2024: Year of the Yáng Wood Dragon
If you thought 2023 was a bit of a rollercoaster, hold onto your hats because the green dragon will not disappoint. This work is purely speculative, and it involves pouring over old Chinese astrological texts and interpreting the Taoist alchemical symbols describing the next 12 lunar months, starting from February 10, 2024.
I’ve been quite amazed at how accurate the predictions of trends within social and global events have aligned with the alchemical interpretations of the Taoist lunar calendar. It is not just social or global — it has also been of great use from a personal perspective. Someone recently asked me how I use this information. I explained that it’s like knowing the weather forecast before you leave the house in the morning. If you know it’s going to rain later, you’ll take an umbrella or a raincoat with you; when you see that it’s going to be hot in a few days, you’ll plan your activities accordingly (maybe that scorching hot day with dry, hot winds is not the best time to go for a hike through the bush, for example.)
Thus, too, working with the Taoist alchemical calendar. By knowing the currents, tides, and movements of energies — the trends of how things will move and change — we can plan and change our behaviour, thoughts, and feelings to bring us into harmony. The Taoist notion of 無為wúwéi teaches us to walk through life with ease — find the most efficient and effective way to reach our destination. Why battle against the current when you could instead use it to your advantage to reach the opposite bank?
Hence, the purpose of writing these reports each year is to know the year’s ‘weather’. Generally, I don’t remember it until the moment when I do, and that’s when I find solace in the information, as it acts as the guide reminding me that the challenges I’m facing are ‘natural’, the result of the tides of ever-present change that swirls through our world and lives. Last year, the water rabbit’s warnings of staying under cover of the forest instead of heading out into the field served me well — for the predator raptors were circling above. As soon as I realised what I was experiencing, the anxiety and stress of my circumstances subsided, and all I needed to do was remind myself that it was okay to stay here in the safety of the woods.
And so, we come to the Year of the Wood Dragon.
Yáng Wood
The Heavenly Stems was a ritual calendar thought to have been used predominantly by the ruling elites of the Shang Dynasty (16th–11th centuries BCE) and is based on the movement of the five visible planets (see table below).
In the Heavenly Stems cycle, 甲jiǎ is the first year of the 10-year cycle and signifies yáng wood. In this phase, a sprout breaks through the earth and begins the new cycle of life involving photosynthesis. The energy required for the tiny sprout to do this is immense. It can only depend on the inherent energy within itself (the seed) to push it through the soil. Once it has broken through the soil, photosynthesis begins, and energy is gained via sunlight to absorb nutrients from the soil around it, creating more energy. This initial phase, however, requires a tremendous burst of energy over a short period to ‘push through’. This is like the energy an athlete needs to run a 100m sprint, different from the lower, sustained energy required to run a full marathon.
So, while in the great 60-year cycle there are other ‘dragon’ years, this particular one has the quality of being very energetically powerful — explosively so! This is good for starting new habits, behaviours, routines, projects, businesses, jobs, courses, etc.
Because of the astronomical correspondences on which this particular calendar was developed, the wood stems represent the movement of Jupiter in the sky. The gas giant will travel through Taurus and into Gemini throughout the year. The best advice would be to see what aspects and transits it forms in your own chart.
Dragon: Yáng Earth
The other part of the alchemical equation is the Earthly Branch sign of 辰 chén, most commonly known as the dragon. The animal zodiac is a later interpolation thought to have been introduced by Buddhist scholars around the 5th century CE. This version of the calendar and ‘astrology’ has become popular (especially in the West). However, these interpretations are somewhat … ‘basic’ … and don’t really get to the heart of the matter. It sees the ‘dragon’ as an element rather than an energetic expression of a phase. Initially, the Earthly Branches was an almanac used by farmers to track the movement of the seasons; thus, there are 12 phases.
In this framework, the earth phases are not consecutive, and there are four of them, rather than two of each other element. This is because ‘earth’ was considered the transitional phase between the four seasons. The previous two signs — rabbit (2023) and tiger (2022) — are wood, signifying spring. Thus, another way of describing 辰 chén (dragon) is ‘spring-earth’, when spring changes into summer. The four ‘earth’ years are unique as they have a particular transitional quality.
This year has a particularly auspicious quality to it because the stem–branch signs for the first day of the lunar year are the same as for the year: 甲辰 jiǎ chén, the wood dragon.
The sign of 辰 chén (dragon) signifies a sense of full awakening. Consider the seasonal metaphor once more. The growth of seasonal plants at the end of spring is stable. They have reached (more or less) full maturity, and the next phase of their development is the beginning of flowering and fruiting. Tomatoes are now appearing on the vine, still green, waiting to become ripened. The energy from nutrients is now going more into the fruit of the plants and less into the growth of the plant itself.
The Dragon in the Whirlpool
The last few years’ energies have been defined by a tension between contracting and expanding natures — where one sign has been passive, the other has been active. This is still the case for the coming year, but less so as we begin moving into an era where the contradictions between the celestial and terrestrial energies begin moving towards alignment. Being the 41st year of the great 60-year cycle, we are well on the way to the return.
When the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branch signs are combined, we get 甲辰 jiǎ chén. The combined energies suggest a time where we would best be served to ‘ground’ our efforts, basing them, in reality, to reap the substantive rewards from them. The challenge will be keeping our feet on the ground and not being “off with the fairies”, so to speak. The emphasis will be on embodying ideas rather than being immersed in the imagination. There is nothing inherently wrong with being caught up in our dreams; it’s simply that we need them to be anchored in reality for our dreams to become reality. You’re not going to manifest that new career merely by wishing it — you need to actively seek and apply for opportunities you find. Do you want that new car/house/lover? None of it will magically leap out of your ‘vision board’. You will receive (in the future) what you put in over the coming year. You can ride the whirlpool of coming energies (believe me, it will be a maelstrom) or get caught in it while you daydream.
Wood and earth together promote great creativity. This will be a moment where creative endeavours can emerge strong so long as they are grounded and you can be receptive and responsive to what you see swirling around you.
The I Ching Hexagram: Lamplight Showing the Way
Associated with each year’s signs is the symbol from the I Ching, the ancient Book of Changes. To calculate this, I have used the data for the year, month, day, and time according to the moment of the new moon based on Australian Eastern Summer Time (AEST, UTC+11) and thus corrected for latitude and longitude for standard calculations.
The wood dragon is symbolised by the 15th hexagram, 謙 QIĀN/HUMBLENESS (hexagram = symbol formed by six lines). It is formed by the trigrams (characters formed by three lines) ☷ Kūn (Earth, the upper) and ☶ Gěn (Mountain, the lower). The image is of a mountain forming within or under the earth. This is not normal for mountains, as they usually develop on top of the earth and are considered to help bridge the gap between Earth and Heaven.
The idea of this symbol is that a humble person can observe and weigh up what needs to be increased and decreased; that is, to measure out according to need. This is only because of their lower advantage point. This humble person is represented by the 2nd line from the bottom (in red), who expresses their humbleness from their heart. In other words, it is genuine humility, not an act or a mask worn to impress others or a ‘virtue signal’. In other words, humbleness needs to be embodied — it isn’t just our words that express this, but it is in the consistency of our thoughts, words, and deeds (both private and public).
One who is humble possesses qualities of stillness and calm strength (like a mountain); with this, they can respond to any situation, being flexible and yielding (like the earth) to any circumstance that arises in the whirlpool of 2024. When the dragon remains calm, they can navigate the turbulence of the moment. Even though this is a yáng year, its strength and power come from the yīn qualities of responsiveness, flexibility, calm, and stillness. And isn’t this the best way to weather a storm?
Essentially, the abundance on offer in the wood dragon year is to be found in the low places of Earth, not the heady, imaginative places of Heaven. That is, in grounded, real, tangible experiences. The metaphor of the mountain within the earth is a mountain eroded into rubble covered by soil. In the gathering of small pieces collected and placed together, we find the riches that sustain us over the years. From a creative perspective, we are building from the ground up. Hence, this is a highly auspicious year for launching any new endeavour. But remember, when we start something, we start small and build slowly over time. When you maintain this humble attitude, working from the ground up, you will find navigating the turbulence of the coming year is relatively painless and stress-free.
Personal Luck
This information is like a forecast of the year’s ‘weather’. Adapting and dealing with the conditions depends mainly on your free will. You can either work with the conditions that the wood dragon brings or not.
That being said, our individual astrological temperaments will play their part in how and what we choose over the next year. Given that everyone loves to have a heads-up and how to deal with things, here are the signs that will be highly influenced, depending on their elemental correspondences and how they relate to yáng wood and yáng earth.
Obviously, anyone born in a dragon year (1940, 1952, 1964, 1976, 1988, 2000, 2012) will find this year flows for them particularly well. This year will also be suitable for those born in rat (1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996, 2008), monkey (1944, 1956, 1968, 1980, 1992, 2004, 2016), and rooster (1945, 1957, 1969, 1981, 1993, 2005) years.
The whirlpool will be very challenging for those born in rabbit (1951, 1963, 1975, 1987, 1999, 2011) and dog (1946, 1958, 1970, 1982, 1994, 2006) years.
For everyone else, you’ll still be subject to the ‘climate’ of the wood dragon energies. Still, there is no pronounced good or bad luck beckoning.
In a Chinese Astrology chart, those who have yīn earth (己 jǐ) will feel supported by the energies of yáng wood. In contrast, those with yīn water (癸 guǐ) can expect stressful challenges.
It is important to note here that the Day Master’s importance must be considered with the elements in one’s chart to determine one’s ‘luck element’. In general, this year, the yáng wood element of the Heavenly Stems will influence ‘luck elements’ thus:
- Water — drained, lousy luck
- Wood — good luck
- Fire — nourished, nurtured, growth
- Earth — constrained or blocked opportunities
- Metal — average luck
Remember that everyone’s astrological chart is unique. A proper interpretation of year, month, day, and birth time details is required to determine the factors that will play out in 2024. There are many websites and Chinese astrologers online for you to find this information.
