The Monkey in the Year of the Fire Horse of 2026
Monkey Pic by @elliespinelli
Who is a Monkey?
Years: 1944, 1956, 1968, 1980, 1992, 2004, 2016.
Month*: August
Hour: 15.00-17.00
Day: you’ll need a Chinese Calendar.
* 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 Monkey?
The image of the Three Wise Monkeys, See No Evil, Hear No Evil, and Speak No Evil is a reasonable summary of the qualities of the yang Metal Monkey, a particularly quirky primate. This is typically someone who shrinks from deep involvement. In elemental terms, this often amounts to too much yang Metal. What is meant by yang Metal essentially is precision and hence competition. Often the Monkey is so competitive he dare not enter the race.
As well as competitive, the Monkey is typically charming, loveable, dextrous, logical, quick witted and exact. The balanced Monkey uses these qualities constructively and in the service of his fellow man. The unbalanced Monkey (with say an August birthday in the late afternoon) does not clean up behind himself. He is in short a monkey.
The Monkey is often the most acquisitive as well as the gentlest beast but he is above all, competitive. In the extreme this means warfare. In its milder forms it is the ruthless competition that involves the belief that another’s gain is our loss. This is a (painful) mistake. It’s what leads to steroid abuse in athletics and ballet dancing in the Premiership penalty box. A Water Monkey like Spurs’ Son Heung-Min may learn this lesson early; it’s what makes him focus on goals rather than adulation. Pretty much all Monkeys subscribe to this delusion unless they learn not to through hard experience.
As you’d expect, the Monkey’s pitfall is frivolity. If he can’t win he takes the Mickey. Their natural allies however are the more ponderous Rat and Dragon. This is a pretty heavy-duty grouping, perhaps the most powerful in the Chinese Zodiac. Dominant Rats and egotistical Dragons are not, as a rule a bundle of laughs; the Monkey however often is. And together these three get stuff done; so many big revolutions including those of ideas involve this team. Many years of revolution (1776, 1848, 1944, 1956, 1968 & many more) are Monkey years.
2016 of course, the Year of Trump, M.A.G.A. and Brexit, was a Fire Monkey. As was hapless short-lived British PM Theresa May (born 1956, sixty years earlier) who may well not have entirely taken on the life lessons of the Monkey.
Monkey for sure is Karen Armstrong author of a History of God, founder of the Charter for Compassion and arguably the most important thinker of the 21st Century. This is a Monkey who has learned to speak no evil while seeing much. If you want to understand forgiveness, the heart of all healing, read Armstrong.
The Monkey also tends to understand the mechanical: engines and systems; he is the grease Monkey. He often also understand maths, science and argument and so is suited very often to a career in engineering or the law, also accountancy. Unbalanced, he neglects all of the above. The Monkey month of August spans Leo and Virgo and to see him as a hybrid of Virgo control and Leo passion is not far from the truth.
When the Tiger and the Snake meet the Monkey there is trouble. The Monkey both co-operates with and fights the Snake. The presence of the Tiger pushes this competition over the edge. Keep these three apart. The Monkey must take care to mind her p’s and q’s every February (the month of the Tiger) and every May (the month of the Snake). Also a Tiger Day in the Monkey Month is a day to stay off the roads; both Animals are about assertion and travel and of opposing Elements (yang Wood & yang Metal) and it may be uncomfortably warm.
So that’s the Monkey: argumentative practical, mischievous and so competitive he can withdraw altogether. But you knew that already didn’t you?
2026, Hot, Hot, Hot
The outlook for the Year of the Fire Horse
Note: There are four (or five) Pillars in your ba zi, each with a different nuance. It is as unlikely that they are all ill-starred as it is that they are all blessed by any given year. Examine the portents for each and perhaps use that as an indication of how to respond.
2026 Animal by Animal: Monkey
The Yang Metal of the Monkey is prone to melt in the noonday sun during this year of extremes. The heat and hurry of the Horse may not comfort you; Monkey is typically quite analytical while the Fire of the Horse can encourage action without forethought. Sometimes this is a great idea. Sometimes not. But fact is that the Metal of the Monkey is choi, that is wealth and/or success this year. You will be instrumental in the success of others if not in your own.
The next two years, sometimes termed Crimson Horse and Blood Goat are pretty provocative; the twelve Zodiac Animals are broadly divided between those who relish the urgency, haste and passion of Fire and those who prefer its opposite. In the first category fall Rabbit, Tiger, Snake, Horse, Sheep and Dog each of whom may prefer cooler times but are used to heat and in such a year are probably best embracing it as huge gains may be made that way. The Animals who are naturally more Watery are Rat, Ox and Dragon. And Monkey. Pig and Rooster do not fall firmly into either group.
So pay attention: the discomfort of the Fire means that this is the best year for a while to change environment. Which could be to do with work or play, domestic, commercial, familial, matrimonial or other, dependent on whether your Monkey rules your day, your hour, your month or your year. But you know that already. These Stars do not dictate, they reflect. You are in charge.
This is a process of acceptance not rejection. You know that too. If you were born in the Monkey Year these changes may be comprehensive; if during a Monkey Month they will tend to be largely restricted to the work or educational environment; in the Day about your closest relationships; in the Hour your hopes and aspirations.
Some Chinese astrologers would say the further and more alien the fresh environment, the better. An opportunity to study abroad is one way to read this unusual agglomeration of Stars. Sometimes the contrary Monkey climbs the wrong ladder – insofar as there is a wrong and a right. There probably isn’t but there is surely an appropriate and an inappropriate; a nourishing and a withering.
Your best assistance will come from Dragons and Roosters. This will be literally astrologically true ie, look for such people. But it also means that the South East is a good direction to move and locate, also the West, and that April and September are the times you can expect to be clear enough to make good decisions. Neither North or South will tend to be of help.
If it’s your month that is a Monkey, the advice is to seek growth industries. The world of woo-woo is definitely one by the way.
If it’s your Day Animal, your most intimate relationships could be calling for examination. Watch for the location of the Wah Koi, Goo San or Qua Suk Stars, which speak of staleness.
If the Monkey rules your hour you may have outgrown your objectives.
Basic feng shui advice is to seek yellows, browns, whites and gold. These may have the effect of attracting respectively Dragons and Roosters.
Healthwise, avoid excess heat, maladies involving high temperature are a hazard for you this year. Increased wealth, one way or another follows a move South East relatively soon; later if you move in a Westerly direction.
This is a year of self-healing and discovery. It may be a solo trip but it promises much.
Lesson: Movement
Best Months: April, September
Worst Months: February.
Theme: It’s a small world after all.
Hexagram: 64, Wei Ji Not yet Complete.
Health: 🙁/= Wealth: ☺☺ Relationship: =/☺
Where to find help: Dragon, Rooster, Water.
Who should I be careful with: Tiger, Horse.
To hire me to draw up a full interpretation of your ba zi, that is (all) Four Pillars, email me at richardashworthfengshui@gmail.com. If you want to learn more about ba zi my book I Talk to the Animals is out now. Here’s a link to a chunk of text: https://amzn.eu/d/c6p72iK
This forecast is prepared by comparing your own Chinese year Animal with the Fire Horse of 2026. Your Year Animal is just one of the four that make up your Ba Zi or Four Pillars of Destiny. A fully-drafted ba zi can indicate possible futures and probable pasts as well as moments of decision. Knowing these moments can heal and prevent heartbreak as well make success and happiness more easily achievable. What is a ba zi?
© Richard Ashworth 2026