I'm excited to have stumbled upon you via Pinterest. I found a link for your podcast, started listening, and it really fed my interest in feng shui and Chinese astrology. I'm moving into a new apartment next month and am soaking up all the knowledge and expertise you offer...thank you!! I have a small question related to astrology. I'm looking for a strong resource for a 2016 Tiger astrology reading. I'm confused about my career and the next steps to take and would love some clarity! Do you have any suggestions on this? Thank you so much!
Jennifer S., Madison, WI
Hi Jennifer,
Congratulations on the move, and thank you so much for following the podcast and blog! I'm happy to hear you're finding them helpful. :) I hope you get settled well into your new apartment! Be sure to check out our tips for that too!
I can tell you some basics about the Tiger in a Monkey (2016) year. In the Chinese Zodiac system, there’s a wheel that shows the relationships between different animals. I’ve included an image above. You can see that Tiger and Monkey are actually diagonal from each other which indicates an opposing relationship. Now, this doesn’t mean it’s “bad,” but it does indicate a challenging year for you. Similarly, Horse and Rat are opposites, Dog and Dragon and so forth.
What does a challenging year mean? Well, you may need to face the qualities of the Monkey which are not as easy or natural for you. And challenges give you an opportunity to grow and stretch, right? Monkeys are playful and clever, they can maneuver through most situations. On the other hand, Tigers are more humble and grounded. So it’s possible that a Tiger in a Monkey year will feel a bit ungrounded and learn to be a bit more premeditative about how they move forward.
You can also carry a charm with you that is a three-dimensional representation of the year animal’s best friend. In the Monkey year, this would be the Snake, and you can find one in the Holistic Spaces store! The idea in Chinese Astrology is that when you carry a charm of the year animal's best friend, the year animal will see that image of its friend and be so enamored that it brings you no harm. So you can see why carrying one brings protection and good luck!
In my podcast with Doris Ingber, Welcome 2016 Chinese New Year with the Fire Monkey, she goes into her forecast for the Tiger in 2016, and we also chat about the Four Pillars, Chinese astrology that uses the zodiac animals. In the Four Pillars, you have an hour, day, month and year animal. So there is much more to learn! I’m not sure about any accurate online sources for the Four Pillars, but I highly recommend seeking out a practitioner for a Four Pillars reading. Doris Ingber is great. I also can recommend another good friend, Beth Grace, who also has a monthly newsletter with more info. They would both be great at giving you guidance on your career path. And of course feng shui always helps! Keep an eye out for an upcoming blog post about how to clarify your career path with feng shui! Thanks for the idea! :)
by Anjie Cho
