Dragon 2013

Who is a Dragon?

Years: 1940, 1952, 1964, 1976, 1988, 2000, 2012.
Month*: April
Hour: 07:00 am – 09:00 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 Dragon?
The Dragon is yang earth, the most egotistical of the branches as well as being generally considered the most powerful. Putting aside conventional rules of animal compatibility, everyone is either fascinated by the Dragon or suspicious. Many are both.
Though charming and affable, like the Pig, the Horse and the Rooster, the Dragon suffers the self clash which makes him unsuited to working with his equals. Dragons often live alone and enjoy their own company. Sometimes they claim to even when they don’t. Often what he experiences as joy is a subtle experience that others find puzzling. The Horse for instance who likes to dance on tables, sometimes thinks the Dragon is a high maintenance prima donna. Even the Dragon’s ally the Monkey, contrasts his own goonish delights with the impassive Dragon and can make no sense of it.

And yet the Dragon delivers. Sometimes awkward and gauche, the Dragon can appear incompetent and yet still win. The steadfast Dog whose workings always lead to a logical answer detests this about the Dragon and may sabotage him. Put simply the Dog thinks the Dragon goes on a bit. The Ox and the Sheep share something of this attitude but are more passive about it.

The Chinese ideogram for thunder is a Dragon under a raincloud. Remember that all over the world rainclouds speak of plenty. Drenched is good if you’re looking for growth. The Dragon month is April, the time of sudden change. The character of the Dragon is like the awkward times before a storm breaks.

The Dragon does not naturally co-operate or easily share confidences. He will, however, grudgingly work with those he considers his inferiors as long as they are very clear about the pecking order. This is the central weakness of the unbalanced Dragon. King Lear was a Dragon where Othello may have been a Tiger and Hamlet probably a Snake.

The Dragon’s traditional partners are the hands-on Monkey and the plotting Rat. These three may not mix socially however. They need a task to cooperate upon, otherwise they find it hard to connect. Socially the Dragon will seek out the Rooster and the Horse both of whom can act as pr or spokesperson. Alone or teamed-up, the Dragon is just as creative as he feels like being. He can instantly magic up wealth and as rapidly squander it. Neither Horse nor Rooster are much help in this regard, although a benevolent Rat and a diligent Monkey would be.

The Dragon and the Snake form the House of Magic. The Dragon is the Sorceror, the Snake his apprentice. So Merlin was a Dragon and his story illustrates the other central weakness of the Dragon: that he can be beguiled by the glamour of the Rooster. This coupling takes the Dragon off track. In a Rooster year the Dragon may forget all his carefully laid plans and go off-piste. In a Rabbit year he may have to defend himself but either is preferable to the Tiger year which will have found him settling into quicksand.

Note to Employers: A Dragon employee is the best there is if the task suits him. It had better suit him because he will do precisely what he feels like either way.

Dragon 2013:
Stars include: Tian Xi Happiness, Mo Yue Achievement, Sui Sha Precarious.
You’ll receive many offers of help this year. Some of it will actually be helpful. The Snake is the Sorceror’s Apprentice and you’re the Sorceror. You’ve always been besieged by those who want a piece of you and seem to disguise it as advice. You misunderstood; that was the universe making sure you could get done all the things that keep you running to stay in the same place. This year receive, let yourself be helped, empowered, soured, sponsored. Your projects are funded and supported and ready to go even if it doesn’t yet seem that way.

You’ve not been good at letting yourself be helped or at appreciating those who offer it. You’d generally prefer to be left to your own devices. Tough.

This year may also be the year you take on coaching, teaching, training in earnest. You may be swamped with apprentices. You’ve got some growing to do this year. For them you have to do it. It’ll be worth it, you’ll see.
You’ve been in some sort of crisis for a while. And for the Dragon, crisis means ego. You feel beaten or rejected or bested in some way and you don’t feel you can ever let your smile reach your eyes again. You know you’re the one doing it. You are so attached to outside approval that you can’t even be yourself without permission. You have to be the person you appeared to be last time that permission was denied. You have to be the best. In this one regard -whatever it was-you appeared not to be. And you can’t get over it. That’s how ego is.

There will be more moments of crisis this year. But now you know that each such distraction is an opportunity to be still at the heart of chaos. Whatever sensation you associate with crises and upset are best felt all the way through this year.

Generally Dragons assume they are the best and mostly they’re right. They don’t usually bother with jealousy or defeatism or competitions that they don’t know they’ll stroll. But during the Dragon year you’ve bought into the sort of self-defeating crud you swore you’d never entertain and the consequent shame just makes it worse. This year the Fire of the Snake is the dawning of bright light that takes you all the way into 2016. This involves new skills, new people, new places, new departures. Get flexible. You can’t control everything.

There remains a danger you’ll take on too much. It’s a very Dragon thing. Apprentices, assistants and mentees are there to help you. Let them. If you broad-brush, especially over documents to do with finance you may be a long time clearing up the consequent mess. Hexagram 34.

It’s possible the work you’re on the planet for will become clear this year. For older Dragons it may even complete. Look beyond the horizon if you want 2014 and after to be equally satisfying.
Sometimes you need to seek the question before the answer is any use to you.

Health: better than last year. Care with lungs and stomach.
Money: plenty but not all yours, a good year to pursue grants and funding.
Relationship: some distraction likely.
Feng Shui: activate Monkey (SW3) & Rat (N2) on appropriate days. Apply within.
Readers’ Digest Version: Let go. There is very little you can control.

Richard Ashworth©2012