Dog 2012
Who is a Dog?
Years: 1946, 1958, 1970, 1982, 1994, 2006.
Month*: October
Hour: 19.00-21.00
* 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 Dog?
The Dog is yang earth and a byword for good faith and consistency. Terriers and Rotweilers are both fierce as well as loyal. In mediaeval heraldry and Renaissance painting, the greyhound symbolises constancy.
So a Dog can be expected to revere tradition and have a strong family background. If a Dog commits to something they can generally be relied upon to see it to completion. The difference between male and female Dogs can be that the female gets the message quicker. Interesting to note that Kate Middleton and Prince William are twin Water Dogs of 1982; a very solid match because as a yang earth sign, the Dog is pretty immovable, an ideal best friend or protector. These two are first and foremost, good friends.
The Dog’s thinking may not always be flexible but when he gets an idea, he really gets it. His natural grouping is with the hunters, the Horse and Tiger. The apportionment of tasks here is obvious: the Horse provides pace and the Tiger ferocity while the Dog watches the rear. If hr people studied Chinese metaphysics, more workplaces would zing: in business the Horse will tend to be the sales person, the Tiger the closer or credit controller and the Dog the provider of after-sales service or er…hr department.
The Dog excels at service because he never gives up. He will return your phone calls and keep that appointment. He’s the friend who sends a card every birthday and the spouse who remembers every anniversary.
The Dog perhaps surprisingly, also mixes well with the gentle diplomatic Rabbit. The Rabbit schmoozes while the Dog ensures that his openness is not abused. The Dog makes a wonderful bodyguard and middle manager. A Dog employer will have achieved that position by sheer hard work and will demand the same from all around.
The Dog doesn’t like the Dragon because he’s such a smarty pants. Also the Dog hates success without effort and the Dragon creates with such apparent ease. The Snake too; he’d resent the Horse except that he is scrupulously loyal to his own team.
An unbalanced Dog is a bit of a shop steward. He knows his rights and the way things should be – often the way they always have been. An unbalanced Dog (such as one with an October or mid-evening birth) is just too respectful.
The Dog will often have a strong spiritual agenda and if he has a blind spot it may be an inability to tell the difference between religion and spirituality or spirituality and therapy. Because this means he sticks to his guns, the Dog is suited both to new age therapy and religious persecution. He will not be thrown off by the opinions of others once he has committed to a line of action. In fact the unbalanced Dog can be thick skinned in matters of belief; this Dog would be ideally suited to being a Grand Inquisitor. The problem is that his motto ought to be “Do as you would be done by,” and he thinks it already is.
The Dog can work well with other Dogs and with the Pig. With the Pig he shares a love of home and team and they are so different they don’t crowd each other. Sometimes the Dog and Pig can be telepathically close; this is because they are adjacent signs in the calendar linked by the yang earth that is a feature of both. Sometimes this earth is expressed by banter or earthy humour. They can have a lot of fun together while getting the job done.
But the most powerful and most demanding role the Dog can play is in a creative team including the irritating Dragon, the autocratic Ox and the soft Sheep. If the Dog acts as conscience and bookkeeper, the Ox will relax, the Sheep toughen up and the Dragon acknowledge someone else for a change. If you are a Dog recruiting for non-executive directors take note. What is great about the Dog is that if he finds advice that works he will adopt it as if it were religion. Bless.
The Dog: Outlook for 2012
Dog and Dragon of course are at each others’ throats. Typically the Dragon thinks the Dog is ponderous and typically the Dog thinks the Dragon is away with the fairies. Standard advice is not to face South East in a Dragon year as the energy comes from the direction of the Dog in the North West, bringing trouble for both. In short, they are not natural mates.
What is this likely to mean? One answer is that as both are yang Earth creatures, they will take up entrenched positions. Earth is constant, persistent, determined, that is to say stubborn as hell. Both are like this but the Dragon is also the bringer of sudden change. One reason Dragons can be so infuriating is that they create spontaneously. Once he has stopped sulking, a Dragon can release himself from a fix with a wiggle of his nose. Which just upsets the typical Dog more. And this is a year in which time after time, Dogs may find themselves in the kind of trouble that the more flexible Animals will overcome instantly. The Dog could learn from this. Volatile 1970 Metal Dog Naomi Campbell may be a good subject.
Keeping this very simple, in 2012 the Dog can expect much of what he has long taken for granted to shift. It is time to adapt. Learn to live with the new circumstances just as the Dragon does. This may as easily relate to work (more likely for male Dogs) as relationship (more likely for lady Dogs) and if it appears to apply to neither, it will apply to health.
The Dog is dogged, consistent, loyal, faithful, very often stubborn as hell. In the Dragon year, her ideas may not be timely. The Dog often believes that everything has a rational explanation. Even if it’s irrational, it’s simple. In a Dragon year however, things keep happening suddenly and without apparent reason, cause or precedent. This is very confusing for a Dog.
Your best bet is to get flexible. Know when you’ve made a mistake. Particularly know when your fixed position no longer makes sense. And er….adapt.
The Dog may have felt exploited in 2011. The Rabbit bakes him out of shape with Fire which tends to make him certain about things he should be questioning. This is the Dog’s perennial puzzle: who to trust? The answer is yourself. You can not be exploited if you are making sound choices.
In recruiting, choose carefully and be vigilant. Sometimes what the Dog does is to choose carelessly and not stay up to date. He thinks the way the relationship was at the beginning is how it will always be. Call it loyalty or call it laziness, this is a blueprint for exploitation. And for “recruiting” read choosing romantic as well as commercial partners. Stay engaged. The Dog, I have found, is the most likely sufferer of the condition known as sleep apnea when a sleeper momentarily stops breathing. It can be very distressing to wake up next to. To some observers, holding your breath while staying fast asleep describes the Dog’s decision making process. Whether we are talking romance or business, this is no way to live happily ever after.
So Dogs: get flexible. Take nothing for granted but don’t use this as an excuse for paranoia. Stay awake and be ready for occasional breathtaking moments.