Monkey 2017
Animal Forecast 2017: Outlook for the Monkey in 2017
Who is a Monkey?
Years: 1944, 1956, 1968, 1980, 1992, 2004.
Month*: August
Hour: 03:00 pm – 05:00 pm
Day: ask us
* Caution: the start of the Chinese month can be as early as the 4th & as late as the 9th, depending on the year. I can let you know this too.
Skip to: Monkey in Fire Rooster Year.
What is a monkey?
The image of the Three Wise Monkeys, See no evil, Hear no evil, and Speak no evil is a mediaeval Japanese summary of the qualities of the unbalanced Monkey. The image is of someone of course who shrinks from involvement. In elemental terms, this is about too much yang Metal. What is meant by yang Metal is precision; in human relations that distils down to is competition. Often the Monkey is so competitive he dare not enter the race. For many Monkeys, a man is an island. He is, like Hugh Grant’s character in About a Boy, “bloody Ibiza”.
As well as competitive, the Monkey is typically charming, loveable, dextrous, logical and quick witted and has a gift for precision. The balanced Monkey uses these qualities constructively and in the service of his fellow man. The unbalanced Monkey (born say, late afternoon in August ) does not clean up behind himself. He is in short a monkey.
The Monkey is often the most acquisitive as well as the gentlest beast but he is above all, competitive. In the extreme this means warfare. In its milder forms it is the ruthless competition that involves the belief that another’s gain is our loss. This is a mistake. It’s what leads to steroid abuse in athletics and ballet dancing in the Premiership penalty box. The metal Monkey may learn this lesson early; it’s what makes him particularly gentle. All Monkeys subscribe to this delusion to a greater or lesser extent. Just as you’d expect, the pitfall of the Monkey is frivolity. If he can’t win he takes the Mickey.
The Monkey’s natural allies are the Rat and the Dragon. This is a pretty heavy-duty grouping, perhaps the most powerful in the Chinese Zodiac. The naturally dominant Rat and the egotistical Dragon are not, as a rule, a bundle of laughs. But they get stuff done; most of the big revolutions of ideas involve this team. The influence of this trio spreads everywhere: Sigmund Freud perhaps the most influential thinker of the 20th Century, Michele Obama for a little while yet, possibly the most influential woman in the world. Dragons. Even Jesus if you take AD32 as his birth year.* And somewhere in there if we delve deeply enough, we find unsung Monkeys and Rats making it happen. The Rat plots, the Monkey gets out there and competes. Probably St Paul, the man who sold Christianity to the world was a Monkey. Someone who is a Monkey for sure is Karen Armstrong author of a History of God and Fields of Blood, founder of the Charter for Compassion and arguably the most important thinker of the 21st Century. This is a Monkey who has learned to speak no evil while seeing much. For her forgiveness is the fundamental value.
The Monkey tends to understand engines; he is the grease Monkey. He also tends to understand maths, science and argument. He is suited very often to a career in engineering or the law, also accountancy. Unbalanced, he neglects all of the above. The Monkey month of August spans Leo and Virgo and to see him as a hybrid of Virgo control and Leo passion is not far from the truth.
When the Tiger and the Snake meet the Monkey, there’s often trouble. The Monkey both co-operates with and fights the Snake. The presence of the Tiger pushes this competition over the edge. Keep them apart.
So the Monkey should mind his p’s and q’s every February, the month of the Tiger and every May, the month of the Snake. So that’s the Monkey: argumentative, practical, mischievous, so competitive he can withdraw altogether. But you knew that already didn’t you?
* That’s up for debate of course but presumably he was a Capricorn anyway.
Monkey in the Fire Rooster Year.
Special Stars: mong san
Hands off
Impatient, sulky; these are not the usual descriptions of the Monkey. But they do represent your dark side, the character you’d really rather not be. Generally of course you’re not this way; you like a joke. But sometimes you can’t take one. A delusion that can blindside the naturally humorous Monkey is that every jest needs a victim. It’s simply not true. It may be important you absorb this truth soon because this year you may find yourself on a pedestal. And pedestals can be magnets for slings and arrows. You are above all competitive and consequently have learned to see all the angles. So you can see where your current path is leading.
You are aware of the opportunities as well as the pitfalls. You know the routine and the patterns. That’s why you can be rebellious; because you understand rules. This may have led to great success in the last couple of years. But you’re going to have to get flexible if you are to maintain that success. As a former of habits – the Monkey is one of the addicts of the Zodiac – you are wrong footed by irregularity. A bus that won’t keep to its timetable is no use to you.
This year the Monkey slows down. 2017 was a roller coaster, wasn’t it? Work, play romance, creativity, family – all at times up in the air. You may have been accident-prone also; all that Metal, too much Monkey business. Now the heat is off; you probably won’t be in quite as much of a hurry but the Rooster is still Metal. Pace yourself; a hasty Monkey needs a wide berth. Mong san continues to imply you should be careful with Metal. Traditional feng shui advice btw is to donate blood.
Anyway in a Rooster year the Monkey is for better or worse, no longer in the spotlight. Best to trust there is time, opportunity and support for your Metal interests: logic, precision, design, detail, beauty and the mechanical. You could easily and profitably spend your year among them. The mong san Star however also suggests that your attention might be better focused elsewhere. It’s possible that the familiar and unresisting will distract from emotional issues. Engines and charts don’t argue back like people can.
In such a year, you may crave company and a helping hand and it may be that you have not stayed in touch with those who could offer it. This is the year to re-open those connections. Sooner rather than later. For some you may appear to have lost your sense of humour. If that feels right, relax and let it return. Be a little less busy, a little less self-consciously purposeful, relax a bit.
The Monkey rarely wears heart upon sleeve but it may break yours anyway to learn that your reasonable approach may not be as helpful now as it was last year. Now when the world needs the rational more than ever, there is a great deal of the unreasonable about. The Rooster knows how to think straight but often doesn’t bother; her attention span is so short. You Monkeys would be best advised to be more subtle in your approaches as long explanations could fall on deaf ears. The Rooster is as I say, distracted by shiny things.
Accordingly the Monkey boss may find staff unruly. Something similar goes for the Monkey parent. There are no shortcuts to walking in the shoes of those you don’t relate to. A mile is a mile; your Monkey gift of instant but shallow connection makes you the effective communicator you are. This year if you sigh for something deeper, seek out the Dragons in your life and the Rats, even the Snake you have been avoiding. If you encounter the Tiger, give them a fair hearing. He’s doing his best even when you can’t see that she’s made any real impact. This as I said, is not the year of hurry.
Readers Digest version: Laurels
What’s to be done about it: talk, trust.
Amulet: Snake.
Feng Shui: seek the Dragon at SE1 (ESE) ie be there, face that way, activate the area with Water.
Health: Odd illnesses. Earth Monkey (1992) most vulnerable.
Money: some but not a year of bounty.
Relationship: all about output; mostly that means kids and expense.