The Rabbit in the Year of the Fire Horse 2026

Rabbit Pic by @elliespinelli

Who is a Rabbit?
Years: 1939, 1951, 1963, 1975, 1987, 1999.
Month*: March
Hour: 05.00 am – 07.00am
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.

What is a Rabbit?
The Rabbit is yin Wood, essentially gentle and domestic. Her time is early morning; the legend has it that she and the Rooster swapped places which is why the Zodiac Rooster crows not at dawn but at dusk. The Rabbit rules the Spring therefore – think of March Hares and Easter Bunnies – and the Rooster the autumn. This story may also serve to illustrate the mistrust that can exist between Rabbit and the yin Metal Rooster.

The Rabbit is subtle, in keeping with her yin nature. She provides service readily and is often suited to catering and caring. But her preparedness to roll up her sleeves makes her the unexpected queen of networking. If you want to be introduced to the person in charge, ask a Rabbit.

Although giving an impression of reluctance to be in the spotlight, Rabbits are often performers but equally often are more at home behind the scenes. Writer-composer Tim Minchin fits this bill. Devoted Dad David Beckham perhaps also and strangely introvert ex-Prime Minister Gordon Brown. All clearly pretty good at making connections also.

The Rabbit can wait her turn; vigilance and patience are typical. Her natural allies are the Pig and the Sheep. This is a house-proud team and the Rabbit is a team player. Her unexpected friend is the Dog who values her ability to charm without threat.

The Rabbit also belongs to the gathering known as the Flowers of Love# (or Plumflowers) along with the Horse, the Rooster and Rat. She may often find herself clearing up behind these three extroverts and quite often the cuddle-bunny will obtain a life partner from the leavings of her more blatantly glamorous colleagues.

Rabbit tends to be conservative with a small “c”. Early rising is typical but the yang of early alertness may be balanced by the yin of sleeping in. Lazybones or insomniac, sleeping is an issue. This is yin and yang.

In Vietnam this Zodiac Animal is called the Cat. Intuitively this does not sit right, the ideogram so clearly has ears. Furthermore yin Wood relates to the late Spring, leaves and flowers and grass, none of which are obviously feline attributes. Btw the song “Year of the Cat” written by 1945 Rooster Al Stewart in the Rabbit (not Cat) Year of 1975 illustrates again the misunderstanding that often occurs between Rabbit & Rooster. How will the Rabbit fare in a Rooster year? Typical are disappointments and letdown; lower sights.

In some ways the Rabbit epitomises yin. Yang Wood may be characterised as an upwards movement like the growth of a tree. Yin Wood is more of an outward expansion like the spread of grass. What these two expressions of Wood have in common is irresistibility. But they are very different types of irresistibility. To counter yang Wood we need yang Metal: an axe will cut down the biggest tree. But you could attack a lawn with that same axe and not remove all the grass in a lifetime. This is the power of yin Wood.

Wood is both stubborn and flexible. Yin Wood (as characterised by Soen, the wind of the South East) is thorough as well as organised: “gentle and thorough but ultimately adamant” as the Book of Changes has it.

Hexagram 53 of the Book of Changes, “Gradual Progress” relates also: the tree on the mountain grows against all the odds either because it throws itself absolutely upon the mercy of the tao or because it has a detailed plan that it follows meticulously. Or both.

The Rabbit is said to cause the Dragon (next in sequence) to lose money. Perhaps the Dragon is distracted by a neighbour so apparently different in nature. These two are not a great pairing but the fact is that the Rabbit sitting between the Tiger and the Dragon, shares qualities with both.

Partnership with the Tiger is sometimes formalised as the House of Progress#. The Rabbit offers carrot while the Tiger wields a stick. More may be achieved perhaps with a kind word and a gun than with a kind word alone.

Wood represents bone, spine and hair as well as eyes: the light is Fire but the receiving organ is Wood. The Rabbit is often not strong in these regards unlike the Tiger. This again, is yin and yang.

Finally it’s worth appreciating that the wooden table you’re probably seated by is wood but not Wood. Wood is always growing which is not true of anything else; not animals, people, cutting edges or stones. Usable Wood in feng shui terms, is alive. Many Masters consider dead Wood to be Earth, motionless and ashen.

# These terms are the brain children of the man who first introduced me to the Chinese Zodiac Derek Walters, still the only Western authority respected to any degree in Asia. I sometimes tell my students that of the many thousands of books written on Chinese Astrology in the West, 99% are either nonsense or derived from Derek’s The Complete Guide to Chinese Astrology. Or both.

2026, Hot, Hot, Hot

The outlook for the Year of the Fire Horse.

Note: There are four (or five) Pillars in your ba zi, each with a different nuance. It is as unlikely that they are all ill-starred as it is that they are all blessed by any given year. Examine the portents for each and perhaps use that as an indication of how to respond.

2026 Animal by Animal: Rabbit

Rabbit is Yin Wood and so you provide fuel to the double Yang Fire of this year’s Fire Horse. One way to look at this is that the Fire draws out or expresses the Rabbit. One of the most favoured beasts this year, the Rabbit is the romantic of the Zodiac but technically a “Break Up” (or “Destruction”) with the Horse. Which doesn’t sound so great but may imply a year in which Rabbits come out in all sorts of ways. It’s certainly a year of moving on and indeed the “coming out” may be of closets.

The Rabbit is the networker of the Zodiac and this year you are especially well connected. It’s a time to concentrate your efforts where they will make the biggest impact. You know people in high places so access them. And be prepared to ask the big questions which are no harder for the mighty to address than the smaller ones. Ask questions that require yes or no answers. If you’re making proposals all you really want is a clear response upon which you can capitalise or accept and move on. The Toe Far Star means you are at peak magnet, you’ve never been harder to resist. So push.

If you find your nerve failing, recruit a Tiger whose nerves are of titanium. For the same reason February may be a month of unparalleled breakthroughs, ask for a raise maybe.

This obviously applies to your love life too. You move on, doubts fall away as well as apparently ethical considerations which may actually be rationalizations of cowardice. You may move on more than once this year, the process is likely to peak around early July.

Rabbits have such thin skins. You are very sensitive, not (though for other reasons you may be of course) in the psychic/telepathic sense of the Ox or the Sheep; you are more like a mimosa, so easily bruised. And if you have Fire aspects in your ba zi you are probably a rapid rationaliser too. You remember every rejection however small, that informed your withdrawal. But your memory like everybody’s is selective. As Ram Dass advised all those years ago, Be Here Now.

And of course you could screw this up. Your health will be good though your temperature may for all sorts of reasons be high in June & July. Friendships initiated in May can blossom then. If you are at all ill which is unlikely, notice the degree to which that represents a withdrawal, a relapse into a personality that you have outgrown. For help with trust issues consult the Sheep but remember that as Chuck Spezzano wrote: “To be 100% open is absolutely safe; 99% open is lethal.”

Finances good but that’s not the point. This is a year when you can let yourself be happy again. You may ask yourself “How do I work this?” The answer is that you just do. The great high wire artists never look down.

Lesson: Let your life be wonderful.

Best Months: March, August, September, October.

Worst Months: December

Theme: Once in a Lifetime.

Hexagram: 24 Fu, The Return

Health: = Wealth: ☺ Relationship: ☺☺

Where to find help: Tiger, Pig, Sheep.

Who should I be careful with: Rats.

To hire me to draw up a full interpretation of your ba zi, that is (all) Four Pillars, email me at richardashworthfengshui@gmail.com. If you want to learn more about ba zi my book I Talk to the Animals is out now. Here’s a link to a chunk of text: https://amzn.eu/d/c6p72iK

This forecast is prepared by comparing your own Chinese year Animal with the Fire Horse of 2026. 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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