Year of the Rat – in review
Welcome to the East Asian Lunar New Year!
Since China has been around for many centuries and developed what is today the Chinese Astrological signs. Like with most things with a mystical element, I enjoy watching to see what parts of assigned characterisations apply. The role I play is that of curious observer.
Like with anything there must be a time when it transitioned from, ‘not existing as a thing to being a thing’. Basically, from non-existing to existing. The next set of questions are: “what person/ people made these observations?”, “why did it take off?” and “why are they male when it follows the principles of yin and yang?”
The next thing I do when I’m looking at things like the astrology signs and the like, is that I assume that some of the belief is superstition and it is coupled with some astute observations. Let’s face it, looking up at the stars won’t tell you what they mean. It requires a degree of observation and memory of the stars placement and an observation of mankind’s for personalities of people born within or against that placement. Then it requires years and centuries to validate anything.
With the Chinese astrological cycle being made up of 60 signs, memory and observation needed to be good for a long period of time to even observe the cycle. Did the person who first started with the observations go, ah this is similar to what happened 12 years ago but the people are a little more forthright than normal, they seem to have …. ah… how do you say it? …. Fire!
If it were superstition by itself, none of these “beliefs or observations” would have stuck around for so long. And then there’s the part of environmental conditioning and being born into a world that observes it.
I became interested in Chinese Astrology back in the mid 1980s. At first, it was observing the year I was born in and those of my family and friends as objectively as I could. Then in the 1990s I managed to stumble across a couple of Chinese Astrology books made super simple and super fun. Nothing too serious. Surprisingly, two of these books have followed me around. When I want to know what a year is going to be like, I look up the “fun” version for the very concise advice on how to honour, respect and deal with the year. To-date the observations have been pretty on-point. For me at least.
For instance, Chinese Astrologics (p. 13, Rigby and Bean) summary for the year of the Rat was/ is:
"... this is a good year for commerce, speculation and the economy in general. It is a time for sensible investment and fluctuations will be beneficial. There will be some arguments and a few surprises!".
Did you just go… “Ha! How wrong is that!”. Not so fast Kimosabe! Last Lunar year was the year of the “Metal Rat”.
Metal adds a whole new dimension. It is associated with cutting tools. Metal is great if you are a chef, surgeon or lumberjacks for knives, scalpels and axes, respectively. When it comes to the economy we’d need to go back 60 years to look at 1960 for the last Metal Rat. It looks like the USA, at least, also had its economic challenges and like 2020. By the end of lunar 2020 year things were beginning to settle down. It’s probably fair to say that it should be worded that “this is a year for commerce, speculation and the economy in general”, omitting the word “good”.
As for the rest of the statement, it’s fair to say “bingo!”. Heads of state clashed with each other over how to handle the Coronavirus pandemic. Obviously, COVID-19 was a “surprise!” in and of itself. Other stuff the year focussed on were: energy, charm, self-control, opinionated, shrewd, social, congenial, clever, resourceful, and generous.
From my own observations over the years, if you exhibited and honoured the traits pertaining to that year, the year would look more kindly on you.
So, in a few quick words against each point from a general perspective:
1. Energy or energetic – There was certainly a lot of hustle happening around getting technology up-and-running for a work-from-home world. There was certainly a lot of activity in the medical and health sciences arenas too. Ah, what am I saying, it at some point you were expending energy to do something different in your life.
2. Charm – from a personal perspective, the leaders of each of the Australian states, mostly fostered or displayed charm. The states with leaders that began their communications on COVID with displays of positivity in the form of thanking people for getting tested and thanking others for isolating and following the health advice restrictions fared better than those when they were frustrated with parts of the population for doing the wrong thing.
3. Self-control – A big year for mental health. Self-control to me is all about mental health. It’s how you cope with change and pressure. If you’re charming and appear in control the year will reward you.
4. Opinionative – while every country had their share of rightful skeptics regarding the restrictions for COVID-19. Those who thought they were right and everyone else was wrong or those with strong opinions regardless of the correctness of the statements also got attention. This most prevalent in my world during the US election.
5. Shrewd – in a year like this year, you needed to be shrewd to survive. If you were shrewd you were most likely rewarded for your shrewdness or resourcefulness.
6. Social – definitely a focus for the year was the way we interacted with each other socially. Etiquette around socialising aspect shifted. In a year when socialising was hard if you socialised or found new ways to socialise you could avoid “cabin fever” for the most part.
7. Congenial – how often were we “in this together but apart?”. This year in particular if you were congenial, the year would by rights reward you with congeniality right back at you.
8. Generous – those with a generous spirit hidden inside came to the fore this year. Again, if you were generous with something you got repaid in kind. Caution: if you were generous with anger you that energy back just the same.
That’s it for the “Year of the Metal Rat”. It was a tough year and one unlikely to be forgotten in a hurry. Next we move on to the year of the Metal Cow.
References
Paul Rigby and Harvey Bean, Getting it together with Chinese Astrologics, independently published, link to a source is here but the site is “not secure” and therefore, I do not recommend purchasing from that site until it has become secure: http://whitelotusbooks.com/bookdetail.php?id=N2691
Day 043 – Distractions
12 February 2021
Context
Welcome to Day 43 and Happy New Year!
It’s the first day of the East Asian Year of the Cow or if you prefer the Metal Ox! There’s a whole post on the farewelling the Year of the Rat and welcoming the Year of the Cow. You may notice that I am using the female version of the animal as opposed to the male version. It’s me trying to bring the yin element to the fore. That’s a topic for another post and another day.
It’s Friday and it was a work day for me. I took five minutes to meditate to clear my mind before I started the day. The day was one of those days where you’re constantly being distracted either by others’ needs or all by yourself. The latter is worse especially when it’s tasks you’ve assigned to yourself. Why do we get distracted? and, why is it so hard to get yourself back on track when you’ve been distracted?. Is this the universe’s subtle way of eventually leading us to fulfil a Goal from the Distant Past?
Bear with me, if the decisions and wishes we make either consciously or subconsciously lead us from moment to moment, then at some point these chickens are going to come to roost. What I’m saying that our wishes or decisions don’t always happen with the same lead time. For those not in an industry to know what “lead time” is, it’s the same as “preparation” time when making a recipe.
A simple example, what if we wished, at the beginning of January for our birthday in May, that we would love to catch up with friends and family to celebrate. The thought is forgotten. February arrives and a friend mentions they will be travelling to our favourite vacation spot around our birthday. At this stage, we mentally wish we could go with our friend it would be a great way to celebrate our birthday – something special. The thought is forgotten. In March, we hear that our favourite unrelated person will be visiting the town next to ours and that as part of our normal routine we’d most likely bump into them. We then wish to be at home to increase our chances of meeting said person – now that would be a story to tell friends over at a catch-up.
There are three things we have wished for to happen on the same date. On some level, in April we bump into the friend going to our favourite vacation spot. They mention that the booking needs to be made in two weeks, and deposits paid. Just at the same time, confirmation that your favourite person (star) will be in the town next door. It’s hush-hush but it’s true. Your parents call and want to make arrangements and want to know what friends you’d like to have for your birthday celebration. These events can happen during a five minute window on separate days in amongst a heavy workload. We have had no time to actually think about it.
At some level though, we know we need to think about it. This is when our friend distraction might make an appearance. We start to focus on things not entirely work driven or perhaps entirely work driven depending upon the conflict we are unaware that is taking place.
Distraction is in a way what I call “drift time” where you go from “shiny object” to “shiny object” and go, “ooh, shiny!”, each time. If we follow each distraction, we may stumble upon either a brochure for our vacation spot or an old photo bringing back fond memories. These memories trigger going there when we were children with our parents. Thinking of our parents which then puts you in mind of that favourite star, because at their house you have the poster of them on your wall. Then we jump online to look for that poster again to see if it’s still available. While online, the vacation spot pops up with a special putting it within financial reach.
Thinking about our finances, reminds us that we need to talk to our parents about giving them some money toward the celebration. You call your parents and they advise that don’t want the money. However, we ask questions about how they’d feel if we took the opportunity to go to our favourite vacation spot for our birthday and caught up after the vacation. Turns out they are relieved as are we. We view the poster of our favourite star online and decide that it was a teenage crush and the vacation is really what we want to do. All thanks to distraction.
The example is a nice simple distraction example with nice delineations. However, others in our lives are more subtle to the point we don’t really understand what it is we’re trying to resolve until the issue is resolved at that “aha!” moment.
So, that’s one theory on distraction. It’s certainly better than saying, I’m a bit tired and not really focussed … but was that meant to happen?! No. I am not going there today.
Let’s see what the cards have to say. Quick! Before I get distracted again! Trust me, at the moment, I can get distracted halfway through a senten… *smile*.
Today's Cards
The Cards - Analysis
Healing in position one of Now. While healing with the ankle seems quite obvious and I’m certainly feeling the healing tiredness that happens when your body is using more energy than it needs. Sleeping also allows your mind to keep pace with the healing happening elsewhere.
Participation in position two of Influence. The card of Participation is about taking advantage of the process and of life. Participation isn’t just about connecting with people, it’s also about embracing the experience. Being in the number two spot over the Healing card suggests that I need to participate in healing instead of diverting my attention to the next “shiny” object.
Beyond Illusion in position three of Goal. Beyond Illusion is the process of becoming, it’s the stage before, during, and after transformation. Considering the Healing and Participation cards are below this aspiration and I am in the process of going from a broken ankle to a mended ankle all the while something I was torn about is resolving itself.
Conditioning in position four of Distant Past. Since the beginning of January I’ve received the Conditioning card nine times. During that time, I’ve done some thinking about this card and others communicating a similar message, and realised that sometimes I’ve misread this card. Not misread for the day, because, it is what it was. Because I have this new information, its depth may have changed.
For instance, the conditioning it is referring to while it’s mine also applies to those providing advice to me. After all, they too have conditioning applied. For instance, time frames for healing a broken bone is standard of six weeks to start. Rarely, is it shorter or would times adapt to the level of healing. Not that I am complaining, I’m happy with the six weeks from break.
Guidance in position five of Recent Past. In Osho’s text, this card is about getting in touch with your inner guidance. Your dharma. Your inner buddha – buddha being your own enlightenment. If the world acts in response to request from you, then the external will reflect what you sometimes ignore within.
There has been something tweaking at the back of my mind and I can sense myself avoiding staring at it. Much as a young child will peer out from behind parental legs at a stranger, then hide again when the stranger notices them, only to come out a few seconds later. This is the kind of game I’m playing with this thought. There are a few weeks yet to resolve it… *smile*.
Celebration in position six of Future Energy. Nothing says enjoyment than Celebration. There are so many things to celebrate at the moment, so what is it referring to? The clue to that lies in the Now position. Celebrating the healing progress.
The other thing I’m celebrating is that, I also looked back at the number of reads my posts have gotten and the number was larger than I expected. Which was like, WOW! Especially, when I was doing the web basics course, the teacher mentioned that if you didn’t have your SEO working on your website, it was the equivalent to putting a sign up in the middle of the Simpson desert, Australia. Basically, there’s not a lot of traffic. I hadn’t put myself too far out there yet. Remember those socials, I need to setup. Just trying to find out how I can adjust the background pic on Facebook to not have a gradient over the background, so the image can look like the home page header.
Mind in position seven of Feelings. Is anyone surprised by the Mind showing up in the Feelings about Healing? Distraction is part of not cleaning out the mind. For me, that meditating. Since the break, I’ve been avoiding meditating. I like sitting cross-legged and the cast and the position I would need to put my foot in would be contrary to the healing position it should be in.
Many times have I preached about it not mattering whether you meditate on a chair, on the floor, lying down or standing up. But when it comes to me meditating, I prefer to meditate sitting with my legs crossed – this can be on the lounge, bed or floor I’m indifferent. Guess this is just another lesson to be learned along the lines of practise what you preach. Awah… I really hate those lessons! No wonder the Mind card has shown up indicating busy on too many things but not anything with meaning.
Exhaustion in position eight of Other People’s Views. Exhaustion is not just a perception. For those that know me, I tend to lose focus when I’m pushing myself. Then there’s the temptation to respond with short curt phrases and comments along the lines of, “I’m not tired”, “I have a right to an opinion!”.
Not that I do that these days. I’m recognising my own snappiness right after I snap and apologise to the first person rather than going a day before noticing or having someone tell my mum I’m tired and have her ring me and tell me I’m tired *shy smile*. Umph. I must be scary when I’m tired! I’m going to guess that other people do actually see me as exhausted.
The Outsider in position nine of Hopes & Fears. Occasionally suffering from the Fear of Missing Out (FOMO), The Outsider plays to that Fear and echoes it. The way I go about healing isn’t the way many people go about healing. My worst fear is that, and I know this is going to sound strange, I’ll be figuratively burnt at the stake.
My Hope on the other hand, is that I discover that being included is something as simple as discovering that the only thing keeping me outside is me.
Experiencing in position ten of Outcome. The card of Experiencing is an echo of the Participation card in position two. It’s about enjoying every moment as you are experiencing it. In all likelihood, I will not get another broken ankle (oh, please! No!). So, every minute of having it should be treated as a cherishable moment, while I have the opportunity to garner sympathy for those in similar or worse positions.
Well, on that note. I’m going to go and sleep on my back, which is another gift of experience afforded to me by my ankle. It took me a couple of days to get used to the sleeping on my back and I’m not fully adjusted to it for the whole night. You see, I’m a side sleeper for most of the night and occasionally sleep on my stomach and back at various moments throughout the night.
The other experience to add to the new one of back sleeping is, with a degree difficulty of a 4.5 (sorry thought I was watching the Olympic diving), is sleeping with the leg raised. See! Experience, experience, experience! I’m sure that I would have gained the same perspective if this experience had been for one week instead of six.
If this is me doing this to me… I really need to learn to like myself more, or at the very least be more specific about the experiences I want to encounter. Just saying…. Ahhhh… who am I kidding, the experience sucks about thirty percent of the time – stay tuned for possible fluctuations to the suckiness percentage.
Okay, Michaela. Breathe.
References
Osho, Osho Zen Tarot – The Transcendental Game of Zen, St Martin’s Press, ISBN 0-312-11733-7