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 Welcome
to the Chinese year of the Rooster. The
Chinese New Year commences each year in
February. Traditionally, using their Solar
calendar, they start the year on the 4th
February beginning a new zodiac animal
cycle. The New Moon day of 9th February
2005, however, is the official lunar New
Year celebration day when you see the
dragons out in the streets and the fireworks
ignited.
2004 was the year of the Wood Monkey and
what a year it was. Now in the cycle of
twelve animals comes the Rooster. The
Rooster in astrology is an honest, intelligent
and candid bird who is generally pretty
vivacious and enjoys a good party or trip
out around the place. Because of his brilliance
intelligence he is rated highly by people
and can rely on help from others. He can
be very generous and has a great gift
for friendship. He achieves his success
by being strong willed and needs to learn
to master his character which can be very
unstable at times. He can be preoccupied
and anxious if nothing goes to his liking
and can be a worrier about the slightest
details.
Rooster is quick to speak
and to give his opinions about many things.
So he can be a bit of a problem to himself
at times. He is also charming, charismatic
and colourful in his manner. He's usually
a lively character being spontaneous and
optimistic. He can be very organised and
neat as well and is often concerned with
prestige and can make a very good networker.
In a crisis he can be cool and calm.
On the down side he's a conceited and
gregarious type who won't stop giving
opinions. He can be selfish, unkind, sarcastic,
insensitive and lethal with that tongue.
Pride, egoism and boasting can be a bit
of an issue.
The story of how the Rooster came to be
one of the twelve Chinese animals is quite
revealing of character. When the 12 were
chosen by the Buddha the Rooster saw that
a very distinguished gathering was coming
together and wanted to know what to do
to get into it. The Horse told him that
in order to be chosen you had to use your
abilities to help others and mentioned
the rooster's voice. So the Rooster decided
to use his magnificent voice to make it
possible to help others. The other animals
later suggested to the Buddha that Rooster
had done a great job with his wake-up
calls, so the Buddha chose him as one
of the twelve.
Yearly
Elements
The 2005 year ahead is made up of the
same elements as 2004. The Chinese element
for the Monkey was Metal and so it is
for the Rooster. This is what's called
the Branch part of this year. The other
part of the year's element makeup is referred
to as the Stem and is Wood, same as in
2004. This year, however, the two elements
are more of a feminine or softer Metal
and Wood and are thus Yin in nature. The
Wood is sitting atop of the Metal which
is not the best relationship between the
two of them. There can be difficulty with
this as it has been in the Monkey year.
With the Yin nature of
both elements, a coming together process
may be more likely, rather that clashing
and antagonisms as we've seen in 2004.
The experience of pressure and tension
will mean there is a huge need for shifts
in the structures of the system within
the business and commercial world (ruled
by Metal). The Yin nature of the Wood
element on top is more that of the flower
or the wind. This can be the gentle breeze
of the wind stirring the flowers and young
trees pushing them to new growth. Sometimes
the wind picks up and blows a storm which
will happen from time to time in 2005.
The struggles over war
and terrorism will still be here, however
they will not be as antagonistic and there
will be bigger efforts made to change
things in the world without resorting
to more violence. The opportunity for
compromise in settling disputes is more
possible in 2005. Do not expect thought
that all will be roses. The Yin metal
of the Rooster is about smaller metal
items and among these you can count knives
and small detailed jewellery. This means
that there is a chance of people being
attacked using knives and small weapons.
In terms of the large picture this could
mean political assassinations or increased
petty crime involving weapons and knives
in 2005. It can also mean jewellery is
favoured this year and jewellers and jewellery
makers are therefore a good industry to
be in.
Business
Reforms
As Metal rules business, we are going
to see big changes in the business world
with reforms and new practices coming
into being in 2005. New management systems
as well as honesty and reform in business
will be important. Metal and Wood together
can also be about inventions and this
will be a year of inventions and technological
changes that will be very rapid (especially
in the second half of the year), which
may be daunting for people who are not
able to keep up with it all. The breakthroughs
in technology that come can be very exciting
and promise changes in agriculture, land
practises and the right treatment of the
environment. This could revolve around
contamination of air and water and new
ways of dealing with the consequences
of polluting industries.
As the Rooster is a great
talker then we will see the growth in
the talk show business and perhaps many,
many opinions in the media on how everything
ought to be done. More and more people
will be offering solutions to the world's
problems, but not all of these are going
to be useful or will even solve problems.
There will, however, be no shortage of
opinions. It will be an exciting year
for new ideas and much discussion.
The last Wood Rooster year in the world
was in 1945 when World War Two was just
finishing and the peace came into effect.
Note that great battles were fought in
the Pacific and in Europe to bring about
the end of that war. So the same scenarios
may apply in 2005. Also in 1945 atomic
bombs were first dropped on civilian populations
and the discovery of the Nazi extermination
camps came to world attention as the war
finished. Similar events and the exposure
of hidden facts about what has been suppressed
by governments may occur in 2005. Women
were first given the right to vote in
several European countries that year and
the level of scientific discoveries picked
up apace as a result of the technologies
developed during the war years.
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