The Rat in the Year of the Fire Snake 2026
Rat Pic by @elliespinelli
Who is a Rat?
Years: 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996, 2008.
Month*: December
Hour: 11:00 pm – 01:00 am
Day: you’ll need a Chinese Calendar for this.
* 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 Rat?
The Rat is yang water but with a hidden stem of yin Water, that is to say pure Water, the only Chinese Animal that is so pure. All Water on this planet, unless interfered with by outside forces, is connected with and on the same level as all other Water. Sea level at Zeebrugge is the same as sea level at Miami. If I spill my cup of tea here in Surrey and you spill yours in Taiwan, sooner or later they’ll mix. It may take aeons but they’ll mix. This powerful idea may clarify the connection between Water and communication. Water of course always goes downwards and cannot be compressed.
Someone said that we have two ears and one mouth for a good reason: that we should listen twice as much as we speak. The issues relating to Water are listening and speaking while keeping the ratios right. The Rat can easily miss this. Some of us are elected primarily to talk and the yang Water of the Rat makes them the talker of the Chinese Zodiac. An unbalanced or distressed Rat tends to clam up or run off at the mouth.
I’ve written elsewhere about the Rats in the House of Windsor. Interestingly both Prince Harry and his father King Charles, are Rats. Charles’ career has been one of juggling his often outspoken opinions with the privilege of his position. It’s likely that Harry’s lessons will be similar; wise observation of his father’s conundrum could be invaluable. Rats tend to blurt or have learned to be shtum. Harry’s crusade of course is against an unaccountable media.
The Rat is supreme in the realm of ideas, a planner, a plotter and a deep thinker. He thinks ahead, sometimes to the detriment of his awareness of the present. This makes him a good chess player but not so great at poker. He is apt to be too controlling for games that require openness – even to good fortune. That sort of uncertainty can be painful. Your average Rat wants the credit and to get that he has to be in control.
In conversation you may find that the mature Rat second guesses in a very distinctive way: typically he gets his correspondent to commit to a position before he states his; a very useful quality in a teacher but not everyone’s cup of tea in a collaborator. The Dragon and the Monkey, even the Ox, may find this reassuring but it drives the Horse and the Tiger wild and to some extent even the Dog.
Being big talkers and travellers, Rats are traditionally suited to work involving communication: sales, oratory and persuasion. In the collaboration with the Rabbit, Rooster and Horse that Derek Walters (himself a Rat) calls the Flowers of Love, the Rat is the talker, the chatter-up if you will, where the Rooster provides the glamour, the Horse the passion and the Rabbit the stamina. A Rat with the assistance of these other Animals is effortlessly successful and charismatic. Whichever may be missing at any given time indicates weaknesses. None of the others however is ever much at ease one-to-one in the company of the Rat.
An unbalanced Rat talks too much and listens selectively. A balanced one gets it exactly right; he is a fascinating talker and a skilled listener. But this wilful deafness can be a point of pride. Blessed with an orderly mind and excellent retention, a Rat can consider his ignorance of a subject a reflection upon the subject rather than upon himself. This sort of Rat needs to learn to value the convictions of others, especially if they are derived from premises he does not accept.
The Rat is a guardian, a watcher. Sometimes he is self-appointed and the unbalanced Rat has a particular blindness that leads him to believe that his opinion is an absolute. This is more accentuated and less well-informed in his partner the Ox in what some call the House of Creativity.
Despite the discrepancy in their apparent power, the Ox has the upper hand in their special relationship with the Rat. The Ox can be a particularly obdurate and dominating learner, sometimes drawing conclusions to which he is not entitled and sticking like a limpet to any conclusion he can justify. In these circumstances the Ox is not so much partner or indeed student of the Rat as tormentor. Perhaps surprisingly when Ox and Rat are together it is the Ox who calls the tunes. That the Ox rules the Rat and thus sets the agenda in Ox and Rat years is an important consideration.
A very conscious Rat can make good use of his blindness to the value of other people’s positions. She is likely to be able to explain things that baffle others and to derive laws from this gift. To have no explanation however is to open himself up to chaos. If he knows this about himself he can master even the most abstract discipline.
The Rat is versatile and multi-talented though not as notably so as the Pig of whom he is often jealous or the Dragon who can baffle him despite their mutual affinity. Rat’s Yang water can speak of profligacy with money. The Rat is a brilliant small businessman but often a poor tycoon. In the power triad with the Dragon and Monkey, the Rat may appear to overvalue the hands-on deftness of the Monkey because he finds the Monkey easier to control and may envy the Dragon his magic. Twin Rats Robert Plant and John Bonham and Monkey Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin (formed in the Monkey Year of 1968) may be a good example of this creative tension.
And it is this potential for envy that is the other big weakness of the Rat. He can’t admire what he can’t himself master. This can lead to him not getting credit for originality of mind. Consider Water Rat Alan Turing of Enigma fame.
The Rat is subject to the so-called Ingratitude Penalty. This means broadly that a Rabbit child may resent the upbringing the Rat parent gave them. Obviously enough it’s endemic in Rat and Rabbit Years and among those who have Rat and/or Rabbit in their Four Pillars. But since these things are metaphors (not just metaphors, everything is a metaphor on some level) it can show up as Parent/Child, Employer/Employee and of course as King/Subject. Technically this is Yang Water overwhelming Yin Wood and a cursory inspection of the events of 2023 would indicate that King Charles’ sons have been something of a headache to him while there has been more industrial unrest than any year perhaps since the last Rabbit of 2011 and if you stretched the dynamic to Empire/Colony it offers insight into the rash of Commonwealth countries seeking republic status and indeed Russia’s incursions into what it claims as an ungrateful offspring in Ukraine.
Finally the Rat can be a fickle partner but an attentive parent, albeit one who may have favourites. The awakened Rat is absolutely even-handed; that in itself is quite a gift.
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: Rat
Hot then wet. A demanding year. But remember that Fire is what is called choi to Water. For a man that is wife and/or success and money; to a woman just success. But hard won, I think.
In a Fire Horse year it is inevitable that on some level the Rat will be opposed. You are Yang Water and there is an awful lot of Yang Fire about. Add to that the fact that the San Sha or “Three Curses” are at your door and things do not on the face of it look rosy. But you are always articulate which is your saving grace. Major on that.
According to the T’ung Shu, the Chinese Almanac a plethora of disastrous Stars oppose you, implying lawsuits and injury, among them the Bai Hu or White Tiger whose speciality is disloyalty. And the orthodox advice is to pre-empt such misfortune with charitable works. You must take a lower profile and minimise risks even if that involves spending money. Expect emotional swings and tension in your one-to-one relationships. Which handled with truth and empathy may prove positive over time.
I’m not going to disagree with 2000 years of traditional interpretation but I will remind you that you are at the heart of this. If someone keeps driving into trees the insurance companies raise the premiums of the driver not the trees. Put another way you’re still in charge and that is far from all bad. I recommended falling back on eloquence but also…..watch your mouth. Don’t upset people by mistake. If you must do it, make it on purpose.
The clash of Water on Fire can take many forms but essentially it is expression being countered by caution. You are that caution. So in a year of tinderboxes you bring discomfort. You also bring a solution. You are the voice of reason and the solution is not to withdraw in the teeth of disagreement but to express reason in a palatable way. That’s what to work on. There is going to be an awful lot of hysteria this year and you are the antidote. So don’t expect to be welcome everywhere but do be assured that you have a great deal to give. You are the calm amid a series of storms. And of course at this stage in our planet’s eco-history, some such storms may actually be meteorological.
Now the outcome of a Fire/Water Clash which is what this is (Fire Horse meets the Water of Rat) depends upon proportion. A bucket of Water on a huge Fire is a waste of time, indeed if it’s a chemical fire it’ll make things worse as the Oxygen releases from the H2O. As it stands Rat vs Fire Horse is a bit like that. If however you seek out your allies Monkey and especially Dragon, with these two you create overwhelming Water. You bring calm, you bring caution, you bring rationality. It may not be comfortable but that’s quite possibly the key note of your year. I suggest that challenge is better than collapse in the face of the various difficulties that are traditionally associated with this pattern.
And as it happens the T’ung Shu allocates a Resolution Star to you. You are the peacemaker. It may be that you must first make peace at home. If so start now. You are going to be tested: at home if this is your Year Pillar; at work if you are a Month Rat and in your most intimate relationships if Rat is your Day Branch. So get ready.
Technically by the way Fire is choi or abundance to Water which is broadly why I am at odds with the tone of some of the more baleful Chinese interpretations. As I say you are at the heart of this. These are metaphors and it is the nature of metaphor that it can be interpreted many different ways. If you hide away during this fast-moving hysterical year, you may learn and gain little. If you step up, gently, reasonably, it could be the making of you and the overall lesson to pull from the T’ung Shu may be that you’re in not only for a time of great personal growth but for one of profit.
The Stars from which we all interpret are metaphors. And neither metaphors or stars are inherently bad. Or good actually.
So give yourself time to think, prepare and act. Stay cool and well hydrated as the forces of Fire and Water slug it out. Politically, ecologically and quite possibly militarily this is a year of big clashes. Make yours count.
Lesson: Step up.
Best Months: January, April, August
Worst Months: February, June, October
Theme: The only way is up.
Hexagram: 53 Jien Gradual Progress.
Health: = Wealth: 🙁/☺ Relationship: 🙁/☺
Where to find help: Ox, Monkey, Dragon.
Who should I be careful with: Horses, Sheep.
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 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