An Opportunity to Recalibrate
… Together, We Go Gently In …
Kano Tsunenobu – Rabbit, Wave and Full Moon (Arthur M. Sackler Museum)
Fate is Destiny Untended
Chinese Astrology looks at the sequence of time to gain insight about our place in the orchestration of life. We are the cycles of time, and, as such, exploring time cycles is revelatory – it literally reveals something about our nature, about what is authentic and true of our experience. The gifts of astrology are precious insights into human existence that sprout as seeds in our awareness and blossom into a life lived in alignment with the whole.
We are moving through the threshold of a New Year in the Chinese calendar – the Year of the Yin Water Rabbit. The New Moon of January 22, 2023 ushers in a new cycle of time with celebrations around the globe.
Chinese New Year offers a clean slate. Traditionally, by the last Moon of the year all relationships are considered concluded, and all the negativity of the past year is forgotten. Grudges are forgiven, debts paid, and houses cleaned.
The New Year erupts in a celebration of what is good and new.
How we behave on New Year’s sets the tone for the whole year. Communities strengthen their relationships by visiting each other to share meals, money, and gifts – reweaving networks of social interconnectedness through participation, community, intimacy, and sharing. Mouthwatering dumplings burst like seeds of renewal bringing gifts of sweetness. People wear red for good luck’s sake and make offerings of incense and oranges to ancestors and guardians. Parades and fireworks fill the streets in an epic celebration that demands an excellent year.
Artist: Mo Fan
Understanding Rabbit Qi
Qi is rhythm. And what we are talking about as we look at the year of the Water Rabbit is a particular flavor of rhythm. What are the qualities of this rhythm? What is the energy of this cycle? What nutrients are available to everyone this year?
Qi is flow, and flow is transformation. Tiger Year liberated the flow of Qi from Ox conventionality to “anything goes.” Now Rabbit Qi offers the retrospection needed to once again look for something to hold as a standard. That retrospection, that turning of the attention from quantitative external reality to qualitative inner dimension recalibrates us to be in sync with our environment.
Poised between Tiger and Dragon years, Rabbit offers a welcomed respite. It is the in-breath between out-breaths. The qi immediately recedes. The unpredictable, striped Qi of the past year now goes down and in. Provided we follow the Qi down and into the rabbit-hole, we find gentleness, quiet, and peace. Whereas the Yang Water of last year felt like a tidal wave, the Yin Water Rabbit is more like a quiet pond, where friends can gather and relax. The year is characterized by stillness and reflection, but also socialability. The combination of Rabbit’s native inner element of Wood and this year’s outer element of Water creates a harmonious balance, leading to a smoother and more stable year. This subtler energy sets the foundation for the energetic and transformative energy of the upcoming Dragon year – when everything you could possibly imagine happens all at once.
The symbol of the Rabbit is the peach blossom, embodying the ideals of beauty, popularity, and romance. Tender, gentle, and transient, the shine of youth is upon us. The peach blossom appears during the second moon, when the first tender shoots emerge from the earth. Life and desire quicken with Spring. The Wood element of the Rabbit represents perennial growth and innocence, encouraging us to nurture and cultivate our own growth and potential. Rabbit’s hours are 5-7 a.m., when our perspective is fresh.
Rabbit Qi allows us to see each other with new eyes. This year we get to tend to our innocence as we tend to each other. Rabbit encourages all types of relationships, from romance and friendship to family and business. It is a magnificent year for alliances.
Cooperate by contributing your unique gift.
Rabbit and Moon
Rabbit On The Moon
Emotional, imaginative, and otherworldly, Rabbits are as magical as they are practical. In Chinese lore, they live on the Moon – a symbol of Yin energy, associated with femininity, intuition, and creativity. Water Rabbits have a strong ability to empathize with others. Their high degree of sensitivity gives them an intuitive edge to sense beyond the surface. We could say that intuition is a principal flavor of the year.
A Rabbit’s reality often includes more than just the physical world. Intuition is a type of intelligence that exists beyond the boundaries of reason. Its nonlinear process allows us to infer reality from separate and uncorrelated elements, creating an invisible design that has its own logic. It is the wisdom of synchronicity, tapping into the big picture through its parts. Rabbit Qi senses the trembling of the earth before the earthquake.
This year, we are wise to rely on intuitive understanding. Reading the situation in the moment takes precedence over long-term understanding. Remain present and sensitive to your experience.
Be responsive and flexible.
Rabbit Qi is skittish. It sticks to small-scale living for its own safety. The expectation of negativity becomes a form of intelligence – a nervous kind of intelligence. Vigilance is in the air – trust its wisdom.
Takagi Haruyama, 1850’s, Japan, Edo period, “Rabbit”
Out Of The Limelight
Rabbits love a strong lead. They enjoy empowered subordination, maintaining authority under leadership. They understand that true power is often underground. They live in burrows, and rely on discretion for safety. Therefore, people in secondary roles hold the power this year. Leaders interested in limelight will be out of sync and disappointed. Rabbit year appreciates community-minded leaders who work for the greater good. We are asked to reclaim our agency. If we have given our power to others, including “wise teachers,” it’s time to take it back. We learn best when we’re whole.
New leaders and ways of leading will emerge in Dragon Year, and now is the time to dream adept leadership into being.
Dismantle Disempowerment
The past years have landed many of us in a space of disempowerment. If we have lost confidence in the strength and capacity of our own conduct, the natural flow of this year helps reverse this trend.
Shatter the illusion of salvation – nothing is going to save you, nor are you going to save the world. Actually, stop trying to save the world. Trying to save the world breeds hopelessness, and hopelessness can really spiral out of control right now. You don’t have to save the world. Just do your best. Vote with your conduct. Spend the next months being as genuinely kind and gentle as you can be. How you act every day and what results from that is what is important.
Usagi Nihonga – Vintage Shikishi Art
Interbeing
What happens to others affects us because we are inseparably related. Thich Nhat Hanh coined the term Interbeing to reflect the profound togetherness that upholds life as we know it. “To be” always means to “inter-be.” Rabbit Qi leans into the ways that we depend on each other. Rabbits thrive in an inner circle of trusted friends, and succeed through collaboration.
Water Rabbits can make loyal and supportive partners, with a strong ability to empathize with their loved ones. They communicate well to maintain strong, healthy relationships. Good parents, partners, and friends, Rabbits crave connection. They love the security of physical touch and emotional intimacy. All this is in fashion this year.
But Rabbit qi moves quickly, and can change its mind without warning. “Might there be someone else out there better for me?” is a question that could trouble some relationships. Abrupt changes, including in romantic feelings, can occur. This year you are well advised to infuse your relationship with communication and care even if you are in a stable union. Ask questions, talk about things, give gifts, and care for them.
It’s a good year in general to appreciate others with gifts and affection. Express the continuation of friendship by sharing something that stays with your loved ones while you’re not there.
When Rabbit Qi’s innocence combines with poor boundaries, it tries to get others to do everything for them. Most people are happy to oblige because of Rabbit’s seductive charm, but this can breed resentment. Respect yourself as you enter into the collaboration process, and all goes well.
Have babies – they will be peacemakers. Mothering this year is extra revelatory. Whether biological or chosen, enjoy your family and recognize that enjoyment as universal. Delight in caretaking and domestic duties; experience how homemaking holds up the world.
Takeuchi Seiho 1864-1942
Find Your Comfort
The turning inwards of this year’s Qi will be expressed at the national level through a focus on domestic affairs. On an individual level, we naturally turn toward our domestic situation.
Think comfort and safety. How can you customize the circumstances you live in to make them more comfortable? What enhances your sense of safety? Home improvements are in. Great year for Feng Shui adjustments. If you don’t feel secure where you live, change your environment. Notice the difference that small modifications to your environment create.
Learn how to enjoy doing stuff closer in, rather than cultivating endless possibilities. “Endless” has gone haywire, causing us to lose our true appetites in the race for domination. Appreciate the situation you are in. Enjoy your family instead of a new car. Savor your lunch.
Keep it simple.
Gentle is the Recipe For Health
Rabbit’s porous boundaries could threaten our immunity this year. Illnesses caused by spirit possession are also more likely. We can support our immune systems by keeping warm in winter, staying out of the wind, and maintaining sensible hygiene habits throughout the year. Practices such as dry brushing and abhyanga (Ayurvedic oil self-massage) deliberately strengthen the body’s protective qi.
With the Rabbit’s in and down quality, we can expect opportunities for deep healing, but also a rise in chronic illness, especially as the year progresses. Address health concerns now so that they don’t become deeper and more complex. Minor infections can become critical quickly. The kidneys may be affected (water element) in addition to the liver and nervous system (wood element). Light stretching, rest, and journaling helps move liver qi and strengthen the kidneys. Start conserving energy early in the year when it’s most available (but most likely to be spent).
Regular, gentle healthcare works best.
Massage is a wonderful remedy in Rabbit year. Nourishing diets work better than “cleansing” ones (but if you must cleanse, do it in Spring). Cultivate your natural appetites. Be modest with your routines. Use caution and maintain your ordinary health, as next year we will need a strong foundation for the abundant energy of the Dragon.
Watch for pernicious Yin in Winter, when Rabbit can go Donnie Darko. Mental health concerns will be most likely in the cold season if you have spent your resources. The rich inner life of Rabbit has a downside when depleted. Prone to secrecy, suspicion, seduction, manipulation, and impulsivity, Rabbit Qi can also fuel drama.
November and December can thrust us into a paranoid, emotional phantasmagoria if we’re exhausted or isolated. Rely on your friends to pull you out and have a therapist on standby! Dedicate your days to the welfare of your community. Service makes the body uninhabitable by torment. Conversely, the abundance of Yin offers wonderful opportunities for deep recovery and spiritual practice.
Discover what relaxing means this year. Not the outwards relaxation of going on vacation and pursuing endless distractions, but the true relaxation of getting over yourself and your reactions and your projections.
Relax into your true being.
Image Credit: Jon Carling
Self-Reflection
The introspective nature of Rabbit Qi invites self-reflection practices. Self-reflection is the radical act of turning our attention backwards to the source of attention itself. What is my true experience of reality? What in me is aware of my thoughts? What in me is aware of my body? What in me is aware of awareness itself? Am I really as weak as I think? Am I really my thoughts? The time is ripe to stop believing the words inside your head and start exploring the ground of your being. Telescope backwards. Remember your immortality. This is the revelation of Daoist Alchemy practice.
This profound inward energy highlights sleep, dream, and spiritual practices, which come more easily this year. Fruition deepens from existing spiritual practices, and retreats bring realization. It’s a wonderful year to set up a simple ancestor altar where we casually include our loved ones in our daily experience. “I see you”, “I hear you”, and “I love you” can make a big difference to our dead.
Rabbit Qi supports healers and mediums. The spirit world knows it can get the job done this year. There is great potential to bring harmony, integration, and resolution to unsettled ancestors. When we are strong, this goes well for everyone. But this same receptive generosity can haunt us (spirit possession) when we’re depleted. Again, good habits and good friends help keep us in the clear.
Image credit: Jon Carling
Diplomacy and Adaptability
Water Rabbit year’s diplomacy creates the possibility for a more secure and stable environment in professional and political spheres. The peace-loving Rabbit navigates difficult situations with ease, finding solutions through adaptability, cooperation, and compromise.
In 1963, the last Water Rabbit year, Dr. Martin Luther King gave his “I Have a Dream” speech. Acts of togetherness large and small can disrupt dominant systems and affect positive change. It is less about fighting against and more about aggregate power. We will see more inclusion for trans people and other marginalized groups. The disabled community will receive more attention and resources due to the sheer number of people who have recently become chronically ill. In general, people will be pulling out of large, outdated power structures by creating shared resources on a sustainable scale.
This year focuses on societal structures and progressive thinking.
Rabbits loathe confrontation, but under duress, they can be absolutely brutal. This summer, when elemental friction depletes Rabbit, threatened “leaders” can take rash action against regular people. Small violent groups, coverups, and conspiracy theories can also run amok. There is also a chance of volcanic eruption.
Financial Stability
Financially savvy, Rabbits cultivate their own security through smart business decisions, financial planning, and good investments. Risk and speculation are out. Invest cautiously, and focus on conserving resources. While Rabbits are good with money, this year’s elements do not support economic growth. We may see a dip in the economy as the year progresses. Hire a financial planner and budget your money to promote security in leaner months.
Water Rabbits – Unknown, Edo Period
Creative (Artificial) Intelligence
The Rabbit’s creativity and capacity to network extends beyond socializing and schmoozing into technology. Our landscape shifts as AI merges with our imagination. Much like water, there is nothing that AI won’t touch. Unprecedented social, creative, and business opportunities arise. Breakthroughs concerning communication between particles across space and time may continue to unfold in the field of quantum mechanics. We will see increased infrastructure for electric cars and automated vehicles. Smart energy will become more decentralized, as communities begin to sustain themselves on micro-grids of diverse alternative energy sources.
Art and Emotion
This year’s water element brings heightened focus to emotions. Water Rabbits are known for their emotional intelligence. They are good at understanding their own emotions and being in tune with the feelings of others. To enhance your spiritual practice during this year, focus on managing your emotions through meditation and mindfulness. This will enable you to navigate the year with more stability.
Strongly aesthetic and creative, Water Rabbit also brings greater appreciation for beauty and art. Exploring creative outlets like writing, painting, music, and dance enlists the aesthetic, emotional energies available to us. Rabbit Qi moves us to discover the profound creativity that emerges from stillness. This form of communion moves the world.
Life itself becomes art.
Plan Your Year
Rabbit expresses its best qualities from February to May. Cooperation, inclusion, service, charm, and sensitivity create a stable foundation for the year. Use this time to plan ahead. Collaborate and renew your relationships now.
The latter half of the year is less formed, and depends largely on how we set it up. Establish good habits and plant seeds that will see you through the uneven months. Inhabiting gentleness is key. The world is offering and asking for a generous perspective. The extent to which we can receive is the extent to which we can be generous, including with ourselves. Let the love in!
Image Credit: Jon Carling
Auspices for the 12 Animals
What we make of Rabbit Year largely depends on our character. Generally speaking, the main flavor available at this year’s Qi banquet is intuition. How we feel about intuition says a lot about our ability to make use of the year.
We use the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac to help us relate more easily to the interactions of Yin, Yang, and the five elements, which describe the cyclical fluidity of time. The animal of our birth year gives us a generic glance of where we are, and how to harmonize with what’s available. But we are compound beings – our individual charts reveal a much more detailed picture of our position and the best way to align with the whole.
The following descriptions are helpful for very broad context and planning, but should be held lightly. Remember this is more about energy and appetite than individual experience. A new cycle is available… Do you take it on? Are you afraid of it? How can you best flow with the energy that is available? Anxiety about the year ahead is not a dynamic use of the auspice! Every year is good for something. An unproductive year can simply mean that coasting is the way to go.
Remember that we are the calendar itself. Immediate wisdom is available to us just by being still and letting life unfold through our actions without effort. Trust your dreams, intuitions, and gut feelings to see you through!
Rat:
It’s a good year to share your gifts, but conserve your resources. Be receptive to success without credit. Register others’ achievements as personal gains, and you have the opportunity to experience the selflessness of an adept. Put spiritual, social, and material resources in order. This harmonizes the living and the dead. Don’t put things off this year – stay positive and focused on your goals. Be honest and communicative in relationships. Cooperate with your doctors, and you will benefit from correct treatments and good health. Rat and Rabbit are a “cold” combination, so exercise to keep the heart pumping and create warmth. You will use your natural intelligence and resourcefulness to navigate any obstacles that may arise. Don’t expect too much in terms of progress.
Ox:
Rabbit year can bewilder Ox, who prefers practicality to imagination. Fortunately, it’s not all on you. Focus on timing and check your motivations. Make your moves only when friends and plans unite. Aggression and ambition will work against you – remember Qi is inwardly directed this year. Team up with capable people and ally yourself to the needs of others. Rabbit brings endless job opportunities, with focus on work rather than income. The combination of Ox and Rabbit have all the elements covered, except for fire, so keep the blood moving. Romance can work this year. Address minor health concerns so that they do not snowball into something big later – focus on self-care and maintaining balance. Listen to your intuitive friends.
Tiger:
Coast on the past year. Tiger makes a good leader for Rabbit Qi. The gentle, domestic quality of the year may bore you, but it can also help buffer your highs and lows. If you feel like you’re wandering in foreign territory, consider yourself a guest. Keep good manners and discretion, and all goes well. You’re traveling toward a more comfortable land. For now, lay low, and lead without limelight. Conserve your energetic and financial resources. Modesty brings success. Your warm, cuddly side works well this year, but focus on friendships rather than romance. Tiger and Rabbit have a lot of wood element in common, so support your liver and nervous system with deep rest, gentle exercise, and a sensible diet. Stick with foods that are easy to digest. Travel can work well.
Rabbit:
Rabbits are faced with a mirror this year. They are swimming in themselves, which has its ups and downs. You may experience prosperity and abundance that is hard to fathom, and impossible to maintain or take credit for. You are simply in sync and up for reward. Everything is possible. This does not mean the year will be easy. Managing success and its inevitable decline invites diligent practice. You are given an opportunity to re-evaluate what success really means and to examine its cost. Align your behaviors with insight. Emotions can run high, making rash decisions and self-sabotage more likely. Friendship and social activities keep you in balance. Celebrate and be generous! Cultivate the conditions that bring out your best. You may wish to reinvent yourself this year.
Dragon:
Gradual, instinctive progress works best, like migrating birds who stop many times along their journey. Dragons, who don’t understand the need to think small, will be challenged to adapt to this humble, punctuated journey. If you do, you will be rewarded. Rabbit year offers good opportunities for education, travel, and industry. Sharpen your transformation skills leading up to next year. Be constant and modest to secure your resources through uneven months. Focus on ordinary fulllment, and know when to withdraw. Friendship is in and romance is out. Although Dragons may frown upon these auspices, everything turns out well for you as usual. Wood Dragons (b. 1964) benefit from getting your ducks in a row, as your 60 year cycle is up next year.
Snake:
Work on regaining your energy this year. Intuition, discretion, and patience work in your favor. Snake’s fire (sun) nurtures Rabbit’s wood (vines), causing plants to grow and bear fruit. Snakes may also be more likely to miscalculate, forcing their way through difficulty if they have neglected circumstances leading up to the need for strong action. Striking at the wrong time can be costly. Curb your impulses, and be deliberate with decisions. Whenever possible, attend to details before they become unmanageable. Keep your head down in matters of romance. Focus on friends, networking, and career. Turn jealousy into inspiration. Give credit to others, and bask in collective success. Wood Snakes (b. 1965) can start getting their affairs in order in preparation for their 60-year cycle in 2025.
Horse:
Know your limits and practice constraint. Rabbit’s native element (yin wood) fuels Horses’ native fire. This feels great to horses and keeps them busy. Just don’t overdo it. Make progress in increments, and know when to stop. Abandon excessive ambitions. This will give you a savings account for the end of the year. There will always be more to do. Recognize conclusions when they come. Stick to familiar places and don’t rush your projects. It’s a good year to collect debts and returns on long investments. Focus on platonic relationships, and support the people who care about you. This is a good year to find balance between work and personal life.
Goat:
Superb year for Goats, who experience the fruition they are due. High on the mountain, you have a bird’s eye view of contemplative composure. It’s an excellent year to meditate and remain calm despite circumstances. You’re equipped to deal with drama. Stillness allows life to make constant adjustments through you, balancing the world. Remember that the scale of the year is small – focus on personal goals. Good health and social relationships sweeten the year. Plenty of career fulllment, too. Friendships eclipse romantic opportunities. Let things arise naturally. This form of grace is available. This is a good year for your artistic and creative abilities.
Monkey:
Rabbit year brings modest gains to Monkey. You are given good conditions for reflection, retreat, and recovery. And adventure! The inward kind, anyway. Allow for a cautious comeback! This year requires patience and adaptation. Monkeys are known for only one of these (adaptation). If you observe the year’s limitations, you will be even stronger and more capable in Dragon year (2024). It’s a wonderful time for education. Your creativity and good humor are well-received this year. Let go of pettiness and attention-seeking behaviors. Focus on what really matters to you, and if you don’t know, use this year to figure it out! Success will unfold in its own time. Once clarity resumes, return to normal monkey business!
Rooster:
Roosters are out of step, but learning the rules of the road will help! Your super-power of analysis is awkward this year. But you are equipped to succeed through collaboration, and fortunately, people show up to help. Team up with those who are in sync with the year. Roosters have money, career, and travel opportunities. Yin metal and Yin wood (the native elements of Rooster and Rabbit, respectively) have a tense relationship that can lead to conflict. Be generous with friends, and try to mind your business. Less pride = less pain. Focus on learning and discretion. Give gifts, and play a supporting role. Budget money without being stingy. Everything’s better with friends.
Dog:
Dogs have a good, energetic year. Spread the love! Be magnanimous to avoid disputes that happen when dogs go too alpha. Let grudges go, and make space for others to shine. If the situation lacks clarity, retreat and wait for fortune to change. A good year for career, romance, and friendship. Solidify relationships. The second half of the year may yield surprising changes, within and without. Staying relaxed helps Dogs navigate the unexpected, and delivers them to higher ground with renewed resources.
Pig:
Rabbit brings joy and ease to Pig, as you return to your best friend’s familiar energy. Allow initial setbacks to recalibrate you. Rethink your plans rather than pushing through. This is a positive pause, excellent for meditation. Sometimes fruition is stillness. Make use of the insights you have gathered lately. Be graceful with this year’s inevitable success. Generosity and celebration come naturally to you, and there will be plenty of time to party. Focus on enjoyment over career. Returns on investments may slow down, but you are rich in social currency. Use your many gifts.
May all beings have an auspicious Water Rabbit Year!
Hare and Dandelion – c.1820 Kubo Shunman
Traditional Taoist New Year Invocation:
I would like to start over.
I would like to be honest and say that I really don’t know why I do what I do.
If I am owed anything, may that debt be canceled.
If what is owed me is merit – I’m not interested.
If what is owed me is retribution – I’m not interested.
I’d just like to start over in the cycle of time.
I am recalibrating my relationship to the whole universe.
This article was written by Claudia Anfuso and Erin Langley.
Erin Langley is an acupuncturist, educator, and student of Chinese Polestar and Almanac Astrology. She is co-facilitating Liu Ming’s Daoist Dream Series starting in February, and is available for Ancestor Work, Dream Work, and Polestar Astrology readings. Her offerings can be found at Ancestral Acupuncture.
Claudia Anfuso is an astrologer, destiny advisor, teacher. She is inspired by explorations in meditation, Yoga, Tantra, Advaita Vedānta, Jyotiṣa (Vedic Astrology), Hasta Sāmudrika Śāstra (Indian Palmistry), Vāstu (the knowledge about architecture and design theories from ancient India), and Chinese Polestar Astrology. Claudia leads a consultation business and teaches on these various subjects worldwide.