The Horse in the Year of the Wood Snake 2025

Horse Pic by @elliespinelli

Who is a Horse?

Years: 1942, 1954, 1966, 1978, 1990, 2002, 2014
Month*: June
Hour: 11 am – 13.00

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 Horse?
The Horse is yang Fire: the charmer, the extrovert, the seducer of the Zodiac and is rarely caught out despite his high-risk strategy. He has an ego of course but is better able to laugh at himself than for instance the Dragon or the Rat. Like the Dragon, the Pig and the Rooster though, he can not generally work with his own kind. The typical Horse is not a deep thinker and his ego can lead him to suppose that no one else is either. Brexit mastermind David Cameron, born in the Fire Horse, may be a good example. Needless to say, thinking ahead is often not the Horse’s forte.

There tends to be a belief in shortage at work in the Horse. They think they must be the first to the trough if they are to eat. In romance the Horse like the Rooster, can be what Leonard Cohen called “a thin gypsy thief”. This means his weakness can be a failure to respect boundaries and property. Of all the animals, the Horse and Rooster are typically the marriage breakers and the home wreckers. This is not inevitable of course. If we know this about ourselves we can make wiser choices. Just because today is a good day to die, it is not necessarily a good day to kill.

Predictably the Horse is often not great at commitment. The yin and yang of this by the way is that a self-aware Horse is the most constant partner there is; an endangered species by the way.

Success matters a great deal to the Horse. He is not generally subtle. It is the winning not the taking part that tends to concern him.

The ever-fiery Horse is not keen on Water and especially not on her diametric opposite the Rat. They experience this element whether expressed as a Rat year, excessive communication or actual Water as a dampener of enthusiasm. Water slows him down but does not halt him.

Interestingly the Horse’s charisma is best expressed either in a team with the other Plum Flowers, Rat, Rabbit and Rooster or in a pair with the Sheep. You will often find Sheep and Horse out and about together, the Horse radiating charm and the Sheep reflecting it. This actually is a good partnership; the Sheep is in awe of the sheer daring of the Horse and the reckless Horse may often need grounding, safety and a short-term loan. Horse places the drinks order for their audience and the Sheep pays the tab;

In the Beatles, Water Horse Paul McCartney was the pr man but the corresponding long-suffering Sheep was George as Peter Jackson’s documentary Get Back bears out, not John or Ringo, both resilient Metal Dragons. Now there’s a key; perhaps we can all let Linda and Yoko off the hook now!

The Horse’s home team all of whom have Fire in common, is with the Tiger and the Dog. These are the hunters of the Zodiac: the Tiger kills, the Horse chases, the Dog guards. This support system is the most likely to bring the Horse rewards. On his own he is prone to burn brightly and extinguish early. He’ll have a good time though.

The Horse finds the Ox hard work. There is Metal hidden in the Ox which the Horse can turn to his advantage but the Ox’s preferences often seem humdrum.

The Horse has visual, imaginative and intellectual gifts but few Horses value them enough to put them to good use. So many of the words we use about the virtue of work illustrate the unwillingness of the Horse to stick at things: harness, yoke, saddle, blinker etc. Again the yin and yang is that a Horse once-committed, never quits – think Boxer in Animal Farm.

A Horse who works with a Snake may achieve greatness because the Snake understands the Horse as well as she understands the Dragon. And the Snake is smart enough not to compete. In many ways the Snake is the perfect partner but it is more likely the Snake will recognise this than the Horse.

The Snake suffers in the short term and the Horse in the long.
Racing, partying, playing, the danger is burn out. The challenge for Horses far and wide is to defer gratification long enough that there remains a future. Richard Ashworth © 2024. www.imperialfengshui.info

2025, Breezes, Hurricanes, Twisters,

The outlook for the Year of the Wood Snake.

Note: There are four (or five) Pillars in your ba zi, each with a different nuance. It is as unlikely that they are all ill-starred as it is that they are all blessed by any given year. Examine the portents for each and perhaps use that as an indication of how to respond.

Horse

Loy Hong Sap Gon Luk

Sexual politics Fame if not fortune

Not to lend money is one of the standard pieces of advice for a Horse in a Snake year; you are Yang Fire in a Yin Fire Year: underpowered and possibly frustrated, threatened, possibly jealous, easily deceived. Your judgement may be off a lot of the time. If so pause, breathe and consider. Your quick thinking has often been your saviour. And other people’s. But its corollary haste, is your demon this year.

You are probably in a rush at the best of times. This is at least partly because you can’t stand to be static. Horses can appear to be in a constant hurry. When you’re underpowered you may be especially wilful because it’s uncomfortable. Decisions made to ease discomfort are likely to be mistakes.

The Horse along with the Rooster is reckoned to be the sexiest of the Zodiac Animals. This doesn’t of course mean that Rabbits and Dogs aren’t but that the Horse’s heart is on their sleeve. By nature you pursue advantage and opportunity. Though this may serve you well in Yang Fire times such as your own Horse month of June and that of your bosom buddy and gofer the Sheep as well even as the Tiger and Dog months, even this year. But your timing may be off for now. Which may mean you will be embarrassed or worse. You may be impetuous rather than risk this year. Pace yourself. Think, plan; measure twice, cut once.

Not your easiest year but the restricting Stars in the t’ung shu (or Almanac) are balanced by the same number (four) of empowering ones, so there’s all to play for. The Sap Gon Luk Star suggests this is an appropriate time to study deeply – but when isn’t? Again don’t rush. Feel gently into the options. Think yourself into next year and the one after before committing.

Ah commitment – hard for a creature of impulse. Loy Hong suggests relationship is high on the agenda – not necessarily in a good way. Your Hexagram reinforces that: the smart man listens to his true love and the smart woman pairs up with a man who does. Whatever is going on relationshipwise may be both exciting and risky. This is most apposite in March when the Rabbit brings this tendency to the fore. Proceed with caution. Remember the theme of any Snake year is truth.

You could lose friends this year with impulsive behaviour and gain many with good timing. Patience is unlikely ever to have been your strong point. This choice as always is down to you. You are most rash when consumed with Fire, obviously enough particularly during the summer months May, (peaking in) June and July but also February and October and Horse Days. Pace yourself. Yours is a more passive power this year.

Horses are typically passionate, urgent and hasty. Forethought is not generally a strength. Though of course you have other Animals in your Ba Zi; a Rat for instance in your Month Pillar would tend to mitigate the haste and balance your work nicely between the considered and the rapid. Equally a Rat (or even better a Water Stem) in the Day Pillar would make for sound decisions around relationship: passionate and thoughtful, nice combo. And so on. Either way you are likely to be especially gregarious this year.

You are who you are and this year’s limited Horse power may make for difficulties with blood, eyes and possibly heart. Respect orthodox medicine of course but moderate light and warmth and the company of Sheep will tend to be therapeutic. The average Sheep will have been in demand last year and may need a friend. Sheep are not gatecrashers, you probably are. So be sure to leave the door open for them behind you.

In a Wood Stem Year like this, monetary advantage will tend to feature early and late but not mid-year. The Metal virtues of precision and preparation will serve you well in that respect. Also presentation. Take your time: whenever hurried, consider whether whatever action you may be feeling compelled to take is appropriate or simply an attempt to dispel discomfort. That kind of consideration will tend to put you back in touch with the Tao.

Lesson: learning to live with power muted.

Best Months: February, July, August, September, October.

Worst Months: March, November, December.

Theme: Look before you leap.

Hexagram: 57 Soen The Gentle

Health: 😒 Wealth: = Relationship: =/☺

Where to find help: Tigers, Dog, Sheep who will need you just as much.

Who should I be wary of: Horse, yourself and your most foolish impulses. And some Rats but mostly it’s you that you need to control.

This forecast is prepared by comparing your own Chinese year Animal with the Wood Snake of 2025. 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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