Pig 2013
Who is a Pig?
Years: 1947, 1959, 1971, 1983, 1995, 2007.
Month*: November
Hour: 09:00 pm – 11:00 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.
What is a Pig?
The weakness and the strength of the yin water Pig is to think they know what is good for them. Generally they do, and the maddening thing is that they are actually right often enough to make advice close to impossible. By extension this means the Pig may believe they know what is right for everybody else.
Versatile and wilful, gifted at whatever they do, the Pig is the sign of the inventor. Edison was a Pig, as is Hillary Clinton and Wikileaker Julian Assange. Perfectly-balanced Pigs can literally almost do anything but they don’t always handle the truth well. They don’t much like reflective advice from others and they often hate not to know for sure. Vagueness is very uncomfortable for the Pig, this trio of the multi-gifted being no exception: Edison was of course an obsessive patenter, Hillary constant in the teeth of her husband’s unsupportable claims to fidelity and Assange, confident that he knows better than anyone else what the world needs to know. This does not make any of them mistaken but the truth can be a moveable feast.
The Pig is communicative because it is a water sign. A balanced Pig (perhaps March birth around mid-afternoon) is a great audience and typically gets the listening/talking ratio just right. An unbalanced Pig can shoot off at the mouth and give away the farm before she knows it.
More likely, this Pig will withdraw into silence. The Pig can sulk but can also withdraw simply out of disinterest and be perfectly cheerful when challenged on the withdrawal. The Pig child needs just the right mixture of carrot and stick. Too much stick and he is suppressed or resentful. Too much carrot and he can be smug. The balanced Pig is the most sensitive of the animals. The unbalanced Pig has had an empathy bypass. As the parent of a Pig, just remember you are instrumental in this process. Your Piglet does not need to be a boor.
The Pig embodies the wood of creativity so they can be as adept with the written as the spoken word as well as the yang earth that makes them able to concentrate deeply. Many Pigs prefer to study in noisy rooms and many Pigs are effortless A-students as teachers of the reception classes of 1988 and 2000, and first year undergraduates of 2001 may remember.
The Pig does not like the Snake; one way or another they tend to immobilise each other and the Snake’s intimate, the Monkey, can be a source of annoyance also.
The Pig’s most natural team is with the Rabbit and the Sheep. This is a domestic alliance. Together these three naturally make anywhere home. A perfect family might be Pig father, Rabbit mother and Sheep first-born. Once home, the Rabbit entertains while the Sheep ensures compatibility and the Pig does skilfully the tasks that are beyond her partners. The bestselling Freakonomics was for instance a collaboration between the Rabbit Stephen J Dubner and Sheep Steven Levitt, peaking in the Pig year of 2007.
Traditionally the Pig also enjoys the company of the Tiger. You might think she’d be more cautious but she knows that the Tiger is uninterested in conquering anyone he considers easy meat. Of course he’s missing something here but the Pig’s fearless approach often disarms the Tiger before he realises. A Pig’s literary ambition may burgeon in a Tiger year and flourish in a Rabbit one.
Although she may herself be more adventurous, the Pig also understands the loyal and consistent Dog. She respects the fact that every home needs its guardian. These two will tend to develop a camaraderie with its own distinctive banter. The Pig respects the Dog’s diligence and the Dog knows the Pig will compensate for his weakness.
The Pig also operates well as factotum for a group consisting of the Snake (whom she can’t otherwise stand for any length of time) the Monkey (see above) and the Tiger. For these she is, interestingly, the peacemaker and setter of standards. Without the Pig this grouping whose common interest is travel and mobility can’t get off the ground.
One final note: the Pig suffers what is called the self curse. That is to say that she has limited patience with other Pigs. The Chinese character for a house is one Pig under a roof. Just the one.
Pig 2013:
Stars include: Yue Kong, Yik Ma (Travel) Star, Big Drain, Sui Po.
It was Richard Bach who wrote: “State your limitations and they are truly yours.” We don’t have to buy in. As you know, the Pig’s tendency to believe whatever comes out of her/his mouth can be a liability. Along with the wisdom and the encouragement that so many rely on, is the odd self-defeating remark. Often it’s totally plausible and logically watertight and sometimes you Pigs fight for it as if your future depended on it. The Snake for better or worse is reasonable. In the Snake year this kind of thinking is especially tempting.
As it happens, the Pig is generally multi-talented and often a prodigy. Precocity is a given. In 2012 you made huge leaps. Some can’t quite believe you’ve achieved what you have. The instruction on the packet is to learn, grow and move or this upward progress could be constrained. Greater creativity is called for but also a jettisoning of the reasonable doubts in the Pig’s brilliant mind. Reasonable won’t get you there.
The thing is that you could easily become compromised by your traditional clash with the Snake. You are each other’s mutual nemesis. The Pig (like the Snake) is one of the so-called Four Stations which are concerned with movement and travel. So the outcome of such conflict is usually to do with mobility. This can mean stuckness, boredom and stagnation or actual problems with trains, planes and automobiles even feet or legs. This year your fortunes absolutely demand movement. The carefully planned travel implied by the Yik Ma Star is mandatory.
Snake is part Earth, part Metal, mostly Fire. Pig is Earth, Wood and mostly Water. Two of these three components clash. The risk is that the Pig’s creativity could be limited by the gift of logic. You can think yourself into knots, as we discussed earlier. Linear thinking may tempt you. For “linear” read “defeatist”.
This is not a question of being positive but of being brave and truthful in pursuit of what you want. Positive thinking without self-knowledge is much worse than useless. Let logic be your guide rather than your governor. Take the time required to complete your current projects. If no one else, tell yourself the truth. Respond rather than react. Avoid the glib. Spontaneity will help. Your gift for abstract expression could be dulled by thinking when you need to feel. Some answers are complex, some aren’t.
The Pig can under-achieve not because he is less gifted but because he is more so. You can be distracted by your many interests or seduced by the excuses your mind offers on behalf of the inertia that keeps your fear in check. Put simply: you’re afraid to grow, so you make your fear sound reasonable. You’ve got so far. It was against the odds. So what have the odds to do with it? Use your success as fuel. Opportunities will present themselves and you need to be ready because the timing may not always be convenient.
Pretty much literally, look before you leap. But you do have to leap.
Health: limited mobility if you buy into it. Hexagram 10.
Money: be sure to look in the appropriate direction. Sources of wealth are more blatant in 2014 but there’s plenty out there. Beginnings of wealth.
Relationship: the smart Pig won’t be distracted but there’s consistent opportunity, especially from July onwards. For females, quieter in this regard than last year except in the first quarter. For the settled: no particular threat.
Feng Shui: activate the Rat at N2 (0°) for Dragon Virtue; that is reputation.
Readers’ Digest Version: good year for well-planned travel.
Richard Ashworth©2012