The Horse in the Year of the Water Rabbit 2023

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.

Gaining Power: The Horse in 2023

Generally Horses made hay so to speak, in 2022. Those who could not, laid low. After a peak in the Tiger Month both groups had a great deal to contend with but bolstered by the considerable support of the Tiger – one of the Horse’s key allies of course, you gained the upper hand in most of your struggles. Issues of victimisation and unfairness will have come up and your stoical side made a cameo appearance.

So right now you may feel bruised and a little underpowered but it’s not so, the power at your disposal is just a bit more subtle than last year; the Yin Wood of the Rabbit has a much lighter touch than the Yang Wood of the Tiger. And subtlety is often not the Horse’s strongest suit. You’re substantially Yang Fire which means passionate, decisive, spontaneous and brave but also rash and underprepared. The Horse is the sign of the impulse purchaser. This year your immediate charm shines all over even though as time progresses it becomes more and more needed. At home you’ll feel well bonded, going further afield may be increasingly less fruitful until after the middle of the year. You may gain influence but you do not gain territory this year.

Your Mother is likely to be prominent among your concerns in 2023. Rabbit so often connotes Mother but Yin Wood actually is technically the Mother of Fire. This means that early in the year you may have to wait for your next big move and settle for the status quo. But come the spring (ie March when the Rabbit’s energy peaks in her own month) you are called to action. Frenetic action follows, you will need to think big and quick. April will be an explosive time but after that you’re in a little less demand, your decisions are less crucial and your visibility is greater. Long haul travel is on the cards.

This is in some ways a year of seeking sympathy. Milk it when necessary. That’s fuel too.

From July or so, your fortunes wax. Your stores will be renewed. They’ll be used up rapidly, so don’t over-extend; set some aside. These stores may be literal, emotional, metaphorical or martial. You’ll need them because the Autumn brings the need to concede in whatever contest you find yourself. This may be a hard and bitter concession but it’s become necessary. It’s like an amputation to prevent infection spreading. Make whatever deals you have to make to hang onto what is yours.

In December your movement may be restricted altogether for a while. It looks like a hard winter when agreements may not be kept. Close family support you but the more distant are less helpful. Retrospectively however it does look as if you are a winner, bloodied but unbowed and now free. 2023 is a year of struggle but a year of progress. You will earn much respect and make many friends.

As for romance, it’s plentiful for Horse women towards the end of the year; Horse men: August, September. You will be too driven to concern yourself with health.

Money will tend to be equally irrelevant; in a Water Rabbit year your native Fire is wealth.

Think ahead. Try not to justify the unjustifiable and don’t condone it either. You are fighting on behalf of generations as yet unborn. For greater clarity you might read the above back again as if you were Vlodomyr Zelensky.

Lesson: less haste more speed.

Best Months: February, July.

Worst Months: June, December.

Theme: Stick with it regardless of approval or recognition.

Hexagram: 33 Dun Yielding.

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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