I Say What I Mean and I Mean What I Say
If you’re looking for brutal honesty consult a Pig.
With the Pig, if things don’t turn out the way you expected that means you probably didn’t listen to what they were saying. Actually this is true with everyone you meet. It’s just that the Pig is so much more transparent about it. The thing is, the Pig is often so honest as to be shocking. You might think they couldn’t possibly mean what they just said, but they did. This is part of the Pig’s self clash. 2019 is an Earth Pig year and therefore we can expect the year to have the nature of the pillar. We can all expect some self clash having to do with truth telling.
It has been said that the Pig suffers more than any other of the 12 Chinese Zodiac Animals. I would say that bit of folklore is rooted in the observation of seasons, with the understanding of the position of the Pig month in the annual cycle. In the cycle of the year, by the Pig month of November, harvest time has been over for some weeks at least.
Historically, the first experiences of a person born in the Pig month would have been scarcity of food, warmth, and safety. As a result of being born at the time of the year when supplies are rationed and the weather turns cold, the provision of domestic abundance becomes a priority for the Pig. They will expect you to be grateful for that.
The unique domesticity of the Pig is highly sensual and romantic. It can be alarmingly overbearing or lovely and loving. Some people would read Nigella Lawson as an Earth Pig year. She’s on the cusp.
The Pig is a shapeshifter who some would accuse of being a flake. The Pig sometimes goes too far with manipulation by means of provision and control – also with sensuality or the regulation of it. Maybe that’s why you sometimes see a Pig in the BaZi of a person who has some experience of orthodoxy.
The Pig is a kind, generous and loyal friend. A Pig brings growth, fertility and creativity to whatever is going on. The intellectually humble nature of the Pig leaves others unaware of their innate wisdom.
A Pig is often an artist or a musician. In relationship, a common Pig mistake is the one Prince makes with Vanity in Purple Rain; he has to learn that love is not given through control. Did you know Vanity was born in the Earth Pig year of 1959?
Like the character Prince plays in Purple Rain, even with all their self clash, the Pig is usually fun to be around. The magic of the Pig is that with Rabbit and Sheep, or Tiger, they can transform into Wood; with Rat and Ox they can take Earth and make it Water. There’s an excitement being with a Pig in the not knowing which way things will go; fear too. The Pig is nothing if not versatile; an autodidact, possibly a jack of all trades and master of none, but if so that’s only because the Pig won’t seek the help of a mentor or teacher.
Pig, Snake, Tiger and Monkey make up a group called Stations. With a name like that, as you would expect, they are quite dynamic. Each one wants to change things by starting an elemental or seasonal cycle. If you find one of those four branches in your BaZi or in your Big Fate you can expect changes, mainly having to do with travel and movement. The Pig and the Snake have a relationship called a clash. In the Pig year, this is important to know, especially if you have a Snake in your BaZi because it will give you some information as to where in your life the clash will happen.
When Pig and Snake clash usually it has to do with travel issues – a prod to movement or the blockage of it. There’s a contest of manipulation here. The Pig’s over-honesty is scorned by the Snake who sees truth as a currency to be hoarded or hidden. The Pig thinks the Snake is a straight-up gas lighter who needs to be stopped. I’d say the clash has to do with trust and showing the vulnerability of imperfection.
The Pig In You
Pig Year
If you’ve got a Pig in the year pillar of your BaZi it might be that you’ve got extra-hands-on parents who didn’t teach you how to cook, clean or do laundry. On the other hand they might have been gentle, religious or spiritually inclined and flexible.
Pig Month
A Pig in the month pillar speaks to your modus operandi – could be extreme. The month pillar has to do with your career or work, which you prefer to do solo. I know a person with a Pig in his BaZi who gives me the “fight eyes” when I offer to help out. He actually seems offended by it; like I’m insulting him.
Pig Day
A Pig in your day pillar means you and/or your partner have Pig qualities. You are the one who cuts flowers from your garden to set your perfect table for the four course meal you’ve just created from scratch without any help. The expertly selected wine is already decanted and the awesome playlist you created is on. As long as the guests just sit back and appreciate a good time will be had by all. If your guests know you they don’t offer to help because it will only annoy you.
Pig Hour
A Pig in your hour tells about your hidden aspirations for sensuality, domesticity and control. You might think that your excessive pleasure in being a provider is a secret, but you give away your truth by demanding recognition and appreciation from others. It’s not that you don’t deserve it but that your expectations are too high.
The Nature of the Earth Pig
With Yin Earth on top and Yin Water on the bottom, the overarching theme of the Earth Pig year is relationship.
One interpretation of the Earth Pig pillar would be that the Yin Earth stem wants to control the Water of the Pig branch but it can’t. The water is too strong; stronger than the Yin Earth, so it is like an undercurrent that erodes the Earth above. The power, or kun, of the Earth is eroded by its choi, or prize which is water. Water turns against the Earth. This means flooding, but also that authority crumbles due to the actions of the people. Institutions, corporations and governments will have to adapt.
Paradise Is Burning
I will always remember 2018 as the year Paradise burned to the ground. If this isn’t a final warning that we are about to be kicked out of Eden again then what will it take?
Climate change used to be a topic associated solely with hippies, tree huggers, Al Gore and bearded weirdos of science. For the past twenty-four years, however, we have had hard data that almost anyone could understand. Now, we don’t need science to help us understand because we have record high/low temperatures, wildfires, hurricanes, floods, droughts, volcanic eruptions and visibly shrinking polar ice caps. In these extremities we might wish for our Mother – the way she used to be.
One of the first scientific reports about global warming and climate change came from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 1995. The release of Gore’s documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” on May 24, 2006 and the IPCC’s fourth assessment report in 2007 created a peak of interest and extended awareness beyond the scientific community.
1995 was a Wood Pig year. 2007 was a Fire Pig year. 2019 will be an Earth Pig year. Do you see how the Pig keeps coming around to ask for help on the Earth’s behalf? The Pig is domestic so she has to do with our home; the Earth Pig more so because the home is our planet.
Elementally speaking, an analysis of the Earth Pig pillar reveals that Earth is the challenge and water is the prize. We have abused the privileges of living on our planet and now the Earth is challenging us to woo her back. We have contaminated our prize: bountiful oceans and cool, clean drinking water.
So, in 2019 we’ll see more focus on healing the planet and cleaning up our water supply. Look for new businesses opening to do just that. In Feng Shui water is about communication. The tainted state of our planet’s water reflects the differences we don’t seem able to bridge with words; our refusal to listen and consider alternative views. Not even common sense seems able to prevail. Cleaning up the water would bring us together. Clear communication roots out corruption.
The Personal and The Political
In terms of human relationships, the Earth Pig pillar says that men are losing control of women but are still in charge and capable of slowing our progress. How do we tell them that when we are in charge we will still care about their well being? They can feel the earth shifting under their power base. Women are eroding the partriarchy; it’s no longer a mountain as it seemed to be in 2018. In 2019 it’s a muddy plain. It’s easier for us to cross, but we risk getting stuck or going stagnant in our anger about the past.
When I was at Bryn Mawr the baby feminists (as freshmen were called) used to have long, unresolved arguments about whether the personal was political. Given the constant efforts of men to regulate our bodies we should have already known. The personal is political. #Metoo is another form of climate change.
It’s been a long journey to get here and like new mothers, many of us feel exhausted. But that same magic we’ve always used to make something out of nothing will win the day. We will find feminine ways to wield political power. We’re going to get more of it if we’re willing to take it.
The Earth Pig is also known as The Monastic Pig
Hopefully more revolutionary and loving than Vatican II in 1959 (the last Earth Pig year), some kind of religious or spiritual reform on a big scale is coming in 2019.
Organized religions have, for the most part, become corporations where the display of wealth is offered to the shareholders as a compensation for suppressing certain human tendencies. For example, there are rules about who you are allowed to love and how you are allowed to do it. The monastic life of physical denial proscribed for religious officials wasn’t meant to be permanent. It was intended as a tool to establish a connection with God but in going too far it led to the criminalization of women and sexuality. The sensuality of wealth, power, material goods, and rich food and wine were offered to clergy as substitutes for the experience of intimacy and family. Are we clear on the corrupting results of that now?
Perhaps by allowing religious and spiritual leaders to be let down from the pedestal a space will be made for not just accepting, but welcoming and loving every and any human: all genders, all sexual preferences, all belief systems, all races.
What to Do
In terms of Feng Shui, it’s often a good idea to follow the energy of the year. That said, there are two things I recommend in the Pig year.
Be Humble
The humble nature of the Pig has arrived to remind us of the value of humility. Humility is an acknowledgement from within yourself that everyone else is just as worthy of clean water, food, shelter, safety and love as you are. Maybe our Mother Earth is trying to save us by bringing this lesson home – all we ever really needed is what she had already given us. That’s a Mother’s mission.
Ask for Help; Be a Helper
Look for those who need help. Ask for help if you need it. The self clash of the Pig sometimes manifests as a failure to seek out much needed support. Offer it even if you think it will be rejected. It shows that you care. That could save us too.