Ox 2017
Who is an Ox?
Years: 1949, 1961, 1973, 1985, 1997, 2009.
Month*: January
Hour: 01:00 am -03:00 am
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: Ox in Fire Rooster Year.
What is an Ox?
The Ox is deeply sensitive, psychic even but also quite insistent; rather than persistent; Ox yin Earth makes for a certain fragility, more of a curtain than a rampart. The Ox is in many ways, the most sensitive Animal. This is often expressed in what looks like obstinacy but is better understood as puzzlement. In discourse you may find that an Ox has firm principles that on examination are not principles at all but more like prejudices or assumptions. They are often firm as well as correct for all that. Jane Austen’s Mrs Bennett reads like an Ox.
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. The detail that really distinguishes the Ox however, is that (s)he often craves power and often doesn't notice either that the power has waned or that it is time to relinquish it. Famous Oxen include Margaret Thatcher, Napoleon Bonaparte and Barack Obama. You get the picture? Power tends to peak in the Rat year btw – 1984, 1804 and 2008 respectively.
The Ox is frequently practical rather than intellectual although the intellectually gifted Ox packs power; take 1961 Ox Yanis Varoufakis for instance. Because of your position between the Rat and the Tiger, you can sometimes vacillate between a fierceness that does not suit you and a Rat-like charm that may not be sustainable. Neither of these are strengths in academe.
With her allies the Snake and the Rooster, the Ox 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. These three make a great legal team with the Rooster charming the jury, the Snake unearthing information that no one else could find and the Ox sticking to the point. When the rules are unclear however, the 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 becomes more barrack room lawyer than barrister.
To the metal of such a team which stands for logic, reason and competition, the Ox brings the earth that means consistency. Which is vital but in dealing with the Ox, it is important to encourage linear thought and to unmask the unreasonable (and consistent) for what it is. Often your position is just habit; you may still quibble though.
The hour of the Ox (1am-3am) is the time that the worlds of spirit and flesh are closest. She has a deep spiritual agenda. The gifts of mediumship and divination are essentially Ox and Sheep gifts. Often squaring strict logic with intuition is a life lesson.
The Ox may be attached to ancestral dogma. Fundamentalism of all sorts – political and social as well as religious – stick to you. She is not always good at questioning tradition or second-hand wisdom that has come down on good authority. She will often quote great men and prophets, not because their words are wise but simply because they are reckoned great. Maggie Thatcher probably made both Maynard Keynes and John Wesley rotate in their graves.
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 and when only three of these meet, the weakness of the grouping is defined by the one missing. When all four are present, great achievement follows. If the Dog is absent for instance, the association may be short-lived. On the other hand, the combination of Dog, Ox and Sheep is a challenge to a strong ba zi and can be the ruin of a weak one. Obviously the magic Dragon is missing from this last conjunction, sometimes called a “bullying punishment.” When the three appear together, expect suppressed communication and rigid rules. Which the Dragon simply wiggles his nose and dissolves.
Barack Obama may currently be the world’s most famous Ox and a good example of this. He actually has a Sheep in his month pillar but no Dogs and no Dragons; this makes for a home-loving and secure man. Which is heightened by a day stem (the yin earth character that rules the day he was born) having a special affinity both with the Ox and the Sheep. This like so many Oxen, is a man who loves his babies. But what about those of the rest of the world?
As if to answer this question, Obama who knows his executive power is on the wane, is clearly going down fighting. As Napoleon did and Mrs Thatcher as well of course as 1889 Earth Ox Adolf Hitler*. None of these knew when it was all over, did they? Traditionally the chaos of “bullying punishment” is brought to a head by the Dragon.
The Ox is not 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. And you have a love-hate relationship with the irritatingly spontaneous and extrovert Horse to whom you can not help nonetheless being drawn. For the Ox, the Horse represents the perhaps unwelcome daylight upon your true intentions and ultimately your true values. But to really know the mettle of the Ox, observe her with Sheep and Dog. *His peak Rat year was 1936.
Ox in Fire Rooster Year.
Stars include: wah koi
Oxen Free
Since 2010 probably, you have been kind of off track. If that’s correct, reassess and employ 2016’s buffets to put you back on course just as a skilled mariner uses wind and tide. In 2017 you are again a world leader even if you think that your time is over or not yet due.
You are sensitive, intuitive and capable of deep concentration and despite recent near-cataclysmic setbacks, this is a year in which you wield unusual influence. Just when you thought you’d get a break. The golf course will have to wait; if you would rebuild what has crumbed and defend what is under threat it’s a time of teamwork but not one of great sociability. The wah koi star implies study, retreat or re-training. Great sway calls for great care.
You naturally stick to things – partners, views, jobs, groups, – often well past their sell-by date. Your loyalty and consistency are bywords. But this year there is unsticking to do. In your studies, aim to identify what is over and what is not and act accordingly. Where did you turn left when right would have been more far-sighted? This is not a matter of nostalgia or attribution but of urgent correction. You must stay engaged and act practically. This is an emergency.
The Rooster of course is your ally. Along with her and the Snake you are Metal: the gold standard, the arbiter of ideas and rightness. For so many, 1961 Metal Ox Barack Obama remains just that. Every Ox has something of Obama about them. Deeply sensitive and fair-minded, the downside is that you are assertive to a fault. And this alliance which obviously enough peaks in May, requires a measurable objective. As the alchemist Paracelsus observed, “as above, so below”; whether your theatre of activity is local or global you are called to help and the problems are the same in both realms.
So the question for you is what are you going to do to heed the call? Attractive options include self- indulgence along with withdrawal and even overwork – if it’s a new task. But novelty’s not the point. A more helpful course might be to take an overview and select the place or issue where you’ll have most impact. You’ve been through a dazzling time, wielding power responsibly, most noticeably in the years 2008-9. But to little recent effect. That influence may appear to be long gone but actually it’s greater than ever. You’re just not tapping it. Time you did. You can not freewheel now.
Ram Dass used to say that some of us need to get spiritual and some of us need to learn our zip codes. Now is the time to assess who your allies are. You’re going to hit the ground running in 2017 as both December and January offer you a turbo-boost. Forget the temptation to take it easy. Recruit those who can negotiate, those who will not flake out on you and those who can speak the language of the opposition – these are btw Rat, Dragon and Snake qualities. Remember that any opposition is a mis- reading but there come times when those of us who have been seeking the airy-fairy since the 60’s may need to get real. That’s now.
A common vocation of the Ox is New-Age healing. This entire enterprise is in shock and under threat. If hugging trees and loving, at least the way we are doing it, were enough, the world would be in a better state. We have mostly sought transcendence – that is whatever is beyond the physical. The physical world is maya, an illusion, goes the dogma. And we have for the longest time behaved as if this were so. It’s not working. May could offer you relevant food for thought and December re-programming.
Interestingly feng shui like so much New Age practice has roots in shamanism. At its heart, it is divination – that is the interpretation of the waking dream – differing from Tarot or tealeaves in that we can alter the physicality of a house while there’s little to be done with cards or exhausted tea leaves. And indeed the traditional character for divination, xiang, actually depicts an elephant, indicating that the diviner was the one who knew where to find the elephant. Possibly – with a little stretch – mammoths; find a mammoth and the whole community is fed for months. Your work now is almost literally to see that there is enough to go round.
Feng shui like all the ancient models from the world of woo-woo™ has survived because it’s intensely practical. And now is the time to be practical, to get active, to get involved. This is how your power will return. And you might save the world. This year it’s your turn to trust action, peaceful, decent action but action. The world needs you in a big way now. The one-liner about the Ox is that he sticks to the point. Consistency is in your blood. Now is no time to change. Consistency allied with decency and dignity is exactly what’s required right now. And btw if you rise to this challenge your new power has a very long shelf life.
Readers Digest version: sprint through the tape. Reboot.
What’s to be done about it: trust reason and act.
Amulet: Rooster.
Feng shui advice: Earth and Fire. And Water.
Helpful places: North.
Helpful times: January, May, September, December.
Health: pace yourself; supplements and adequate trace elements are important.
Money: not the point.
Relationship: an abundance.