This Earth Tiger Month: Make Way

Make way for the Tiger.

Everyone knows that the Chinese New Year begins on February 4^th. Except the Chinese who insist on celebrating the Lunar New Year which will keep dotting about inconveniently. This year it was on the 29^th January that I wished the lady at the local takeaway “Gung hei fat choi” to which she responded with an unearned compliment on my Mandarin. I’m never going to get that tonality down, not in this incarnation.

Treating February 4^th (actually the 3^rd by a whisker this year) that is Lap Chun the Spring Festival, as opening the New Year has a long tradition. For farmers it makes sense because the ground may be softer and the mornings lighter. But it was not until the Emperor Qian Long (1733-1793) that Lap Chun was instituted as the 1^st Day of the year for the purpose of divination. Probably to keep Feng Shui, Ba Zi and Zu Wei Masters from squabbling among themselves. Not sure that worked 100%.

Tiger people (Births 1938, 1950, 1962, 1974, 1986, 1998; between roughly February 3^rd and March 4^th; between 3 & 5 in the morning and on days you’d need a Chinese calendar for) need space and they are hard to resist. Like Tiger Months they bring change, sometimes uncomfortable and sudden. Sometimes that space belongs to someone else. Think 1914, actually a Wood Tiger, so in some senses a double Tiger; also 1938. And it was, I’m sure, no coincidence that Ukraine was invaded during the Tiger Hour on a Tiger Day in the Tiger Month of February 2022. There is no question that there are more brilliant Ze Ri (that is Date Selection) Masters in Russia than anywhere outside the Chinese diaspora. 4am is quite an hour to pick.

We’d all best watch for rapid change during this Tiger Month. It is the change of the restless Yang Wood, ever in search of fertile ground to seed. Even during the winter, tree roots are pushing past obstacles of which we may never be aware. Expect a month of surprises, a month of advances and encroachment. This may show up as invasions and offensives but also more subtle competition in your office, kitchen, high street or bedroom.

And this is an Earth Tiger, inherently at war with itself. The Yang Wood feeds upon the Earth just as a tree feeds on the earth itself. This is the nature of life: Wood feeds upon Earth, receives the Water of rainfall and the Fire of the Sun and is ended by the sharp edge of Metal. Don’t blame the Tiger for being a Tiger.