Animal Fortunes for 2024, the Year of the Wood Dragon

Richard Ashworth’s Animal Fortunes for the 2023 Water Rabbit.

“Your advice to me precisely (as to) when the downturn would occur and when (property prices) would pick up was bang on. ”

Naomie Harris, star of Skyfall, Pirates of the Caribbean, White Teeth, Mandela, Spectre and Moonlight.

On this page………….click on your animal to go straight to your character and forecast! Better still, read the instructions below.

To make best use of these forecasts however, you might consider the following:

1. The Chinese method used to define the prevailing Elements at your birth, (your ba zi or Four Pillars) consists (as you might have guessed) of four pairs of characters or pillars. Water Tiger is one such pair.

2. One of these pairs of characters or “Pillars” relates to the year, one to the month, one to the day and one to hour of your birth. You probably know your Year Animal – Wood Dragon or whatever – already. You may not know the others.

3. How to identify your pillars is laid out at the top of each Animal page.

4. Each pillar relates to some particular aspects of life. To know yourself, be familiar with all four.

5. Your Year Animal relates principally to the physical, health, heritage, ancestors, parents and the obvious. That’s why we can say some pretty accurate and superficial things about celebrities armed only with this information. Asked in 2007 about Prince William and Kate Middleton, I could with confidence confirm they were a long term proposition simply because they’re both Water Dogs of 1982: homebodies who bond for life. So know your year pillar in order to know the obvious.

6. Your Month Animal relates to the work environment and how we relate to it and to our working companions. Accordingly comments about this pair of your characters will tend to concern work, your occupation, your commercial activity. They may also be read as pertaining to brothers, sisters, peers, ex-partners and in some cases parents. So if you were born in the Monkey month (approx. Aug 7th to September 8th) and I make some insulting gloss about the Monkey, I may be talking about these characters, not so much about you. Honest. And if the cap fits….of course.

7. Your Day Animal is about you and your central relationship(s). It relates also to things spiritual, emotional and psychological. What I say about this Animal should be taken in that context. This pillar, which you will only be able to identify if you can read a Chinese Calendar is generally considered the heart of the ba zi, where the real you is located. To have us calculate it for you, just go to Contact Us on the website and enter your birth details. We’ll do the rest.

8. Your Hour Animal is about the future, our children, our dreams; about purpose and meaning. Someone born in say the hour of the Metal Monkey, a very hands-on character, often gifted at mathematics, logic, science and music but sometimes burdened by a short attention span and reluctance to commit, will tend to enjoy those sorts of qualities as well as those sorts of children. Who btw is a typical Monkey? Well, Rupert Murdoch’s current and immediate past wives: Jerry Hall and Wendy Deng for instance. In a Tiger Year they may well get itchy feet.

Above is how for better or worse, to select from our comments those tailored to your own situation. The idea is that they should help you be healthier, wealthier and wiser and above all happier. If they don’t there’s been some misunderstanding.

Hint: Perhaps take all four forecasts and print them out together, read them once with care and then take five minutes to review in your head what you recall. Then put the printouts somewhere safe where you can find them and perhaps 24 hours later, take them out and look again. Do this once a month or so and you may start to find our comments reflecting the facts and more to the point, helping you navigate the situations that arise.

One last thing: every year I am at pains to point out that you are an awful lot more complex, more unique and more precious than any number of Zodiac Animals. No astrological analysis is ever going to do you full justice. And above all, remember always that we retain choice.

©Richard Ashworth, Godalming, January 2024.