Animal Forecast 2015: 5.Dragon at the Hub, outlook for the Dragon in 2015

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 Dragon month can be as early as the 4th & as late as the 6th, 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 shamelessly extrovert Horse for instance, 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 often make little 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 can find this very tedious and may sabotage the Dragon. 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. And all over the world rainclouds speak of plenty; drenched is good if you’re looking for growth., Water makes for Wood. The Dragon month is April, the time of sudden change and indeed 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 excel at pr. 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 because they will do precisely what they feel like either way.

Dragon in Wood Sheep Year.

Stars include: qua suk, Fortune Virtue.

The Dragon tends to introspect. You can easily spend long barren hours fuming in the naughty chair. And the solution for every Dragon every year is to get your attention out. The questions to ask include who needs your help? And who’s hurting? Who needs your wisdom and perception? Who in the words of John Cale is “living like Hollywood but dying on the Vine”? This is how you break out of that Chinese finger puzzle you’ve likely been in, where the more you struggle, the tighter you are bound. Give rather than seek help.

This year it’ll be hard to do otherwise because the Dragon is the hub. Wherever there is struggle, you bring release. If you care to. Everyone is going to need your magic but especially the other Earth Branches (ie the other Animals). This is because the key dilemma of the year is the so-called “Bullying Punishment” which occurs when Sheep, Ox and Dog coincide. In a Sheep year this inevitably happens often; a Dog hour on an Ox day will do it. Or the other way round. It’ll happen all the time of course during the Ox month of January and October the Dog month, and July which in 2015 is a Sheep month in a Sheep year; twice as volatile. It affects these three Animals most – the meeting of Sheep and Dog is balefully labelled a “break-up” – but everyone is touched in a Sheep year. The punishment may show up as a lingering trauma with its roots deep in the past – remember no upset is ever about now – or as a row, a ganging-up or even violence. You can help and there is huge goodwill and huge opportunity in this. Allow these to come to you because of your generosity and kindness. Do not seek opportunity at another’s expense.

What is it, this “punishment”? It’s a big misunderstanding. It’s a resistance to change. It’s a threat to the unity of family, firm and association. And just like any meeting of three Earth Branches its nature is defined by the one that’s missing; in this case the magical Dragon. Mostly it’s about frustration. It’s called a Bullying Punishment because human beings often express frustration by railing at others; their colleagues, their partners, their siblings, their children. Since it’s just as easy to rail back, this response tends to block progress. Put another way the BP represents that moment when great success beckons but calls for a big push. And not all of us want to make that big push. Ask any woman who’s given birth. It’s at such moments we all, but especially Sheep, Dog and Ox are best advised to accept how little we can control and ask for help.

This is where you come in. If you can offer assistance without making it smart too much or demanding excessive credit, the birth that is waiting to happen will as Chuck Spezzano likes to express it, be like a greased grape. The “gathering” impetus of the year may from time to time be expressed as impending break-ups; this relates particularly to Dog/Sheep relationships of course but it’s not restricted to them. Not all relationships can stand the strain of closeness long and the relationships referred to may be boss/employer, parent/child or any connection where authority can be misplaced or questioned.

What you bring is release. If you can apply your magic selflessly, you will save so much anguish this year. It’s possible that you may yourself be involved. If so and anyway, trust. That may sound naive but if it seems that way to you, what are you doing even reading this? You know you have this gift and it’s just a question of being present to apply it. Attention out this year.

The Dragon like the thunderstorm, brings things to a head which leads to transformation. You are turbulent because you are magical. Sometimes the magic is for you, sometimes like this and last year, mostly for others. You are the opposite of a mediator; however contained and open you are, somehow people know you bring change that they can’t run from. There will be many opportunities to bring benevolent transformation to others; actually not so much opportunities as hurricane force gales pushing you into compromising and compromised positions. Don’t – especially you older Dragon – run from them. This is who you are. That’s the way it is. Step up to the plate. Again.

Another way to say all this is that this year you are called to apply the utmost goodwill. Get yourself out of the way. The salvation of the Dragon (most especially the 1964 Wood Dragon) is in teaching and in healing. Not in analysis. That will only drive you further up yourself. We live in dark times and this year may bring us ever-closer to the dark. In Chinese myth the Dragon abides in rock as the fish in water. You are more intimately a creature of the physical planet than any other. Be aware of abuses of the Earth and of the heroes who may save her and join them. There are three climate summits this year. The Earth may yet be saved from the greedy and the plunderer. If you can’t join them, empower them. If this is not physical, prayer will do. You know prayer works, you know miracles happen. You are the Dragon.

Globally this “bullying” dynamic shows up in all the trouble spots: Ukraine, Iraq, Syria, Central Africa. 1952 Water Dragon Vladimir Putin holds the balance of power in Europe. He is flexible enough to ignore a plummeting rouble while he secures what he believes to be Russia’s borders. Domestically 1964 Wood Dragon Nigel Farage is likely to win parliamentary seats that give him a punch way beyond his weight. Both of these men can either solve or capitalise on turmoil. It’ll be best for all concerned, including them and their interests, if they can resist kicking the ball just because it’s on the penalty spot and the opposition goalie is tying up his shoes. This year you are all about giving.

Health: headaches and other signs of self-absorption

Money: North in the Rat.

Relationship: trust those who have contained you this far. They’ve earned it. No big departures.

Feng Shui: locate and activate the Monkey at South West 3 (WSW) which holds the Sun of constant healing. Accurate measurement required.

Readers’ Digest Version: it’s not about you.

Richard Ashworth©, early in the month of the Tiger, 2015.