America traditionally bids farewell to the Horse month of June in a haze of rockets’ red glare, cordite and insomnia. This year we significantly magnified Independence Day’s carbon footprint thanks to you know who. Many people mentioned recently that they can’t tell the difference between the noise of the gunshots and the fireworks. I thought it odd that most of them didn’t seem bothered by that. It’s funny the things you can learn to live with without even really thinking about it.

Now we’re in the Sheep month and themes of 2015 are piling up like…Earth I guess. Every day we become more aware of the attacked and oppressed while bullies posture as benevolent victims who are punished for their good deeds. They know that even an empty threat could be enough to terrorize a person into hiding. Bullies rely on that. We uppity and arrogant women will keep speaking up and doing our thing. Bullies can rely on that too.

Oxen are hard at work and coming out of the woodwork into public presence. A Sheep month clashes the Ox but who’s to say that’s a negative? Ask Megan Rapinoe, a 1985 Earth Ox. The Ox can learn from the Sheep’s sunny nature while the Sheep gains from the common sense model of the Ox. I have a client who shares Megan’s birthday (except hour) and she’s been on a sweet run of luck since 2017. You are fortunate if you have an Ox handy for the next couple of years. Is there one in your BaZi? The Ox is coming to teach us how the yin principle handles power. The Sheep will have an important role as well. Mercy and grace are part of the plan.

In Seattle, June is usually rainy and dark so we live as if summer begins on the 4th of July. Even in July, however, we are used to wearing sweaters on gloomy mornings. The cloud cover burns off late in the Horse hour or early in the Sheep hour. You can actually tell the approximate time using these and other environmental cues. When Monkey hour is imminent, in the summer the air starts moving between the mountains and the sea and the wind chimes sound.

The Sheep month is usually the driest but not this year. There’s already been an unusual amount of rain this July, in fact, it’s raining as I write this. The current weather pattern we are in is something like November – that’s the Pig month. Who’s in charge here in the northwest right now? Oink! Perhaps the watery nature of the Pig is protecting us from the wildfires.

In other news, this month I’ve been practicing my Qi Men Dun Jia by asking about the facing direction of my house. The results were kind of spooky, incredibly revealing, and even emotional. I’ve also been studying earthquake patterns in the Pacific Northwest. Don’t worry, you can keep reading. I’m not about to predict “the big one”.

Feng Shui masters often refer to the earth branches of Dog and Dragon as portents of earthquakes, but the Sheep and Ox are earth branches too. That’s important to consider in this Pig year. Don’t underestimate the yin side.

There’s a way to look at the U.S. map using the 12 animal branches that Richard Ashworth demonstrated in his annual forecast day last December. It’s fascinating – especially in the context of recent earthquakes. Just to keep it brief, I’ll say that my opinion is that the Tiger branch has an important role in the geological life of the entire West Coast and the Pacific Rim. A Tiger can move earth, especially in a Pig year. A Tiger is a station – it has to do with movement and starting things. Elementally, Wood is constantly growing therefore constantly in motion.

If you live on the West Coast of the United States that kind of qi changes the way you think; things don’t seem meant to last forever but we are big on progression and reinvention. Our ideas of commitment are unorthodox. The Earth is young here.

The geological features are a big deal, but the influence of the Moon must be considered as well. Yesterday we had a partial lunar eclipse, full Moon, a Wood Tiger day and another earthquake in California. Coincidentally (?) the auxiliary star called Moon is located in the Tiger this year too. I don’t like to get carried away with these things but there they are. That’s divination.

I’ve experienced three earthquakes that I can remember. The most recent one was early morning July 12: Sheep month, Dog day in the Ox hour. These three signs together make up the Bullying Punishment. You may remember me going on about that all of last year. The morning after the quake, there was an unusual impression of deep silence; a big tension release. I hadn’t realized that for days I had been experiencing something like constant noise until it was gone. It shook something loose for me in a helpful yet uncomfortable way.

I was off by one day in predicting the July 12 earthquake. I should have paid more attention to those Feng Shui masters! The epicenter was N/NE of me. I did get that right.

In the last Earth Pig year of 1959, in Washington state, there were earthquakes in January (Ox month), July (Sheep month) and August (Monkey month). Nothing devastating. We seem to be following that same pattern here in Washington State this year. If you’re interested in this sort of thing, ask me about it in September when I’ll have more data.

N.B. The Sheep month this year started on July 8 and ends on August 8. The Chinese calendar months are not the same as the Gregorian calendar months.