Reality Doesn’t Bite

In the Water Tiger year the Sheep can combine with the Tiger’s energy to grow their agency. Take on the fierce and independent nature of the Tiger and let it make you stronger. Let the past be the past. Consider letting go of old ideas about what it means to be part of the collective. This year you don’t have to be an insider to be important. Put your loyalty where it is deserved and reciprocated if you want change in 2022. Be your own counselor.

Learn how to find companionship where it is genuinely offered. It probably won’t be in the VIP section, but that is no longer a safe place to be anyway. This idea could be disappointing if you spent a lot of time trying to get in. Give yourself some time and you’ll find it liberating instead. Good news! What you want is not going to be found in a roped off area. In fact, you might already have it.

While the Sheep may be frightened or feel pushed by the Tiger, the elemental relationship of the two strengthens the Sheep and transforms the Tiger’s movement to stillness. A Sheep that knows this can take charge of the Tiger. Elementally speaking, the Sheep is the yin version of the Tiger. The polarities and proportions of their hidden elements are different, but they consist of the same three: Wood Fire and Earth.

As is the case with Tiger and Ox, the potential combination between Tiger and Sheep levels the playing field. It allows for new alliances and new definitions of power. It is described by Master Lily Chung as having “no caring and no leader, no authority, no dedication”. If that’s the situation, then in 2022 anyone can be a leader or an authority, probably by means of dedication. If that sounds scary to you, is it because you are afraid to lead? Do you have the dedication? Get off the bench and start setting examples. Start small if that feels safer.

Like the Tiger, you have the potential to be an insider this year. Take some time to think about what you want that to mean beyond the warm rush of inclusion. Don’t join to avoid being alone. Join only if it’s mutual. If you’re looking for a closer attachment or some kind of excitement, stay close to your secret friend the Horse. You understand each other because each of you is interested in getting close to power, but not so much in doing the heavy lifting. The Horse uses seduction, while the Sheep’s method is alliance. If you want new results, try new things.

In the beginning of the year, the Sheep may find themselves employed as a staunch supporter of the Tiger as they strive to continue to be part of what they thought of as their community. As we get into the last half of the year, the Sheep may find that ultimately the Tiger energy is not what makes them feel safe. This is why where you choose to give your support or not matters quite a bit in 2022, but when it comes to relationships in general, you may not be “feeling it”. Keep asking yourself if you are in the right place. Is it possible for your expectations to be met as you envision?

The Sheep’s fantasies have a potency that sometimes blinds them to the delight of what they actually have and experience. Sometimes they prevent the Sheep from seeing that what is actually being offered is something they would enjoy, or that it isn’t. If this is true for you, how will reality be anything but disappointing? Step back for a moment and take a second look. Maybe you’re in the right place after all.

The Wood of the Tiger empowers the Sheep, making it a good year for you to get to know who you are outside of your collective. It’s not that you don’t want to be part of the group, it’s that you might realize there’s not much about it that makes you feel forever enfolded and safe this year. If that feeling doesn’t make you give up, you’re about to take on more agency. We are never finished with growing up.

The year will tend to draw the Sheep to consider the role your parents have played in your current state of affairs. If you have Sheep children, you may be on the receiving end of the examination. This situation could generate some healthy and possibly much needed exploration regarding your role in group settings – who are you? The loyal one? The helpful one? The optimistic one? The falsely gullible one? Are you committed to being defined by the group you’re in? What about your definition?

The big question for the Sheep this year is: Who do you want to be for yourself? If you’re looking for more peace and love, then looking to apportion blame regarding why you don’t feel it now is a trap. It’s a dead end. If forgiveness is required, then give it and be free. The feelings you are working with this year may have their roots in family roles that play out as a result of decisions made, usually around a hurtful event in the past. We make a decision, that makes a pattern, and so we continue unless we’re interrupted.

If you want to break a pattern, expose yourself to the perspective of an outsider this year. Perhaps this will give you a clearer vision of what those decisions were that you made so long ago. Maybe you have never looked back. We all have unexamined family baggage, and yours will tend to front and center on family or parents in 2022.

This baggage might consist of feelings about who raised you, or who chose not to. What broke your trust when you gave your best? Was your love not enough to make someone love you the way you wanted to be loved? Who was it that “couldn’t be there” when you absolutely thought they should have? Maybe when that happened, you were too young to say something about it, but now that you’re not, it seems the statute of limitations has expired. You can’t change the past, but you can revise your story of the present.

Your current feeling of disconnect will spill over into other relationships too if you allow it. If that’s not what you want, examine your expectations about bonding and attachment and you may find miracles of intimacy are possible. Don’t forget to ask yourself if it’s you that you don’t trust. Is it you that hasn’t taken care of you? In short, what is your responsibility in the solution?

In 2022 you might feel abandoned by those you’ve tried to please and nurture, especially if you gave them support when they were down. You might be hurt because you feel they didn’t do the same for you when you needed them last year. Remember that our mutual support of each other has been inconsistent for reasons that go beyond the personal. You say you don’t want to be transactional but it’s hard to avoid because we all have needs and we’ve gotten into bad habits with our expectations of each other. I know you just want to be included. I want that for you too. See the support and love you have, rather than the support and love you don’t have. It’s there.

The Sheep is a Nobleman this year, regardless of whatever else is going on. If you want to counsel others, go ahead. This is one way of healing. Many a Sheep might act as a therapist, whether that’s in a formal or informal capacity, because we all tend to teach what we want to learn.

Bring back your light. Soften your eyes. The warmth is there, and you can get close to it if you want to. There is peace and love for you in this world if you choose to accept it.

Summary: Reality Doesn’t Bite

Amulet: Pig
Rather than thinking of an amulet as something to use, or something to protect you, cultivate the idea of a partnership with the energy of the Pig. Know that you can grow and change your shape and alliances as you wish. You’re strong enough to go it alone if needed.

February: Promising alliances with power. Expectations vs Reality
March: Challenge and solution arrive together for the flexible. Could involve money.
June: Peak support and spontaneity, but partner may be off the rails.
July: Potentially lonely. Make effort to strengthen the bonds that are important to you.
October: A mutual rejection clears the way for peace and love.
November: Rabbit year comes in early for you, heralding new alliances.