Breezes, Hurricanes, Twisters 2025, The Year of the Wood Snake.

Nate Silver points out in his book “The Signal and the Noise” that a weather forecast need only be 70% correct. Dato Joey Yap has suggested that the same is true of a year forecast: we aim to identify the 70% that is inevitable and to alter, prevent or amplify the 30% that is not – if anything ever is – written in stone. Truth is that no astrological description will ever pin a person down. We are all unique individuals and we all have free will.

The dangerous ground we Chinese astrologers find ourselves upon lies between accuracy and precision. For a forecast to be worthwhile it must be accurate and specific and some Masters can be maddeningly vague: one I worked with would routinely predict that “the people will be unhappy with the government” which though true, hardly told anybody anything new.

We can say off the bat that Snake Years are about truth: both its preservation and its distortion. I’m relatively confident in predicting that if Donald Trump loses, he will claim he was robbed – which will suit many of the astrologers who at this time in both 2016 and 2020 picked the wrong horse and have either doubled down since or had to live with the scars. That understandable error by the way, was probably due to failing to see the commonality between Biden and Trump, Horse and Dog, both fiery beasts, equally challenged by the dark and deep Water of the 2020 Rat. The Water of communication, muddied by careless assertions, half-truths and downright lies is many times as murky now.

The fact is that if the basic rules of Chinese Astrology were the whole story, Trump as a 1946 Dog should have been pole-axed by this last twelve months of  Wood Dragon. It’s equally true that 1964 Wood Dragons Kamala Harris and Tim Walz suffer what is known as the Self Clash; Dragons have no business putting themselves at risk of the blockages inevitably in their way in a Dragon year. Technically it’s asking for trouble.

Indeed if we are to predict the election our best reference may be Sun Tzu who in in his “Art of War” asks:

(1) Which of the two sovereigns is imbued with the Moral law?

(ie who has right on their side?)

(2) Which of the two generals has most ability?

(Who is most capable?)

(3) With whom lie the advantages derived from Heaven and Earth?

(Whom does the timing and positioning suit?)

(4) On which side is discipline most rigorously enforced?

(Who is in most emotional control?)

(5) Which army is stronger?

(Who is tougher?)

(6) On which side are officers and men more highly trained?

(Who has the best advisers?)

(7) In which army is there the greater constancy both in reward and punishment?

(Who has created the better relationships with those who support him or her?)

I leave you to ponder this.

I will be posting more about 2025, the Year of Breezes, Hurricanes and Twisters soon. Meanwhile you are cordially invited (for a reasonable fee) to my Year Forecast (Zoom on the 7^th December 3pm GMT/9am EST, Live here in leafy Godalming on the 14^th) when I will go much deeper into how the Snake Year may treat each of us, our homes, our lives, our priorities and our planet.

Watch this space for Part Two.