This is embarrassing to admit, but I was considering not publishing a forecast for 2021. Like everyone else, I feel a heavy sadness, grief and exhaustion. I thought of using that as an excuse, however, the only thing I won’t allow for myself this year is regression. I’ve been through a few Ox rodeos before, and this time I’m not going to give up on what I’m meant to do. When I feel better, I want to look back and think “I did it anyway”. One less regret.
To do what I do, I have to open up to what is, and what is possible or likely. What I want has to be put aside in those moments, but sometimes I can see a way to link up what is possible with what is wanted. That is timing. If you just keep going the right moment will arrive. I would like to offer you something fancy, something more, but what I can say for sure is progress is going to be slow. Yoke up. Everything depends on how much we can pull together.
The Four Pillars of 2021
Through the Looking Glass
| 辛 | 戊 | 戊 | 辛 |
| 酉 | 戌 | 子 | 丑 |
Have you read Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass lately? It was published in 1871, a Metal Sheep year. The political themes and references to chess make it especially timely right now. That and the part about the White Queen (!) assuming Alice wants to be her lady’s maid for the salary of
“Two pence a week, and jam every other day…The rule is, jam tomorrow and jam yesterday – but never jam today”
Through the looking glass things are not what they seem. Right and left are reversed, corridors are endlessly extended, views are invited into our rooms. In 2020 we arrived on the other side of the glass. What was once familiar is now unnerving. This is going to be another year of confusion and uncertainty but what we do know now is that distribution is far more important than acquisition. Let’s keep that in the front of our minds in 2021.
The symmetry of the Heavenly Stems above brings to mind a mirror image; an image of a self looking in a mirror. In the branches I see the possibility of devolution. If we don’t want our actions to be counterproductive in 2021, look in the mirror for the countermeasure. It’s you.
All that time we’ve spent looking at television and computer screens in 2020. All that energy spent to connect through those dark mirrors. It doesn’t satisfy. Is what we see on the screen real, surreal or completely fake? Hard to tell these days. We’re uncertain about each other’s values and motivations now. We have our reasons. I worry we might let that dominate our attention.
All in Good Time
For any serious student of Feng Shui, it’s important to learn about different time cycles and how they mesh up. If you look at the cycle of the last 12 years in terms of seasons, 2019-2021 is winter. We’re in the winter of a 12 year cycle. The Ox year is like January. Under the ground, fertility is burgeoning but up top it’s still cold and wet. I suspect we’ve not even begun to process our grief for the lives that have been lost in 2020.
The Metal Ox pillar looks like an aftermath; the hangover of 2020. Obviously that’s not a big revelation.
Etymologically 丑 (Chou or Ox) is a word that comes from a combination of 酉 (You or Rooster) and 鬼 (Gui or ghost/spirit). 丑 describes a “clown” – someone whose behavior is called ugly or shameful. This condition might be called an excess of yin forces – intoxication or unconsciousness is implied, maybe possession too. These are possible problems, not excuses to continue business as usual.
In the 辛丑 pillar, I see a symbol of those who have been sacrificed for the sake of another’s advancement. Why would you want to know this? Because it means now is the right time to change it. We can kick the ghost out of the machine.
In 2021 we’re going to see people going about great accomplishments, even the rehabilitation of others, from a position of disability or disadvantage. They’ve been doing it all along. Maybe now we can begin to see ageing and/or illness as a part of human experience rather than a stigma or sign of weakness.
Keeping ill health a secret is based on a fear of rejection, and rightly so given how we react to it. Can you imagine how 2020 would have been different if no one had felt the need to suppress the knowledge of the spread of Covid? It’s time to decriminalize our bodies’ natural processes.
五行 Wu Xing (5 Elements)
As I mentioned before, there’s still an excess of Water element for now.
With so much Earth in the BaZi and only one lonely hidden Fire element, life goes on but slowly. The feeling of restless waiting continues. Justice wants the information to be free but authority resists.
Earth is in charge of the year but it’s not strong or stable. It may appear to be but it’s not. There are many more secrets that are going to come out about our leaders’ behavior and actions in 2020.
The chart for 2021 is cold overall. There are 10,000 things that need to be done. There’s a grimness about that, but the possibility of all the small things that can be changed is more important. They will add up. The Ox invokes the possibility that we pull together in more ways than we thought would be possible. The stakes are high. We will need to remember to celebrate every success, no matter how small. This is a year to seek Fire. That’s joy. Don’t fake it, but stoke it where you find it. Seek Wood too.
I’m not saying that will be easy, especially since there’s no Wood element anywhere in the Four Pillars of the year which suggests several things you’ll want to remember:
The brakes are still off when it comes to what people will say and do. Especially in the context of acquiring power.
We can’t rely on those in authority to save us. The task is too big for any one entity.
A change of heart is what can unite us.
Wood is what the year yearns for. It’s the flexibility of kindness that will generate compassion and break down stubbornness. The mistakes we might make in 2021 have to do with failing to allow and make safe space for all. This is a challenge we can handle. Wood can take our anger and turn it into a grassroots movement. If you’re not in the right group, go find your people. There’s no shame in starting over.
If I’m right about traditional authorities being unreliable, that means communities and individuals can rely on their own authority to save them. As I said in last year’s forecast, if there’s a Deus Ex Machina it’s us.