May the Tiger Bring His Treasures!

Saturday, 13th of February

Master Mouse Says:

The Lunar Lodge for today is THE STOMACH, which takes its name from an asterism of  three stars from the region of the constellation Aries, The Ram.  These three stars used to be called Musca, The Fly, but that designation is regarded as obsolete, and they’re now considered as part of Aries.  Different classical authorities also referred to this asterism as Vespa, The Wasp, and Apis, The Bee, illustrating that it was not just the ancient Chinese who used various names for the same astrological shape.

In any case, for the ancient Chinese, these three stars formed a triangle with a sharper apex than the three stars of “The Treasure Mound,” the previous asterism on the zodiac’s ecliptic.  Whereas that group suggested the beginning of the harvest, the sharper peak of this asterism suggested a higher pile of grain at the end of the harvest, and therefore signaled the time of the completion of the harvest, the storage of grain, and the wealth for the empire that it made secure for the rest of the year.  The character which is used to write it now (胃 weí ) means “stomach,” or “digestion,” which is both a homophone for an obsolete character meaning “granary,” and also an alternate name for this asterism, in part because it pictures THE STOMACH of the White Tiger of the Western Palace.

This Lunar Lodge is (not surprisingly) equally as auspicious as yesterday’s.  It’s regarded as universally beneficial for important public events and affairs, and is specifically favorable for putting things into safety or storage.  Construction and excavation are appropriate, as they are a necessary part of creating safe storage spaces.  Even burials take benefit from this sign, partly as it is associated with the time in Autumn just before the equinox—when Yīn will turn stronger than Yáng—and partly because the grave is in one way a kind of “granary of ancestral qì,” the placement of which (so as to properly benefit the living descendants) is a major part of the traditional use of fengshui principles and techniques.

The spirit animal for THE STOMACH is the Pheasant, the most widespread species of which, the common pheasant, is originally from China, and has been introduced and naturalized to many other parts of the globe.  It has become, therefore, a ubiquitous emblem of Autumn, as it appears in cleared fields after the harvest, gleaning fallen grains, and clawing and pecking after insects which have been made easier to find.  The golden pheasant is another species from China which, in spite of its brilliant and intense plumage (in the male) is extremely difficult to see in its natural terrain.  Though its flashing jewel-colors make it look “like a treasure,” through most of the year, it’s safely hidden away in the undergrowth of the woods and forests.  The Pheasant is a natural enough attribution of THE STOMACH, not only because it’s appearance in Autumn, but because its meat has a special nutritive quality:  it is one of the few foods which is dispersed in digestion equally through all of the qì meridians in the body.  On top of that, it’s not only auspicious, it’s also delicious!

The Solar Index today is SETTLE, and represents the third month of spring in the agricultural calendar, from early April through early May.  This is the time when the previous two months of heavy labor show appreciable results.  The character for SETTLE ( 定 dìng ) is a picture showing “moving things until they’re in the right place in the house,” a jostling of things until they’re brought into the correct arrangement.  It could also be translated “fix,” “stop,” “determine,” or “arrange.”  It indicates a time when work can be eased off enough to reconsider the options for work going forward, and adjustments can be made aiming to capture the best benefit.

This is a time to re-tune the intentions laid down during the time of DESIGN, and make sure they stay responsive to the turnings of reality and chance.  As such, this Solar Index is a very bright indicator for the day.  As long as one can shake off any influence of nostalgic pride in “the way it was planned,” there’s still time to meet things as they are with creativity and engagement, and to yield great result.  But the brightness of the day comes partly from the fact that a great deal of the work has already been done.  Don’t drop back and re-design the whole thing;  jostling into position is what’s called for.

Talk to the Animals

Born in the Year of the Rat: The Wood Horse on duty today has a youthful willingness, and great resources of strength, but not much attention to follow-through.  This condition only adds to the reasons why you should keep you own attention focused downward and inward.  Your strengths are pooling today, and should not be drawn on without serious need.  The time between dusk and midnight is for deep appreciation of your sentimentality and devotion to those you’re closest to.  If you have them near them today, you should consider yourself a Lucky Rat.  And even if not, your luck will be coming towards you with the arrival of the Tiger, bounding in with the dawn tomorrow morning.

Born in the Year of the Ox: The Wood Horse on duty today has a youthful willingness, and great resources of strength, but not much attention to follow-through.  Your own strengths have been tested over the past year, and you have been found worthy.  Turn your willingness now towards a more relaxed sense of responsibility, and a more free-wheeling sense of pace.  Having spent the year in harness, and leading the pull, tomorrow’s the time for you to take up the Artful Practice of Following.  Easy to follow the Leader: he’ll be wearing the Yellow-and-Black Stripes.

Born in the Year of the Tiger: The Wood Horse on duty today has a youthful willingness, and great resources of strength, but not much attention to follow-through.  As long as you remember to exert your highly-tuned Awareness of Timeliness, you won’t take the Horse’s exuberant style as an invitation to step in and start showing the way.  That will be timely indeed, but not until after dawn tomorrow.  Take today as an opportunity to feel the way the compass is swinging to your True South;  to feel the pull of gravity demonstrating the mass and muscularity we’ll all be following for the next year.

Born in the Year of the Hare: The Wood Horse on duty today has a youthful willingness, and great resources of strength, but not much attention to follow-through.  You may have a bit of difficulty keeping your settings on “Pause” today;  the Horse can infect you with a kind of giddy expectation, and make you feel you want to go jumping about, with no particular aim in mind.  Working it off with a bit of mild exercise would not be too dangerous, but make sure you’re not secretly exerting your ambition, trying to get a jump on the Tiger coming in with the dawn tomorrow.  If it helps, you can lead all the noisy carousing through the night, and stay as active as you wish making sure everyone’s wine cup is refilled after every toast.

Born in the Year of the Dragon: The Wood Horse on duty today has a youthful willingness, and great resources of strength, but not much attention to follow-through.  This is a fortunate condition for you, as our Friends of the Hoof and Mane almost always inspire a mature and stately manner on your part;  doubly so when it’s the Wood Horse.  If you spend the entire day moving only half as fast as you’re able to, and hovering in a sort of moderating meditation, as you accomplish your tasks, you’ll be in exactly the right frame of mind.  If you’re completing your preparations for the entry of the Tiger at dawn tomorrow with steady grace and commanding deportment, then you’ll be getting the maximum beneficial effect from the day.  Pay great attention to your state of awareness tomorrow morning:  that lift you’ll feel is the Tiger’s gift to you, and it will be available throughout the year.

Born in the Year of the Snake: The Wood Horse on duty today has a youthful willingness, and great resources of strength, but not much attention to follow-through.  You’ll be itching to get things done today, particularly if you can get somebody to volunteer to join in—by which I mean, “do things for you.”  Please make them small tasks, and make sure to monitor them for their future trajectory.  Any you find that have a longer aim than dawn tomorrow, should be put right back in the box, and left there until at least Wednesday of next week.  I’m not confident that in your mind you’ve completely let go of the underlying benefit the Ox supplied you with through the year;  if you haven’t, the Tiger may yet hold a rude surprise.  Make that your ambition for the day:  to fully let go of the old year.

Born in the Year of the Horse: The Wood Horse on duty today has a youthful willingness, and great resources of strength, but not much attention to follow-through.  This will no doubt fill you with your own feelings of youthfulness, and happy anticipation of the approaching Tiger.  He’s bringing in a whole new raft of opportunities for everyone, but for you, he’s got a raft of blessings and benefits, as well.  Chief among them will be the great gift of Proper Work.  You’ve been driven hard this last year, and the Ox didn’t really care to see that your labors were well-matched to your skills and scale.  The Tiger understands this deficiency implicitly, and will bound in at dawn tomorrow to begin correcting things.  You may feel today like an athlete the day before the Big Game, but if so, just make sure you don’t break your training regimen.  Breaking curfew is another matter, as the more noise and merry-making you indulge in through the night, the luckier the dawn will be for all.

Born in the Year of the Sheep: The Wood Horse on duty today has a youthful willingness, and great resources of strength, but not much attention to follow-through.  You’ll do well to observe the day’s energy closely, neither trying to ignore the tasks necessary to be done, nor striving to divert your attention with their accomplishment.  You normally rely on Horse Qì to polarize your awareness and rectify your aims.  This last year, our Friends of the Hooves and Mane have been so confused and misused that you’ve gotten no such benefit, as much as you have been needful of it.  Your compass needle will stop spinning today, and show you again the stability of North-and-South, the latitude of East-and-West.  And tomorrow, even if it’s only in a small, secret way, you’ll find yourself once again standing at True Center.

Born in the Year of the Monkey: The Wood Horse on duty today has a youthful willingness, and great resources of strength, but not much attention to follow-through.  Things are going to feel a bit weird on account of this situation.  The Ox Moon and the Ox Year are at their sagging end, and everything is pooling low in expectation of the Tiger’s roaring arrival with the dawn tomorrow.  But the Wood Horse gives a spirit of juvenile excitement, and a petulant refusal to follow the dictates of the season and the clock.  Your captivating flair and command of magical effect are most needful in such a dilemma of energetics.  Take charge of those who exhibit nervous exuberance, and direct them towards accomplishing the logistics of the night’s festivities.  You’ve your own challenges to face under the Tiger’s glare, and it’s best to face them with a happy mood in your heart, and with Something To Do in your deft and dexterous hands.

Born in the Year of the Fowl: The Wood Horse on duty today has a youthful willingness, and great resources of strength, but not much attention to follow-through.  You’ll do best to continue the ambling pace of yesterday:  aim to soften all your actions, round all your movements, and give everyone the sensation that you’ve absolutely nothing really important to do.  That is, in fact, the truth of it, until well after the Tiger arrives with the dawn tomorrow morning.  By Tuesday or Wednesday, you’ll have a much better understanding of the shift in the Way of Things that the New Year has inaugurated.  Until then, there’s no reason to act hastily, and no need to avoid the opportunity to Enjoy the Time, particularly when it’s for appreciating the closeness of family and friends, for indulging in food, drink, and entertainment, and for settling down into the moment, like a Mother Hen smugly ruffling her feathers and spreading them low over a nest filled with eggs.  This is a time for happily brooding, and for waiting to see what hatches out.

Born in the Year of the Dog: The Wood Horse on duty today has a youthful willingness, and great resources of strength, but not much attention to follow-through.   You’ll no doubt recognize the thrilling lift of spirit this gives you, even if you find that the flesh is correspondingly weak.  Since the Ox Moon and the Ox Year are at their lowest point of sag, everyone should actually be following suit, at least until the festivities for New Year can begin with the setting of the sun.  Demonstrate that proper sag through the day, and you’ll be doing everyone a true service;  leave it to the Horse Qì to give everyone goose-bumps of excitement.  When the Tiger arrives with the dawn tomorrow morning, your first order of business may well be another nap, particularly if you’ve held your own in staying up all night to make noise and make merry.  But we’ve entered a New Era of Napping:  under the Tiger’s Regime, they’ll actually make you better.

Born in the Year of the Pig: The Wood Horse on duty today has a youthful willingness, and great resources of strength, but not much attention to follow-through.  Since the proper Passing of Time tonight—between the sagging end of the old year and the bright up-springing of the new one—is a dusk-to-dawn party of noise, merry-making, good food, and frequent drinks, you may very well feel as frisky and exuberant as the day’s Horse.  But if you find you’re attuned more to the sagging than the exuberance, that’s perfectly understandable, and I most highly support your dramatizing it for all to see.  You’ll have plenty of up-springing to do, after the Tiger arrives with the dawn tomorrow morning.  Given that fact, I think you should get special dispensation to leave your party hats in the closet, and to turn in early, if you feel like it.  Maybe you can plan, though, on snoring quite loudly while sleeping;  it will give the Tiger something to aim towards on his stealthy approach through the night.

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Words to the Wise:

Platters of food at the ready, three fat pots of rice-wine, and a table covered in bowls and wine-cups.

A simple red amulet pasted on the door, cheap paper welcoming all with the ancient sign for “Spring.”

All is ready for the turn of the year;  all are expectant for the renewal of luck, the arrival of the Honored Guest.

Let the eldest light the incense, inviting the ancestors, the youngest bring out the whole steamed carp, swimming in black bean sauce.

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“Good wine improves good company;  good company improves good wine.”

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