OR, LET’S GET ON WITH IT NOW SHALL WE ?!
Already, Chinese lunar year is in, and thank god. We get to have a horsey vibe and I’m a Sagittarius so it’s right up my alley .
Barely finished with pancakes and ash on your head, before the Chinese Festival is upon us in all its wonderful brash excitement. Dragon dances and food in Chinatown are order of the day for the hoards who will be coming in for it. I sadly miss that great festival in recent years as it’s too bloody crowded. The most I will do is the small ripples that occur in Berwick Street and the lithe acrobats underneath the dragon costume can be spotted easily.
London Chinese Community Centre on Gerrard Street. Advice to cultural learning a quieter and more meaningful way to experience true Chinese living. There are smaller and less showy restaurants and venues apart from brash Chinatown and we even have our Charing Cross Road Library that’s half dedicated to Chinese books and shows. A seating area where you can play Mah Jong or indeed learn it. Here they also hold Qigong lessons and even healing for the Chinese community and other ambitious residents and visitors.
Which leads me to the actual Chinese medical centres scattered around. I love acupuncture and my professor who practices it in Little Newport Street in a place called Everwell, his incongruous name is Doctor Dai and he is the best. From taking your pulses to discover the health of your liver, guts and heart, he kneads and manipulates strongly then come the needles and heat lamps. He is a master of his craft and really doesn’t need much of an explanation as to why you are there as he magically knows after an initial look. I once went in barely able to walk and came out not only pain free but mentally so much better bouncing along the street smiling like a demented old bird.
YEAR OF THE FIERY HORSE.
The Eastern Zodiac is the oldest horoscope in the world, dating back to the fourth millennium BC . The evidence can be found in the monasteries of Tibet, China and southeast Asia. Starting with the more prosaic seasonal, agricultural , astronomical and physical cycles it then started to delve into human interactions and characteristics under certain stellar aspects.
Roots are entrenched in classical philosophies of Kongzi ( Confusius, he say…..) and Laozi ( Lao Tse) which is where all the worlds horoscope belief seeded in. What was psychology developed into just a bit of fun in silly columns in the paper. However this is serious stuff if you view it historically.
Don’t forget Yi Jing or the I Ching is a branch of divining and linked to to this section of studies. The I Ching never lies I find and is a master of the uncanny accurateness in its answers,; if you haven’t tried it do so, you’ll love it.
You see according to to the Chinese we are all born with a certain ming (destiny) and this is your life’s purpose and your soul has to be in harmony with your earthly manifestation or personality. It’s not really luck more a path. Your three types ‘Heaven luck’ which is your fate, your framework; the second is ‘Man luck’ or the choices we make which can be straying from our path; and finally ‘Earth luck’ which is manipulating your luck with various tools such as feng shui, the arrangement of our environment.
Each sign has a mixture of positive and negative attributes your yin and yang and it’s a beautiful yet mysterious assessment of human character interpreted as animal associations and the story goes that all the animals on Earth were invited to the celebration party of the New Year, but only twelve attended, the horse being one of them. This was determined by Buddha. The legend also says each animal acquired a year which is the untamed force within you. Your essence from the start. You’ll need to look up what animal you are for the year you were born; so you will be allotted an element such as metal, water, wood, fire or earth.
Anyhoo when you get that you will find out what sort of creature you really are! I’m a fire rooster me old cock!! For a woman it’s good health and inexhaustible energy apparently (not so much recently) It seems I push to the limit making me self destructive at times (sounds about right doesn’t it my old birds? I’m not really a compromise person and have natural authority (sounds bossy? Yes I can be!) Charming and friendly however this all comes with a combustible side which causes me trouble with rather a sharp tongue.
Apparently I need my sacred place, a kind of “secret garden” for my privacy and harmonious colours are violet, yellow and green. My medicinal plants are gentian, orange, palm trees, sunflowers and hawthorn. My stone the topaz.
The rooster don’t suffer fools gladly and are pure minded, and hate hypocrisy in other words liars. (True dat ) On the flip side manic depressive, caustic and pompous; the ego creeps in. Ooooh and looky here! Highly cultivated and well read (that’s me and a bighead too!) . so having only scratched the surface here it seems already more accurate than the generic muck that’s out there. Have a look at yours and let me know how you fare. Good luck!
Apparently I came to beginning of times party with the goat? Any goats out there?
YEAR OF THE FIRE HORSE MEANING
For the first time in sixty years we have that hot horsey to help us. The horse represents action, freedom and speed; its fire aspect brings the intensification of these qualities and you can add passion, urgency, transformation and momentum. So this is a time of rapid change and decisive actions. This year you’ll have to get off the fence and take charge of your destiny; you can do it but don’t burnout in the process. Embrace that change and do more. Any residual ennui or lethargy needs to be brushed away for this truly great year of opportunity. Rest when you need to have time for yourself and your health and spirituality but apart from that gor for it! Times are a changing.
OVER AND OUT FROM THE EXULTANT OLD BIRD NOW PREPARING TO FLY AGAIN!
Old Bird Travels Solo! 