Rat 2014
Who is a Rat?
Years: 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996, 2008.
Month*: November
Hour: 11:00 pm – 01:00 am
Day: ask us
* 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 Rat?
The Rat is yang water but with a hidden stem of yin water, the major water animal of Chinese metaphysics. All water on this planet, unless interfered with by outside forces, is connected with and on the same level as all other water. This powerful idea may clarify the connection between water and communication.
Someone said that we have two ears and one mouth for a good reason: that we should listen twice as much as we speak. The issues relating to water are listening and speaking while keeping the ratios right. Often observation of this balance is not the calling of the Rat. Some of us are elected primarily to talk and the yang water of the Rat is signifies high level communication. The Rat is the talker of the Chinese Zodiac. As you know, an unbalanced or distressed Rat tends to clam up or run off at the mouth.
The Rat is supreme in the realm of ideas. It is said that when you can tell water from fire, you are a master. The blue of the sky at mid-summer, for instance is not water but fire. Who can identify this consistently? The Rat who is a planner and a plotter and a deep thinker, is the most likely candidate. He thinks ahead, sometimes to the detriment of his awareness of the present. This makes him a good chess player but not so great at poker. He is apt to be too controlling for games that require being open to good fortune. That sort of uncertainty is painful to your average Rat. He wants the credit and to get that he has to be in control.
In conversation you may find that the Rat second guesses in a very distinctive way: typically he gets his correspondent to commit utterly to a position before he states his. The Dragon and the Monkey, even the Ox, may find this reassuring but it drives the Horse and the Tiger wild and to some extent the Dog. It’s a very useful quality in a teacher but not everyone’s cup of tea in a collaborator.
Being big talkers and travellers, Rats are traditionally suited to work involving communication: sales, oratory and persuasion. In the collaboration with the Rabbit, Rooster and Horse that Derek Walters (himself a Rat) calls the Flowers of Love, the Rat is the talker, the chatter-up, if you will, where the Rooster provides the glamour, the Horse the passion and the Rabbit the stamina. A Rat with these additional animals present is effortlessly successful and charismatic. The missing animals indicate his weaknesses. None of them of course is at ease alone in the company of the Rat.
An unbalanced Rat talks too much and listens selectively. A balanced one gets this exactly right; he is fascinating talker and a skilled listener. But the very deafness of the less gifted Rat can be a point of pride. Blessed nonetheless with an orderly mind and excellent retention, this Rat often considers his ignorance of a subject a reflection on the subject rather than himself. This sort of Rat needs to learn to value the convictions of others, especially if they are derived from premises he does not accept.
The Rat is a guardian, a watcher. Sometimes he is self-appointed and the unbalanced Rat has a particular blindness that leads him to believe that his opinion is an absolute. This is more accentuated and less well-informed in his partner the Ox in what some call the House of Creativity and Cleverness. The relationship between the Ox and the Rat is less that of partners than of pupil and tutor but the Ox can be a particularly obdurate learner, sometimes drawing conclusions to which he is not entitled and sticking like a limpet to any conclusion he can justify. In these circumstances the Ox is not so much partner or indeed student of the Rat as tormentor.
A very conscious Rat can make good use of this blindness to the value of other people’s positions. He is likely to be able to explain things that baffle others and to derive laws from this gift. To have no explanation however is to open himself up to chaos. If he knows this about himself he can master even the most abstract discipline.
The Rat is versatile and multi-talented though not as notably so as the Pig of whom he is often jealous or the Dragon who can baffle him despite their mutual affinity. Yang water can speak of profligacy with money. The Rat is a brilliant small businessman but often a poor tycoon. In the power triad with the Dragon and Monkey, the Rat may appear to overvalue the hands-on deftness of the Monkey because he finds the Monkey easier to control and may envy the Dragon his magic.
And it is this potential for envy that is the other big weakness of the Rat and laid him open to the Ingratitude Clash which came up in 2011. The Rat, who overcomes this wins the loyalty of all.
Yang water ought also to speak of longevity in relationship but in this regard the unbalanced Rat can express the yin aspect of his nature; that is growing tired of relationships – professional or personal – long before their sell-by date or hanging on inappropriately to relationships he has long since made unviable. Consider Water Rat Nigella Lawson. By the same token the Rat is an attentive parent but one who may have favourites. Accordingly the awakened Rat is absolutely evenhanded; quite a gift.
Rat in Wood Horse Year.
Stars include: yue kong Auspicious, sui po, san sha..
I hope you like theme parks because the Wood Horse promises you an emotional roller coaster. The Rat is the strongest Water there is, the Horse the strongest Fire. These are mutual foes, diametrically opposed on the compass. But it’s the Horse’s year. It will prevail. The Fire of the Wood Horse is just too strong to dowse.
What does this mean? Well to the Rat, Fire is success, conquest and money. To the male Rat it’s relationship too. These things sound pretty good and indeed they are. But you can have too much of a good thing. Overwhelming Fire can test the Rat so far as to run you out of ideas, partners can squeeze you dry and battles become too costly to enter.
What to do? This can be answered on (at least) three different levels.
First, Elementally; even the strongest Rat needs to seek Water this year. It’s at a premium. This can be literal – H2O – or metaphorical; for example emotional disclosure. Wear dark blues and blacks, seek the North and North-facing buildings, stay cool; talk, talk, talk.
Second, fundamentally: the Book of Changes emphasises that destiny emerges from character. There are no flukes. 1920 Metal Rat Marlon Brando illustrates this in the Godfather; a consistent ethic will get you through. Whether it’s right or wrong is a question of votes. Above all the Rat requires conviction. By the way, more than one Master recommends that Rats stay out of politics this year. These facts may be connected.
Thirdly by strategy: your ba zi consists of four pillars of which the Rat is only one. Examine the others. Your month pillar relates to work and education, peers and exes. This may be better-augured. In which case put your attention there. Your day pillar refers to yourself, your home, your life partner. These may be the best focus. Your hour pillar concerns your children and your future. You can work it out.
Metal Rats by the way have the best wealth luck among rodents this year. Wood Rats like Mark Zuckerberg, not so much though.
Finally the Rat can ask for help. There are two likely sources: Oxen (1961, 1973, 1985, 1997) and Sheep (1955, 1967, 1979, 1991). Both are what is known as tin yute gwai yan or “noble helpers” this year but the Ox is the better bet because Ox and Rat have natural affinity. The Sheep is the animal closest to the Horse and so can intercede with the ruler of the year. Whether he will readily or not is not straightforward but you can rely on the Ox (Year, Day even Month or Hour) who, with Dragon Virtue in his corner, is perhaps the most favoured this year.
Health: uncertain but not serious.
Money: care is counselled.
Relationship: promising for the strongest (male) Rats only.
Feng Shui: seek the North when auspicious.
Readers’ Digest Version: a minefield that you can cross with profit.