Being Scheherazade

The Water Tiger year brings the Snake a wealth of ideas as well as opportunities to study or get new training. Snakes who can maintain a healthy perspective in 2022 can play the role of researcher and/or consultant. Since your reputation will be up for examination, you have the opportunity to increase it. This is a year for study and learning and your capacity for that kind of achievement will be higher than usual. What might be more challenging for the Snake in the Tiger year is managing stress and expectations. 2022 may feel quite crowded.

Since you’re the Snake, I know you will pay more attention to me if I acknowledge that yes, there is danger this year and there will probably be losses. I don’t want you to let yourself go through any difficulties just to prove you are correct. If you’re keeping up with current events you already know what the main source of your stress might be, but the Tiger makes you nervous that there may be some other trouble brewing.

Throughout the year you’ll want to remember that the energy of the Tiger gets in your head. That may tend to make any problems seem bigger or more threatening than they actually are. I’m telling you this now in the hope that it can prevent some of the insomnia, or even illness, you might experience in a Tiger year. Our bodies are not separate from our minds. Because this is true, any dis ease can potentially manifest as disease.

When it comes to being human, here’s the yin and yang of illness:
Everything is psychosomatic. Nothing is psychosomatic.

Avoid diagnosing yourself. Try to avoid environments where there is lots of air pollution or smoke this year.

With your best friend the Monkey as the year breaker, loneliness might be a problem for Snakes, especially those who are traveling or working jobs away from family. If that’s got you seeking emotional or physical intimacy, this year you’ll want to double check your potential lover’s “marital” status. They may already have a partner. They could be going through some serious conflict. Get to know them before rushing in.

You have a heightened luck with people skills so use it. It’s not your year to start something new, but you can help others with that if you want to.

The Snake has Moon (太陰) on their side which means whatever the problem is, you can put things in order. While this energy peaks in May, if there’s any point in the year where you don’t buy that, I challenge you to look at the facts and evidence again. When I think of Tai Yin and Snake together, Scheherazade comes to mind. If you think you need to protect yourself through some gentle manipulation of perspective and facts, remember to stay beyond reproach with your personal story. Rely on your honesty and perseverance if you need saving.

The strongest elements this year are Wood and Fire. Wood is your resource and Fire is your season but your hidden Metal is at the heart of the Snake branch. When it comes to the Metal element, the Snake is quite flexible. When it comes to Wood, a Snake might harden up, which makes a Tiger year the right time to soften up. Cultivate your flexibility and versatility. The flexibility of Metal gathers more data; the flexibility of Wood aspires to go beyond reason. What’s a Snake to do? Ideally, both of these things.

As a Snake, you’re not always forthcoming about your own concerns. Perhaps you prefer to hear others out instead, but if the year gives you anxiety, talk about it. Remember you have Four Pillars to rely on. You’ve got to use what you’ve got to choose what you want. Leverage what you can do even if it’s not your preferred application of your skills. Look to the position of the Snake in your BaZi for more nuance.

The Tiger might see the Snake as fickle because they know you are selective about what information you share. The Tiger’s secret friend Pig hates the Snake and the Snake’s secret friend the Monkey hates the Tiger. Because these four signs relate to travel and movement, when they clash it often has to do with mobility or transportation. When there’s so much movement, there’s more potential for accidents. Slow down.

Movement and moving house might feel like the solution to what’s ailing you, but some Snakes may find there is more travel than they like. Other Snakes may find themselves fixed in place. The months to be careful or even avoid travel are February, August, and May. November may be the time you want to move the most. This might be your best chance to do it if you’ve done plenty of planning and preparation.

When the Tiger, Monkey and Snake meet in a Ba Zi of a person or a year, it’s called the Fire Penalty. What makes the Fire Penalty so difficult is that it embodies both physical and psychological clashes. One aspect of the Fire Penalty is that the Snake, Tiger and Monkey could be accident prone.

Sometimes the Fire Penalty manifests as people passing the buck of responsibility, often by way of blame or accusation. Each party fears taking on a challenge (a hit or injury?) and in order to avoid being hurt, tries to pass it on aggressively to someone else. Generally speaking, the Tiger finds the Snake baffling and uncooperative. The Snake is usually able to avoid the Tiger’s attention when they want to, but this year you may be identified as a potential recipient of the buck.

In the first half of the year, focus on helping people. Make it your priority. That may require what feels like humbling yourself. It isn’t. Let this energy wake you up to your vocation if you’re not already there. Learn this new model of leadership. We need to have as many leaders as possible this year because we’ve got a lot of cleaning up to do. Who could be better at making plans to support those with long Covid than a Snake?

If your day or year pillar is Water Snake, get advice from others rather than trying to figure it all out on your own, especially as concerns business transactions and potential scams. If you were born in 1953, I’m speaking to you. Water Snake may have a susceptibility to robbery. If you have a Water Snake pillar and are a yin Fire day master, yin Earth day master, Yang Metal day master, or Yang Earth day master, take precautions in May when this potential energy is the strongest. You might even go so far as to make no major expenditures that month.

This is the year to learn the power of truth and how to accept it from others because in February, March and August you may feel certain you are right about your fears. But do you really want to be right? The power of suggestion is so strong that we need to be careful of whose opinions we are accepting, even our own. That is to say, there’s a graceful way out of any situation without you getting ill or injured. Let the story unfold.

Summary: 1001 Nights

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. The Pig’s humility, versatility and flexibility is the solution to the Fire Penalty. Be cool.

February: Encapsulates the year. A lesson learned goes a long way.
March: Get advice from someone charming who’s been off the radar.
May: Take some time off for building health. No big spending.
August: Potential romantic alliance. Untruths are deal breakers.
September: Check facts and data.
November: Go home for the winter.