Tail of the Tiger, Tiger of the Tail

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Tuesday, 1st of February

Today’s LUNAR LODGE is THE TAIL;  the SOLAR INDEX is OPEN.

Master Mouse Says:

The FIRE PIG on duty today has a restrained character, a staunchly held point-of-view, and an unromantic attitude towards appetites and priorities.  Though his jovial side frequently demonstrates his generosity, it’s his confidence in a “me first” attitude that will come forward today.  This will have much more appropriate effect than the Fire Dog could deliver yesterday, given the weakening and thinning qì as the Winter resolves, and Spring prepares to rebound.  Whether it’s a matter of your mental activity only, or expresses itself in your social availability and willingness to take up physical action, any way in which you can hit the “pause button” will both serve your own comforts and contemplations, and will present the correct model of deportment to those around you.  Give others the gift of your lack of interference, and don’t feel shy about demanding that they return the favor.

Talk to the Animals

Born in the Year of the Rat: You can easily get snagged on a fascination with this Pig’s easy manner and flickering availability, and if that means you raise your energies to attract the attention of others, you’ll be entirely missing the best opportunities of the day.  Your graciousness will be best observed by others if you’re virtually ignoring them, and your efforts to fulfill your needs will only prove efficient if you keep to your own devices, and minimize your reliance on those around you.  Dedicate at least part of the day to organizing a part of your household or office, and do yourself the favor of leaving everyone else out of it.  Tomorrow’s Rat will carry the qì downwards as if he’s plunging off a cliff with it, and you’re going to feel as if you were born to be in free-fall.

Born in the Year of the Ox: The three words, “lack of interference,” are frequently enough all by themselves to make you perk up and let a smile arise on your face, and since the Pig on the watch will be so dedicated to the principle, you’re due for a much happier day than yesterday’s Fire Dog stuck you with.  While it would be a violation of that principle to insert yourself into the affairs of others, or to volunteer to help shoulder their burdens, if you can make even some minor display of your increased pleasure at being more fully left alone, you’d be quite surprised to discover how completely that can alter the atmosphere for everyone around you.  As the Ox Moon comes to its completion, it’s quite appropriate for you in this way to harvest a small boost to your reputation, and to give others a better balance from which to appreciate what the Clan of Hooves and Horns has done for them through the Year.  Tomorrow’s Rat will pull the plug on the Year’s qì, allowing it to drain away, and allowing you to come for a brief and satisfying moment to Full Stop.

Born in the Year of the Tiger: The “leave it alone” style of the Pig on the watch will perfectly harmonize with your tastes for independence and solitude, and you’ll have a much easier time in exercising both of them than yesterday’s Fire Dog could make available.  Still, the joviality of the Pig might be something you find yourself hankering for, and if you take any steps towards asking him to bring it forward, I must warn you that you’re liable to find yourself insulted rather than satisfied.  This is a day for you to fully enjoy the support of your friends and the appreciation of all you’ve done favors for, but only in reflection and memory.  If your calm and solitary composure encourage your thinking to switch into high gear, coughing up thoughts, reminiscences, and ideas for the future, consider them the Pig’s gift to you individually, and table them for a later date;  pursuing them now would be insensitive to those around you, and inappropriate to your deeper aims.  Tomorrow’s Rat will hit the Off Switch, and the only thing you’re going to wish to concern yourself with is whether this is the best position to snooze in, or another should be tried.

Born in the Year of the Hare: The Pig on the watch will put such a damper on everyone’s natural appetite for social and friendly interaction, that you might imagine he’s trying to make a statement about you personally;  if so, you should take it as a gift, rather than as some sort of disapproval.  The entire Tiger Year has been an opportunity—difficult to take at some points, of course—to ramp down your eager willingness to align your energies with others, and to experience the apparent sluggishness you feel when proper traction doesn’t arise under your feet.  The Pig is signing and sealing the papers that close off that time, and you’ll find your familiar strengths and certitudes returning quite soon.  Take today, though, to let your sense of activity arise in advance of actually demonstrating it, as if you’re revving you engines, but still observing the Red Light governing the intersection you’re about to tear through.  The Green Light is coming soon enough!  Tomorrow’s Rat will tick the seconds down for you in Deep Silence, and you’ll find your good spirits rising in response.

Born in the Year of the Dragon: The Pig’s insistence that everyone clear the theater and go home may seem as if its designed as a personal insult to you, but if you get over your initial disappointment at looking out into a deserted house, you’ll soon realize that you far prefer the blank stillness staring back at you to the flurry of catcalls and frustrations yesterday’s Fire Dog was hurling at you on the stage.  Since trying to engage the Pig would only mean Arguing Into Emptiness, any loss of satisfaction you might feel today—because there’s no place to State Your Case—will seem silly to take seriously;  spend the day turning off lights and making sure all the proper doors are closed and locked.  Your theater is going to be Closed For Renovations for the Rabbit Year, and today’s the perfect opportunity to put it into preparatory state for the work to be done.  You’re going to enjoy the chance to get back into the rehearsal studio, improving Your Art.  Tomorrow’s Rat will cut the power to the entire building, and it might be a good idea to plan on enjoying a few moments Sitting In The Dark.

Born in the Year of the Snake: When the Pig’s on the watch, you usually find it quite convenient to take any offer for truce, even if it means you’re also required to leave the field, and abandon present hopes of claiming any of the treasures you’ve left there, perhaps to be contended over at a later time.  At this point in the Tiger Year, when the Rabbit is bouncing up and down on the other side of the fence you’re about to slink though, giving up the contest is not only auspicious, it’s Grand Strategy.  If you feel slightly dejected because the labors of the last week have not really gained you much—or at least, not very efficiently—try to congratulate yourself that the Pig is not in a strong enough position to declare your winnings Null And Void, returning your profits to zero, and requiring you to start again from scratch.  As it is, you’ve gotten quite a lot of Good Training in during the Tiger Year, and you’re about to start a swing through 7 years of potentially Good Luck.  Let your spirits rise, as you let your energies sink down:  the Happy Hare is coming.  Tomorrow’s Rat will put you in a sleeper-hold, and if you let yourself fall into it, you’ll come out of it in a state of Renewal.

Born in the Year of the Horse: The disengagement the Pig on the watch is insisting on will prove more satisfying for you than for most around you;  while they’ll take it as an enforced cessation of activity, you’ll see it as an opportunity to stretch your legs and exert your spirit of Freedom and Independence.  Unfortunately, if you choose to exercise this option by throwing yourself into increased activity, you’ll discover the Pig has only limited patience for what looks like a violation of his dictates, and you’ll find your Freedom increasingly running into Fences.  Don’t allow yourself to fall into frustration or dejection, however;  at this point in the Year, the Pig’s insistence is not only appropriate, it’s expressive of the Tiger’s Wish.  You’ve done enough this Year to earn you high accolades and deep gratitude on that score, and it’s time to rest a bit before changing gears—and possibly, changing Riders.  Tomorrow’s Rat might feel like he’s throwing a blindfold over your eyes, but it will only be in order to get you out of the barn safely.

Born in the Year of the Sheep: The disengagement the Pig on the watch is demanding from everyone today will seem to you almost like a personal gift, expressing his partisanship to your causes, and allowing you some peace and quiet in which to reconsider your progress and refurbish your plans.  If you can accomplish both of those quickly, you may feel a bit of constraint, however, in not being able to summon anyone’s attention to make your announcement, and in finding no one available to receive orders or begin to carry out tasks.  However, this result also will be a part of the Pig’s Gift to you:  the Rabbit Year will be so much more eager to receive your orders, and so much more efficient in carrying them out, that you should take the entire day to go deep into Reviewing Accomplishments and re-ordering Strategic Considerations.  If you feel your attention rising towards High Philosophy, and your head floating up into Stratospheric Clouds, be assured that you’ll be dropping back down to Terra Firma in just a couple of days.  Tomorrow’s Rat will put you in a tight enclosure, but it’s going to feel more like being swaddled in blankets than being locked-up in a pen.

Born in the Year of the Monkey: Under most circumstances, any insistence that a Pig might make that you Leave It Alone would seem to you to be a challenge to Do The Opposite;  at this point in the long test that the Tiger Year has presented you, however, the Pig on the watch might seem to be doing you a personal favor by ringing that bell and insisting that all combatants make a clean break and retreat to their respective corners.  Whatever the case, a bit of silence, stillness, and solitude will do you a great deal of good, allowing you to feel the muscularity you’ve developed through your struggles this Year, as well as the growing ground-swell of your excitement that the drawn-out campaign is about to be Officially Over.  You’re at perfect liberty to follow your whims today, and in relative safety if you choose to wander a bit over the grounds;  just make sure, however, that you scrupulously observe the Pig’s dictate, and find your enjoyments by yourself and for yourself.  If the Pig has a message for you today, it’s:  “Don’t make me angry.  You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry.”  Tomorrow’s Rat will remove all your options for the day, and you’ll find yourself surprisingly happy to be where you are, what you are, and who you are, with nothing else added.

Born in the Year of the Fowl: The disengagement that the Pig on the watch will be enforcing will be taken by many almost as a punishment or rebuke, as if he’s breaking up a childish squabble and instructing each of the combatants:  “Go to you room!”  For you, the stillness and serenity he’s commanding to take place, however, will seem like a personal gift, and would be fully welcome, even if it had been intended as a statement of disapproval.  In your quiet contemplations, you may find that several Interesting Topics rise to your attention, and a few Worthwhile Ideas may itch at you to try out in practice.  On a purely philosophical level, I can encourage you to give such manifestations your full attention, but as the Pig’s Gift is partly intended to give you extra time to prepare for the Pesky Rabbit Year—arriving in only two days—putting anything into practice just yet would be entirely inappropriate, presumptuous in the extreme, and certainly not worth your time and effort.  Tomorrow’s Rat will plunge the world into a Preparatory Darkness, by which you’ll only perceive more clearly your Inner Light.

Born in the Year of the Dog: While it’s certainly true that you have equal appetites for time spent alone (when you can wander and investigate to your heart’s content), and time spent with companions (whether long-time friends or friendly strangers), the sort of demand that the Pig on the watch is making today to be separated from others and not to “make a nuisance of yourself” might seem at first look to be a hurtful and ill-deserved punishment.  Once you get off by yourself, however, I’m certain you’re going to find your spirits rising and you curiosity responding to every fact and fact in the world within your reach.  You have a great deal to be thankful for, and even more to feel triumphant about, from your Happy Travels through the Tiger Year, and though your attention may have been so caught up in the tasks at hand moment-to-moment—resulting in little time to consider your progress or to appreciate your success at rising to the challenges the Great Stripéd One presented you—it would be pity to exit his regime without taking the time to do so.  This is the Pig’s Gift to you, and you should unwrap it with glee, and marvel at it in quiet satisfaction.  Tomorrow’s Rat will plunge the world into Preparatory Darkness, in your case like the darkness in the wings before you emerge onto the Fully-Lit Stage.

Born in the Year of the Pig: The insistence put forward by your Clan-Mate that everyone must cease their happy chatter and retreat to their own solitary thoughts, will come as a mixed blessing to you.  While the Tiger Year has been a rich experience for you, it’s also mostly likely been a larger test of your powers, patience, and perspicacity than you were counting on having to go through.  And while you’ve not come nearly to the end of what you’d like to say about it to those around you, it’s more appropriate at this time of the Year to drop the conversational style, and lapse into contemplative silence.  Stilling your own voice will allow all your other faculties to come into play in processing your archive of experiences, and in re-weaving them into the New Garment in which you’ll attend the Rabbit’s Grand Opening Celebration, which is—remember—only two days away.  Since you’re probably going to find yourself nominated as Chief Protocol Officer and Minister of Fun for the event, it would be wise to get your wits about you.  Settle down, settle in, and simplify your attention, today;  it’s going to get very rich, and very complex, very soon.  Tomorrow’s Rat will stand as door-guard outside your Meditation Hall, ensuring that no one disturb your serenity.

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Words to the Wise:

The Winter has not yet relented, and yet the Yáng will not be repressed;

With polite insistence, and modesty of face, Spring prepares to ease in.

When all is arising, the darkness of the world cannot be held with conviction.

Revolutions will come forward when the time is right;  when something cracks open, its truth will hatch out.

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“Grand robes do not well disguise a negligent officer.”

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