2015 - Year of the Chinese Wood [Green] Goat 羊 may also be referred to as Year of the Sheep or Year of the Ram. Each animal in the Chinese Zodiac is governed by the five elements: Metal Water Wood Fire Earth. The element of fire governs the Goat. 2015 is the Year of Green Wooden Sheep / Goat because Wood (tree) is connected to the color Green. Wood is also associated with the element of fire because it helps fire to burn. The Wood Goat is associated with patience and fortune [Jupiter].I personally do not think that our ancestors would read understand and predict fortune or hardship based on fixed interpretation of written Astrology texts. They most certainly learned through personal and shared [discussed] observations of the elements and Nature. That includes the natural world .. human nature and animal nature as well as understanding the nature of the elements.
I Ching Zodiac
Chinese Fortune Calendar
This is my own understanding of the 2015 Chinese Year of the Wood Goat [Sheep] that begins on New Moon February 19 in 2015. Why begin on the New Moon and not on a Full Moon? After Full Moon we experience influence of decreasing energies and after New Moon we experience influence of increasing energies.
Related to my post: 2015 Standing Without Moving [Transformation] .. I see the same element of standing pushing .. with many variations and associated consequences. One example of pushing is aggression and impatience .. while another example of pushing is gentle massage. This is why I am going to look at this from the horizon view of the elements themselves and how this affects humans through the alchemy of both inner and outer elements.
Chinese Goat Year 2015: Standing Pushing Endurance
Goats and sheep are very similar in nature when they are allowed to roam freely across natural landscapes. You may not associate sheep with climbing high on mountains .. but I have met sheep really high up [even on a rock face]. On one climb I thought I was alone on the mountain until I climbed over the rocky face to discover a sheep sitting on the edge watching me.
In Crete [Greece] the same experience took place meeting goats high above the rocky shore .. only I was using the path and the goats were walking and climbing across the vertical layers of rock. Like sheep they peacefully wander searching for grass flowers and herbs. The one aspect humans tend to overlook is the love sheep and goats have for Nature and the surrounding landscape. They not only climb .. but they LOVE to climb!
I am not going to take the view of these animals being patient and gentle bringing fortune in 2015. I want to look deeper into the elements that make up the goat / sheep .. and how this relates to human experience and behaviour. The I Ching observes changing cycles of elements and influence over decades.
A year has 365 days; the human skeleton has 365 sections. The earth has forests and woods; man has membranes and sinews. The Classics of Traditional Chinese Medicine: Ancient Texts for Modern Students - Kenneth MayThe inner animal elements that make up the character of goats are not only patience and gentleness .. but also there is calm endurance. At the same time the gentle goats have horns and a strong head designed for butting or pushing. Unlike horses who are associated with travel and trade [wealth] over long distances .. goats / sheep provide milk .. clothing and meat = physical resources.
This year [2015] is going to be more related to the elements of real wealth [physical resources]. Because the element of fire is so strong this may also mean conflicts over resources as well as loss of resources. Loss of resources could mean agriculture / animal loss through natural disasters and re-evaluation of the meaning of wealth.
Why would the gentle goat bring us to re-evaluate our values relating to physical resources? Simply because we humans lack the gentle compassion of the goat / sheep in relation to the resources we receive from the Earth. This year is all about true value [real value] and understanding the dynamics of actual wealth.
One example of wealth is a bag of rice. Anything you can find at the store to cook a meal is wealth. Water coming into your home is wealth. This Winter is cold damp and wet and heating the home is a form of wealth. The structure of the home that protects you from the elements is wealth. When you have to survive outside in the wilds then any kind of tree or shelter you can find is wealth.
The last post was about the meeting of two incompatible forces: Blocking and pushing! Both of those forces form the inner elements and life of the goat. The goat / sheep are slow moving .. taking their time .. grazing .. moving gradually with no straight line goal or objective. Goats / sheep can also be stubborn .. stand their ground .. they have horns and a strong head. Goats and sheep are also designed to push with their horns. They generally do what they want to do.
You can take a horse or a cow and get them to pull a plough to prepare a field for sowing seeds .. but you wont get a goat or sheep hooked up to some pulling device. I once returned from a hill walk camping wild and when I opened the outer tent I was face to face with a sheep sitting in the inner tent looking back at me with a: "What do you want stare."
You may think sheep would run straight out of the tent. In reality it was difficult to get the sheep to leave the inner tent. From a sheep perspective we humans had put our tent on a grassy flat slope at the foot of a mountain that was where they like to sit in the warm afternoon.
What does this mean for humans and human activity?
Let us say you have the blocking force .. blocking the natural flow of trade. The pushing force in this case would be the banks wanting returns on their loans and the people crushed in the middle would be the producers of goods. Food growers not being able to sell their products and pay back the loans would be crushed in the middle of two incompatible conflicting forces.
How would the naturally born mediators view this? The mediators would step back and assess both incompatible forces and address a solution. The problem is related to the pushing nature of the gentle and patient goat / sheep. The mediator has to push in a similar way to the goat.
One example to make this clear is this: If people [the mediators] who stopped the crush in Shanghai had stepped back and allowed the aggressive impatient pushing force to pass ahead and directly push on the blocking force? Probably a lot more people would have been hurt including those pushing hardest.
When you apply this behaviour to banking and financial institutions the dynamics are the same. In 2015 the blocking force for financial institutions would be the freezing of loans and repaying loans = loss. Financial pushing force would be: "Give me my money!" If there is no mediating force between these incompatible polarities then everyone is going to suffer [get hurt].
Do not imagine that those aggressively pushing do not get hurt!
We are probably going to see a new generation of free thinking mediators coming in to re-balance government and financial institutions. These people would never appear unless we are faced with the dynamics of the standing pushing goat elements. Those changes [a new approach] will apply through the next 12 years.
The dynamic elements of standing / pushing do not apply only to direct conflicts and the necessary resolution of those conflicts. I have an idea for pushing that I have to test out when the weather is not so wet and cold. A tree or a wall .. hands on the tree and gently push over longer periods of time.
I have to find areas where people do not come and ask me what I am doing #_#
When I am developing something new I need to stay focused and assess the forms and the experience. In general people who do not do Martial Arts want to talk .. or they feel they are watching some kind of entertainment and then they want to know its name!
I would like to try a new kind of artistic video to see if I can show this in an unusual way. I have not made any videos in ages... Related to this is the ART of pushing. The non-aggressive art of pushing. When attacked you gently redirect the incoming force.
Although this is the physical Martial Arts you can apply this to anything in life.
I find this the most exciting aspect! The natural mediator is a man or woman who is able to gently deflect incompatible forces in a peaceful way. When a person applying pushing force hits a wall they are going to get hurt. In the past there were Martial Arts practitioners who could dead-stop an aggressive force.
When you punch a tree your hands bleed! But the tree does not want to hurt you!
This is where higher Buddhist elements of the goat / sheep apply to 2015. This is a chance to learn or teach yourself the ART of a gentle deflection of aggressive force and preservation of inner values. This also translates to the preservation of your opponents dignity.
Maybe in a past life you were crazy .. selfish and aggressive?
There may have been a key point where you woke up and totally changed who you are lifetime after lifetime? When you have to deal with primitive selfish aggression from people around you .. there is also possibility of a wake-up point if you learn and apply the gentle art of pushing / redirecting those incompatible forces.
I love the videos where the angry aggressive warrior tries again and again to defeat and kill the Samurai Master... Then comes the last moment where he is lying on the ground defeated by his own desire to kill. He says to the Master: "Kill me! Why don't you kill me!" .. as the Samurai Master walks away. THEN the inner transformation takes place and he says: "I want to be like you... Teach me!" #_*
