Every time Chinese New Year comes around, I can’t wait to get the newest Chinese astrological predictions from Taoist Master Michael Winn! Here’s what he has to say about this New Year.
Sat Nam,
Jim Earles
Dear Lovers of the Taoist Lunar Cycles of Change,
Feb. 3, 2011 marked the beginning of the Female Golden-White Rabbit Year. Both Gold and White are traditionally used to describe the alchemical purity of the metal element, which in Chinese is not just any metal, as “jin” signifies gold. Being born a Yin Golden Rabbit myself, I am an authority on this topic, having studied Metal Rabbit-hood for my entire life.
Many medieval European nations used to start their New Year in the spring. It seems Jan. 1 was borrowed from the day ancient Romans would install newly appointed Consuls, and that came back into modern favor. But that’s only in the West. Since half the world’s population is in Asia, there was a huge surge of Chi on the lunar new year.
I could especially feel the chi surge on Feb. 3 in my qigong ceremonies, and I gathered the chi from this “people power” in my meditation practice. I also captured the western chi surge on Dec. 31 at midnight. People are part of the chi flow of Nature. In internal alchemy, the spiritual science of change, timing is everything. And you use everything in your life as the raw fuel for transformation.
The Rabbit is the zodiac animal that symbolizes alchemy and healing, so it may not be an accident that I ended up becoming both. Sometimes you see the Cat substituted for Rabbit, but a cat’s yang energetic nature (tiger family) is totally different from the underground Yin Wood Rabbit. Let me clear up this confusion. In North Vietnam, which used to be a province of China, the cat takes the place of the rabbit. The Chinese character ? for the Rabbit sounds like (mão or m?ow); the word “mèo” is cat in Vietnamese. Therefore, cat was used in Vietnam as the fourth zodiac sign instead of Rabbit.
Another interesting distinction was made by my friend and fellow Metal Rabbit, Healing Tao Institute founder Jampa Stewart:
Although translations from the Chinese often render Hare as Rabbit, hares differ in many distinct ways from rabbits. Rabbits are born naked and blind, whereas hares are born with a coat of fur and good vision. Hares run faster than rabbits and do not freeze when confronted by danger. Hares symbolize long life, as do cranes and turtles.
The Rabbit on the Moon; Why Metal Rabbits are Different
The Truth about Metal Rabbits
Now, about the Rabbit Year itself. Let me start by dis-abusing you of the common myths about this Rabbit Year, which I’ve read in many commentaries: that Rabbits are soft, gentle creatures, classy and refined, clever and diplomatic, but a bit weak and hence prone to retiring quietly into their home, after the vigors of the Golden Tiger Year that just passed.
People who have never had a rabbit as a pet generally misunderstand how tough they are, even while being so soft and pliable. I have had two pet rabbits, and both were incredibly stubborn, and would bite or butt with their heads rather fiercely if they were not happy. And both were masters of Yin Passive Resistance. They ALWAYS got their way. This was a great teaching for my (occasionally) controlling male side.
Two points about this particular Rabbit Year.
One, Metal (hence the Golden-White Color) Rabbits are different than the others. They have metal strength inside them, a lresilient and tough spine. They are Warrior Rabbits. Think of the Tai Chi image, “steel wrapped in cotton”. Soft and cuddly on the outside, but metal inside. They are very tricky fighters, master of illusion and false feint. Rabbits escape their predators with “broken fiield running”, amazing zig-zags and acrobatic airplane turns in mid-air.
Two, we must keep in mind the Macro cycle of Time we are in. There are BIG planetary shifts in consciousness happening. Yin Golden Rabbit is an Alchemist par excellent. This is a year for refining the shift in collective consciousness. The Rabbit can assist us in cultivating those skills.This is no time to retire to family life and sit around the living room to play with the kids. This is time to go deep inside our “personal rabbit hole”, our inner cauldron or inner earth, and COOK the essence of what is happening.
This brings us to the major myth in Chiina connecting Rabbits to alchemy and the changing Moon phases. Depicted above is a Ming dynasty seal of a Rabbit on the Moon, mixing up a potent Immortality brew, with a Cassia Tree behind. Here’s the story:
The story takes place around 2170 B.C. At that time, the earth had ten suns circling it, each taking its turn to illuminate to the earth. But one day all ten suns appeared together, scorching the earth with their heat. The earth was saved by a strong archer named Hou Yi. He succeeded in shooting down nine of the suns. Unfortunately, he grew tyrannical. One day, Hou Yi stole the elixir of life from a goddess.
His beautiful wife Chang E drank the elixir of life in order to save the people from her husband’s tyrannical rule. After drinking it, she found herself floating and flew all they way to the moon. Hou Yi loved his divinely beautiful wife so much, he refused to shoot down the moon. She is still up there, with an Alchemist Hare at her side preparing more Elixir for worthy mortals. The Cassia Tree is the symbol of the Rabbit’s healing powers. It self-heals itself so quickly, no matter how fast you chop it down, implying an immortal spirit of life.
Interestingly, this Rabbit-Moon theme is found in other cultures, notably Mexico.
Alchemical Myth of the Jade Rabbit
Three fairy sages transformed themselves into pitiful old men.They begged for something to eat from a fox, a monkey and a rabbit. The fox and monkey both had food to give the old men, but the rabbit was empty-handed. He offered his own flesh instead by jumping into a blazing fire to cook himself. The sages were so touched by the rabbit’s sacrifice that they let him live in the Moon Palace where he became the “Jade Rabbit”, forever stirring the Elixir of Immortality for worthy humans aspiring to the Way.
These Moon Rabbit myths highlight how the moon’s waxing and waning defines the Chinese lunar calendar, Chinese philosophy, aesthetics, and the value on peaceful, gentle and friendly attitudes that elucidate the spirit of Chinese culture. Moon light as an elixir or Pearl portrays the immortal spirit of life. It holds a mysterious wisdom hidden within the yin-yang fluctuations of its ever-changing phases.
Why Did Alice Go Down the Rabbit Hole?
First, let’s note a few famous Rabbits, notable for their traditional Chinese characteristics. Rabbit years: 1903, 1915, 1927, 1939, 1951, 1963, 1975, 1987, 1999, 2011.
Famous people born in the Year Of The Rabbit, and their most distinct qualities:
Albert Einstein (brilliant inventive mind), Confucius (very wise), Frank Sinatra, Rudolph Nureyev, Orson Welles, Francis Ford Coppola (very artistic), Johnny Depp, Kate Winslet (very sensuous), and Tiger Woods (loves to fondle other Rabbits).
Metal Rabbits include Helena Blavatsky, founder of the Theosophical Society (visionary and iconoclast); St. Joan of Arc, who battled for the downtrodden. Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice in Wonderland, is perhaps the quintessential Golden Rabbit.
Rabbit is Yin Wood in nature, so it loves it’s own inner space. Wood is creativity & growth. Rabbits live uunderground. Carroll loved Imagination itself, and was a pioneer in taking it underground with Alice in Wonderland. He was a mathematician on LSD, and a kind of literary alchemist who allowed his imagination to go exploring where others feared to tread.
True Confession: Alice Liddell, the real life little girl and model for Alice in Wonderland, is a cousin of mine (my Mother is a Liddell). I think I’ve been getting a family lineage transmission….not sure how else to account for my naturally alchemical imagination.
Why DID Alice go down the rabbit hole? To get to the Other Side. The other side of WHAT? Of her imagination, silly you should even ask.
“Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast!”- Alice
Alice in Wonderland is the kind of dimensional reality shifts that Humanity will soon be facing. Those who have already experimented with LSD will have a head start in grasping the immensity of the spiritual shift and how it can change ordinary, stable, physical perception of reality into something very vibrant, creative and elastic.
For some, the speeded up vibrations that are coming in daily will ultimately feel like a “bad trip”, like they are losing control. The truth is, we don’t currently control most of our perceptions – our subconscious, i.e.. our 12 vital organ and bowel spirits – do. Our 12 personal “animal spirits” are a direct manifestation of the greater 12 Animals Spirits of the Zodiac. They are what give astrology its inside track on the cycles of change in our reality.
I Ching Advises Deep Transformation is Coming in 2011
After I finished my qigong ceremonies embracing the Chi of the incoming year, I asked the I Ching for a general overview of the Rabbit Year that would be useful to my readers. I got hexagram 63, Fire below Water, Already Crossing.
How appropriate to get hexagram 63! It is the coupling of male and female energies in a stable alchemical pattern. This is spiritual sex, meaning fast, deep changes and a collective rebirth is coming in 2011. The hexagram is central to One Cloud’s Tao Inner Alchemy formulas, especially the Lesser, Greater,and Greatest Enlightenment of Water and Fire. (to read more on these formulas, which Healing Tao recently re-organized from 7 to 9 formulas: http://www.healingtaousa.com/one_clouds_nine_tao_alchemy_formulas.html)
I have even designed a Kan & Li Hexagram 63 T-shirt (above on left), which you can order to support this year’s alchemical process. (Icode MTS07 at http://www.healingtaousa.com/cgi-bin/prod_list.pl?ptype=4). I find wearing this T-shirt, perhaps my favorite n my entire collection, sends a message to my subconscious: stay centered in your True E ssence. The hexagram is urging us: “Stay in your true inner process” and “set things right”. That there is danger (Water) all around us, but within we are safe if we stay humble (below water) and true to our (inner Fire) Self.
In my reading, the 5th line changed, to hexagram 36, Brightness Hiding, Earth above, Fire below. Again, a rabbit theme: Take your spiritulal light and go down inside your burrow deep within Mother Earth until the danger passes. This is a warning, that big Macro changes could be happening, and we need to be very grounded to handle them. It suggests we mus face the Demon Country (Underworld) on our journey to the center of our True Earth. So I expect more dark tihings to be emerging as the vibration of the planet Earth is raised.
Love and Business Predictions for 2011
A lot of Chinese astrologers are predicting a Rabbit Year return to peaceful negotiation and diplomacy instead of revolution and war.
Here’s a typical Rabbit year prediction:
The Dragon year that follows will be a wild and exhausting time, so enjoy this Hare year as an opportunity for relaxation, pleasure, family gatherings, entertainment, and comfortable travel. Expect political compromise and diplomatic peacemaking on a global level. The good news is that the focus of this Hare year will be on more exposure to the arts and culture, getting our financial house in order, cultivating intimate relationships, and building family and community.
I think they are missing the big picture for Metal Year rabbits. Checking Wikipedia, I see that there were plenty of wars and revolutions in Metal Rabbit years, going back a few hundred years. 1951 had the Korean war and the deployment of the Hydrogen Bomb.
We essentially have the same energetic struggle on the elemental level that we had in 2010 Year of Golden Male Tiger. Tiger and Rabbit are both wood creatures, both in a Metal year, which “self-cuts” its inner Wood. So the same tension is there, made a little softer because we are in a Yin-Female Metal instead of a Yang-Male Metal phase. And the Rabbit is pure Wood, with less fire than the Tiger. So it will be a little smoother on that count.
Industries that will likely flourish under these influences include finance, energy, especially alternative energy, entertainment, commodities like metals and agricultural products, mining, shipping, transportation, and hotels.
Industries that will continue to struggle include media, newspapers, magazines, forestry, and textiles. Environmental protection may have to defer to economic priorities. Because of the inward focus on the Rabbit, domestic agendas at home may supersede international concerns and undermine our habit of playing Big Brother internationally.
The single biggest danger from Rabbit “stay at home” tendencies is the possible rise of Protectionism by various governments. That is what prolonged the Great Depression for many years longer than was necessary.
Currency: paper money will continue to be cut by Metal. That means the dollar will suffer on its long slow path of decline.
Gold/ Metal dominance still bodes well for investors in Gold. But consider other metals as well: uranium, platinum are in a stealth expansion phase. Last year, Gold was one of the top performing sectors of the economy,it may cool a bit in a yin metal year. Metal years are about finding True Value, and that means something that cannot be debased by politicians. So all commodities fit that description of “real-ness”.
Property will stay the same or struggle to only slightly improve in value. In USA, north-eastern states should recover faster than others. Wood element businesses are still being cut by Metal: logging, home building and construction companies will all have a difficult year.
The banking industry, computer and chip companies, transportation and manufacturing plants with machinery, bio-tech medicine, acupuncture, surgerical business, nano-tech and nuclear, wind turbines, solar, LED lighting and micro electronics may improve as they are metal element businesses.
It is a problematic year for health, particularly for those with weakened immune or respiratory system. Many will suffer trouble with their lungs, intestinal system and skin rashes. Problems with air pollution and sandstorms, increased allergic reactions or asthma.
Metal years also bring an increased concern about justice and support for the underdog. Rabbits are noted for their compassion and their protecting the underdog. But expect unions and collective bargaining (wood = “we’”) to come under the chopping influence of Metal (= “me”). Since government unions and pensions are inflating the public debt, this cut back may gain momentum this year.
Hopping Happily into Year of the Female Golden Rabbit,
Michael Winn
“Who takes Heaven as his ancestor, Virtue as his home,
the Tao as his door, and who becomes change — is a
Sage.” — Chuang Tzu, Inner Chapters
“The Tao is very close, but everyone looks far away.
Life is very simple, but everyone seeks difficulty.”
– Taoist Sage, 200 B.C
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