The 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac each rule a year, month, day and hour. We are currently in a Dog year and beginning the month of the Horse. This month is also colored by the qualities of Yang Earth. 

The Horse in the Chinese calendar represents the time of noon and the second month of summer when the sun has reached its peak, the weather is hot and the fruits are full, encapsulated by the summer solstice. We can look at what is occurring on the earth at this time as a macrocosm of what is happening in the rhythm of our bodies. Our internal yang qi has risen out of the deepest energetic levels of the body and is being expressed externally, pushed out into the outermost layers. The time when the Horse reigns is symbolized by yang qi fully expressed and running without rest, an image of a person fulfilling a powerful responsibility. The Horse is an animal of great endurance and power, representing the possibility of liberation through work and finding freedom through fulfilling one’s duty. When wild horses run through the plains, although they exert a considerable amount of strength and energy, they do so with great exhilaration, self-determination and dignity. 

The Horse rules the yang aspect in the House of Sexuality and is one of four energetically bisexual animals in the Chinese zodiac, meaning it symbolizes the yang energy being expressed on the outside that is driven by a wide, gentle, open sky within. The Horse exhibits great vigor and stamina in acceleration, opening into its soft yin nature at rest. This totem encapsulates the image of a wild and fierce tenderness.

Yang Earth is represented by a massive rock or mountain, and its qualities are embodied by this immovable and self-sufficient presence. It also represents the center of the earth or the center of any object, reminding us that this is a time of anchoring to your purpose and integrity. Yang Earth teaches us to abandon outside motives, to move only from our virile center, our core of clarity. We are reminded of the pleasure in obeying this centrifugal force, around which all things revolve. 

Everyone must work in order to feed themselves in this life. Because we have come here to participate in the exchange of life energy, we are here to work and our lives demand it from us. However, there is great beauty in our life’s work. In addition to providing to feed our bodies, everyone also has work to do from their essential nature. Life acquires meaning when we face the conflict between our desires and reality, freedom and limitations. Our work is to create synthesis of these polarized aspects of life. We gain nobility of spirit through fulfilling our duty, and we learn that following this responsibility leads us to the true spontaneous energy of our lives. 

Our ancestors are a symbol of our responsibility in this lifetime. Through them, we are born and given freedom. Through them, our lives have context, history, meaning. We are the karma and creative manifestation of energies that began long before our time.

How to work with this month's animal and element:

This month we are called to mature our understanding of freedom into one that creates true liberation - a generous freedom, one that liberates others. We have just gone through the month of rebirth (May, the Snake) symbolized by the right of passage into adulthood. We now enter the stage where we are able to carry the heavy burden of duty and responsibility. Freedom from the perspective of a child is doing whatever you want whenever you want, and being exempt from obligation. A mature understanding of liberation is aligning your will with deeper purpose, using your creativity through the right avenues and understanding your limitations. In this way, your life energy will not be wasted on what is not meant for you, nor will you fail to fulfill what is. This is the definition of responsibility: the restriction that gives you form yet opens you like a bowl, making you useful. A spiritual practice is the outside order that a personality needs. Without the restriction holding you together, there is no sense of wholeness or functionality and you cannot be of service. 

As a society, one of the great responsibilities of this time is the proper development of healthy masculinity in men, women, and all genders regardless of your identity. Energetically, the sexual archetype of the Horse represents the copulation of the feminine and masculine within ourselves. We cannot address a culture of toxic masculinity without also addressing toxic femininity, which is too often left out of the conversation. This manifests in the desire to play the passive role (for instance defaulting to being easy-going and likable) and using guilt and shame as a tool for control. Toxic femininity invites dominance through submission by always identifying oneself as the martyr or the victim. By avoiding responsibility and never being accountable, one can escape unchallenged while wielding the weapon of guilt and the entitlement of suffering. 

It is of utmost importance that we engage in the deep responsibility of working on these aspects of ourselves so that we do not participate in the perversion of the masculine or feminine forces in our culture. The energies we transfer and abandon are recycled and processed by larger society. For example, women have traditionally carried the immense weight of society’s neglected emotional labor, and men are left with the burden of society’s repressed rage. We must carry our own workload or someone else will have to take on the responsibility for us. True liberation comes from fulfilling our obligations, not escaping them.

This month will require a marriage of our internal yin yang forces through responsible action, so that we may embody a larger span of healthy masculinity and femininity. To be liberated is to possess the great privilege of choice: having the capacity to consciously act from a broad range of human expression at the right moment. Liberation is a great task. It is the practice of listening deeply to the moment, to hearing whether it asks for roaring ferocity or quiet tenderness. The Yang Earth Horse reminds us that we can fulfill this task with great dedication and joy, expressing the self with majesty and delight. 

The 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac each rule a year, month, day and hour. We are currently in a Dog year and beginning the month of the Snake. This month is also colored by the qualities of Yin Fire. 

The Snake is the yin counterpart to the Dragon in the House of Spirituality, hence it is known archetypally as the Mystic. Rather than seeking transformation by external means (the Magician), the Snake coils inwards to discover the truth. Most snakes are almost blind - they sense the environment through heat and vibration, which is not visible to humans. Similarly, the qualities of the Snake are discerning, sensitive and subtle. The life path of a Snake is to understand the world through supernatural perception, mastering the capacity to “see” not with one’s eyes, but with inner knowing. Before seeking answers outside of oneself, a Snake looks within. Before answering to an outer authority, Snakes must obey the truth of their intuition.

Yin fire highlights the subtle nature of the Snake. Symbolized by a flickering candle flame, Yin Fire is mutable and discreet in nature. It is still an illuminating force, but prefers to inspire intellectually and play a support role emotionally. Because a candle’s flame is easily outshone by the sun, it is naturally drawn to nighttime, darkness and the shadows where its power can be felt. Occupying the unseen and hidden spheres, Yin Fire Snake is essentially seeking the most efficient path to the truth. It is attracted to our secrets and our subconscious precisely because it knows the deepest truths are buried there.

How to work with this month's animal and element:

This month we are called to make an inversion of how we understand and develop authority. We will need to take inventory of the ways we have outsourced our power: how our world view, motivations and identity come from our allegiance to external sources, such as our ties to family, culture, politics or religion. Last month had a distinct feeling of adolescence while this month of the Snake marks the rite of passage into adulthood. How can we go from seeing authority as outside ourselves, to developing our inner authorship, and eventually becoming an authority figure in society?  

Similarly as a country, the US is in an adolescent stage on the path to adulthood. An example of this is our confusion and misinterpretation of the second amendment, which states that a well-regulated militia is necessary to the security of a free state. How does one understand the notion of a “militia” and “freedom” through the wisdom of an adult rather than the point of view of an adolescent? We can gain perspective by turning to the Yijing, one of the oldest recorded texts of compounded human wisdom. 

The hexagram for “Militia/Army” is 師, which also means “The Collective” and “Master”. At a glance, these words seem to have little to do with each other. However, the Yijing is urging us to see the militia through the symbol of the collective. The soldier is drawn from the collective to produce a fighting body. The master embodies the wisdom of the collective inside a single body. A soldier takes orders from an external authority. A master is an autonomous thinker, having gained authorship of their own life. A soldier strikes because they have been told to do so. A master is like a snake coiling inwards before it bites, moving from an internal motivation. The lesson is that in order to utilize the right to bear arms, you must be a soldier or a master. To become a master, the soldier must walk the warrior’s path. The warrior knows that the only war is the one inside themselves. Once clarity and peace is reached there, the need for outer wars vanish. This is an elevated understanding of freedom and a free state. 

This month is about attaining true independence in our lives. From politics and culture to our relationships and spirituality, you are being tested to develop a more genuine set of values and integrity. Are you willing to deviate from tribal loyalties and be a true non-conformist, in order to obey an inner authority? Is your identity and ideology fixed or tolerant? Does it make you more compassionate or rigid? This month is the equivalent of being on a super highway to the truth. It will test your maturity, versatility, and ability to discern new levels of subtlety, causing you to feel very uneasy in your skin. Just remember that discomfort is merely a sign of growth. After you've shed the skins you’ve already outgrown, your authentic self can be free to emerge.  

The 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac each rule a year, month, day and hour. We are currently in a Dog year and beginning the month of the Dragon. This month is also colored by the qualities of Yang Fire. 

The Dragon represents yang energy growing and rising, a time of strengthening and the month when spring transforms into summer. Just as nature is in a time of transition, we too are gathering momentum and strengthening our inner power. The Chinese Dragon is the only mythological creature of the zodiac, its power presiding over both the celestial and terrestrial realms. Because of this, it is a symbol of heaven uniting with earth and thus represents the transformative power of this alchemy. During the month of the Dragon, the time is ripe to transform old patterns. 

The spiritual animal of Yang Fire is the Vermillion Bird rising from the South. It too represents rising energy, and specifically the force that uplifts us into freedom. It is the furnace of clarity burning away illusions with its intensity, so that we may rise into spiritual power and enlightenment. 

With the combination of rising yang energy and the potential for liberation, Yang Fire Dragon symbolizes making the right choices during the most optimal time. Both the Dragon and Yang Fire represent adolescence in the cosmological timeline. In the life cycle, this is when identity creation is at its peak level of potency, leading to the self formation of adulthood. Through exercising and asserting the self in the decision making process, we learn how to manage our own intensity. It is critical that we gain wisdom in where and how we place that intensity, because it has the potential to liberate us. With our power rising, so too is our capacity for more. Where we place our intensity will become the location of our transformation. 

How to work with this month's animal and element:

This month we will learn the art of making choices. We will find ourselves in transition, at a critical crossroads. We will need to decide whether to make improvements or reach acceptance (in a situation or in ourselves), whether to pick up a weapon or to pray, to conform or to create, to act or to rest. We have the power of intensity to turn these choices into cascading change. 

In fact, if you are to ask for anything this month, make a prayer to be changed. This month carries the intensity (and thus the capacity) to transform what ails you into what frees you. Ask to change your anger into regard, grief into praise and fear into wisdom. Change your jealousies into admiration and what you admire will become your own. Change your anxieties into patience and what you let go of will bring you peace. Along with intensity, Yang Fire brings the speed of incinerating flames. Pray to get rid of intermediaries and embrace the swiftness of change. 

Intensity is like a star dissolving into the sun. The temperate spring is making room for summer’s vibrant luminosity. Be both courageous and thoughtful about where to place your strength. Use it to transform old patterns and liberate yourself, otherwise you will evade your own brilliance. Remember that when it comes time to shine, the sun has but one intensity.

(Left) Nemesis: Divine Anger, The Inevitable One

(Right) Chaos: The Madwoman of the Abyss

(Center) Forgiveness: The Flowing Joyful Grief
 

For the devotees who wish to become a disciple of the Underworld: To travel from delusion to dilution, the reality system to a mythic reality, you must participate in a sacred play in which your life becomes festival. Do not be afraid of your own alchemy, the process of reconstitution through flesh and blood. It is only through a mythical identification that the delusional ego, seeking permanence, becomes diluted and imprecise.

How do you survive the Underworld? Words are no preparation. There is no getting ready, only grace. Without this great grieving, no one can enter the spirit.

Mixed media, 2018