The Ox in the Year of the Wood Snake 2025
Ox Pic by @elliespinelli 
Who is an Ox?
Years: 1949, 1961, 1973, 1985, 1997, 2009.
Month*: January
Hour: 01.00-03.00am
Day: you’ll need a Chinese Calendar or an expert for this.
* Caution: the start of the Chinese month can be as early as the 4th & as late as the 9th, depending on the year.
What is an Ox?
The distinctive quality of the Ox is insistence, not persistence so much because the Ox’s yin Earth makes for a certain fragility, more of a curtain than a rampart. The Ox is in many ways, the most sensitive Zodiac Animal. This is often expressed in what looks like obstinacy but is better understood as puzzlement at being disagreed with. In discourse you may find that an Ox has firm principles that on examination are more like prejudices or assumptions. They are often nonetheless firm as well as correct for all that. As a rule, don’t expect flexibility of mind from an Ox; they know what they know and are often not keen to venture beyond. Never forget however, how sensitive they are.
The key quality of the Ox is fertility, for better or worse. In a ba zi that may indicate fecundity or the reverse but it will be an issue.
The Ox’s gifts are very often practical rather than intellectual. The intellectually gifted Ox is extraordinarily powerful. Because of her position between the Rat and the Tiger, the Ox can sometimes vacillate from a fierceness – that does not really suit her – to a Rat-like charm that she may not be able to sustain. Watch out for the Ox who you seem on first acquaintance to have known all your life but who then becomes uncontactable. In certain contexts this is called “ghosting”
With her allies the Snake and the Rooster, she forms a team which is of the Metal element. That is to say that the alliance is linear, judgemental and competitive. Where the ground rules are clear, this is an unstoppable combination, not when they’re not. But these three make a great legal team with the Rooster charming the jury, the Snake exposing truth as they do
and the Ox sticking to the point. When the rules are unclear however, the Metal alliance can falter. Then the Ox can become judgemental in a more covert sort of way, being less liable to argue than to judge silently. Without the Snake and the Rooster, the Ox is more barrack room lawyer than barrister.
Working in such a team, Metal, that is the qualities of logic, reason and competition, is less important than consistency. In dealing with the Ox, it is important to remember not only that the Metal is there but also that the Ox may deny this fact even to herself.
The hour of the Ox (01-03.00a.m.) is when the worlds of spirit and flesh are closest. She has a deep spiritual agenda. The gifts of mediumship and divination are essentially Ox gifts. He is above all extraordinarily sensitive.
He may nonetheless be attached to ancestral dogma. Fundamentalism of all sorts – political and social as well as religious – is a common trait. Ox is not always good at questioning tradition or second-hand wisdom that has come down on good authority. So she will often quote great men not because their words are wise but because they are great. Bob Dylan’s advice “Don’t follow leaders and watch your parking meters” goes over the head of the immature Ox but is the credo of the life-wisened one.
With the Dragon, Dog and Sheep, the Ox forms the Literary Alliance. Some call this confluence the Four Earths and think of it as negative. The fact is that it is a demanding combination. If the Dragon is missing from it, for instance, many think of the alliance as poisonous but to see this as an assembly of the vehicles of expression without anything new to say is probably more like it.
This coincidence of Ox, Sheep and Dog in time or space, known as the Bullying Curse, is a challenge to a strong ba zi and can be the ruin of a weak one. As it consists of Dog, Sheep and Ox, expect it to occur in January, July and October of any Earth year like 2024. If you spot these three in the Year, Month and Day (in any order) of a ba zi you can be pretty certain this is someone who was marginalised, even victimised early. Look for playground bullying and that kind of thing.
Barack Obama may be the world’s most famous Ox and a good example though he actually has a Sheep in his month pillar. This makes for a home-loving and secure man. This is heightened by his day stem (the character that rules the day he was born) which has an unusual affinity both with the Ox and the Sheep. This like so many Oxen, is a man who loves his babies.
The Ox has a love-hate relationship with the irritatingly spontaneous and extrovert Horse to whom she can not help nonetheless being drawn. Nor is she that keen on the Rabbit who can help herself to the Ox’s fresh vegetables or the Tiger who somehow often manages to exploit her.
Central point: the Ox’s power is cyclical, arriving every twelve years and lasting for two. Don’t waste it!
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.
Ox
Sam He Wah Koi Near Yellow
Favoured Aloof Poorly positioned
You have, like the year Snake, Metal within you. Which may mean you are up for learning something technical. It definitely means that preparation and accuracy matter. It could also speak of additions to the (possibly extended) family which are likely to be a high priority. Following your successes in the Rat and Ox Years of 2020/1 and your influence (as Tin Yute Gwai Yan) this last Dragon Year, you are now less well positioned and 2025 promises to be largely about addressing that.
If you know a little Chinese Astrology you may be expecting a bumper year from your Sam He (Favoured) Metal Combination with Snake and Rooster. Which is a reasonable expectation but if you inspect the T’ung Shu f(the annual almanac) for Special Stars you’ll find that you attract only one helpful star and four poor ones this year. But the fact is that no astrological description will do you justice, you have free will and you remain responsible for your choices.
The Near-Yellow Star P’ang Huang, is often termed the “Pessimistic Star”. Let’s consider that. It goes beyond its remit by prescribing. Whether to be pessimistic is your choice. Whether it is an understandable response to events for which you are equally responsible on a deeper level or not, a pessimistic response is a state of mind, it’s not a thing. And it’s your choice. A question of framing if you will. It may be an understandable response but it’s not gravity or a court order. The question of what is or is not written in stone is a long conversation but you don’t need to play. Put simply the appropriate response to anything is a smile. Not always easy but always valid. Try to remember that when it gets hard this year.
That kind of spiritual agility can be hard for the Ox who moves slowly but deliberately. Oxen can be sometimes blinkered, sticking to redundant positions. But it’s time to get flexible. This Snake year in terms of advantage, privilege and opportunity is not like last year. Or next. One of your gifts is the cyclical power that you wield in Rat and Ox times. But there are ten other years to profit from and now is one of those. As a byword for fertility (including fertility of ideas) you have to re-position: for now you are the seeker not the sought. And if you get that, this year will at least in retrospect, prove a triumph but it may not be comfortable, immediate or easy.
If you are a teacher, students will come to you from different directions than usual; a salesperson via alternative media; an administrator from observation and research rather than tradition. And so on. The Snake is an innovator. You need to keep up. Your attention has to remain upon the quality of what you do but your shop window needs to be a proactive one.
Because you are custodian of the Yin Earth Section this year you have a unique gift for those with a Yang Wood Day Stem. Seek them out if you can. This year you grow people at your own cost and those guys are the ones. They may not be the most immediately receptive but they will be the most rewarded. Start them off and watch them grow. That nurturing is what you do, even when like this year the force is not obviously with you.
But despite a little money (Rabbit and Tiger Months) and other luck you may feel kind of lost this year. The typical Ox won’t know which way to turn for help. Last year you were belle of the ball and in 2020 and 2021 you were calling the shots. If you are used to being the first call for those seeking advice you may question your own value when the phone stops ringing. This however is a very creative space.
Just remember that phones ring out as well as in. And be aware how the change of protocol suits you. Consider where you truly want to put your attention. It may not be where you’d apply it if you appeared to have more alternatives. Go with it.
And of course you have Four Pillars: among the others it is likely one or more has a less demanding ride. Remember that although the Year Pillar bears a lot of pressure, the Month Pillar relates to your work, Day Pillar to your soul and true love and the Hour to children and your deepest dreams. Your Life House will be offering advice which may or may not be veridical. And you remain the one who decides about that. You are still in charge even if it doesn’t feel like it. If you are wise you don’t attempt to pull the Tao into shape but adapt to its force.
Recognition and rehabilitation is most likely under the bright light of July although you may have to listen closely and scratch beneath the surface of whatever message you are receiving. It may feel like rejection. Through the prism of the Tao, things are often their opposite.
There will be quarrels and however you spin it you are responsible. That means that finding how you conjured up this distress and owning it is the first step to recovery. An Ox who falters in a Snake year is constantly wasting advantage. Poor judgement may plague you, you are off-centre so put yourself – responsibly – into the hands of those who love you. Receive. If there are Monkeys among these people, so much the better.
Loss of wealth is more likely than increase. Take no risks in this.
Health needs attention especially the stomach area. Watch your weight and diet. Trace elements such as iron and zinc may need boosting.
Your refuge is in sharing yourself including your adversity. A belief that you have to pull yourself up before you qualify for a helping hand is severely flawed. Perhaps consider where such an idea may have come from. Early childhood probably. You might need to talk to somebody.
In all this purging there are some bright lights: August offers relief and some progress as well as romance for female Oxen. This of course does not preclude the male Ox but all Oxen are called to get flexible and observe the world as it is before they consider how it should be.
November may bring breakthrough in some area of invention or novelty which will most likely be the key to your cautious return to power in 2026.
Lesson: Positioning.
Best Months: December, January.
Worst Months: February, July, September, November.
Theme: Receiving advice.
Hexagram: 28 Da Guo Preponderance of the Great.
Health 😒 Wealth = Relationship 😒
Where to find help: Snakes, Roosters, other Oxen, Rat.
Who should I be careful with: Sheep, Horse.
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?
© Richard Ashworth 2025