The Dog in the Year of the Water Rabbit 2023

Dog Pic by @elliespinelli

Who is a Dog?

Years:         1946, 1958, 1970, 1982, 1994, 2006, 2018.
Month*:      October
Hour:          19.00-21.00

Day: you’ll need a Chinese Calendar.

* Caution: the start of the Chinese month can be as early as the 4th & as late as the 9th, depending on the year. We can let you know this too.

What is a Dog?
The Dog is yang earth and a byword for faith and consistency. Terriers and Rotweilers are as fierce as they are loyal. In mediaeval heraldry and Renaissance painting, the greyhound symbolises constancy. The downside of this is that like 1946 Fire Dog Donald Trump and two of his three predecessors (ie not Obama – naturally), they can take some moving on. And the primary force in the world in 2022 remains the eclipse of the post-war era which opened in the Fire Dog year of their birth 1946, and the search for a new beginning in which humanity has some chance of survival. Only rejection of the dogma of perpetual growth which continues to ravage the planet offers an escape. You Dogs may be absorbed with that very question. Google the Volker Plan or the Nixon Shock, both cooked up in the Dog Year of 1970 if you want to fully understand this.

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 – for better or worse. 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, whatever appears to occur to the contrary, first and foremost good friends.

The Dog’s thinking may not always be flexible but when he gets an idea, he really gets it; that’s yang Earth for you. His natural grouping is with the hunters, the Horse and Tiger where the apportionment of tasks is obvious: the Horse provides pace and the Tiger ferocity while the Dog watches the rear. If more 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. He’s the charmer as well as the Tweeter at dawn.

The Dog perhaps surprisingly, also mixes well with the gentle diplomatic Rabbit. The Rabbit schmoozes while the Dog ensures that her openness is not abused. He makes a wonderful bodyguard and middle manager. A Dog employer will generally 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 he sees the Dragon create with such apparent ease. Consider Trump’s man-crush on Dragon Vladimir Putin in this light. The Snake too; the Dog would resent the Horse as well, except that they are scrupulously loyal to their own team. And just as an aside, it’s a principle of yin and yang that opposites co-exist. So some Dogs will express these qualities in the omission rather than the observance. This may make some little sense of Donald Trump.

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 rigid. Those recent US Presidents in a downward progress of de-evolution bottoming out at Donald Trump, have been champions of stuck, male, white, wealthy privilege. Make no mistake: it may not be clear very soon, but the post-War dispensation in the form of the Fire Dog, is over. The smart Fire Dog has already become mentor and confessor. That’s a pursuit at which he can often excel. The shallow Dog of course may never see this.

The Dog will often have a strong spiritual agenda and if he has a blind spot it may be the 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. 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 her motto is “Do as you would be done by,” and she thinks it already is. Resentment is a trap that is so easy to fall into.

The Dog can work well with other Dogs and even 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, sometimes by complimentary delusions. Beware though: the yang Earth and the yin Water have to mix just right or it can all end in tears.

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. As for the unbalanced Fire Dog – it’s pretty much over. Change Horses, I should.

Year Amulet: The Dog in 2023

Three Lucky Stars – but powerful ones, blessing relationship, power and prosperity – plus four not-so-helpful might suggest a so-so year for the Dog but they don’t. One reason is that the Dog and Rabbit are what’s known as “secret friends”; the Dog is the amulet of the Year, that is to say the most favoured. Those Animals (Rooster, Pig and Tiger) that are least favoured might usefully carry jade Dog amulets this year.

Another reason for the Dog’s good fortune is that in a Water Rabbit Year, Fire is a Wealth Element. When Rabbit meets Dog, they both catch Fire. And if that sounds like the kind of relationship you might be open to, there is that implication this year too. Things are hot for Dogs in all sorts of ways. You can to an extent manage this: if your priority is abundance and success, face and/or locate in your sheng qi direction, if it is relationship your yan nian. These are of course peculiar to you. A professional can tell you which points of the compass these are for you personally in a moment.

Of course it’s not all fairy cakes: in July you are likely to experience some kind of break-up but the benign sui he relationship Star means that this is no surprise and is more a formalising of something of which both parties are aware than a shock. And as ever such dynamics may relate to the work environment as well as Dog events in the wider world. It’s not necessarily about travel but it is about moving on.

By “Dog events” I intend those that occur to the North West: of anywhere, the world, your home country, state or city, or indeed to the North West of wherever you happen to be. They may fall at any time but April and October are the most likely. And likely locations include Seattle and New York.

A note of caution: you get the breaks but if you’re reluctant to serve you could waste them. Serve is what Dogs do. This needs to be your watchword. Your good fortune commits you to service. Look around you at a world in a thousand different states of distress and aim to alleviate it. You may require wealth, a following wind and a supportive partner to achieve this. All follow the Dog committed to service to their fellows.

You probably kick off traces – professionally and relationshipwise – in July but November could hold you up in a big way. You may be able to take time out and travel this year. There’s plenty of attention if you want it. By giving you seek it out and you rise to a whole other level.

Lesson: Service, flexibility.

Best Months: February, March, June, October

Worst Months: April, July, September, November.

Theme: When to stick, when to split, when to twist.

Hexagram: 36 Ming Yi Brightness obscured.

Health: ☺ Wealth: ☺ Relationship: ☺

This forecast is prepared by comparing your own Chinese year Animal with the Water Rabbit of 2023. Your Year Animal is just one of the four that make up your Ba Zi or Four Pillars of Destiny. A fully-drafted ba zi can indicate possible futures and probable pasts as well as moments of decision. Knowing these moments can heal and prevent heartbreak as well make success and happiness more easily achievable. What is a ba zi?

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