Oneiros not Onerous

The Water Rabbit year of 2023 was a pretty big deal for those with a Sheep in their day pillar. The Wood Dragon of 2024 looks less eventful regarding romance. If you like where you landed, be ready to do the partnership maintenance. Expect a quieter year on the surface, but one filled with very important matters!

Even for a Sheep, sometime it pays to be aggressive. Be careful with that. This Wood Dragon year asks you to push yourself to get the money to facilitate your dreams, but there’s only so much time in the day to spend on work. Give priority to clear communication with the people you love.

Take advice from the Ox (a Nobleman this year) who values routine and understands that big things take time. Most of your problems can be solved through patience and communication. Consider that you might benefit by deviating from paternal family patterns, or maybe you could use a new guiding force. This year delivers some fresh yang energy coming into your life to support you. That could tend to slow other things down.

In the Wood Dragon year, Sheep who want to go faster will go alone, but that’s not the usual Sheep way is it? In 2024 you have heaven’s support when it comes to solving big scale problems so it’s probably better to have a team. You’re also designated to receive some grace from the Universe about time and timing. Perfect. By way of your enhanced organizational skills this year, you can solve future problems too. The Sheep is meant to dream things up and direct them.

Every year there are four 神煞 Shen Sha that people hope to receive. They are 太陽 Great Sun, 太陰 Great Moon, 福徳 Fortune Virtue and 龍德 Dragon Virtue. These blessings are distributed annually amongst the 12 Earthly Branches. Everyone gets a turn eventually.

In 2024, the Sheep is blessed with the energy of the Tai Yin or Moon. With the Great Yin the Sheep has a facility for making things happen when they focus their work behind the scenes. Focus on negotiations and making connections between people. Run everything while staying out of sight. Don’t think that no one knows about you. They absolutely do.

Sheep will find benefit in 2024 by teaming up with the Snake. The Snake will help you emphasize what is special about you. They can help with your public life, marketing and shaping your “brand”. The Snake can draw the Sheep into the long term future, and the energy that supports this alliance remains until winter of 2027. If you’re looking for more attention in general or some extra hours of work, team up with Snake now. They’ve got the data. You don’t have to like them but you may come to find that you do.

If your month pillar is Sheep and you aren’t already in a job where you help people with things they worry about, maybe it’s time to add that kind of service. Some of your friends, family, critics and opponents are busy with breakups or potential breakups. People have plenty of things to figure out. Follow your heart and not your past experiences if they need your help. That might still be a no. Maybe you’re learning who deserves your soft place to fall.

With Moon, it’s a good year for the Sheep to start a business either solo or in partnership. You might do both. As I mentioned earlier, this year you may be more effective if you stay behind the scenes.

Some Sheep may be more involved with governing agencies in 2024. I imagine this might have to do with setting up new businesses, social services, immigration or work contracts. Among the possible governing agencies are academic institutions and health care organizations.

In 2024 there are two Noblemen and guess what Sheep? You are one of them. You are meant to help people. This isn’t a new role for you I’m sure. The Ox, who is the other Nobleman, may not be as able to help as you are. It’s not that they don’t want to, it’s their luck this year. You can choose whether you want to take up the slack. This is a typical position for a Sheep to find themselves in – maybe you are cleaning up others’ messes again. If you don’t want that, don’t sign up for it. There will be other opportunities.

If Sheep is in your year, your parents may be especially helpful to you, depending on your elemental relationship with Earth. This Nobleman energy might be accidental, or due to family ties. Maybe a place to stay, access to medical care/insurance or other domestic assistance is offered. If Sheep is in the day, it’s definitely you who has received the assignment. You can always choose not to follow the energy of the year, but why not find ways to use it instead?

In 2023, the majority of people who were laid off recently are not necessarily Sheep, but in 2024 Sheep might represent that kind of group – a group that is worried there are too many in it. They may be concerned about all the other people who are in the same position they are in. Many people looking for work. Many are looking for a place to call home. Many people are ill. I think the Sheep is often the embodiment of the zeitgeist, meaning they symbolically (or otherwise) live out the range of experiences in the current social climate.

Here’s the solution: As usual it’s team up!

Use the good luck you do have. It’s enough to help yourself and others. Good things and bad things can happen at the same time. It’s the people and energy that we run into when we are doing good deeds that teach us who we can become, even if that takes a long time. The challenges of the year are meant to deepen your compassion, that is, to make you more yourself. I don’t say that unless I think it’s true.

One of the biggest challenges of the year for the Sheep will likely be psychological. There may be a trauma from your past that rises to the surface again. Should this happen to you, I want you to know that it’s not because you “didn’t do the work”, because even when you do the work this will still happen from time to time.

We cannot completely avoid the patterns of our fate but we can certainly learn that they don’t have to manifest the same way every time. If the Sheep is in your year pillar, this trauma may relate to your parents. Is it their trauma or theirs? Did they share it with you? In what way? What was handed down?

If the Sheep is in your day pillar, your trauma may have to do with your home life or most intimate relationships. If it’s in your month, it could involve a sibling, an ex or something at work. If the Sheep is in your hour, I imagine you might think about it a lot this year, or maybe it involves your children. Maybe both. That might be the most challenging one.

Even though we don’t choose to experience trauma, it is a hook and we are the only ones who can let ourselves off of it. You do need help for that. The horrible thing about trauma is it might put you in a position of resisting everything, including things that could help you. If you find yourself saying no too much, experiment with saying yes. You can always change your mind.

If you’d like to explore this topic more, Ba Zi offers a model for a fresh perspective on healing and what is possible. Elemental solutions can be applied. Be gentle with yourself. We need you Sheep!

Even though I know you’ll doubt me, I want to make sure I’m clear here at the end: your good luck in 2024 certainly outweighs the bad. Expect and seek magic.

The Sheep’s Calendar for the Wood Dragon Year

丙寅 Fire Tiger Month
February 4th-March 5th
Be mindful of who is empowering you and what they might expect in return.

丁卯 Fire Rabbit Month
March 5th-April 4th
More movement than usual, but that’s not travel.

戊辰 Earth Dragon Month
April 4th-May 5th
Overshadowed. You may find ways to profit from that this year.

己巳 Earth Snake Month
May 5th-June 5th
Find a new friend who has numbers and data and can use it to tell a story.

庚午 Metal Horse Month
June 5th-July 6th
It’s fun to see friends succeed with their daring deeds.

辛未 Metal Sheep Month
July 6th-August 7th
Counting things up. A peak of worries about money and success and what happened before. Don’t do that to yourself.

壬申 Water Monkey Month
August 7th-September 7th
An abrupt change. Have you run out of optimism?

癸酉 Water Rooster Month
September 7th-October 8th
A potential bonus or win that comes from your unique style. Be yourself.

甲戌 Wood Dog Month
October 8th-November 7th
The bullies may be out again. Think outside the box. You don’t have to respond in any set way.

乙亥 Wood Pig Month
November 7th-December 7th
Many a Sheep starts their year in November. What are you starting? Let someone else be in charge.

丙子 Fire Rat Month
December 7th-January 5th 2025
Find familiar friends in familiar places. Weather together.

丁丑 Fire Ox month
January 5th-February 3rd
As I said for the Horse, take some time off. If you’re working, plan for short hours.