Happy Lunar New Year!
What makes the Lunar New Year different from the Western New Year? The Lunar New Year is a Chinese holiday based on a lunisolar calendar. The lunisolar calendar is based on astronomical observations or the sun’s placement and the moon’s phases, as opposed to the Gregorian calendar. The Chinese primarily use the Gregorian calendar, but they still refer to the lunisolar calendar for special holidays.
This year the date falls on January 22nd, 2023. Unlike Western astrology, which cycles through 12 zodiac signs within a year, Eastern astrology dedicates one Zodiac animal to a year. The Chinese system is further specialized into a stem branch system, working with the yin and yang (female and male) principle of each of the five elements: wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. On January 22nd, we begin the Yin Water Rabbit cycle, also known as “the Year of the Black Rabbit.” The black rabbit represents sensitivity, intuition, and a sense of inner peace.
Some say the Lunar New Year is a winter solstice celebration, meant to chase away the darkness with fireworks, lanterns, and candles. According to a legend dating back thousands of years, a terrible beast called Nian was believed to feast on human flesh on New Year’s Day. In addition to fire, he feared the color red and loud noises. Fireworks and red paper decorations were used to scare him away.
Ten days before the Lunar New Year, families clean their homes to allow good luck to enter. Once the Lunar New Year begins, festivities continue for two weeks. For those of us who do not celebrate the holiday, perhaps we can still take inspiration from this special occasion and clean our homes. This will chase out negative and stagnant energy, and allow positive energy and good fortune to enter. The Lunar New Year is also our second chance to get a start on the new year. Perhaps we burned ourselves out by going too hard on our new year goal. Is there a way we can slow the process down, while still honoring our long term goals?
Lunar New Year Reading
A Note: As a Western tarot reader, I have chosen to read with the Starman Tarot Deck, in honor of the recent anniversary of David Bowie’s birth and death. For an authentic Chinese Lunar New Year reading, I’d highly recommend looking into getting an I Ching reading.
The Wheel (reversed)
Song: Changes - David Bowie
The Wheel appears to remind us that all is in a state of ebb and flow. All things are an expression of universe consciousness; it is only the form that changes. This includes the cycle of life, death, and rebirth. It also represents our personality cycling through various facets and personas–all the things that we imagine ourselves to be on our road to self discovery. We cycle through these different representations of ourselves not just in the present but also across time—who we once were, who we might have been and who we will become. We see ourselves and our lives going through a series of evolutions and changes–but deep down there is an unchanging, eternal center of being. We struggle when we try to control, instead of meeting the present with no judgment, nowhere to be, and nothing to do. We can consider ourselves as the character on a stage, subject to a play for which we do not have the script; or we can shift perspectives to the stage in which the play takes place.
The Wheel also reminds us not to be overly attached to the outcome of our fortune. That which seems like a wonderful opportunity, for example a new job or house, may not turn out to be as amazing as we thought it would. Contrary wise, an illness that might seem unfortunate could lead to a revelation about life or a remarkable dream that we can use as the foundation of our next big creative project.
In a reversed position, the Wheel is asking us to slow down and put any new projects on hold. We need to practice introspection and look at our life patterns, which might get us blocked or caught in another cycle that we could avoid. Is our next project truly deserving of all our efforts, passions, and life force? Or will we end up back where we started, as a more burned out version of ourselves? Sometimes we must accept the inevitable and ride the wave. Sometimes the only way out is through.
Remember too that there is value in the yin (female) principle; stillness, introspection, receptive energy. All too often in a Western society we are taught in terms of opposing polarities and binaries; that light is preferable to dark, masculine to feminine, etc. But the spirit of the Wheel is best understood with an Eastern lens. Yin and Yang are both complementary and necessary components of life. One cannot exist without the other.