race?

Rat’s opposite is the Horse. I do not, however, buy into the notion that the opposite relationships are negative. Most Chinese Astrologers will say that opposites are a bad match, but this is nonsense. This is a silly superstition based on the Chinese distaste for “passionate relationships,” which are seen to cause chaos. But this isn’t ancient China…we are a passionate culture.

The opposite relationship is mirror-like; they are complementary opposites. We tend to have trouble with our opposites because they mirror back to us the most challenging aspects of ourselves. For this reason, they can be explosive and charged. So, if they don’t like personal growth and self-reflection, then Horses will have a challenging year, for they tend to jump over small details.

What will happen in the world? I’m just not the kind of astrologer to guess. Astrology is not fortunetelling. My hope is that you take this all to heart--CHANGE THE WORLD and don’t forget to HAVE FUN doing it!

I wish you the all the best in this New Year!

Every harmful action I have done
With my body, speech, and mind
Overwhelmed by attachment, anger and confusion,
All these I openly lay bare before you.
While circling through all states of existence,
May I become an endless treasure of good qualities--
Gathering limitless pristine wisdom and positive potential.
May all beings have happiness and the cause of happiness.
May they be free of suffering and the cause of suffering.

May all beings remain in boundless equanimity, free from attachment and aversion!

FATE IS NOT ACTUALLY CREATED (HAS NO BEGINNING) BUT
IS THE PREDISPOSITION TO RECREATE AND SOLIDIFY KARMIC PATTERNS.
THE EVER-PRESENT OPTION/DISPOSITION TO OPENLY EXPRESS OUR TRUE NATURE IS FREEDOM.
TOGETHER FATE AND FREEDOM CONSTITUTE THE NATURALLY DYNAMIC
DIMENSION WE ARE IN.
-Liu Ming

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Nourishing Within – Qì of the Yīn Earth Pig – Jĭ Hài 己亥 – Year 2019/4717

2/2/2019

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道 – Dào/View

Astrology, 星命家, and Geomancy, 風水, are two premier subjects of the Chinese Traditional Mantic Arts. Their development in China over the last 2,500 years continues a tradition whose history is incalculable.

Many Traditional Cultures of the world understood cyclical or spiralic Time. Unlike modern people, who are frantic and plagued by the anxiety of linear time, traditional folk possess a deep calm that lives in their heart of hearts.

This deep, abiding calm is a kind of memory that comes from the continuity of Life, a confidence that comes from knowing who you are and where you come from, a relaxation that comes from knowing there is neither a perfect future nor a sullied past. It comes from the immortal cycles of Life, called birth and death, in the natural world, from generations surviving countless Winters only to witness the renewals of Spring.

It is hard to say what is remembered, so traditional folk call this memory the Ancestors…

All my life, I have been haunted by indescribable memories, too old to be from this life. These memories do not have form. A sight, a sound, a smell—the sparkle of light on morning dew, the call of ravens, the scent of wild flowers riding cool mountain air trigger something in me that is beyond the context and confines of my ordinary life.

When I see humans engaged with the land, with craft, with food, using their hands to know and shape the world around them, I remember; I weep, for I know the continuity of Life. In dreams, I have seen this continuity and know that I have been dreaming since before I was born.

This dream, this memory is the temporary, compound condition of our many lifetimes and Ancestors, inherited at birth. It appears as a “world,” and as a “self,” as our compulsion to do, make effort, reproduce, survive. This memory, this dream appears in our stories, our intelligence, our wisdom, and in our ignorance, our patterns of pain, our unfinished business.

The more I remember, the more I am deeply troubled, for the world around me seems to forget more and more each day—this technological culture is, as far as we know, unprecedented. Yet, we are human, so we continue to tell stories and speak through symbols; our media, our movies, our entertainment all continue the same legacy once shared around the communal fire.

For long have we humans gathered around fires, under open skies, in ceremony and in ritual, to share in the naked experience of our humanity; this is the call of life, the call of the Ancestors.

Traditional Cultures understood that substance is relative Time. Nothing is solid; things only appear solid in Time—mountains flow like waves, gold eventually turns to dust. Time as such is not a straight line but rather a series of spirals that appear to repeat only because they are constantly renewed. In Chinese Astrology we call this Jiĕ Qì 解氣. In this sense, humans have no history—we have memory. We’ve all been here before, yet it feels like the first time…

Jĭ Hài 己亥 –
Year of the Yīn Earth Pig

Welcome back to the Year of the Yīn Earth Pig! As we yet again approach the New Moon of Spring Begins, and the Year of the Earth Dog shakes it tail one last time, we have so much to reflect upon. The past Year brought many changes, and it will be a long time (decades) before we truly understand the value and consequences of what has passed.

Before we continue, I encourage you to reflect, briefly, upon the major themes of the Earth Dog—loyalty, trust, safety, boundaries, argument, spite, territory, love, affection, companionship, in/out groups, stubbornness, connection, trauma, anxiety, solitude, privacy, protection, justice, inquiry, fairness, and equity, to name a few. How have these manifested in your life? In the world around you?

Staring February 5th, we “officially” transition into the year of the Yīn Earth Pig, so put on your party hats! As the 12th, or “last,” Animal in the Zodiac, the Pig is the party at the end! All your Ancestors have ever wanted is for you to invite the people you love into your home, so you can cook, eat, and make babies—your enjoyment is their immortality!

As we delve into the richness of the Pig symbol, I invite you to consider the possibility that life can be remarkably simple and that the deepest meaning of everything might be right on the surface. If you ask a Pig—what is the meaning of life? If they’re honest, they will probably say, “Food! Sex! Music, Art!” So, relax. I know the sky is falling, and we all have monumental ambitions to save the world, which seems to be spinning more out of control every day, but this Year is already inviting us to calm the hell down, eat a snack, get cozy with a loved one, and take a nap—the “future” might actually depend on it.

象 – Symbolism

First, in order to understand the nature of the Earth Pig, we must examine the Chinese Character for Family, Jià, 家. The character contains the radical mián, 宀, which means roof, and the radical shĭ, 豕, which means pig/boar, so it’s a pig under a roof, and it is the Chinese word for family or blood relations. It also means household, home, and domestic, and it is also a term for a lineage, tradition, or school, such as Chánjià, 禪家, or Dàojià 道家 (Buddhist/Daoist).

The Character Jià, 家, and the symbol of the Pig, are intimately related to the Chinese principal of family, continuity, immortality, and procession, which exemplify the nature of Traditional Culture itself. The Pig is at the heart of what it means to be Chinese, for "China" was the decision of about 80 cultures to stop being nomads and to farm grain instead. That meant no more herds, and since there are no herds of pigs, the pig became their meat of choice.

There is an expression among Chinese farmers that goes, “we only dig in our Ancestors.” Meaning the family has been there so long the soil is made of their dead relatives—this is Earth Pig Qì. This Year will bring forward memories and values so ancient they can’t be named. This is a year to remember what we are trying to save and to rest so that we can do so.

Wealth in Chinese culture was often measured by the number of Pigs you owned, for Pigs were and still are a mainstay of the Chinese diet—fatty pork, rice, and cabbage. Many other ancient traditions outlawed pork, but the Chinese made a different decision, in part because Pigs don’t need to be grazed like cows and sheep. Everyone in China eats pigs, and as any vegetarian who has traveled in China can attest, it is very common to order a vegetarian meal only to find big hunks of pork in it.

Of course, this sounds strange from our perspective, but take yourself back to an early agrarian people, transitioning from a nomadic to a domestic relationship with animals. Within a few generations, the wild boar transformed from a big black hairy tusked beast to a fat pink pig that could give birth to and nurse 60 piglets in a litter—this is the very meaning of family, reproductive essence, and motherhood. The Pig is therefore the ultimate symbol of nourishment, nurturing, and generosity.

Furthermore, the Chinese were astounded to find that Pigs ate everything; they are garbage disposals and were sometimes kept under the outhouse. Yet, their flesh is white, cool, and sweet, with no toxicity, which may not have been the case with the pigs in the Middle East. Lamb, in contrast, the food of nomads, whom the Chinese were trying to distance themselves from, is very warming, and their marrow is bitter and hot and makes you want to ride into battle. The cool nature of the Pig, however, makes you want to wallow, to stay in the same place and give up fighting.

To the Chinese, the value of animals lies in their capacity to transform, and Pigs are the “great transformers,” able to digest anything! This capacity will be at the heart of the upcoming Year, for Earth is the element of nourishment, inner transformation, and digestion.

In Chinese Medicine, the Pig is associated with the Sān Jiāo, or “Triple Burner,” a mysterious and much debated Organ Network that has no physical reality as such (although many are trying to make it physical to appease materialists). While the function of the Triple Burner is manifold, we can summarize it as “metabolism,” divided into "upper, middle, and lower;" it is the unseen Qì that governs the processes of transformation, the conversion of our intake to Qì and Blood, and the harmonizing force that allows our Organ Networks to flow and work together as a whole.

The symbol of the Pig in China came from the wild mother boar, so like many Animals of the Chinese Zodiac, the Pig has a dual image—domestic yet fierce. The wild mother boar was seen as a god of forest fecundity and a protector of forest spirits, for she is the fiercest of protectors. Unlike many wild animals, she will die to protect her young. A mother boar will charge at a tiger three times her size without a second thought. Pigs, then, carry this element of ferocity despite their Yīn nature.

Together, the Pig and Dog Years share the theme of protecting that which is most valuable. The Dog follows orders and is selective, tribal, but the Pig is not; to the Pig everyone is family. As such, Pigs are considered the ultimate protectors, associated with the power and wrath of the feminine—the energy of momma bear, and originally the Pig was related to the Bear in Chinese Cosmology, associated with the Milky Way, the Big Dipper, and the House Constellation of the Northern Palace. The Pig and Bear are associated with the Daoist Ritual Dance of Thunder Magic called the Pace of Yu, which mirrors the cyclical creation and destruction of the universe.

In Chinese Astrology, the Pig is the most “domestic” of symbols, exemplifying our most cherished notions of "home." It shares this quality in a trine with the Rabbit and Goat. Pigs make family wherever they go. Of all the signs, the Pig is the most personable; they are “people” persons, and as such, they are the most humanitarian, accepting, and concerned with the welfare of others. This connection to people, to the home, to reproduction is why the Earth Pig is the most connected to the Chinese teachings on Ancestors, which will be heightened in the coming year.

氣 – Qì Dynamic

The “Native Element” of the Pig is Yīn Water—release, sleep, dissolution, death, collapse, return, resolve, completion, “the end,” which in the Chinese View are a cause for celebration, because there is no end! The nature of Water offers us the possibility of relief, of being finished, to feel accomplished and relax because the work has been done. However, the Outer Element of the Year is Earth, so the Qì dynamic will manifest the relationship patterns of Earth and Water, which we call controlling/restraining.

This is not a “big” ending like the Water Pig but rather a big procession, a party rolling out the fruits of our labor, a massive banquet of Life to appreciate and digest before renewing our inspirations in the years to come. This Year will be one of great abundance.

Many interpret the control cycle as “destructive” or “conflicting,” but this is not always the case, and each controlling dynamic manifests differently. The outcome of Earth controlling Water is fertility. Earth sucks up Water and produces new life in the form of “Wood,” which renews the cycle of Time. Earth can “dam” Water, meaning it can be shaped to control the flow of Water, which has no shape, into the form of rivers, aqueducts, canals, and so on. As such, the Earth Pig is more controlled and contained than the Water Pig. Earth harnesses the power of Water, which creates flowers, food, and new life. If Earth overacts on Water, or if Water is excess or deficient, we get “dampness,” mud, congestion, stickiness, and floods, or dryness, drought, famine, and dust, which we will discuss later.

For the Pig, Yīn Water represents a strange paradox called extreme Yīn. This paradox says that when things become extreme, they turn into their opposites. So, although the nature of the Pig is the most Yīn, the most connected to death and dissolution, they are the most “manifest,” the most embodied of all the signs. Pigs are deeply sensual; for them, the senses reveal the nature of reality through direct experience, which is found this Year in the controlling Earth phase, where everything is most apparent, most obvious.

Yīn Earth is full manifestation, and Yīn Water is full dissolution. The Earth Pig, then, is the ultimate paradox and, in a way, offers a deep celebration of life in all its forms, fully expressed on the surface for all to see. In general, Pigs don’t have a “hidden” nature; they might as well be naked. Therefore, they are the antithesis of the Snake, who is the most secretive, hidden, mysterious, and ineffable. Pigs can be very deep, spiritual people, but they’ll tell you all about it. They’ll share everything about themselves whether you ask or not.

Pig Qì itself, embodied in human individuals, is this impulse to let go, to release all conceptualization into direct experience through the senses. In one sense, Yīn Water represents emptiness, but it does so in the Buddhist sense, as in the emptiness of our concepts, not our direct experience. The experience of Pig Qì, then, is the fullness of life beyond conceptualization, seeking fullness/completion through the senses. Our senses offer us the most direct experience of life; our body is how we know manifest reality.

Pigs, then, see and experience everything material, physical, and manifest to the senses as art, as food, as the reason we come into being. If you were to ask a Pig—why are people born? They may respond—food! And this is not shallow. Perhaps the only reason the universe manifests is so you can enjoy the taste of ice cream. Losing yourself in the moment is a Pig moment.

Pig Qì sees the fullness of the manifest world as art, as food, as something to be devoured, savored, and enjoyed. Pig Qì revels in music, food, dance, clothing, painting, and the sensations they inspire. Pigs collect material items and derive great power/sustenance from them, for objects are not mere symbols but energy. Pigs, therefore, are sensuous Characters who make great chefs, artists, musicians, lovers, parents, and nurtures.

病 – Dampness – 濕

I know we’re all very concerned with problems, so what can go wrong this year? The main pathology for this Year, as I mentioned earlier, will come from imbalances of Earth and Water. Too much Water and we get dampness; not enough and we get dryness.

First, I want to say that people in Chinese Medicine are often obsessed with pathological thinking, and so any mention of dampness brings up our protestant obsession with murdering the devil, the “evil qi.” Dampness is not a pathology. Period. Soil must be damp to grow life. Our bodies, our lives need dampness and moisture—this is the principal of fertility. Life requires lubrication! We also need dryness, otherwise we get moldy!

We obviously don’t want too much or too little of either, and be warned, this may be the juiciest year in 60 years! So, what will dampness and dryness look like? In short, think mud. When Earth and Water become imbalanced, we get stickiness—things get slow, stuck, stagnant, messy, insensitive, stupid, and unresponsive. We wallow in our crap.

We want dampness and moisture to move like a cool refreshing wind. Damp Earth is rich, sensitive, and sweet. If you have ever held rich fertile soil, you know the feeling. If fluids don’t move, they build up. So, without circulation, this Year could get sticky. Watch out for lethargy, laziness, boredom, depression, tiredness, congestion, and indigestion in all forms.

You may feel physically and emotionally stuck in life, unable to move forward. But remember, this is not a year to move forward but one to get all snuggly, rest, and appreciate where you are. Imagine a happy Pig rolling around in the mud. They’re not going anywhere, but they’re having a blast getting muddy! This is the Earth Pig.

When we get too damp, we get dumb. Nothing goes in. We get clogged. Without circulation, we don’t have room for new ideas, and so we replay the same old stories. Our culture reaches for stimulants for inspiration, but this is like running on fumes. So, keep things moving, not with “progress” but with enjoyment. Stimulate and nourish your silly side! Humor is the key word for circulation this year.

Sorry for the graphic image but think constipation and diarrhea, metaphorically speaking. What would this look like in culture, relationships, or politics? Imbalances in Earth and Water lead to bad digestion and elimination. Too much, not enough, we get problems. Medically, constipation and diarrhea can be caused by either, so the key for understanding the pathology of this Year is “FOOD.” What are you taking in in terms of nourishment? And are you lubricated properly? This includes ideas, entertainment, friendships, sex, causal conversations…everything that goes in the sense doors. What you take in, and when, determines what comes out the other side!

形 – Manifestation/Character

What about those born in the Year of the Pig? The key words for the Pig Character are honesty and enjoyment. The direct experience of our senses beyond thinking is a kind of honesty. We all wish we could let ourselves enjoy without guilt, but so many of us feel guilty when we indulge. We over think, justify, and strategize when it comes to our senses. We “treat” ourselves for hard work, as if enjoyment must be earned through suffering.

Pig Qì is enjoyment without the guilt. If we’re truly honest, we all want to eat, sleep, and screw, and sometimes that’s just fine. This honesty manifests as plain-speaking, confessing to deep sensual desire, seeking simplicity. Enjoyment is human honesty.

Pigs Qì is blunt and to the point, yet it is also caring and compromising, like a grand-mother who wants to see everyone happy. This grandmother energy of the Pig is associated with the family, and Pig Qì is again the very symbol of family life. As part of the “domestic trine,” alongside the Goat and Rabbit, Pigs are often homebodies who would rather throw a barbeque and socialize than be alone and meditate. Pig Qì is gregarious; it enjoys people and relating to others, especially through enjoyment. So, Pigs are often fun loving and fun seeking.

Because Pigs want everyone to be happy and enjoy themselves, they are among the most tolerant and accepting of Characters. Pigs are often very humanitarian, unselfish, and interested in human rights and dignity. Yīn Water, the end of the cycle, has seen it all and done it all and so accepts everything in totality and just wants to have fun before we all bite the dust.

This accepting quality of the Pig is a form of generosity. Pig generosity would give you the shirt off its back. As the end of the cycle, Pig Qì represents everything being let go of, given away. If a Pig had only one bowl of soup, they would most likely divide it up and give away spoonfuls so everyone could taste it. And they really want you to taste it and enjoy it in the same way they do.

When describing themselves, Pigs may very well describe their favorite food, let’s say strawberries, and in tasting that strawberry, you taste them. Ming once described a fellow Pig he met travelling who kept a journal of all the deserts he tried in each country; for him, these tastes represented the quintessence of his experience.

However, this sensuous nature of the Pig is not stupid. Pig Qì is the height of eloquence, for they experience words, ideas, and symbols too as food and art, and they revel in finding delicious ways to express and say things in the hope of evoking deep feelings. Liu Ming was like this; he was a gifted speaker, and his talks evoked deep experiential rather than conceptual understanding, as if his wisdom came directly from unmediated experience. Liu Ming was also a natural comedian who spent most of his life giggling. Pig Qì is naturally funny, and their humor comes from their honesty. Being honest with ourselves about our selfish desires should make us laugh because laughing at ourselves is the highest wisdom.

Pig Characters are naturally spiritual, for Pig Qì and Yīn Water represent the fluidity, interconnectedness, emotion, and empathy associated with the profundity of chaos, death, and dissolution beyond reckoning. Pig Qì represents the headlong charge into letting go, giving everything away into direct experience.

Pig Characters are often unstoppable and have a unique kind of aggression. Their fierce and protective character lends to a hardworking nature that stops at nothing to get what it wants. This struggle feels heroic to the Pig because they share the rewards of their struggle with others and give everything away for the greater good. Pigs often start out aggressive and end up heroes.

Pig’s natural experience of the senses can lead to self-indulgence. The image of the Pig is often associated with overeating, and in our culture calling someone a “pig” is very specific. This revelation of the senses and the nature of Yīn Water can lead to drugs, drink, risky sex, and depletion through hedonism and self-destruction.

The artistic and sensual nature can also become an addiction to comfort and luxury as well as a kind of flamboyance, spending money thoughtlessly on material objects and finery. This comfort seeking can turn to lethargy, laziness, and aimless loafing, especially in the form of the Earth Pig, which is the most prone to stagnation. Pig Qì is well represented by the character Pig-Pen from Charlie Brown, a disheveled kind of dust cloud associated with a lack of care.

The desire for material objects can turn greedy towards a selfish secretiveness that strives to get what it wants so it can indulge.

The generous, accepting, and loving nature of the Pig can easily turn to gullibility. Pigs are the most likely to trust and can be easily duped, likely to give everything away to the first stranger with a sad story. Their honesty expects honesty, and so Pigs may believe everything you tell them. And they can be generous to a fault, giving everything away until they have nothing.

Pig tolerance can turn to long suffering abuse. Known as “great transformers,” out of all the Characters, Pigs (and Ox) can take the most abuse and are likely to stay in bad situations for a long time, especially in domestic situations, and especially because they love so deeply and want to help their abuser. Pig Qì can handle anything without trauma because Yīn Water lets everything go. The Great Transformer can turn any difficulty into enjoyment and humor, and Pigs are able to laugh at the most difficult situations.

Finally, the eloquence of the Pig can turn to what is commonly known as “Pig Headedness.” Pigs can be forceful, aggressive, argumentative, and can hold very strong opinions. Their honesty in speech can also get them into trouble, for they are likely to say anything despite the consequences.

These qualities of the Pig are available to everyone during this Pig year, and will be heightened during Pig month, on Pig days, and during Pig hour. Pig Hour is between 9-11 pm and is the time for relaxation, sex, and sleep, all very “piggy” experiences.

器 – Application and “Predictions”

Now that we understand the Pig symbol, Qì dynamic, and character manifestation, we get to the good part—what about the New Year? How will all this manifest? What will happen to me? To the world?

Well, as usual, I will reiterate that astrology is not fortune telling, we each have our own unique Character and Fate through which we experience the Qì of the calendar. There is no auspicious year; the Qì of the Year is a buffet, and you eat what your appetite demands. I have so far offered you an exploration of the Pig’s symbolism so that you can explore it for yourself in the following year.

Nourishing Within

Out of all 60 years, this one demands that you ENJOY and NOURISH yourself, so if you’re prone towards anhedonia, this one could be rough. This Year will be a mirror reflecting your relationship to pleasure, enjoyment, and satisfaction. If this relationship is troubled, you will be prompted to examine this. It could be a rude awakening.

This is not a year to “start” things, to frantically move forward, which comes next year in the form of the Metal Rat. The nature of Yīn Earth and Water is the complete return to stillness, characterized also by the Ox and the heart of Winter, by 1-3 am, when you’re supposed to be deep asleep. If you expect to go forward with great ambition, you will probably deplete yourself. In the cycles of Time, this is an “ending,” time to slow down and relax because we “start,” energetically speaking, again next year.

This is, however, a great year to learn new things—not because it’s good for you, but because you enjoy it. Learn to cook, dance, sing, whatever, but please follow the enjoyment factor. Pigs follow their fun. Don’t get caught up in whether you’re good at things. Just ask—do I enjoy myself? What is the yumminess factor? Does this nourish me? Learn “useless” things with no productive value.

Please take the time to SLOW DOWN and REST! If you want to make the best out of Pig Year, you should enjoy your breakfast. You should nap—Earth Pig = nap time. Take the time to savor your food and feel it nourish you. With each bite, ask—am I satisfied? And stop when you hit satisfaction. Let your appetite inform everything. Ask your body what it needs. Does it need a carrot, a song, a nap, some sexy time? Don’t look at your watch to tell you if you’re hungry or tired. The old Zen saying—when hungry eat, tired sleep is the perfect motto for Earth Pig Year.

Learn new recipes. Pay attention to the vegetables at the store—how they change; some get big while others small; some are scarce while others abundant. Go the Farmer’s Market and eat what’s in season. And please cultivate a “staple food” – this is basis of Chinese Medicine and the essence of the continuity of your ancestors; they worked their butts off to harvest a staple all year long and cultivate diversity along with the seasons. This is Earth and Water, the basis of your body and digestion.

Open yourself to the rich world of your senses. Indulge in the sound of bird song. Go into a strawberry. Let a hug linger. Notice how your senses generate the world around you, and notice that they’re all forms of touch—light touching the eyes, sound touching the ears, and so on. Let the meaning of life be right on the surface where sensation arises. No need to overthink reality, because there isn’t one...except for the one you make up. So, stop spinning out—again, this is a time to LET THE MIND REST. But when you do think, which you will, let your thoughts dance and play—Pigs are never seriousness! Seriousness will cause stagnation.

This is a year to kick up your heals, enjoy what you have created over the last 12 Years, and share it with others. What do you have to offer and share? If you have struggled and feel you have nothing to show then you may feel depressed. However, no one cares, so relax. You don't have to do anything with your life. You were not born to be productive. We abide nowhere and possess nothing.

This is a year to remember, to reflect, to revalue, and to reconnect with core human values. This is a year to savor and appreciate everything that we’re normally too busy to notice. Next Year, the Metal Rat, will feel much busier and more anxious, so better to take stock now before we all start scrabbling for resources.

We must eat, we must sleep, we must reproduce—this is where we find human life. The world seems to be more complex and more doomed every day, but this may be a trance created by the media, so double check yourself. If we want to change the world, we must take the cycles of time seriously, and this part of the cycle = rest. Pigs can be rather heroic, but what they work to save is not abstract ideology but universal human values.

The Qì of the Earth Pig harkens back to the core values of our Ancestors. Honor and remember where you come from, and if you don’t know, find out. And remember that you got here because your ancestors had sex; they nourished themselves and worked hard to do so. And they want grandbabies.

Eat the food your ancestors ate, which sorry to say might include gluten, lol. I know it’s the devil, but if you’re human, it nourished your Ancestors for the past 12,000+ years, so calm down . If you’re Polish and starve your Ancestors to death by eating salads all year, they’ll come for you. This is a year to back up and revalue how you nourish yourself in every sense of the word, so start with food. We’re most of us uprooted immigrants living on stolen land, eating completely out of whack with the seasons, estranged from our ancestors, so it’s understandable.

The inner and outer nature of the Year, Water and Earth, create a paradox—what is hidden becomes fully revealed. Our darkest desires to eat and sleep and screw may bubble up to the surface, and in the current culture of repression this may manifest as a lot of strangeness, or I should say more strangeness than usual, which could manifest everywhere from the media to your personal relationships. Expect a little weird, and if you’re comfortable with your weirdness, then it’s all good.

Expect hidden and repressed things to make themselves known. Expect unrelenting honesty. All the dirty secrets, all the skeletons in the closet, all the ghosts you thought were buried will rise from the Earth. This is a great year to look at your shit and laugh at it. Get naked, look in the mirror and tell yourself your darkest story. Giggle at it. It's over.

In the Dog Year, relationships were on the forefront, but they may have been tentative. Dog year was about sniffing people out, finding your tribe; it was about trust or lack thereof. It was about boundaries, intimacy, bonding, and facing the traumas around your heart. Many relationships may have ended, and many new ones may have begun. How’d that go for you?

Pig Year is a pig pile! The Earth Pig is the ultimate humanitarian sign. It invites you to open your heart and your doors to everyone. This is a year to break down that wall! Earth equals equality, harmony. In our progress to save the world, this year we MUST LOVE. We must say a serious fuck you to borders and walls, and we must be deeply concerned with nourishing everyone.

Friendship, love, community, and especially family—all kinds of relationships are on the forefront. Last year they were revalued, this year forget all that stuff and just have fun with people. Let go of all the stupid expectations that no one will ever live up to. Thomas Merton once said, “our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy.” Very Pig Year.

What will happen in the world? I’m just not the kind of astrologer to guess. Astrology is not fortunetelling. My hope is that you take this all to heart--PLEASE REST and HAVE FUN! But not too much! Too much will get you muddy.

Tigers, Rabbits, Goats, and Pigs are the most apt to digest this Year; Snakes are the opposite of Pigs and may struggle the most!

The happy Pig is plain speaking, caring, sensuous, compromising, eloquent, tolerant, humanitarian, reliable, unselfish, funny, hardworking, luck, and gregarious. The unhappy Pig is self-indulgent, indulgent, oversexed, luxury loving, flamboyant, secretive, long-suffering, gullible, and self-destructive. Best of luck in the New Year!

Every harmful action I have done
With my body, speech, and mind
Overwhelmed by attachment, anger and confusion,
All these I openly lay bare before you.
While circling through all states of existence,
May I become an endless treasure of good qualities--
Gathering limitless pristine wisdom and positive potential.
May all beings have happiness and the cause of happiness.
May they be free of suffering and the cause of suffering.

May all beings remain in boundless equanimity, free from attachment and aversion!

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開光 Kāiguāng—Opening the Light: Reflections on Chinese Medicine from China

9/29/2018

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As soon as we talk, it’s all contradiction. As soon as we think, it’s all confusion. – Jigme Lingpa

The Chinese term 開光, Kāiguāng, meaning to open the light, is a Daoist term for ritually consecrating sacred objects, breathing the light of Dao into practice. I have returned from pilgrimage in China to Mount Wŭdāng, and I feel the living presence of this great place has opened a light in me that I have been looking for in a time of darkness. You may ask—what light?

I have been studying Chinese Medicine in school now for two years. It has been a challenging journey, filled with great revelation and frustration. While my frustrations with the study of medicine are complicated, they boil down to a simple discord between my intuition about the nature of the medicine itself and the pedagogy of modern TCM. I believe they are at odds with one another, and the result is a systemic confusion.

In short, I believe, and (re)discovered in China, that the essence of Chinese Medicine is profoundly simple, and I would like to share this simplicity with you. However, the focus of modern TCM is remarkably complicated and perhaps overly concentrated on misleading details. It is obsessed with symptoms and defines everything in terms of pathology. CCM, unfortunately, is not much different, except that it adds an academic obsession with symbols, language, and textbooks on top of an already bloated system of diagnosis.

If you’re like most people, you probably associate medicine with pathology. In other words, medicine is something you take when you’re sick, so obviously medicine must be about understanding illness—how and why things “go wrong.” Rarely do you hear medicine defined in terms of health. Liu Ming used to ask rooms full of western doctors to define health, and none could do it. In fact, they rarely understood the question, for it seemed “philosophical,” and medicine is “science.”

Our culture is now going through a profound change, and we are seeking out “wellness.” But whether it is through herbs, acupuncture, massage, or any of the many other healing modalities found in “alternative medicine,” our training is still largely focused on seeking out and diagnosing symptoms and pathologies. We look for problems and solutions. I have been in Chinese medical school for two years now, and with a few exceptions, I have heard no consistent definition of health.

I had hoped that my school, which prides itself on being “Classical Chinese Medicine” or CCM, as opposed to TCM or Traditional Chinese Medicine, a byproduct of Communist China, would offer a different path, but alas, this has not been the case. The presentation of CCM is, as far as I can tell, a convoluted mess, and my school is struggling very hard to define its identity among many differing styles and in many conflicting conversations, all exploring and asking—what does it mean to be “Classical?” And it is asking this question in an environment where TCM is the dominant paradigm that standardizes the education and determines licensure, hence limiting the conversation to a battle between spiritual idealism and legality.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m profoundly grateful and love my school. But, after two years of exploring this question at NUNM, I have so far been disappointed in the response, because it goes against everything my teachers taught me, which was the inspiration that brought me here in the first place.

My teachers taught me that medicine can be a path, and that path is founded on health and basic sanity. They taught me that medicine and astrology are one expression of the fundamental laws of nature—time and space. The laws of nature and the principles of medicine/astrology contain no problems, no pathologies, no mistakes, and no illnesses. The laws of nature are immortal and contain no birth or death, only a cyclical, self-resolving movement we call qì/prāṇa.

Furthermore, they taught me that there are no answers in books. Books are helpful, but we learn from people. Lineage is held by people, not books. Wisdom is non-conceptual, unmediated, direct. A book is like a signpost that points beyond itself. It is dangerous to mistake symbols for reality.

Don’t get me wrong, I love books and literature, but in relation to medicine, the history of books is flimsy. And as far as I can tell, in the current discussion, CCM is defined by its textbooks. Many people claim “lineage,” but as this is mostly nonsense from a traditional point of view. In other words, what makes CCM “classical,” as opposed to TCM, is that it is derived from “classical texts,” such as the Nèijīng, the Shānghánlùn, and the Yìjīng, rather than from modern texts. Either way, it’s all about the books. Textbooks and a lot of eloquent talk about “self-cultivation” and Qigong—this is what modern Chinese Medicine boils down to. I call bullshit. And I would explain why.

First, however, I ask you to contemplate the following quote by Ted Kaptchuk, a modern popularizer of TCM,

The literate medicine of China may not have been available to most Chinese people throughout history. Paul Unschuld estimates that “the history of high medicine in China was never the medicine of ninety percent of the population.” In the rural areas of China, literacy was extremely rare and health care was primarily in the hands of various magico-religious practitioners or folk herbalists. Even in the cities, during every epoch this was true.

In other words, most doctors and patients in China did not read, so how can we define the medicine of China in terms of books? Most people in human history have been illiterate, and the history of literature is the history of a small but powerful elite. For the most part, the elite were men, and they wrote books on men’s medicine. The medicine of the people was, then, carried on in oral traditions by folk healers, midwives, shamans, and family doctors.

These people learned their craft through apprenticeship and by following a living example. Lineage, in this context, which was often familial, was private, secretive, and initiatory, meaning to study required supplication, ritual initiation, and vows/commitment, which is why “lineage” today is mostly a joke. No one does this anymore.

Furthermore, every textbook has been corrupted by time. They have been copied, lost, edited, interpreted, and altered to suit the changing fashion of the times. The Chinese have argued, bickered, and disagreed for a millennium on the meaning and practices found in textbooks. They have written commentaries upon commentaries upon commentaries about commentaries. This mess has only ever been sorted out by having a living teacher and lineage, for the Chinese have never been concerned with anything “making sense” in the western sense of the word, although many Germans have really tried to make it make sense.

So, now back to China. After some delirious travels, I found myself in the misty mountain temple complex called Wŭdāng Shān. There are five sacred mountains in Daoism, each dedicated to the Five Elements. Wŭdāng is the manifestation of the Water Element, and the spirit of the Mountain is called Xuánwŭ (玄武), the Dark Warrior, the Black Tortoise of the North, also called Zhēnwŭ (真武), which happens to be a patron deity of the Liu Family. So, for me this was an important pilgrimage. My intention was to connect to the spirit of the medicine in its direct, non-conceptual form, outside the confines of textbooks, and to connect to the spirit of the Daoist tradition I profess to practice.

During the trip, I had the privilege to study with three remarkable teachers, and each of them confirmed my intuition about Chinese Medicine in different ways. Essentially, I was looking for some confirmation that the Classical Tradition was not about textbooks but rather about a state of being, which happened to be prevalent in medieval China, a view which produce medical practitioners who became immortals. According to my teachers, this state of being is defined as the “View,” and this was the essence communicated during my time in China.

So, the definition of “Classical Medicine” in my own terms, as I learned it from Liu Ming and Dharma Bodhi, has nothing to do with books. Rather, the term Classical refers to a period in which a certain “View” of reality was predominant. This View, of course, produced the books, but the books are really besides the point. To practice Classical Medicine, then, is to live in the state of being described by these view teachings. The methods of medicine become an expression of that view. The fruition of applying those methods to patients, and to yourself, affirms the view as a coherent expression of the nature of reality.

The living embodied expression of view is what is transmitted through lineage. So, although textbooks are, in a sense, dead, a lineage is something alive and unbroken. The problem with modern CCM is that many people are, to no fault of their own, trying to revive this living expression through dead books without receiving the living view, the ritual initiations, and so on, and many are trying to do so intellectually, inferring and imputing their own views from and onto classical Chinese characters. Most are doing so simply because the Communist reformation of China destroyed many of its traditions, and the books are all we have left.

Furthermore, many are adding extraneous elements from other traditions to fill in the gaps that would have been provided by a teacher. Hence, we get Chinese Medical practitioners using tuning forks, singing bowls, Tibetan mantras, and so on, while sticking crystals up their patients noses and praying to Mother Mary. Not that there is anything wrong with that, per se, but it’s simply not Chinese (except in the sense of being syncretic).

The three teachers I studied with in China each expressed a part of the View of Chinese Medicine that matches the Classical View I received from Liu Ming and Dharma Bodhi, as relating to three principals respectively, which I inferred—time, space, and light. You will probably not find this definition in the textbooks; it comes from the Siddha traditions of India, and it is my way of organizing the transmission of essential knowledge on how to practice.

The first teacher, Dr. Su Xinghua, taught us a system of numerology applied to clinical practice that essentially boiled down to the aspect of medicine called Time. In fact, he has been the first medical teacher to discuss the relationship of Time to healing in an honest and realistic way informed by Astrology. Astrology has been altogether lost in modern TCM. Many have academic knowledge of the subject, but I have yet to hear ANY teachings on Astrology in school aside from an academic description of symbols. Symbols are interesting, but how do we use them?

From what I learned, Astrology and Medicine are the same subject, approached from different perspectives. Details aside, Dr. Su began the teaching by saying that people heal when it’s time for them to heal. We can treat them and help alleviate symptoms, but in the end, healing is beyond our control. It’s up to the cycles of Time, and any notion otherwise is arrogance. The timeliness of illness and recovery, then, has two aspects, that of the calendar and that of one’s personal/natal astrology.

While he admitted that Natal Astrology is useful, Dr. Su focused on the aspect of the calendar called, 節氣, Jiéqì, or “Qì Nodes,” the 24 Seasons of the Chinese Calendar, specifically on what Liu Ming called the “8 Gates,” the 4 Solstices/Equinoxes and the respective beginning of the Four Seasons, which fall between them. These are powerful times for healing and meditation, transitions where the Qi of each Season is most accessible.

Dr Su offered several stories describing unsuccessful treatments that turned around when the Qì of the Season became available. In other words, human beings are not separate from nature; we are nature, even if we live in cities, stare at smart phones, and shop at Walmart. We are Time, and on Earth, Time expresses through the flow of the seasons. All this week, for example, as the leaves are beginning to change, I have been getting a dry, scratchy throat, a perfect expression of the dry, metal of Autumn.

If we factor in our Natal Astrology, which dictates personal cycles of Ancestral possession and resolution, then we get a much different image of medicine. Medicine, from this perspective, cannot function without a practical knowledge of seasonal Qì, of the calendar. We must know the difference between a winter pulse and a summer pulse. We must know whether an illness, like my dry throat, is perfectly natural or not. We must know when and under what conditions a person is likely to heal so that we do not over treat them. We must also let go of the notion that we in fact “do” anything and let in the possibility that we are vessels for the expression of Time.

The second teacher, Dr. Li Xin, introduced a profound and yet deceptively simple view of diagnosis that essentially boiled down to the aspect of medicine called Space, or direction. He introduced us to an idea called the 氣機, qìjí, or qì dynamic, which I have yet to hear about at school. In short, every person, every herb, every acupuncture point, and so on, has a unique Qì dynamic, and medicine is nothing other than perceiving and working with these dynamics.

Every dynamic in the universe expresses a combination of the Five Movements—Opening, Gathering, Ascending, Descending, and Stillness (or Harmonizing). This is the profound simplicity of Chinese Medicine that Dr. Li Xin discussed. We do not need to name every symptom and pathology. We do not need to complicate diagnosis with endless details. We need only to perceive the direction/dynamic of Qì, the qìjí in the patient, where and how it is functioning. On what layer or level is the patient’s qìjí in action? Where is someone stuck?

Once we perceive this dynamic, we must have a clear idea about how we want to work with it through the qì dynamics of herbs and acupuncture. Are we harmonizing and gathering in the middle burner? Are we descending the qì of the upper burner? Which herbs do this? The simpler and more direct the treatment, the more powerful. If we are moving qì in the right direction, then we are helping the patient.

Dr. Li is renowned for his capacity to diagnose a patient simply by looking at them. He showed me that Chinese Medicine can be very simple without losing its efficacy. And, he affirmed to me that the practice comes from a state of being that perceives everything in terms of direction and movement, without names, without labels, and without pathologies. In the sense, the practice becomes a non-conceptual dance of direction in space, what Taiji calls “push hands.” Out of every teacher of Chinese Medicine I have thus far encountered, I most aspire to be and practice like Dr. Li Xin.

The third teacher, Dr. Sylvie Martin, introduced us to a method of acupuncture practice that essentially boiled down to the aspect of medicine called Light. Dr. Sylvie has practiced acupuncture for thirty years without ever using needles, with fantastic results, a feat few have accomplished. How does she do this?

While I’m somewhat sworn to secrecy, I will say that she does not “do” it. Sylvie conveyed to me yet again that healers are vessels; we are not technicians. If we use our will power, we will most certainly interfere, and while we may at times help, in the long run we will only have mixed results. Healing in the truest sense of the word is not accomplished through skill.

A doctor must be skilled, knowledgeable, and well trained, but the situation we are in is enormous. The variables in every encounter are incalculable. Time and Space are too big for anyone to understand, so we pray to a third factor that I am here calling “light.” Sylvie told me that although this medicine is about Qì, she does not work with Qì. She told me that she works with Mind/Awareness and lets the Qì take care of itself.

The Nature of Awareness is luminosity, or “light.” Our experience, our perception, is clear and aware, and we call the unity of aware-clarity luminosity. The nature of our awareness is a naked knowing that illuminates our reality; it never changes, and it is un-conditioned. This light manifests the appearance of a world in Space, through movement/direction, and in Time. Everything is a symbol of light upon which we impute mental concepts.

Dr. Sylvie told me that she believed illness to be a manifestation of conceptual Mind and healing to come directly from pure awareness. She works directly with source as light, without will, beyond concepts of good/bad, healthy/sick. She told me that we can open to something beyond everything, and that that beyond will work through us, so long as we do not interfere with our will. The practice of medicine from this perspective becomes the direct perception of Essence, where our nature and that of the patient remains self-perfected, untouched by illness. If we can touch this and offer it to patients, it can help with everything from a stomach ache to cancer, and that help will always be what the person needs and receives from Essence, and we don’t get to decide what that looks like.

Coming full circle, returning to Portland and to the study of Classical Chinese Medicine, I have a renewed faith in my decision to become a “doctor.” The pilgrimage opened a light in me, connecting me to what I believe to be CCM’s original expression, a state of being connected to Time, Space, and Light, which I believe is the heart of Daoist practice. The power of Chinese Medicine lies in its simplicity, in the direct perception of movement, Qì, with a heart of humility.

While I may sound critical of CCM, because at times it gets lost in a strange obsession with textbooks, I do believe it to be overwhelmingly good. I hope that others connect to this direct expression of healing practice, and like me learn to relax the academic compulsions toward pathology.

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The Twelve Houses of Polestar Astrology

7/22/2018

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The 12 Houses

Polestar Astrology, like every form of Natal Astrology, calculates and charts Fate in terms of Twelve “Houses.” In Western and Indian Astrology, the Twelve Houses each comprise 30˚ of the night’s sky, making a 360˚ picture of the heavens. While Polestar Astrology clearly inherited this convention, I must again state that a Polestar Chart does not depict the sky. However, the Twelve Houses of Polestar Astrology share many similarities with their Western and Indian counterparts. They also share some stark differences.

Before we can delve into the 36 Stars, we must examine the Twelves Houses, for the meaning of any given Star is relative to its placement within a house. The Emperor in the Offspring Palace presents a very different image of Fate than the Emperor in the Pleasure Palace.

Each house is ruled by a Stem and Branch, a Zodiac Animal and Element. So, there is a Dragon Palace, Snake Palace, Horse Palace, and so on. Depending on the individual calculation, your Youth Palace, for example may be ruled by Yang Water Dragon. These elemental energies do not drastically affect the Stars but can sometimes diminish or exalt their influence. The Emperor, for example, is exalted in the Dragon and Horse Palace. I will discuss this further with each individual Star and with a Blog on Luminous Stars, Exalted Houses, and Fate Thresholds.

Unlike Western and Indian Astrology, the value system of the Twelve Houses is decidedly Confucian. Indian Astrology is remarkably complex in terms of its many layers of interpretation, and often this kind of analysis is necessary in a reading. Polestar Astrology, on the other hand, is not as concerned with that kind of detail, although there are many details available—influences from previous houses, 120/180˚ influences, borrowed Stars, Auspicious Star Formations, and so on. However, that kind of analysis often misses the forest for the trees.

Polestar Astrology is really concerned with the “Big Picture” of our Fate in terms of our relationships and participation in society. There are esoteric interpretations of each house, but the mundane interpretation is the main one. The Houses therefore have a straight forward meaning. While any given house in Indian Astrology may have hundreds of possible layers/meanings, in Polestar Astrology, the Offspring Palace is about your Fate to be a parent, period. I personally appreciate the simplicity and power of the Twelve Houses, but if you’re looking for psychology or insight into your deepest spiritual yearnings, maybe look to Jyotish.

Polestar Astrology is mostly concerned with our Fate in relationships and in the “world,” which mostly means “career” in the modern context. It does not say much about the type of career you should have, but it does say whether your Fate will be resolved through career and how/when that process is likely to happen. It offers a key to what we call “Fate Thresholds,” which is not a matter of what but where. If your primary Fate is to be a Parent, then career is simply not important, even if society tells you so.

The Twelve Houses provide a powerful yet simple map that shows where your Fate/Opportunities in life will unfold. They cover just about every aspect of human life.

The first three houses are read together for they represent our overall Ancestral Mandates

Ming Palace (命宮)

Summary of Fate and Hints of Character

The First House or “Ascendant” is called the Ming Palace. The Chinese Character 命 Mìng, again, means Life, Fate, Mandate of Heaven, Destiny, Purpose, and so on (宮 Gōng means “palace” or “court” and is the same for each house). The Ming Palace provides a concentrated image, a “Thumbnail Sketch” of a person’s dance of Fate. It gives us the big picture, a “principal” for the unraveling of Fate.

The Star/s that appear here are your “Ruling Star/s” and reveal the primary image/nature of your Fate in this lifetime. The attributes of your Ruling Star/s relate to your overall opportunities in life, and it is the only house that relates directly to your Character, or capacity (the rest of the Houses related indirectly).

The Stem/Branch of the Year and Hour you were born is the primary image of your Character, but the Ruling Star of the Ming Palace also gives us an idea of “what you’re like as a person.” My ruling Star is the Empress, but she’s afflicted, so I’m like a moody Empress.

The Star/s that appear here do not offer much insight into the events of Fate, but they indicate the “gravity” of our Fate. Liu Ming would call this “Fate Heavy or Fate Light.” Since the Stars are organized in a hierarchy, the more potent Stars suggest a more potent Fate. A heavy or potent Fate is full of predestined affinities, responsibilities, and obligations...“big karma,” which requires our time, attention, and freedom. A light Fate is characterized more by Freedom where relationships and responsibilities are less cumbersome.

It is possible for the Ming Palace to be empty, which means it is possible to be born without major Fate. An empty Ming Palace implies a life of Freedom to clear up minor details, help, and generally be of benefit to others. It can manifest as feelings of confusion, lack of purpose/direction, and so on. But it also implies an intentional birth, what Buddhists call a Bodhisattva, in which you resolved your Fate in a previous lifetime and came back to guide others. It can also imply that your Ancestors resolved Fate for you and gave you a free pass this time around.

The nature of this house reveals the certainty or likelihood that you will resolve Fate in this lifetime. If one of the Four Rulers shows up here, then resolution is almost guaranteed, provided you don’t screw it up. If the primary image of Fate is afflicted, then life is characterized by a hue of struggle. Fate can in this case still be resolved, but we must use our freedom wisely and look to the other eleven Houses as to where that resolution can take place.

The Ming Palace is where we examine the important astrological principal of Gănyìng, 感應, or reciprocity. We look at the how the overall nature of Fate will interact with a person’s Character. If, like me for example, you have a very Yin Fate (Empress) with a very Yang Character (Tiger/Dragon), then this creates a certain dynamic which may result in struggle, lol. So, it could be viewed as inauspicious. If you have a very exalted Yang Fate like the Emperor in the First House and you’re a Dragon, then this is Capacity meeting Opportunity, which would be interpreted as auspicious. The same situation would be inauspicious for a Rabbit or Snake, whose instinct is to hide/shy away from the spotlight.

The auspicious Gănyìng, 感應, or reciprocity between Character (Capacity) and Fate (Opportunity) is what the Chinese call “Destiny.” It is also simply called luck. The First House when read with the Character can tell us if a person has Destiny.

Traditionally, the Ming Palace is also said to offer an image of a person’s appearance, but I have not found this to have much/if any significance. It’s too simplistic. Although, I would say that I have an elegant and Empress like demeanor.

This House is always read first and sometimes again last to reinforce the central image or “story” of Fate.

Ancestor Palace (父母宮)

Ancestors and Parents – Elders, Ancestral Mandates, Past Lives

Technically, the Ancestor Palace is the 12th and last house, but I always read it second with clients, so I will do the same here. 父母 Fùmŭ here literally means parents, but in the Chinese Tradition our parents are a lot more than our parents. Our Father and Mother represent the connection to our Ancestral Lineage and are a symbol of our “precedent,” everything that came before.

Yang Stars represent our connection to our Patriarchal Ancestors, which can be every person on your Father’s side, including women, or it can be all the men in your family, including men from your Mother’s Side. The Yin Stars represent, then, the Matriarchy, all the women in the family or all the people on your Mother’s side, including men. It is up to you and your affinity to decided which is the case. The Stars in the Ancestor Palace represent the Yin and Yang of your heritage, your “Ancestral Qi,” or “Source Qi,” called Yuan 元氣.

Superficially, this house can represent our karmic relationship with our parents, which is perhaps the most meaningful relationship in our lives. It is easy to see family trauma and abuse here. In modern times, we “psychologize” our parental experience and spend a lot of energy examining our issues around our early nurturing. You can see that nurturing in this house as well as cues to the nature of birth itself. This house represents more than the personal matter of sorting things out with our living ancestors but of the long line of dead people who reproduced successfully to give you a body.

I read this house second because it represents our karmic affinity “behind the scenes;” it is a gate to the “spirit world,” the unseen influences that shape our lives. In the Chinese Tradition, the dead have a profound affect on the living. This house can represent seven generations of ancestral patterning, depending on the arrangements that show up here. We may be connected to what the Chinese call an “Original Ancestor,” someone far, far back in the family line. We may have a deep karmic affinity with a great, great Grandmother whom we will never meet or even see a picture of. We may also have no connection whatsoever to the family we are born into.

Like the Ming Palace, the influence of this house reveals the nature of your Fate in all the houses, for if your Ancestors bless your life, then no matter what difficulties you face, you will feel blessed. These Stars are like fairy godparents, protectors, guardian angels. They conspire to provide you with opportunities, guidance, and connections.

However, you may also be born with an afflicted Ancestral or Ghost pattern. Your life may be influenced by powerful self-destructive habits, ancestral patterns of addiction and illness that are not of your own making. You may receive a mountain of unfished business that compels you into obsessive ambitions that have nothing to do with you. For example, you may inherit a family business and be raised to take it over, which you go along with, but secretly you want to be an artist and resent the burden of all the responsibility. But you receive tremendous privilege and opportunity, so is this a blessing or a curse? That’s up to you to decided, but this House tells us about your obligations to your Ancestors that must be fulfilled one way or another.

The Daoist interpretation of Polestar Astrology looks at this house in terms of what we call “Ghost Profiling,” and they take it to be the most significant house, spiritually speaking. Buddhists read this House as a picture of your previous lifetimes/past life karma; both are acceptable interpretations.

When Ghost Stars show up here, or if they rule any House, I encourage people to study their genealogy and find out as many stories as they can about who they come from. There is often a story somewhere in the family line that has been forgotten, a person who wants to be remembered for their struggle. You may continue to repeat their struggle until this story is told.

Youth Palace (兄弟宮)

Time of Youth and Siblings – Childhood, Ancestral Mandates, School

The characters of the Second House, 兄弟, xiōngdi, are literally translated as siblings, but we translate it as the Youth Palace, for it represents the atmosphere or time of life that we call “Youth,” which is not clearly defined in our culture because we lack rights of passage. This house represents our possibility of resolving Fate in childhood through sibling relationships, early education, early life experience, and development.

All Chinese people receive three names like Mao Ze Dong 毛泽东. Dong is his personal name; Mao is his family name, and Ze is a name he shares with his siblings, and it represents the Chinese idea that we share a deep karmic connection, a “shared body of Fate,” with our siblings. So, this house can represent past life connections with siblings.

Perhaps you were soldiers on the battlefield, and you failed to complete your connection, so now as brothers, you shoot at each other with toy guns, and complete the circle. You may have been best friends in a past life and were so close that this time around you are brother and sister. It is also very possible that you have no karmic connection whatsoever to your siblings, and you grow up feeling like strangers. You may have half or step siblings with whom you share a deep bond or no connection at all.

This house also represents the notion that one child in a family may receive more Ancestral Fate/Mandates than another child. If the elder brother has a potent Star in the Youth Palace and the younger brother does not, then the elder brother may be responsible for completing the family karma. However, it was often the case that a younger sibling received this karma and would be the one to take over a family business.

It may represent the distribution of resources, inheritance, and responsibilities in terms of family life. You may have to grow up early and become a second parent, raising your younger siblings because Dad is out of the picture. Or, you may have an older sister who protects and parents you more than your parents.

Sibling karma may provide emotional support, or it may be a source of affliction, arguing, and discord, which is never resolved. Many clients have told me that they never speak to their siblings. I have yet only begun to describe a Ghost Star in this House before the client replies, “oh yeah, my brother is possessed!”

Potent Stars in this Palace can represent a strong influence of elders, mentors, aunts/uncles, and so on; it represents the presence of Ancestral Qi in our early life. Ghost Stars can represent unreliable, inappropriate adult protection or supervision in youth. An afflicted Youth Palace can represent early trauma, conflicts, and challenges that shape us for the rest of our lives, which can take place at home or school. In that sense, the influence of this house can extend far beyond youth, for so much of our lives is spent processing our childhood.

The most important theme of this House is whether Fate is resolved in Youth. I have an empty and afflicted Youth Palace, so although a lot happened to me, these events did resolve my Fate but rather created Fate that I am resolving as an adult. I often feel like a lot happened, but nothing happened. I did not exit childhood with any sense of resolution.

An exalted Youth Palace suggests that a person can complete their Fate in childhood, which I have seen many times, for these people are often at a loss about what to do with their lives and therefore consult an Astrologer. Our culture does not except the notion that a person can be complete in life before 18, but Fate wise this can be the case. It is possible to resolve your major Fate playing house with your sister, an idea that I try to communicate to clients, but I’m not sure people get.

An exalted Youth Palace indicates what the Tibetans call a “Tulku,” that is a person born with the Karmic legacy, skills, and/or maturity of an adult. What in the west we might call “old souls.” People with exalted Youth Palaces basically pick up where they left off last life and tie up loose ends before they exit grade school. These people are often precocious and show early signs of maturity, ambition, a so on. They often can’t wait to be adults and spend youth bucking authority, running away from home, and so on. They often feel like adults are idiots, or they may relate more to adults than to their peers, feeling above kid games. An exalted Youth Palace also implies that a person is free then as an adult to shape their life in whatever way they want rather than continue to pursue Ancestral patterns of Fate.

The next two Houses are read together, for they relate to our Ancestral Mandate/Fate to partner and start a family of our own.

Partners Palace (夫妻宮)

Partners and Marriage – Long Term Relationships

The characters for this house, 夫妻, fūqī, literally mean husband and wife, so we translate it as the Partners Palace. This house does not indicate other types of partnership, like business partnerships (that would be the Assistant’s Palace) but refers specifically to our Fate with long-term relationship patterns.

This House expresses the Chinese concept of 因緣 Yinyuan, which refers to a predestined relationship. The image used to describe this is of two trees who appear separate but beneath their roots are intertwined. Another term used here is “previously betrothed,” which implies a past life commitment that continues from life to life. This is somewhat similar but much less romantic than the western idea of “soulmates,” for this House also includes negative past life connections. The variety of paired Stars here today play out in a dizzying array of possibilities that stretch the traditional Chinese interpretation of this house for arranged marriage, which was its original intention.

The Stars in this House reveal the depth and importance of relationship and partners in your life. Stars here can relate to your partner’s appearance, character, or the nature of the relationship itself. They can also reveal a pattern of relating that has nothing to do with specific people but with your own desires/fantasies.

Major Stars often indicate specific Fate connections that may be resolved through marriage, or they can relate to many fated partnerships. I recently told someone struggling in marriage that they did not have Fate with one person but with many, which they knew but had been resisting due to the expectations of monogamy.

Traditionally, the Chinese placed significant importance on the marriage ceremony itself as crucial in the resolution of Fate between two people, especially if the House is exalted or contains heavily “Ancestral” Stars. Marriage to the Chinese, and to most traditional cultures, was not romantic but for joining two families. The ceremony was a ritual in which all the Ancestors of two family lines, living and deceased, met and blessed the joining of two people.

So traditionally, the ceremony is the main event in the liberation of Ancestral Fate, not the marriage itself. Ming would often insist that people with the Emperor or Empress here have a ceremony and invite as many family members as possible. Traditional Chinese and Indian marriage ceremonies include requesting permissions of the family elders, somewhat like the European tradition of the Father “giving away the bride,” a patriarchal custom, which in India is reversed; the man must ask permission of the Matriarchy.

Significant Stars in this House imply that the unraveling of our Fate comes through our relationship with another person. Perhaps your life is stuck, stagnant, then all the sudden you meet someone who whisks you up into a world of adventure that introduces you to things you later could never do without, that change your forever. Perhaps, they create opportunities in your life that influence your career, your spiritual path, your sense of purpose. Perhaps, your relationship is by all outer appearances boring, but this person becomes your anchor in life, supporting you through all the ups and downs. This kind of Fate often unravels in terms of the next House, the Offspring Palace. For many people, family life becomes the center of their Fate.

Afflicted, this House can represent many patterns of struggle. Ghosts in this House suggest Ancestors who died feeling unloved, unwanted, betrayed, abandoned, or abused by their partners, a pattern you inherit to play out while “dating.” Of course, our culture is profoundly disorganized and even sick when it comes to relationships, sex, and so on, so it may seem like everyone is playing out these kinds of patterns today, regardless of individual Fate. I am refreshed to find normal monogamous couples who get along; it seems like a rarity these days.

Depending on Character, Ghost Stars may cause people to drift from one partner to another disappointed, dissatisfied, and frustrated. They may prompt someone to repeatedly choose the wrong people, getting into or staying in abusive situations. Ghost Stars may cause quarrels, differences, and rifts between people that end in divorce. Their resolution often teaches people how to be in relationships. Perhaps, you had a challenging relationship that taught you how to be a partner, and now you are free for a healthy marriage.

Ghost Stars can also influence patterns of self-undermining—always wanting what you can’t have, impossible standards that no one can live up to, and so on, based on ghostly needs and fantasies of the “perfect person,” who of course does not exist. Ghost Stars may cause some people to give up on partnership altogether and choose to be alone, while deep down hoping to meet the right person. Or they may choose unconventional patterns of relationship that do not fit into social norms.

A classic story here is the young man who marries before going off to war. Every day he looks at the wallet photo, yearning to be home with his love. Back home, she waits patiently for him to return. He dies in battle, and his last thought is of getting back to her. In the bardo, he searches for her and finds that she remarried and forgot about him. Or, she never marries again and forever laments her long-lost love. Two generations later, you inherit the pattern of longing for your lost love from your great uncle and spend your life searching for the perfect person who is always out of reach.

It is also possible to have no significant Fate with a life partner, in which case you are free to choose and be chosen. Not everyone has a match made in heaven, and not everyone is fated to struggle. People with empty Partner’s Palaces often feel disappointed, since there won’t be a prince charming, but it may also mean that there will be fifty and you must choose. An empty Partner’s Palace means that you build Fate with the person you choose so long as you choose to remain together.

And yes, there is potential for love and happily ever-after, but it is rare. We do hear stories of people who marry their high-school sweetheart and grow old together. Often, this kind of strong Fate runs out, and if people don’t learn how to work with freedom in this regard, then it can dissipate. You may be “done” with someone, in which case separating can be natural and not negative. Divorce is not always bad and can often be a positive conclusion to a Fated relationship that is “done.”
Offspring Palace (子女宮)

Offspring – Children, Adoption, Sexual Identity, Legacy

The characters for this house, 子女, zĭnǚ, means sons and daughters, so we translate it as the Offspring Palace. This House reveals our Ancestral Mandate to create more Ancestors; it reveals our Fate with children and parenting. Traditionally, the Fate to be a parent pays back a karmic debt, eighteen+ years of taking care of someone who once took care of you. You own them big and so give them human birth, which they then owe in return and must repay through gratitude and service. Parenting, in this sense, is about completing Fated obligations and letting go of freedom.

It is important to note that this House tells us about your Fate as a Parent, not about the Fate of your children, although it can give a hint to their Character. If significant Stars show up here, it is therefore important to complete the Fate indicated to have a fulfilling life. People with significant Stars here who choose not to have children may be missing out on an important relationship that otherwise would have been crucial to their Fate.

Today, many people are choosing not to be parents, and probably for good reason, and many are having children much later in life. So, this House gets harder and harder to interpret in today’s culture. Essentially, this House represents our “Jing,” our fundamental predilection towards embodiment, towards reproducing ourselves, so although it is primarily about children, there are other interpretations we can derive from this principle.

Clearly, some people are born to be Parents. Strong Fated Stars mean that being a parent provides all the important life lessons and becomes central to your understanding of what it means to be human. A Fated past life connection with a Child brings deep joy, meaning, and fulfillment to life. The unconditional love of parenthood transforms you beyond what you could have imagined, and you can’t imagine life without your children.

From the Chinese perspective, that feeling of a past life connection can also indicate a “Returning Ancestor,” a person being reborn in the same family line. This may be a great grandmother coming back as your child. In this case, the Chinese would often name children after Ancestors. If you research your genealogy, you may find that you are a dead-ringer for one of your Ancestors, in which case you may be a returning Ancestor.

This House indicates how to be a parent. It may suggest conventional methods and/or going beyond the standard notions of parenting. Some children require a lot of attention, guidance, and advice. Others are “self-starters” who take charge of their parent’s lives.

We assume that children are innocent and helpless, but this is almost never the case. Children are not “tabula rasa,” clean slates; they each come in with their own Fate/Karma, and they need a lot less controlling than we often impose. Some kids need to be left alone to wander in the woods and skin their knees; others are very sensitive and need a lot of protection to flourish.

Stars here can indicate the nature of your child/children. Yin Stars are often interpreted as girls, and Yang Stars are often interpreted as boys, and although this is somewhat accurate, it is not always the case. Yang Stars often represent independent, precocious children who do not need much parenting, and Yin Stars often represent more “sensitive” children who require a lot of support. The nature of the different Stars indicates what kind of support that may be. If you give birth to an Oracle who sees ghosts, they may require a different kind of upbringing than a Vassal who should play team sports.

This House also brings up an important idea that we have difficulty accepting in America—that a child may resolve your Fate for you. In China this is called “a child brings honor to the parents.” This means that your children may grow to be successful and fulfil your Fate in Career/Wealth for you. You may work hard in your career, and your child may become the artist you always wanted to be.

We also believe that children are expenses. Many people say they will have kids when they get their lives in order, when they make enough money, or get the right job. But this House suggests that children might bring this Fate. Having a child may create the Fate opportunities you are seeking. You may be poor, but if you have the fate to give birth to an Empress, and she demands a castle, then her Fate may cause dad to get a promotion and raise. Liu Ming would often tell people to have children even if their lives are not perfect, for the children bring the order and resources. When I see strong unafflicted Stars here, I often emphatically say—MAKE THE BABIES!!!

When a person is childless/chooses not to have children and has major Stars in this House, then we may interpret it differently. As I said earlier, this House is about Jing, so Fate here may reveal a Fated pattern around sexuality, sexual identity, or their physical reproductive system. I have seen many instances of this being the case, although it can be a sensitive subject that clients are shy to discuss.

Ghost Stars here can indicate miscarriages, abortions, difficulty conceiving, and so on. These incomplete pregnancies can “haunt” the mother or siblings for many years. Traditional cultures often have rituals for resolving children who don’t make it to birth. These kinds of ghost can linger and produce the odd feeling that someone who is supposed to be here is absent. As an only child you may have felt like you had a sister; you may have felt her presence and poured tea for her, talked to her, and on. These usually fade in adulthood, but many people remember having “imaginary friends.”

Ghosts can also indicate conflicted relationships between parents and their children. Ghost patterns can cause discord, arguments, disagreements. Or, it can create distance, separation, the feeling that you have nothing in common. These children may leave home early, or rifts may cause you not to speak for many years. You may even loose a child to illness or accident.

In the case of people who choose not to have children or if for other reasons someone is childless, then this House can become about legacy. Someone may create a product, a business, a brand, a book, a trust-fund, and so on, that they leave behind for future generations. They may spend their lives working on a project that is like their “child.” They may gestate, birth, nurture, and release something into the world that fulfills this Fate.

This House also indicates Fate to be a step-parent, to adopt, or to raise someone else’s children. A friend of mine was adopted and has very clear karma to be a step-father, which he has fulfilled. It can also indicate working with children as a nanny, a kindergarten teacher, and so on, in which case you parent many children. I had one client who worked with inner-city youths and felt like the parent to hundreds. She never had kids of her own yet felt this aspect of life was fulfilled.

It is also possible for men to have Fate with miscarriage and abortion that comes through women, which is perhaps difficult to grok. A woman may have no Fate to be a mother, but the Father comes along, and his Ancestors take over the process.

It is very possible to have Fate with a child but not with a Partner. Some women just need a sperm donor. Dad may only be needed for a few minutes, while the Fate with the Child lasts a lifetime. Or, Dad may have the Fate and become a single father, it is rarer, but it does happen. He may also resolve Fate through being a weekend Dad. The time may be sparse, but it could be precious and resolve his Fate, being the only meaningful time in his life.

Traditionally, the influence of this house is said to fade for women during menopause. So, if a woman has significant Stars here and misses the opportunity, then the relationship will be postponed until the next lifetime, and you very well may be reborn to complete the relationship what never happened. That could even be the case this time!

The Property and Wealth Palace are read together to determine a person’s overall Fate with prosperity.

Wealth Palace (財帛宮)

Wealth – Finances, Resource, Inheritance, General Fortune

The Characters for this house, 財帛, cái bò, are straight forward and literally mean wealth; cái means money, resources, valuables, and so on, and bò refers to silk, or “finery.” So, we translate it as the Wealth Palace. This House reveals a persons Fate with cash, hard currency, investments, inheritance, windfall, and prosperity. It indicates their personal ability to earn/generate income, use, and save money through industry/effort. It can also represent fated connections with wealthy people.

In principal, it represents our Fate with managing our resources, which in ancient China meant something much different than today. In this sense, it should always be read in relation to the Property Palace to understand a person’s overall Fate with prosperity.

In agricultural society, wealth was considered cyclical. In cyclical time, wealth varies according to the cycles and seasons. Spring brings the wealth of “new,” Summer the wealth of “abundance,” Fall the wealth of “harvested security,” and Winter the wealth of “calm abiding.” In other words, when you live with the cycles of nature, especially if you are a hunter or farmer, you accept times of abundance and scarcity as demonstrations of Nature itself, nothing to get excited or panic about.

Our culture operates on the myth of linear time, which may be the single greatest disaster in human history. We view wealth as an endless, aggressive pursuit of acquisition; we attempt to live in eternal Summer, which cannot be done. A select few have abundance and the rest live in scarcity. We overproduce and have changed our very climate.

Obviously, the cyclical values of this tradition do not align with consumer capitalist American values. We must interpret this House, then, with the larger Fate of our culture in mind, which has most people in debt, living pay check to pay check, trying to make ends meet.

In the Chinse view, you are not poor if you have air to breathe, water to drink, food to eat. Wealth is something that comes and goes in cycles in an atmosphere of nature’s generosity. This house, then, demonstrates the principal of Wealth, although we often read it in relation to money, because that is what our society dictates.

Because our society has such a crude relationship to wealth, this House is straight forward in interpretation. This Stars in this House, especially Yang Stars, indicate how our Ancestral or Past Life Fate comes to pay us back in the form of income. Most Stars are modest in interpretation. On the surface, they can indicate if you will be paid well/fairly for your efforts, or whether your finances will increase steadily throughout your life. Yang Stars often indicate that your income is direct; you work a 9-5 and earn a pay check. Yang Stars convey the American dream of “pulling yourself up by your own boots straps.”

Yin Stars, then, tend to indicate that your money comes from indirect sources. This may be in the form of family money/inheritance, a benefactor, financial loans, alimony checks, investments, side-jobs, or perhaps you are a consultant and the money you earn is only tangentially related to the money you help produce.

Yin Stars also represent a flux in income, that it comes and goes. People with Yin Fate here may at times be interested in earning and do well and at other times have no interest at all and are content with very little. Unafflicted, Yin Stars are considered a gift from your own past life generosity, or simply a privilege inherited from your ancestors.

Ghost Stars usually indicate a struggle with finances that we interpret as Ancestral patterns around scarcity. Perhaps, your great grandfather worked his ass off to get the family started in America, but he died poor, worried about his family’s future. You, then, inherit both his work ethic and insecurity, working 60 hours a week only to feel lack and wanting. This Fate may be resolved if your perseverance finally pays off; you get promoted and work less or retire and feel satisfied, freeing the Ancestral pattern. Or, it could be resolved through changing your relationship to money altogether, renouncing everything and living on a self-sustaining farm.

These ghostly patterns can come in the form of debt - medical, legal, and so on. You may be Fated to work hard only to lose everything in extensive legal battles. Or, you may get sick and be overwhelmed by medical bills. You may inherit a family fortune that is wrought with challenges you did not expect. As we say, more money more problems. Ghosts can certainly manifest as irresponsible, selfish, or careless behavior with money.

In some cases, Ghosts Stars are associated with “windfall,” meaning sudden unexpected income. This may come in the form of gambling, striking it big in Vegas, or winning the lottery. Ming would often tell people with certain patterns to test their luck in this regard. Traditionally, the windfall is viewed as ghost resolving through one last throw of the dice. However, the danger of this ghost pattern is to win big and then lose big. If this happens, take the money and run!

An exalted Wealth Palace indicates that your major Fate is resolved through engaging with resources. The real crux of Fate resolution in this House is the feeling or satisfaction, contentment, completion, and so on, feeling that you are/have enough.

An exalted Wealth Palace can indicate doing very well financially. It can indicate prosperity, but if you get rich and feel no satisfaction, then you are not resolving Fate. If you are not generous, if you do not give back, then you are not resolving Fate. You may have good Fate to earn a fortune, but if you’re greedy, then this turns ghostly very fast.

Your Fate may be a rags to riches story. You may be born into poverty, but if your Wealth Palace is exalted, doing well is not a matter of if but when. And again, it does not indicate the amount of money earned but the corresponding feeling of contentment and satisfaction that comes through having what you need, which inspires the feeling of generosity. Generosity is the natural outcome of abundance.

This House can also show us hints of career. Polestar Astrology does not indicate specific careers all that clearly, even in the Career Houses, but the Wealth Palace can indicate being paid as a consultant, artist, doctor, healer, astrologer, spirit medium, teacher, and so on. You can of course be all these things without any indication whatsoever.

Health Palace (疾厄宮)

Health – Physical Constitution, Illness, Death, Doctoring

The Characters for this House, 疾厄, Jí è, literally mean disease/sickness and distress/disaster, and traditionally it was called the Death Palace. We, however, translate it as the Health Palace, for death has become a little too morbid in our culture for us to relate to, and this House covers a lot of potential health related factors. In fact, this is one of the more difficult Houses to interpret due to the variety of experiences it can refer to.

The Stars appearing in this House can refer to a person’s physical constitution, Fate with illness and injury, capacity to heal/recover, relationships/karma with doctors/healers, and Fate with medical treatments. It also has implications concerning a person’s longevity and the potential for early death/long life. The Stars may reveal patterns around diet, exercise, and lifestyle. They may reveal Ancestral Patterns of illness, congenital conditions/predispositions, and Fate for addiction, abuse, and so on. This House can also reveal a talent and affinity for practicing medicine and the Fate to be a healer, often after a process of personal illness and recovery.   We can say that the House refers to all aspects of health and wellbeing – mental, emotional, and physical.

The Polestar interpretations of the various stars have many implications that can be read in relation to Classical Chinese Medicine. Each Star has its own associations with illnesses, syndromes, and parts of the body, associated with organ networks and the five-phases. The Stars also correlate to certain seasons and can tell us if a person heals best in Winter or Spring.

To understand this House, we must understand the basics of Chinese Medicine. Chinese Medicine seeks a certain balance and does not have any concept of an “ideal state” that exists separate from the individual. Our sense of normal is always in flux and changes relative to our age, the season, and the environment in which we live. In other words, there is no normal or healthy anything, for what is one person’s medicine is another’s poison. Chinese Medicine is also not morbid; death may be the perfect resolution of illness/Fate, given certain situations. The hysterical preservation of life at all costs does not fit in with this tradition. It may be someone’s Fate to go through a debilitating illness and not recover, for they may in that process understand the very meaning of life—who are we to judge?

As symbolic representations of Ancestors, the Stars offer an image of inherited Ancestral Patterns of illness, and the House can be read in correlation with the Ancestor Palace as an image of a person’s inherited constitution, genetic memory, or what we now call “epigenetics.” Illnesses that do not respond to standard treatments and that do not have clear medical diagnosis are thought of as being inherited from the unsettled dead.

It is important to note that the Stars in this House CANNOT be used for diagnosis, but they can be used for prognosis. We cannot determine if someone will fall ill, but if they do, we can determine the nature of the condition in relation to Ancestral Patterns, and we can determine the likelihood of recovery. Astrology is not an alternative to medical diagnosis, but it can be used as an effective tool to aid treatment. Many factors of Character also determine a person’s elemental makeup, such as excessive Fire in a Chart, which can tell us a lot about their health issues.

As Astrologers, we must not jump to conclusions and diagnose people. I have looked at the chart of Stephan Hawking and at many charts of people with debilitating illness. I have seen many people with the same star arrangement as Stephen Hawking who have a very different expression of the same Stars, and I have seen people with the same condition who have a different Star arrangement. There is a vast range of potential possibilities in each Star, and we cannot predict how they will manifest. I have jumped to conclusions before and been very surprised by how different the client’s situation ended up expressing. So, I always give as many interpretations as I can and do my best not to spook/scare people who have potentially a challenging Health Palace. We also don’t want to avoid difficult possibilities and sugarcoat a situation.

Ghost Stars here can create a wide variety of experiences, ranging from chronic, sub-clinical, minor conditions, to allergies/food sensitivities, to mental/emotional problems, and so on. An afflicted Health Palace may manifest for one person as an unhealthy obsession with illness, such as hypochondria. Or, it may compel a person to constantly seek medical attention—they may go an acupuncturist one day, a chiropractor the next, a shamanic healer on the weekend, followed by a fast, a cleanse, and then an obsessive fixation of the next fad diet.

Ghosts can cause mistreatment, overtreatment, improper/incorrect diagnosis due to constantly changing symptoms. Or, an afflicted Health Palace can manifest as accidents, injuries, accident-prone behavior, and even suicidal tendencies, risk taking, and addictions that push the bodies limits.

Yang Stars traditionally relate to our Patriarchal Ancestors and Yin Stars to the Matriarchy. We can therefore determine where an Ancestral Pattern may originate from. Again, Patriarchal Stars can indicate anyone from your Father’s side, or all men in the family, and Matriarchal Stars can be your Mother’s side or all women, regardless of side. We receive our body from our parents, literally, and our strengths and weakness express the continuity of our heritage.

Yang Stars typically represent strength, endurance, and a straight forward experience of illness and recovery. People with Yang constitutions are more likely to be injured rather than ill. When they get sick, it usually goes away on its own, and if they see a doctor, they get treated and recover, simple as that. The danger with strong or exalted Yang Stars here is being too strong for your own good. These people tend to overwork, overextend, and then burn out due to exhaustion. Think of the marathon runner who drops dead after running 26 miles. These people tend to ignore signs and symptoms and push through pain; they have difficulty resting, saying no, shutting down the productivity. They are restless, compulsive, active, and do well with routine and habit change. Yang constitutions usually have high metabolism and pay less attention to diet. They tend to be less sensitive to environmental factors and mental issues.

Yin Stars typically represent sensitivity, receptivity, openness, susceptibility, and vulnerability. People with Yin constitutions do not have a straight forward experience of health. Their health comes from weakness rather than strength. They are sensitive to many influencing factors—environmental, emotional, and so on.

Some Yin Stars make a person susceptible to what the Chinese call “possession,” which implies that we are invaded by some kind of “outside” force due to poor boundaries, immunity, and defenses. People with Yin constitutions tend to be more lethargic, less active; they need to rest more, and they must pay very close attention to their health, which is changing all the time due to many complex factors. They may get stressed out and then catch a cold. They may hear about a friend’s illness and then start to get the symptoms. Yin Stars, in general, are much more difficult to interpret.

An exalted Health Palace can indicate that a person’s Fate revolves around a personal path of illness, healing, and recovery. Illness may be a spiritual experience, a call to wake up. These people are shamans. They are brought to death’s door, so they can return to heal others. Or, an exalted Health Palace may simply indicate a long life of health with little to no illness/injury; they may be blessed with no Ancestral Patterns of illness and the strength to overcome all minor conditions. They may inherit “good genes” and never experience health challenges, dying peacefully in old age. Some people become healers because they were healed and want to repay. Others become healers because they understand that their own health is a privilege and they want to use it to be of benefit.

Certain Stars indicate the potential for the study and practice of medicine. Others indicate the potential to excel at athletics and physical culture. A person’s Character has a huge influence on how this turns out. A Horse or a Tiger will tend towards athletic expressions of physicality, while a Rabbit or a Goat may seek the intuitive art of medicine. Other Stars turn this House into the spiritual path and inspire people to practice yoga, meditation, and so on, using the body as the means to liberation.
The next three houses are read together to understand a person’s Fate in the world through work/career and travel.

Career/Travel Palace (遷移宮)

Career and Travel – Immigration, Journeys

The Characters for this House, 遷移, Qīan Yí, literally mean to immigrate, migrate, or move, but we translate it as the Career/Travel Palace. This House lies directly across from the Ming Palace and provides an image of your Fate “in the world;” it represents your life’s journey outside your family and place of birth. It is read in conjunction with the Assistants and Superiors Palace to give the overall shape of our work/life in the world.

For those born in modern industrial countries, this House may describe a professional career or the journey of discovery to find a suitable career through education, job hunting, experimentation, climbing the corporate ladder, or travel. It tells us how important/significant “working” will be in your life. The nature of that work is then refined in the following two houses and may be indicated elsewhere in the chart, such as the Wealth (ex: investor, banker), Health (ex: doctor, athlete), or Property (ex: real-estate, architect).

First and foremost, this House tells us if you were born in the right place. Certain Stars can indicate if you “missed the mark,” in terms of birthplace, and if you must travel to resolve your Fate. Ming used to joke that you may have died, been in the bardo and were circling the globe looking for Mongolia, but you crash-landed in Minnesota. You, then, grow up feeling like home is somewhere else and you go on a journey must find it. This House describes the potential success of that journey.

If you possess and exalted Seventh House, you may travel extensively, resolving past life connections in different countries, states, cities, searching for home, meaning, career. You may successfully immigrate. There may be a whole new life/Fate waiting for you in a foreign land. The first time you arrive in Spain, you start speaking Spanish and never leave. Ming referred to this as a “Fate Threshold,” a doorway in the Chart to a new life.

Significant Stars here offer a journey of discovery through travel. I have the Emperor here and have traveled in over twenty countries and lived abroad (it’s afflicted, so I’m back, lol, and still looking). I personally feel that traveling is the best education you can receive. To step outside of your comfort zone and experience other cultures, languages, and environments is extremely transformative. You may unravel your Fate here and discover yourself as a wayfarer, expat, or pilgrim. You may return to the place of your Blood Ancestors, take pilgrimage to India, or maybe you travel to Bhutan and discover a strong karmic affinity with Buddhism.

An afflicted House may suggest you have Fate for an unsuccessful immigration, like me, as if you just needed to complete some obligations, perhaps a spell abroad followed by a pilgrimage home. It may also suggest a kind of wandering, moving from place to place, never feeling at home. Or, you may journey abroad only to be met with disaster, illness, accidents, theft, and so on, and this may be a perfect resolution of Fate.

If interpreted as the Career House, then significant Stars here can mean that your Fate unravels in the workplace. You may have no/minimal Fate for marriage/children and an exalted Career Palace. This does not mean that you won’t/can’t have kids, but it does suggest that your job will be an exciting, fulfilling place of interest and that your home life may be uneventful. You love your kids, but at work you come alive, expressing your purpose/calling.

If the Superiors Palace is exalted, then, if read in conjunction, this House can indicate a “rise to success.” You start as the janitor and work your way up to CEO. Or, you start a business in your garage and sell it to Microsoft for millions of dollars. This house can indicate whether hard work, perseverance, and persistence ultimately pay off.

It can also be modest and suggest a life of mediocrity, “quiet desperation,” which is the case for many people. Remember, Fate is not about big or important but about the feeling of “completion.” You may never have an exciting career, but if you die feeling satisfied with having tried your best, then this can be a resolution. If, you die feeling incomplete, full of regret for never having “made it,” then this may kick start your Fate next lifetime.

Afflicted, you may wander from job to job, unfulfilled and bored. You may collect many skills and become a “jack of all trades, master of none.”   Ghost Stars may manifest as obstructions—you get fired/laid off, passed over for promotions. Your startup fails, and you must start again with nothing. For many people work is drudgery; they tough it out and work their fingers to the bone for little reward. But, perhaps you have an exalted Offspring palace, so work sucks, but you come home to your kids who fill your life with joy. Everyone’s chart balances out in some way.

Yang Stars indicate that work tends toward skill building, that success comes through getting good at something through discipline. Yang Fate in this house can manifest more “superficially,” meaning your career may not be glamorous, spiritual, flashy; you may rise to be the manager of a Home Depot. But for a Horse with the Emperor here, that may be a perfect fit.

Yang Stars also imply that your work life is very active, dynamic, eventful, even stressful. Yang can also mean physical; perhaps you become a carpenter, electrician, hair stylist; you become skillful in the use of your body. Modest Yang Stars can be manual labor, retail, and so on. The Assistant’s Palace tends to indicate service work, but that can also show up here.

Yin Stars indicate that success comes through intuition rather than skill. Getting ahead, being promoted, landing the job has more to do with feeling, being, more to do with your deportment, even your appearance, rather than your resume or skill set. You may have an extensive skill set, but if your Fate here is Yin then it is the appropriate application of that skill at the right time through intuition that opens doors.

Yang Stars tend to be more about showing up and doing repetitive work. Yin Stars may be much more relaxed. Yin Stars can manifest as work that is indirect, discreet, abstract, or intellectual. You may sit at a desk all day moving numbers around on a screen and have no idea what you are doing, but you get a paycheck. Or, you may work behind the scenes, like all the people listed in movie credits. You never see them, but they make everything possible. Yin Stars may mean that you get paid for your appearance (ex: model/actor), intelligence (ex: teacher), or presence (ex: counselor, therapist, chaplain). You never “produce” anything tangible, but you help, inspire, and support others to do so.

Yang Stars indicate that you are “fresh,” compelled by Fate to create and manifest your interests, sparked by Ancestral or Past life prompting. Yin Stars indicate that you may have done something for many lifetimes and that you need to “remember,” which may manifest as a natural talent for something you have never trained for.

Yin people are “naturals” and pick things up immediately, while Yang people must work really hard and may struggle to attain mastery (Yin Fate is hard work too, jut a different kind). You may be a natural at playing Piano but can’t understand math to save your life. Or, you may be a science wiz and practice guitar for ten years only to be mediocre. Everyone has past life affinity somewhere.

Assistants Palace (交友宮)

Service – Friendship, Subordinates, Servants, Staff

The Characters for this House, 交友, Jiāo Yŏu, literally mean to make friends, so we translate it as the Friendship Palace and/or the Assistant’s Palace. This House refers to a wide range of Fate possibilities and relationships, so it can be difficult to interpret. Overall, the House profiles our predestined connections with the help or harm that comes from non-family people and/or our Fate to help or harm others. It is important to note that this House (and the Superior’s Palace) is bi-directional—it can refer to your role in life as an Assistant or the influence of others Assisting you.

This House represents the deeply held Chinese belief that we do nothing alone. Everything we do that is important is done through joint effort. Our primary support is family, but for many people, family is rough, and they find their deepest connections in life through friendship. In the Confucian Tradition, love is the primary characteristic of friendship rather than marriage. In work/career, our success often comes through our connections, teamwork, associations, and opportunities that come through others.

We read this House in two ways. First, as a relationship House, it indicates your Fate with friends, co-workers/colleagues, schoolmates, people you consider peers. It also indicates your karma with receiving help, with people who “assist” you in the resolution of your Fate.

Some people have little Fate with their birth family; they may have siblings, but they are distant or difficult to connect with. Often these people develop sibling type bonds with friends. Perhaps, you work in the same office for twenty years, and your co-workers become your family. Ming used the term a “circle of returners.” In other words, you share deep past life connections with friends, and they become instrumental in the resolution of your Fate. Perhaps, you were all in a platoon in the last life.

An exalted Assistant’s Palace can imply many important social connections, an avid social life, or several significant life events that happen socially. You may have an abundance of people who are there for you, who show up when needed, a strong and well-knit network of social support. You may be the life of the party and feel at home in social gatherings. Character makes a significant difference in this regard; a Dragon may have a hundred important friends, and a Rabbit may only have three. You may also constantly find yourself helping your friends; yours is the shoulder to cry on. Many American sit-coms portray exalted Assistant’s Palaces; think Cheers—a bar where everyone knows your name.

Or, if afflicted, you may experience discord, betrayal, or a life changing “falling out” with someone. You may try to connect with people, but they reject you. You may find connecting with others difficult or bewildering, every attempt going wrong. You go to parties (if you even get invited) and stand in the corner feeling awkward. You may drift from one circle of friends to another, meeting many people, but failing to form deep bonds or support. You may feel alone, like people aren’t there for you, despite being in a crowd. Or, you may give up and do everything alone, never asking for help or relying on others. Again, Character makes all the difference here. A Snake may be fine with being self-reliant, but for a Pig this could be a nightmare.

If we interpret this as a Career House, then Stars here can literally indicate an assistant at work. Perhaps, you are the boss or charismatic leader, but you cannot manage your appointments to save your life, so you have a stellar assistant who makes your career possible. Or, you may be constantly promoted and helped due to the support, admiration, and recommendation of others. You may meet someone at a conference who changes your life, offering you a new and exciting career. Or, you may be credited success without having done any of the real work.

If afflicted, you may experience scandal, confrontation, slander/gossip, and undermining in the work place. You may experience competition with others that always gets the better of you. Others may make mistakes for which you get blamed. Or, you may follow others or be part of a team that loses or fails, leaving you without a job. You may hire an assistant who embezzles money from you and ruins you company. There are many ways this House can go wrong, and many ways it can go right. A prized assistant may also make you a millionaire.

If this House has significant Fate, it can indicate a life or a career of service. This can be completely menial. You may be Fated to be career waitress/waiter (wait person?) or receptionist. My favorite restaurant back home has been staffed by the same people for over twenty years. I have literally been going there since I was a kid, and I every time I return it has the same wait staff and same chefs behind the counter. I imagine they all have exalted Assistant’s Palaces.

We can interpret many service-oriented careers from this House, from social work, to teaching, consulting, housekeeping, and so on. Many people dream big, but most end up “doing small;” not everyone becomes an astronaut. This House exemplifies those content to do simple, humble, or unrecognized work. Think “Jeeves” the butler.

You may feel at home subordinating, following orders, working with the chain of command or be fated to always rebel against it. You may excel in teamwork, networking, schmoozing, or hobnobbing with the rich. You may be a bodyguard, samurai, bouncer, and so on. Perhaps, you are a professional athlete who makes a living because of a team.

I often use the phrase, “behind the scenes” to describe this house and sometimes give the example of Bernie Sanders. He has the Emperor in the Superior’s Palace and so has Fate to be a leader, but his assistant whom you never heard of, who does all the work behind the scenes and without whom he could not function, may have the Emperor in the Assistant’s Palace. From this House, you may wield power from second place, from “behind the throne.”

It is often the case that people have Fate in both the Superiors and Assistant’s Palace, in which case, you may indeed become very well know, but you remain humble and use your position or voice to exalt and help others. You may have times in the spotlight but also do a lot of work behind the scenes which goes unnoticed.

Or, an exalted Assistant’s Palace can propel you on a spiritual path of service and devotion. You may become a monk, join an ashram, and spend your life serving a community or teacher. You may give up a distinguished career to feed the homeless. Or, you may dedicate yourself to starting intentional communities, bringing people together, performing rituals. You may find your tribe in a Sanga, Kula, or Witch Coven. If afflicted, you may be at risk in following others; you may join a cult and end up “drinking the cool-aid.”

If this House has significant Fate, it suggests that you Ancestors manifest and work to bless you in Career by creating opportunities and connections. They may work as protectors/guardian angels in the world, preventing you from disaster. It may also be the case that a family business or family wealth is the key to all your success socially, politically, offering you connections to career, for example through a fraternity.

If this House is Empty, then you have no Fated requirement for service. Rather, you may be a leader. This may also mean that you have little help, few friends, and must work hard to make connections with people.   It may also mean you must go at it alone. Often this house is a “mixed bag,” and I find it to be one of the more difficult ones to describe to clients.

Superiors Palace (官祿宮)

Officials – Leadership, Teachers, Mentors, Bosses

The Characters for this House, 官祿, guān lù, literally refer to the position of a Chinese government official, and we translate it as the Superiors Palace. Sometimes it is translated as the Career Palace, or Official’s Palace, for it gives the image of a person’s “advancement and development” Fate. It offers an image of how our Fate and achievement relates to “authority.”

Like the Assistant’s Palace, it is bi-directional. It can refer to figures of authority in our life and/or our role in that regard. It also can be read as a relationship and/or career House. It is not always either/or and can offer a wide range of interpretations. It is important to note that this House refers to Fated relationships outside the family.

As the final or “highest” career House, it relates to success, achievement, ambition, and innovation, to being well known, recognized, rewarded, or influential. An exalted Assistant’s Palace may mean that you become a doctor, but an exalted Superior’s Palace could mean that your methods change the practice of medicine. This house can be the difference between being a mere salesman or pioneering an innovative marketing tactic that changes our culture. It can also be the difference between simply moving abroad (7th House) or going down in history for introducing smallpox to the Aztecs.

If we interpret this as a relationship House, then Stars that show up here indicate the help or harm that comes to us by elders, teachers, mentors, bosses, employers, gurus, leaders, and so on. The Fate here connects us with people more experienced, advanced, or influential than us. These can simply be authority figures in the workplace, whom you may or may not respect. Or, they can be great teachers whom you respect/admire/revere.

Because of the potential trust we place in our superiors, the relationships here have the potential for great cause and effect. We can be greatly influenced for better or worse by those with power, and as we all know, power is easily corrupted and so often abused. So, an afflicted Ninth House can manifest as abuse that comes from the throne, strange relationships with teachers, or you yourself harming others.

Stars in this House often imply a journey of apprenticeship. You meet a mentor, study with them, and follow in their footsteps, which has been the ideal model in most craft guilds. Perhaps, you meet someone already practicing your dream job, so you work for them and learn the tricks of the trade. They may retire, leaving you the position, or you may do your own thing having them as a model.

This House can indicate becoming a boss, manager, and/or decision maker. It denotes responsibility and leadership. You may be Fated to rise in the ranks to become the boss and make important decisions that influence people’s lives. Traditionally, it refers to the role of government officials in China, which were the most prestigious jobs in the nation. Government Official were highly educated and respected members of the community who commanded as “parents to the nation.” This House indicates if someone will become an official or simply meet officials, which is further inferred from other Houses.

Spiritually, this House can indicate a Fated relationship with a teacher or “guru,” and traditionally, this House indicates connections to “lineage,” a much-misunderstood term in modern times. The Ancestor Palace can indicate this as well, but this House tells us of what Ming called your “Wisdom Ancestors,” inexplicable karmic connections to people in traditions that are not connected to your culture, heritage, or country.

You may become a disciple, study with a master, and inherit a lineage, taking on students yourself. An exalted Superior’s Palace can indicate that the major Fate of your life unravels by following this teacher, like Mr. Miyagi from the Karate Kid. Completing this Fate is considered complicated business in many traditions, especially in Tantra where people vow to follow a teacher/lineage for as many lifetimes as it takes to become enlightened.

Again, ghosts here can indicate abuse or betrayal from a teacher. It can indicate joining a cult and/or becoming a cult leader yourself. There are so many examples of fallen gurus in the modern spiritual scene that I don’t even know where to start; it may in fact be all of them.

An afflicted 9th House may simply indicate a strong mistrust of authority, a rebel without a cause. You may rebel against your parents, teachers, cops, priests, and so on, throughout your life, with or without cause. You may become an activist and work to dismantle oppression and patriarchy, which may have positive results, but could leave you bitter, frustrated, and disillusioned. You may spend a lifetime fighting the man only to burn out. But, of course, you may change people’s lives all along the way; such is the nature of ghost resolution.

Gone wrong, this House can make you a gang leader, drug lord, or dictator. It can lead to corruption, despotism, and jingoism of the worst order. All the worst acts in human history can be related to this House (and possibly the 8th House), for it represents the power to influence people on a larger scale. We see here the importance of Character and Fate. You may have the character, or capacity, to be a great leader, like an Earth Dragon, but if this House is afflicted, you may become a gang leader in prison, when in a different context you may have become a general and been rewarded for aggression.

If we further interpret this as a Career House, then it relates to the notion of success and achievement, contributing to your field. You may have an exalted 7th House, in which case Career is important, but if your 9th House is empty, afflicted, or debilitated, then you may work hard and not achieve success. You may never be recognized for your accomplishments. If they are both positive, the you will most likely do very well. You may even innovate. You may invent the next giz-widget, doohickey, or phone thingy.

This House is exemplified by inventors, contributors, creative people who change the game. I like to think of Steve Jobs. It is also exemplified by great political leaders, or by people who change the world with an act of defiance, like Rosa Parks.

It can also relate to fame and have nothing to do with talent. As we all know, many of the most talented people you will ever meet will never be famous, and many famous people are hacks.   From an Astrological point of view, this is all Fated. Hard work and talent do not always pay off. When they do, when Character and Fate match and someone rises to excellence, this again is called “Destiny.”

Yang Stars here tend to relate more towards career and success. A strong Yang star here can create ambition, the drive to succeed, as well as the karmic connections to make it happen, especially if combined with an ambitious character. A Dragon with an exalted Superior’s Palace is certainly auspicious, because they will try to rule the world anyways. A Rabbit, who may shy away from the spotlight, may feel tremendous anxiety if their Superior’s Palace pushes them towards leadership.
Yang Stars indicate a “rise” to power based on perseverance and indicate that a great deal of Fate is resolved through career. They also suggest that a person will be lead from an obvious or primary position, like an Emperor.

Yin Stars, like the Empress, suggest that power is wielded from a hidden, unusual, or secondary position, from behind the scenes. Ming introduced many people to the idea of “Yin Power,” which is fundamentally difficult for Americans to understand. Yin Power is essentially passive, and for many it appears manipulative. Yin Power is wielded through seduction, suggestion, body language, through “psychological” tactics. Our culture looks down on this kind of power, although we use it extensively on each other and throughout the world, because Yin Power works. Marketing is based on Yin Power. A “damsel in distress” may achieve everything in life without ever lifting a finger.

Yin stars suggest that your rise to success happens because of unseen factors which can appear lucky—being in the right place at the right time, meeting the right people, and/or being gifted/given opportunities that you did not appear to earn. To people with Yang Fate here who work their ass off to get ahead, Yin Fate appears unfair, for it looks effortless. Yin Fate can often manifest as privilege, family power, and influence; you may be promoted because your boss knows your father, or you may use family money to swing an election.

When read together with the previous two Houses, the Superior’s Palace offers us a complete image of someone’s participation in society through “work,” which can be refined through other Houses. For example, an Exalted Superior’s Palace in conjunct with an exalted Property Palace means that one can exert their influence through real-estate and material wealth.

The Property and Wealth Palace are read together to determine a person’s overall Fate with prosperity.

Property Palace (田宅宮)

Ownership – Home, Inheritance, Real Estate, Collections, Immigration, Feng Shui

The Characters for this House, 田宅, tián zhái, literally mean farmland/field and residence/home, and we translate it as the Property Palace. This House has two distinct meanings. Primarily, the Stars here describe a person’s relationship to material goods, real estate, and Fate with “ownership” of real property, whether through purchase or inheritance. Combined with the Wealth Palace, it is what Ming called a person’s “stuff and home” Fate.

Secondarily, or perhaps on a deeper level, this House represents our Fate with the Chinese principal of Feng Shui, or the auspice of Placement. Like the 7th House, it may tell us if we have strong Fate with “place.” Energetically, it represents “home,” so it can manifest as the Fate to create that through owning land, a home, or through creating security via the possession of goods. Or, it can imply that creating or looking for home is a big deal for you. Is there a natural geographic/geomantic home for you? Perhaps, you must find it, so this House can indicate immigration.

As the Feng Shui House, certain Stars can indicate if Feng Shui is a major influence on you. You may be greatly affected by or connected to the land, nature, or objects in space. Perhaps, you become ill, and nothing is working. You change the direction of your bed or the color of your sheets, and all the sudden you get better. You may be struggling in a new town. You move and all the sudden everything clicks into place. You may be disoriented by disorganized arrangements and patterns and have an instinct for design, in which case this House can indicate career architects, interior designers, and Feng Shui consultants.

In the Chinese value system, ownership is not about the accumulation of stuff or “toys,” trying to “get yours” and die with the biggest pile. Fate with ownership of material goods or real estate is an opportunity to be generous. Real wealth is something that can be measured. Land can produce food; a home can provide shelter—to share this with others is the greatest opportunity to be generous. Money is abstract, especially today, a play of numbers on screens. You may have a debilitated Wealth Palace and have no money but an exalted Property Palace and live on a farm with everything nature provides.

Often, this House is straightforward and has to do with our Fate to buy, own, and sell property. It can represent the Fate for inheritance and family money. Or, it can represent a career as a real estate broker, buying and selling properties at a profit. You may own several properties and rent out the rooms or have an “Air B&B.” You may become a landlord, manage an apartment building, and collect passive income.

Major Fate in this House can indicate that many things in life revolve around your Home. You may work from home. You may spend a fortune fixing up a piece of property, only to have it lead to all sorts of adventures, like in the movie the Money Pit. You may buy or move into a house only to have a series of complex situations happen with neighbors, roommates, city planning committees, and so on.
Fate here can impel you on a mission to find home, wandering from place to place in search of belonging. You may never feel at home anywhere or even feel like home is haunted.   Ancestral Ghosts here can come from histories of war, exile, and migration.

Ming told a remarkable story of a woman who bought and sold properties but never felt at home, especially in the kitchen. She never cooked, and as soon as she fixed up a house she would sell it. Later, she uncovered a family story—during World War II, the whole family was sitting to dinner when the sirens went off. Her grandfather told them they were staying, and the whole family died at the dinner table in an air raid. So, of course, she inherits in inexplicable fear of being in the kitchen.

This House can manifest as a gypsy or nomad spirit. You may spend your entire adult life wandering; you may even feel claustrophobic, trapped after staying in one place for too long. You may be uprooted due to causes and conditions beyond your control, or you may move for work after being promoted to run the head office in Chicago. Or, you may have deep karmic connections to your hometown and never leave.

Many people throughout history were born and died in the same bed. And, countless people have been exiled due to war. The Stars here indicate something of your Ancestral Patterns around exile and migration. A Chinese saying goes, “we only dig in our ancestors,” meaning they have lived on the same land for so long that the soil is made of the dead. You may inherit a family farm that has been there for generations; it could be a curse or a blessing.

This House may also indicate other kinds of possessions. You may buy, fix, and sell cars. You may own and operate a clothing company. You may produce artisan soaps and sell them at the farmer’s market. Your life may be intimately connected to the material, the sensual, the manifest. You may cultivate the Earth and feel connected to the cycles and seasons. You may weave baskets or make goat cheese or derive great power from a spiritual connection to objects. You may be a collector, your Fate tied to art, tea pots, ritual bells, and so on. In Confucian culture, you are not considered a gentleperson until you have a collection. Art dealer is a perfect manifestation of this house.

Yang Stars tend to manifest as more worldly Fate Patterns. Yang Fate is to own, operate, and invest. Yang Stars can be indicative of careers in real estate, architecture, design, and so on. They may be connected to production—you may build your own house. As per usual, Yang Fate implies dynamism, that working actively with challenges unravels Fate. In terms of inheritance, Yang Stars imply the patriarchal line, such as our current fake “president” who has exalted Patriarchal Fate for inheritance.

Yin Stars often turn this House into a much more passive situation. You may inherit property or wealth and have everything taken care of for you, never having to work. Or, you may work with real estate, real goods, but the situations all manifest mysteriously, beyond your control. You may be constantly gifted things and return that fortune through generosity.

Yin Stars more easily manifest as generosity, spreading the wealth through charity, philanthropy, and leaving behind a legacy/creating a foundation. Yin Stars are often more associated with luxury, finery, comfort, refinement. They also heighten the affect of Feng Shui on a person as well as the identity with regional, geographic, ethic, or familial ties. Yin Stars indicate inheritance from the Matriarchal line.

Pleasure Palace (福德宮)

Pleasures – Luck, Hobbies, Interests, Enjoyment/Satisfaction

The Characters for this House, 福德, fú dé, literally means happiness and virtue, sometimes “blessed virtue,” and we translate it as the Pleasure Palace. I always read this House last, for in many ways it is the most important, for it tells us about our Fate to enjoy our life. It reveals Fated patterns of “inner experience” that manifest in our pursuit of satisfaction. We may have grand, exalted Fate, but if we don’t have fun, if are not satisfied when our Fate is complete, then what’s the point?

Without satisfaction, we may very well create more Fate, which from a Buddhist perspective keeps us spinning in the wheel of Samsara, for the relative world is by nature unsatisfactory, temporary, and when we try to find lasting/permanent satisfaction, we experience discomfort. This tradition accepts the Buddhist principal of Samsara but also shares a more Daoist belief that life alternates – sometimes it is an awful place, sometimes it is a wonderful place. Happiness is possible but never permanent. This House reveals our capacity for temporary satisfaction as it comes and goes.

Some, after the sea of obligations have been fulfilled, after all the Fated work has been done, are left with fond memories of joy and love. Others only remember the struggle, the battles fought – but here is the key – some are Fated to be grumpy! We must let grumpy people be grumpy. If we tell pessimists to stop being negative, we turn them into hypocrites, and they spend their lives being a “nice person” and then shoot up a school. This goes hand and hand with understanding Character; a Tiger with grumpy Fate (such as myself) needs a lot of acceptance.

This House suggests that we may not be free to enjoy ourselves, which was a huge revelation to me. I’ve always wondered why some people are blessed with a sunny disposition and have such an easy time having fun, while others find it so difficult. From this tradition’s point of view, we may inherit patterns of ghostly inhibition or unbridled gregariousness from our Ancestors.

At its core, this House reveals our Fate around “satisfaction,” but it manifests in patterns of enjoyment, pleasure, fun, hobbies, interests, entertainment, socializing, and so on. It tells us a very important thing—does fun provide you with Qi, or does it drain you of it?

Some people are at risk with they pursue pleasure. The first time they take a drink they’re an addict, and two years later their life has gone down the toilet. Others may actually be Fated to “follow their fun.” Liu Ming was a Fire Pig and had the Emperor in the Pleasure Palace, so, according to him, his Fate unraveled when he followed his sense of enjoyment. So, for him, doing drugs was a much different Fate scenario than for others. This may be auspicious for some Characters, like Pigs, who will follow their fun anyways, and bewildering for others, like Snakes, who distrust the display of the senses.

Is fun a battery for storing Qi? Are you a flirt who goes home glowing from flattery, or are you exhausted by promiscuity? When you listen to an amazing musician do you feel joy, or does it cause you to reflect on being a failed musician and feel bitter? When you work hard for something and achieve it, do you feel satisfied, accomplished, or are you already on to the next task, the next goal to accomplish? We often discuss these patterns as extrovert/introvert and type A/B people, but they may also be viewed as Fated Patterns.

When exalted, this House becomes difficult to interpret and often puts it into a “spiritual” dimension. It means that a person’s life revolves around a deeply personal sense of pleasure; they literally can’t avoid it. It is easy to assume that these people are party animals, but when this House is exalted, we cannot say anything about how it is supposed to manifest. A person may be completely boring by our standards, but inside this may be the perfect manifestation of their enjoyment. They may receive infinite pleasure from the fit of a good pair of shoes and not think highly of the experience. They may appear miserable from our perspective, but they may deeply love their struggle and turn it into amazing art. Who are we to judge?

If this House is unafflicted, then a person can “trust” their sense of pleasure; it may even become a mandate. They can go to the party, the festival, do the drugs, buy the toys, and follow this to their heart’s content. Doing so will catalyze their Fate and propel them in life. If strongly Fated, they may not be able to stop themselves. These people need to know that this is okay, even if society calls them irresponsible. Often, these people turn their passion, interests, hobbies, etc., into their career. Their interests are so strong that they can’t live life any other way. So, these people become artists, musicians, humanitarians, and dharma bums.

If the House is afflicted, then a person cannot trust their pleasure principal. Ghosts here imply that we inherit patterns of dissatisfaction, even addiction, and these can manifest as a wide range of harmful behaviors. This House can go very dark, but we must never jump to conclusions. My Mother had a very afflicted 11th House and died of addiction. Yet, I have seen others with the same arrangement with very different stories. However, the potential is always there, so we must read carefully. The darkest stories of addiction and abuse can certainly manifest here.

Ghosts in this House represent Ancestors who could have died having fun (overdose), died from abuse, or who never had a day of fun in their life. You may inherit a pattern of all work and no play and become very critical of pleasure. You may be Ebenezer Scrooge and think happy people are stupid. You may criticize people who go to clubs, but secretly yearn to be a maniac on the dance floor.
Some Characters, like Horses or Oxs, tend to turn everything into an assignment or job, so afflicted may turn out well or compound the already gloomy part of our Character. You may work at work, work at play, work in the gym, work on your spiritual path, and so on. You may be addicted to “busy,” which is an epidemic in our culture. You may be unable to rest and do nothing, repeating the life pattern of your great grandfather who worked in a factory and never got a day off. You may only have fun at school or at the gym, addicted to self-improvement.

Conversely, your grandparents may have worked every day of their life, and now you are free to have a life of leisure. You inherit money, privilege, and opportunities and do not give a fig about bettering yourself. You may feel guilty because of the advantages you’ve receive, but if it is Fated, then you should not. You have an Ancestral Mandate to enjoy your life. The difficult comes when this turns to entitlement. Inherent in this Fate is gratitude and generosity. Let your heart overflow with gratitude and give back. Positive can also flow into positive. Your grandmother may be jolly, and so you are too.
You may have had a great aunt who was poor. One day, she gets invited to a rich friend’s house and tries Belgian Chocolate for the first time. She leaves and never gets to taste it again. Now, three generations later, you can’t stop eating sugar. Or, perhaps like me, you had a relative who had a heart attack on the dance floor and now literally feel like dancing is life threatening (don’t worry, I’ve worked through this sort of).

Patterns here can create creativity and spontaneity or routines and ruts. You may find yourself on wild adventures, meeting and connecting with amazing people. Or, you may do the same thing day in, day out, and hang out at the same bar with the same friends. You may be bursting with possibilities or have no idea what to do with yourself. But, this can be made positive. If you tend to get stuck in a rut, then it means that you can enjoy discipline, which for some Characters is a nightmare. But for others it can help them excel at activities that require rigorous practice.

Fate here may create deep affinities for art, music, sex, literature, history, performance, movies, and so on. You may have Fate to become a master calligrapher or ballerina. You may become the world’s leading expert in ants. You may spend your life pursuing an unfulfilling career, while in your private life you’re obsessed with playing chess. You may retire or quit your day job and travel the world playing chess and become a grandmaster.

Yang Stars here tend to manifest as more ordinary, socially acceptable pleasures. Yang Stars make people active pleasure followers. They may love socializing, parties, sports, travel, competition, and so on. Yang Stars may find it easy to accept trendy or popular enjoyments. Yang Fate makes for “divas,” those who demand entertainment; if it isn’t fun, it isn’t worth doing. Yang stars are more “hedonic” and likely to revel in food, sex, and song.

Yin Stars tend to manifest as a wide rainbow of “other possibilities.” Yin Stars may create a deep affinity for the occult, for astrology, tarot, ancient wisdom, and the like. Yin Stars are much more fluid in their expression—they compel people towards deep, hidden dimensions, which express as an intuitive sense of enjoyment.

These people may be shy, weary of enjoyment, because it may be weird, strange, taboo. They may appear normal but have a pleasure dungeon in their basement, or on weekends dress up as a Klingon and attend sci-fi conventions. Yang Fate can express this way too but would do so for the socializing and dressing up, while Yin Fate may feel a deep connection to the principals of Star Trek, which they can recite in Klingon.

Yin Pleasure Fate here tends to find people, while people with Yang Fate tends to pursue it. If you have major Fate here, then the rest of your life may manifest through this House. You may meet your Partner at a sci-fi convention and start a business teaching Klingon to fellow Trekies.

Empty Court (空宮)

The Characters, 空, kōng gōng, literally mean empty court, and it refers to a House that contains no ruling Stars. The message of an Empty Court is simple—no Fate. It means that freedom and choice are the main situation and so become very important. You must choose and create your Fate here if you want it. And, there may be few options or choices. It implies that you completed this karma in a past life, or that your Ancestors have freed you of it.

Some people have a few Empty Courts (I have 4), and some people may have none. There is a tradition of “borrowing stars” from the opposite House, which are like a “Fate echo” and can tell a story of an Empty House. But I find that freedom is a much more important message. In a way, choice can activate the borrowed stars, making them come alive; they represent potential, but are otherwise not important.

Body Palace (身宮)

The Character 身, shēn, means body, so we translate the secret 13th house as the Body Palace. Due to certain Polestar calculations, one of the Twelve Houses becomes a secret 13th House that we call the Body Palace. It can be any one of the 12 Houses. Mine is the Wealth Palace. Which ever House it is, that House becomes connected to and expressed in some way through your body. This is open to interpretation. It may indicate a path of career, health/wellness, or situations surrounding your embodiment, such as being a doctor or athlete, or it may relate to an illness or recovery. I have seen many health care practitioners with this in the Wealth or one of the Career Palaces.

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The Three Motives of the Mantic Arts—an introduction to the practice and system of Zĭ Wēi Dŏu Shù 紫微斗數 (Polestar Astrology)

7/12/2018

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This will be the first blog in a series exploring the system of Fate Calculation in Chinese Polestar Astrology, a task I have been avoiding due to the sheer magnitude of information I have learned on the subject but have yet to organize. In my previous blogs, I spent a considerable amount of time introducing the basic teachings of Chinese Astrology—ancestors, yin-yang, the five phases of Qi, and the 12 Qi Characters of Destiny/ “Animals,” making sure to cover each of the 12 Zodiac Animals in detail.

Polestar Astrology teaches that life is a dance, a reciprocity, 感應, between three factors—Character, Nature, and Fate. The purpose of the 12-part series on the Zodiac Animals was to introduce/explore the idea of Qi Character, or Xing 性, the notion that Time (Qi) itself is characterized and that we can use symbols to describe that Character, and therefore, ourselves, for we are living embodied expressions of Time. The purpose of this series is to introduce the idea of Ming, 命, or Fate. I will conclude with a series on Nature, 道德, which is perhaps the most important and yet most difficult to discuss.

Everything I have discussed thus far has been general Chinese Astrology, and it is now (finally!) time to delve into the ACTUAL system of Natal Astrology/Fate Calculation, which is what I do with clients. This system is widely unknown, for like Daoism, the authentic lineages of this tradition have been lost but continue to exist in fragmented/watered down forms. It has survived in China as a kind of folky “fortunetelling,” which it absolutely is NOT.

The true tradition of Chinese Mantic Arts is a complete spiritual path that synthesizes many Chinese traditions, which I have been trying to piece together for many years in the footsteps of Liu Ming, who received lineage transmission and texts on the subject through his Daoist teacher. The tradition includes Feng Shui and can also be called “Astro-Geomancy,” for the subjects are two sides of the same coin. Ming also taught Feng Shui at the Golden Gate Academy for many years, but I have yet to delve into the subject.

The information Liu Ming taught on Polestar Astrology cannot be found in any books. Some of it was oral transmission, some was translated from ancient texts, and a lot of it he figured out in the 800, or so, astrology readings he did over several decades. I have done about 170 since I started doing readings three years ago, so I’m catching up. My knowledge on the subject, however, is by no means complete. I do, however, feel somewhat capable of doing the subject justice, and I will flesh this out over the rest of my life.

There are no “how to” books on this subject, because there is an unspoken agreement that no one would ever write one, an agreement based on the assumption that the tradition would survive this “dark age.” Maybe they have survived in China; I wouldn’t really know, because I haven’t been there, but as far as I can tell this tradition may die out. Or, at the very least, it will fail to be transplanted here.

Across the world, “secret” (or better private) traditions are being published widely in the hope that they survive modernity. Yes, there are general books out there about Polestar Astrology, but they are, for the most part, useless in terms of interpretation. Kwok Man-Ho’s book, for example, is 700 pages and contains almost no information. It is for this reason that I write this series. In the United States, the only people I know who offer authentic Polestar Astrology readings are Ming’s students, who are few and far between. Ming himself had the intention of writing a book on the subject, but he never did, despite teaching many classes and producing copious notes, many of which I will draw from in the following blogs. It is possible for his students to “edit” his notes into a book, but I would rather just write the book, giving full credit to Ming as the source and inspiration.

Much of the “living transmission” on the subject I received from my teacher Dharma Bodhi, who studied with and lived next to Ming for many years. I have hunted down old students and put together many notes that may have otherwise been lost.

Zĭ Wēi Dŏu Shù, also called Polestar or Purple Star Astrology, teaches us how to understand, navigate, and ultimately unravel something the Chinese call 命 Ming, which we translate as Fate, the Mandate of Heaven, and sometimes Destiny (which is really a different idea altogether). The following series of blogs, then, will attempt to unravel this bewildering concept in terms of the 12-Houses and “Stars” of the Polestar System, which are poetical symbols describing the nature of Fate.

I will preface this by saying that I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT FATE IS. I have been wrestling with the concept for many years, and the more I understand it, the less I know. I will do my best to explore it in terms of my experience, but I do so from a place of humility and open ended curiosity. I have no answers, for there are no answers in Astrology—only more questions. Whatever Fate is, it is enormous, and like Karma (a similar idea from India), only a Buddha can understand it.

Zĭ Wēi Dŏu Shù 紫微斗數

So, what is Zĭ Wēi Dŏu Shù? In short—divination. But otherwise, it is not entirely clear, for its origins are shrouded in mystery. It appeared in China in the Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE) and was further developed in the Song Dynasty (960-1280 CE) as a response to the influx of Indian Astrology brought by Buddhist monks. Prior to this period, China had no well-developed form of Natal Astrology, despite the many thousands of years of Astrological calculation that preceded Zĭ Wēi Dŏu Shù.

It never occurred to the Chinese that any individual was significant, not even the Emperor, so they never bothered with Natal Astrology. But, with the influx of Indian Medicine, Astrology, religion, and so on, it became popular to get Natal readings, because Indians brought to China the idea of a “self” with a story. So, the Chinese decided to create their own version of Natal Astrology that expressed Chinese values. The values of this system are a synthesis of Daoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism, and I will draw upon all three for my understanding in an attempt to connect them to modern life.

The tradition has a largely Daoist pedigree, and the main teachers credited with its creation are Lu Chun Yang, 呂純陽, during the Tang Dynasty, Chen Xi Yi, 陳希夷, during the Song Dynasty, and Luo Hong Xian, 羅洪先, during the Ming Dynasty. There is also an oral tradition that attributes it to the Daoist Immortal Chen Tuan, 陳摶, who is the progenitor of Yun Gong, 雲功, or Dream (literally cloud) Yoga in the Liu Family Tradition, which will be the subject of another future blog series.

The system is named after Zĭ Wēi, the Polestar/NorthStar, the only star in the sky which does not move, which every culture on Earth has used since time immemorial to guide themselves home. It is the pivot of Chinese Astrological/Astronomical calculations. The Polestar changes every few thousand years due to the movement of the Earth, and in this age, the Polestar is Polaris, which the Ladle of the Big Dipper points to year-round.

The Chinese observed that everything in the heavens moves except for this one star, which was to them quite significant. The Chinese called it the Emperor, and Zĭ Wēi Dŏu Shù teaches that all Fate is recorded and distributed from this pivot (not literally of course).

The Daoist tradition of Polestar Astrology talks of Nine Heavenly Realms that we transverse on our way back to Source upon completion of our Human Fate, 大圓. The Polestar is a symbolic representation of the Yang Light emanating from the Ninth Heaven that facilitates the celestial currents of Ancestral Fate resolution throughout our world-system. These currents are sometimes called the Empyrean Matrix.

The term Zĭ Wēi literally refers to a kind of flower, which some believe to be the Purple Myrtle flower. Zi, 紫, means purple, and Wei, 微, in this case, means something delicate, fragile, subtle, and profound—a flower, a metaphor for Fate. Dŏu refers to the Big Dipper, and Shù here means calculation.

The system is also called Purple Star or Flying Star Astrology, and it is associated with a transmission from Shang Qing 上清 Daoism, associated with teachings that manifest from realms of Purple Light. The tradition was said to have been downloaded to Earth through trance mediums/shamans 巫 from beings called the Jade Ladies, 玉女, (there are also Golden Lads 金童) from the “Purple Library,” an Immortal Realm that serves as an intermediary between Heaven and Earth. All the teachings from this time are called the Purple Teachings. Earlier transmissions in China were called the Yellow Teachings, associated with the Yellow Emperor.

Jade Ladies are like Dākinīs in Tantra, or Angles in the West, enlightened feminine beings who hold and transmit Dharma teachings. Chogyam Trungpa called them inspiration beings and said that inspiration is the body of the Dākinī. When you feel alive, inspired, and wisdom/insight pours through you, the Jade Ladies are said to be giggling around you.

Jade Ladies are depicted as teenage girls made of purple light who appear in dreams/visions. Wherever they gather, amethyst crystal is said to form. 西王母 Xi Wang Mu, the Queen Mother of the West, the Daoist Female Immortal who presides over this tradition with Zhen Wu, 真武, is said to fly around the world touching those who will become Immortal. Jade Ladies gather around whomever she touches and transmit teachings from the Purple Library. There are many poems from the Shang Qing period that describe the Jade Ladies as muses, who come and go, often creating despair in their absence. Shang Qing Daoism is a highly detailed and complex spiritual path that views the Stars of the Polestar System as Deities. It is like Tantra, which developed around the same time, also from Deities through trance mediumship.

Stars

This series of blogs will systematically explore 36 “Stars” from the Polestar System. Polestar Astrology does not reference the Planets of our solar system like Western and Indian Astrology, but rather it refers to the nature of Stars in significant constellations like the Big Dipper. Some systems use up to 108 Stars, but we will focus on what are considered the most important 36, with an emphasis of the “Royal Court,” the Twelve Ruling Stars of Fate.

The Stars symbolically describe the Nature of Fate. Since the system was developed for and by/in the Chinese Imperial Court, each Star is a character in the Chinese Imperial Court, ruled by the Emperor and Empress. The Stars, and therefore Fate, fall into two categories Yang and Yin—the Northern and Southern Array, led by the Emperor and Empress respectively.

However, it is very important to understand that Chinese Astrology is NOT “Astronomical” but mathematical. Polestar Astrology has astronomy in its distant past, but a Polestar Chart does not depict the night sky. There is no illusion that this is an accurate depiction of where these constellations were at the time of your birth. The system is said to have been “revealed” by patterns observed in the sky, but these patterns are mathematical and said to be an “independent influence” that forms/shapes the causes and conditions of Fate. Polestar Charts are calculated by numerical equations/numerology, depicting sequences of Time beyond the physical reality of Stars in the sky. It is better referred to as Chronology rather than Astrology.

Many of these constellations/stars have today disappeared, which to the Chinese mind makes them more potent, for they have gone to the realm of the Ancestors. So, although some of the Stars do have the names of currently known astronomical bodies, what we call “Stars” in this system are better understood as poetical representations of Fate, mathematical patterns found in Nature, an endless spin of celestial Qi.

The Stars of the Celestial Court and their various arrangements when interpreted become a form of Divination or Mantic Art. But who and what is being divined? The standard Chinese answer is the dead – our Ancestors, our life before birth. The Stars form an image of the precedent/cause of our birth and can be interpreted as a both a symbolic and literal picture of our Ancestors, which I will explain in more detail as we go through each Star. In short, the dead run the living.

The Yang Stars represent Patriarchal Fate associated with “action/doing,” and the Yin Stars represent Matriarchal Fate associated with “receptivity/being.” In this tradition, we are intimately connected with the dead, and we must play out the patterns of unfinished business we inherit at birth before we can experience the Freedom of our Original Nature.

Ming might say that we are the warm wiggling end of thousands of dead people, responsible for at least seven generations of beings. When we get a human body, we inherit the unfinished business, gifts, talents, and so on, from all the bodies that preceded our body – it’s the tax we pay for birth. Fate is said to be a “Mandate” that comes from our Ancestors to complete what they could not. The Twelve Ruling Stars represent our accomplished Ancestors; the rest are what the Chinese refer to as Gui, 鬼, or Ghosts, “unfinished business,” which I will cover in detail.

The Buddhist interpretation suggests that the Stars represent our past life Karma, which is the cause of our re-birth, and that we are here to finish our own unfinished Karma from past lives. Both are possible interpretations.

Traditionally, you would receive a Qi Transmission of each Star in ceremony. You would hear a description and then be shown an image and receive a Mantra for each Star, which were often thought of as Deities. Since I never got to have that experience, I can’t comment on it, although I have gotten some of this through dreams.

Here is a list of the 36 Stars that represent every conceivable pattern of Fate that we will explore in the following blogs:

The Four Rulers

紫微 Zi Wei – The Emperor
天府 Tian Fu – The Empress
天相 Tian Xiang – The Tutor
天機 Tian Ji – The Oracle

The Four Honorables

太陽 Tai Yang – The Sun/Prince
武曲 Wu Qu – The General
太陰 Tai Yin – The Moon Lady/Princess
巨門 Ju Men – The Great Gate

The Four High Ranking

天同 Tian Tong – The Vassal
天梁 Tian Liang – The Roof Beam
文昌 Wen Chang – The Magistrate
文曲 Wen Qu – The Priest

The Four Major Ghosts

廉貞 Lian Zhen – The Concubine
七殺 Qi Sha – The Seven Killings/Executioner
貪狼 Tan Lang – The Greedy Wolf
破軍 Po Jun – The Rebel/Breaking Rank

The Four Minor Ghosts

火星 Huo Xing – The Fire Star
鈴星 Ling Xing – The Water/Ringing Star
擎羊/羊刃 Qing Yang/Yang Ren – the Goat Blade/Sacrifice Star
陀羅 Tuo Luo – The Humpback/Rejection Star

The Four Incidentals

右弼 You Bi – The Right Assistant
左輔 Zou Fu – The Left Assistant
祿存 Lu Cun – The Storehouse
天姚 Tian Yao – The Beauty Star

The Orphan Spirits

天魁 Tian Kui – The Leader
天喜 Tian Xi – The Happiness Star
天鉞 Tian Yue – The Halberd Star
地劫 Di Jie – The Loss Star
地空 Di Kong – The Void/Empty Earth Star
天刑 Tian Xing – The Punishment Star
天馬 Tian Ma – The Travel/Heavenly Horse Star
紅鸞 Hong Luan – The Red Bird

The Four Transformers

化祿 Hau Lu – The Salary/Prosperity Star
化權 Hua Quan – The Authority Star
化科 Hua Ke – The Examination Star
化忌 Hau Ji – The Jealousy/Scandal Star

Again, I will cover each of these stars in blogs to come.

The Three Motives of the Mantic Arts

This tradition is a “Mantic” Art, a form of “Divination.” Humans have always had a deep curiosity and/or a fundamental instinct for survival; we’ve been divining the ways of Heaven and Earth for as long as we’ve been around. Divination (related to Shamanism) is the “old religion” and, in a way, lies behind all the world’s religions, and, in the broadest sense, lies behind all human culture.

Divination is the curiosity about and attempt to shape the direction of Time and experience. You may have philosophies, teachings, stories, and so on, but as soon as you try to make these practical, apply them to experience, you are attempting to shape the future, you are Divining, and your teachings or “view” will determine the fruition of your methods.

The future is unformed, empty, but the “present moment” has momentum (called the past), expectations, and direction, which can be read and shaped. Every spiritual tradition is trying to do this in one way or another. Every culture has systems of divination, such as Tarot, Astrology, the Yi-Jing, Bird Song, Tortoise Shells, and on. This tradition takes this premise and turns it into a deliberate path called “Resolving Fate,” which is the purpose and fruition of Zĭ Wēi Dŏu Shù.

So, what is the view of the Mantic Arts? Traditionally there are three views or motivations for practicing divination—fear, advantage, and wisdom. Before we get started, it is important to examine which of these motivates you. These motives can apply to anything you do in life. It is important to be honest. This tradition emphasizes wisdom as the path, but we may unconsciously be operating from all three.

Fear

Simply put, humans are freaked out about the future and want to feel better; we want to feel in control. Divination is most often used to “predict” calamity and provide safety out of a fear of the unknown. This is fine. Used in this way, Divination provides knowledge of possible futures so that we can avoid “punishment” for our misdeeds, bad karma, ancestral ghosts, and so on. Divination from the motivation of Fear often seeks “answers” as to why life is so difficult—why does this keep happening to me? Fear is not bad, for it often gets us started on the path. However, it is limited, emotionally painful, and will only take us so far.

Advantage

The second motive is advantage. We learn and practice Astrology to get one-up on the Universe. Although fear is often still the underlying motive, Astrology used for advantage is usually a lot more fun. We use Astrology to become better people, to learn more about our patterns so that we can do better in life. This kind of Astrology is often about timing, knowing when to advance and retreat. It can be used to predict the stock market, when to invest, when to start a business, when to get married, whom to marry, when to buy a house, when to have children, and so on. This motive is also fine, but it often stays superficial, and we end up creating more and more Fate in the process of trying to control our Fate, rather than being free of it altogether. The clear majority of Astrology I see out there is done with this motive. It often looks spiritual, but beneath the surface, many use Astrology as a tool to gain advantage over a scary world. I have tried to use Astrology for personal advantage, but I’m not very good at it, lol.

Wisdom – Cultivating the Way

The situation we find ourselves in is a cosmic soup in which all Time and Space are an Irresolvable Chaos, called Huntun 餛飩. When we look closely at our situation, we find no particular time, place, or self but the patterned appearance of these factors bewilders us for lifetimes. Reality appears to be ordered/patterned, but analysis brings no certainty, and the illusion of knowledge is big trouble.

Analysis brings with it an irresolvable confusion that humans have debated about since time immemorial, called Religion/Science. Modern Science/Scientism tells us that we are close to figuring it all out, but I’m not too sure. When we look closely, chaos appears to be the source of all things, and this is the Paradox that lies at the heart of our experience—qi strands of Time and Space weave together to form an unreadable astro-geomantic pattern the Chinese call Dao.

What is the unknowable Dao doing? Constantly displaying itself as dualistic, ephemeral, impermanent, dream like phenomena called a self/world. What appears to be knowable and that which is unknowable are in fact not different, for the dual world is a continuous expression of the non-dual. The microcosm of our personal Fate mirrors the macrocosm of the nameless Dao. Through relaxed observation this becomes apparent.

The spiritual path of the Mantic Arts, and the true purpose of this tradition, comes through embracing the irresolvable. Relaxing our need to know/understand becomes the direct path to wisdom. The dual-world we are divining, called an Astrology Chart, which appears to be comprehensible, reveals Pattern within Chaos and Pattern as Chaos. Astrology becomes a mirror that reflects our Original Nature which is beyond concepts (the meaning of Chaos).

Our practice is to investigate the weave or matrix of patterns that make up our experience through the symbols of the Polestar System. Without any compulsion to predict, fix, or improve, any particular part, our false notions of an abiding self and world unravel. Chaos is never vanquished; Samsara is never fixed/improved. It is reveal as Dao.

The Mantic Arts are a non-dual revelation of things as they are. Life is revealed as an ever-flowing phantasm of light that cannot be named/known, and we agree to be swept up in whatever has been “pre-ordained” by our Ancestors. Polestar Astrology simple points the way.

The fruition of this tradition, then, is called 大圓 Da Yuan, the Great Completion, similar to what Tibetans call Dzogchen, the Great Perfection. Ming named his school after this teaching. The Resolution of Fate comes through the realization of the perfect completion of things as they already are. Everything that has ever happened/will ever happen is a perfect demonstration of your Original Nature, no matter how you feel about it. You have always been light having an experience of light. Like Ming’s teacher, those who realize the Great Completion do not leave behind a corpse but rather demonstrate their completion in a Body of Light. When we discuss the teachings on Inner Nature, we will examine our experience as a rainbow of five colored lights.

Fate, Freedom, and Reciprocity

Unlike the West, China has never argued about fatalism and free will. It has long been understood that one cannot exist without the other; they alternate, blend, and define each other. Freedom, or open space, is the main experience we are in. Therefore, our Astrology Chart is defined by our choices, by how we use our Freedom in response to our Fate, and as I covered in the 12-Animal series, how we use our Freedom to cultivate our Character.

There is no auspicious chart. The auspice of any chart is made by what the Chinese call Ganying, 感應, or reciprocity—the relationship between Character, Freedom, and Fate is a reciprocity determined by choice. We find our life in the play/dance of these factors, and Astrology is found in the dialogue between them.

The next blog of the Fate series will cover the 12 Houses of a Natal Chart. Given my life/schedule, it will be a slow journey, but I look forward to it nonetheless. Stay tuned!

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A Ship to Cross the Sea of Suffering – Qì in the Year of the Yáng Water Tiger, Rén Yín, 壬寅 – Year 2022/4720

FATE IS NOT ACTUALLY CREATED (HAS NO BEGINNING) BUT
IS THE PREDISPOSITION TO RECREATE AND SOLIDIFY KARMIC PATTERNS.
THE EVER-PRESENT OPTION/DISPOSITION TO OPENLY EXPRESS OUR TRUE NATURE IS FREEDOM.
TOGETHER FATE AND FREEDOM CONSTITUTE THE NATURALLY DYNAMIC
DIMENSION WE ARE IN.
-Liu Ming

道 – Dào/View

Rén Yín, 壬寅– Year of the Yáng Water Tiger

象 – Symbolism

氣 – Qì Dynamics

形 – Manifestation/Character

器 – Synthesis, Application, and “Predictions”

12 Animal Forecast

Re-establishing the Foundation – Qì in the Year of the Yīn Metal Ox, Xīn Chŏu, 辛丑 – Year 2021/4719

Qiūfēn, 秋分, Autumn Equinox

Báilù, 白露, White Dew,

雨水, Yŭ Shŭi - Rain Water

Virtue of the Small – Qì in the Year of the Yáng Metal Rat – Gēng Zĭ 庚子 – Year 2020/4718

Nourishing Within – Qì of the Yīn Earth Pig – Jĭ Hài 己亥 – Year 2019/4717

開光 Kāiguāng—Opening the Light: Reflections on Chinese Medicine from China

The Twelve Houses of Polestar Astrology

The Three Motives of the Mantic Arts—an introduction to the practice and system of Zĭ Wēi Dŏu Shù 紫微斗數 (Polestar Astrology)

Tiger's Play--the View Teachings of Chinese Astrology

Archives

Categories

FATE IS NOT ACTUALLY CREATED (HAS NO BEGINNING) BUTIS THE PREDISPOSITION TO RECREATE AND SOLIDIFY KARMIC PATTERNS.THE EVER-PRESENT OPTION/DISPOSITION TO OPENLY EXPRESS OUR TRUE NATURE IS FREEDOM.TOGETHER FATE AND FREEDOM CONSTITUTE THE NATURALLY DYNAMICDIMENSION WE ARE IN.-Liu Ming

道 – Dào/View

Rén Yín, 壬寅– Year of the Yáng Water Tiger

象 – Symbolism

氣 – Qì Dynamics

形 – Manifestation/Character

器 – Synthesis, Application, and “Predictions”

12 Animal Forecast

Tiger's Play--the View Teachings of Chinese Astrology

Archives

Categories

FATE IS NOT ACTUALLY CREATED (HAS NO BEGINNING) BUT
IS THE PREDISPOSITION TO RECREATE AND SOLIDIFY KARMIC PATTERNS.
THE EVER-PRESENT OPTION/DISPOSITION TO OPENLY EXPRESS OUR TRUE NATURE IS FREEDOM.
TOGETHER FATE AND FREEDOM CONSTITUTE THE NATURALLY DYNAMIC
DIMENSION WE ARE IN.
-Liu Ming