Ox 2014

Who is an Ox?

Years: 1949, 1961, 1973, 1985, 1997, 2009.
Month*: January
Hour: 01:00 am -03:00 am
Day: ask us

* 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 an Ox?
The distinctive quality of the Ox is insistence, not persistence, because the Ox’s yin Earth makes for a certain fragility, more of a curtain than a rampart. The Ox is in many ways, the most sensitive year animal. This is often expressed in what looks like obstinacy but is better understood as puzzlement at being disagreed with. In discourse you may find that an Ox has firm principles that on examination are not principles at all but more like prejudices or assumptions. They are often nonetheless firm as well as correct for all that. As a rule, don’t expect flexibility of mind from an Ox; they know what they know and are often not keen to venture beyond. The detail that really distinguishes the Ox however, is that (s)he often craves power and often doesn’t notice either that the power has waned or that it is time to relinquish it. Famous Oxen include Margaret Thatcher, Napoleon Bonaparte. You get the picture?

The Ox’s gifts are frequently practical rather than intellectual. The intellectually gifted Ox is extraordinarily powerful. Because of her position between the Rat and the Tiger, the Ox can sometimes vacillate between a fierceness that does not suit her and a Rat-like charm that she may not be able to sustain.

With her allies the Snake and the Rooster, she forms a team which is of the metal element. That is to say that the alliance is linear, judgemental and competitive. Where the ground rules are clear, this is an unstoppable combination. These three make a great legal team with the Rooster charming the jury, the Snake unearthing information that no one else could find and the Ox sticking to the point. When the rules are unclear however, the metal alliance can falter. Then the Ox can become judgemental in a more covert sort of way, being less liable to argue than to judge silently. Without the Snake and the Rooster, the Ox is more barrack room lawyer than barrister.

Working in such a team, the metal, that is the qualities of logic, reason and competition, is less important than consistency. In dealing with the Ox, it is important to remember not only that the metal is there but also that the Ox may deny this fact even to herself.

The hour of the Ox (1am-3am) is the time that the worlds of spirit and flesh are closest. She has a deep spiritual agenda. The gifts of mediumship and divination are essentially Ox and Sheep gifts.

The Ox may be attached to ancestral dogma. Fundamentalism of all sorts – political and social as well as religious – come easily to her. She is not always good at questioning tradition or second-hand wisdom that has come down on good authority. She will often quote great men not because their words are wise but because they are great.

With the Dragon, Dog and Sheep, the Ox forms the Literary Alliance. Some call this confluence the Four Earths and think of it as negative. The fact is that it is a demanding combination. If the Dragon is missing for instance, many think of it as poisonous but to see this as an assembly of the vehicles of expression without anything new to say is probably more like it. The coincidence of these animals is a challenge to a strong ba zi and can be the ruin of a weak one.

Barack Obama may currently be the world’s most famous Ox and a good example. He actually has a Sheep in his month pillar. This makes for a home-loving and secure man. This is heightened by his day stem (the character that rules the day he was born) which has a special affinity both with the Ox and the Sheep. This like so many Oxen, is a man who loves his babies. But what about those of the rest of the world?

As I wrote concerning last year, the challenge to Obama is to make up for the Dog missing from his ba zi. Many Americans are concerned as to whether his legacy will amount to more than a series of moving speeches, dronekreig in Pakistan and the excesses of Prism and the NSA. The Dog stands for completion. The Ox makes mistakes like the rest of us but needs as they say, to stand for something or he and you will fall for anything. And as I said, to know when your power is on the rise and when on the wane.

The Ox is not that keen on the Rabbit who can help herself to the Ox’s fresh vegetables or the Tiger who somehow often manages to exploit her and you have a love-hate relationship with the irritatingly spontaneous and extrovert Horse to whom you can not help nonetheless being drawn. For the Ox, the Horse represents the perhaps unwelcome daylight upon your true intentions and ultimately your true value. 2014 is a big opportunity as well as a demanding one.

Ox in Wood Horse Year.

Stars include: tin yute Benefactor, sui sha Precarious.

Perhaps the most fortunate animal this year.

Is the Ox in your Year Pillar? If so (you were born in 1961, 1973, 1985, 1997) you are the go-to helper. If you were born in the Ox month (approx. 6th January to approx. 4th Feb) you may find yourself mentoring colleagues, siblings and exes. An Ox day birth suggests a deepening of man-woman relationship because you – and your partner – are truly mutually supportive. “I’m there for you,” will not be a platitude. Coming into the world at the witching hour of the Ox between one and three a.m., when the fabric between the worlds is at its thinnest, implies charismatic kids and a future in helping others out of trouble.

It is the nature of the Ox however not to notice when your influence is failing. Metal Ox Barack Obama may need to hear this: If you are to leave any sort of worthwhile legacy, now is the time. Closing Guantanamo, satisfactory completion of healthcare reform, peace in the Middle East, ethical foreign policy. They won’t happen if you don’t do them this year.

Albert Einstein said: ‘Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.’

This year you discover what it is you do. Genius is knowing this about yourself. Be rigorously truthful. If you’re a thinker, think; if you know you’re a doer, stop thinking and do.

As well as tin yute, the Ox location on the compass holds Dragon Virtue, the Star of Good Repute. This is the year in which you make your reputation. In which you excel. It is a year of learning, of networking, of banking the esteem that will see you through less turbo-charged years.

A weakness of the Ox however is that you can subscribe to principles that are not principles. The literal-minded Ox may make this year all about you. It isn’t. Study. Learn. Give. Make and rediscover friends. Mend fences. Open up. Be Aesop’s ant rather than Aesop’s grasshopper.

And help; open your doors to the unfortunate. Seek them out. Here’s a hint: your associate the Rat is in dire need. Heed the call. You won’t always hear or always be equipped to assist. This cyclical advantage is for this year. Use it well.

Health: possible light stomach issues.

Money: plenty.

Relationship: deepening.

Feng Shui: for guidance seek the West where the Moon sits this year.

Readers’ Digest Version: fill your boots.

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