The Monkey in the Year of the Wood Dragon of 2024

Monkey Pic by @elliespinelli

Who is a Monkey?

Years: 1944, 1956, 1968, 1980, 1992, 2004, 2016.
Month*: August
Hour: 15.00-17.00

Day: you’ll need a Chinese Calendar.

* Caution: the start of the Chinese month can be as early as the 4th & as late as the 9th, depending on the year. I can let you know this too.

What is a Monkey?
The image of the Three Wise Monkeys, See No Evil, Hear No Evil, and Speak No Evil is a reasonable summary of the qualities of the yang Metal Monkey, a particularly quirky primate. This is typically someone who shrinks from deep involvement. In elemental terms, this often amounts to too much yang Metal. What is meant by yang Metal essentially is precision and hence competition. Often the Monkey is so competitive he dare not enter the race.

As well as competitive, the Monkey is typically charming, loveable, dextrous, logical, quick witted and exact. The balanced Monkey uses these qualities constructively and in the service of his fellow man. The unbalanced Monkey (with say an August birthday in the late afternoon) does not clean up behind himself. He is in short a monkey.

The Monkey is often the most acquisitive as well as the gentlest beast but he is above all, competitive. In the extreme this means warfare. In its milder forms it is the ruthless competition that involves the belief that another’s gain is our loss. This is a (painful) mistake. It’s what leads to steroid abuse in athletics and ballet dancing in the Premiership penalty box. A Water Monkey like Spurs’ Son Heung-Min may learn this lesson early; it’s what makes him focus on goals rather than adulation. Pretty much all Monkeys subscribe to this delusion unless they learn not to through hard experience.

As you’d expect, the Monkey’s pitfall is frivolity. If he can’t win he takes the Mickey. Their natural allies however are the more ponderous Rat and Dragon. This is a pretty heavy-duty grouping, perhaps the most powerful in the Chinese Zodiac. Dominant Rats and egotistical Dragons are not, as a rule a bundle of laughs; the Monkey however often is. And together these three get stuff done; so many big revolutions including those of ideas involve this team. Many years of revolution (1776, 1848, 1944, 1956, 1968 & many more) are Monkey years.

2016 of course, the Year of Trump, M.A.G.A. and Brexit, was a Fire Monkey. As was hapless short-lived British PM Theresa May (born 1956, sixty years earlier) who may well not have entirely taken on the life lessons of the Monkey.

Monkey for sure is Karen Armstrong author of a History of God, founder of the Charter for Compassion and arguably the most important thinker of the 21st Century. This is a Monkey who has learned to speak no evil while seeing much. If you want to understand forgiveness, the heart of all healing, read Armstrong.

The Monkey also tends to understand the mechanical: engines and systems; he is the grease Monkey. He often also understand maths, science and argument and so is suited very often to a career in engineering or the law, also accountancy. Unbalanced, he neglects all of the above. The Monkey month of August spans Leo and Virgo and to see him as a hybrid of Virgo control and Leo passion is not far from the truth.

When the Tiger and the Snake meet the Monkey there is trouble. The Monkey both co-operates with and fights the Snake. The presence of the Tiger pushes this competition over the edge. Keep these three apart. The Monkey must take care to mind her p’s and q’s every February (the month of the Tiger) and every May (the month of the Snake). Also a Tiger Day in the Monkey Month is a day to stay off the roads; both Animals are about assertion and travel and of opposing Elements (yang Wood & yang Metal) and it may be uncomfortably warm.

So that’s the Monkey: argumentative practical, mischievous and so competitive he can withdraw altogether. But you knew that already didn’t you?

Monkey in The Wood Dragon Year 2024

San Tai Achievement

Di Sha Frustration Star

Ti Fu Earth Amulet

Water, Water.

The Monkey of course is favoured by the Dragon. Along with the Rat they make up one of the most efficient partnerships in Chinese Astrology. They don’t necessarily get on but they get stuff done. So you’d expect 2024 to support Monkey endeavours. And there is a great deal of help for them this year, but as Di Sha implies, some Monkeys may over-reach.

The Di Sha Earth Curse is interpreted differently by different authorities. My first teacher, Derek Walters saw it as positive but I know some very influential Chinese Masters who don’t. How can this contradiction persist? Well ba zi is not an exact science and the practical Chinese way is to address symptoms rather than causes. A typical Chinese Master is not much interested in psychological or spiritual ramifications. Which means when they see Stars such as Di Sha they simply foresee frustration. For myself I’m more interested in why that frustration arose.

It may be down to commercial, aspirational, sexual or any number of concerns but any such frustration entails a desired but unfulfilled outcome. So it’s reasonable to suppose that this year Monkeys set their sights high, perhaps professionally, perhaps some other way altogether. If this is in keeping with your own plans, read on.

The Monkey is Yang Metal which may be most succinctly defined as precision or accuracy. This year it may be that the perfectionist aspect of the Monkey’s nature predominates. As the product of Dragon, Rat and Monkey’s collaboration is technically Water, this frustration may be about Water qualities such as articulacy. It’s uncommon for Monkeys to be tongue-tied but they may be when they have to lay their emotional cards on the table. But sometimes to be understood, we have to. That may be one source of simian frustration this year. It may be that you fear judgement because you judge. You’ll find this at times in your relationship with Snakes; you are both simultaneously drawn and uncomfortable.

The solution is to embrace the Water of emotional vulnerability. You’ll find that’s abundant in the Dragon Month of April and again in the Rat Month (December). And you may find strength by locating due North where challenges to communicate may prove commonplace this year. A challenge is not equivalent to a defeat of course. Expect discomfort, mortification, that kind of stuff which is healing and educational and won’t kill you.

Another place the Monkey can find Water is – perhaps surprisingly – in the South East with the Snake. Snake and Monkey are what’s called Secret Friends, technically a Two Combination which produces guess what? Water. Now it’s different with the Snake. Although she and the Monkey are umbilically linked they are uncomfortable together because they also combine to make Water. The Snake’s Yin Fire is of challenged this way; his mission is often to do with truth, its preservation and propagation but often its concealment. So the frankness that accompanies Water is not that welcome. This is one reason a Snake/Monkey relationship though often recommended by astrologers, is a fragile thing.

For the Monkey this year offers the liberation of Water. What you gain is a fresh start. All you risk is awkwardness. Remember the Monkey is the Animal that leapt beyond the Moon to edit his mischief out of the Akashic Record.

Romance: friendship more likely – or triangles.

Wealth: investment rather than proceeds.

Health: avoid excess heat.

Hexagram: 54 Gui Mei Marrying Maiden.

This forecast is prepared by comparing your own Chinese year Animal with the Wood Dragon of 2024. Your Year Animal is just one of the four that make up your Ba Zi or Four Pillars of Destiny. A fully-drafted ba zi can indicate possible futures and probable pasts as well as moments of decision. Knowing these moments can heal and prevent heartbreak as well make success and happiness more easily achievable. What is a ba zi?

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