2017 - The Year of the Ten Fire Rooster

 2017: The Year of the Fire Rooster

 

About now, you may be brushing the dust from your clothes, grateful to have made it through the crazy Fire Monkey antics of 2016 relatively unscathed. For many personally, and for all of us nationally, we went through one of the wildest roller coaster rides of our lives this past year. Standing firmly in the new year, we can release a big sigh. But it ain't over yet, folks...

2017 may not bring much relief, though it is sure to harbor more change. In numerology, 2017 amounts to a number 10 or a 1 (the energy of 1 magnified by 0). This number is associated with new changes and also with the potential for peace, harmony, unity, and vitality. The number 10 also relates to manifestation and the potential to create a wise balance among seemingly opposing principles such as masculine/feminine, creation/destruction, good/evil, etc. resulting in a powerful wholeness...all feel-good possibilities.

With so much going for us, how can we go wrong? Because even though the foundational energies of this year offer an opportunity to evolve to a higher vibration, we must claim it. The number 10 also comes with a dark side that is ruthless, competitive, unemotional, domineering, stubborn, independent, and eccentric. If we play out these qualities instead, we are sure to suffer.

Now let's add in another piece of the 2017 puzzle: January 28th marked the start of the Chinese New Year - the year of the Fire Rooster. The energy of Fire Roosters is generally cocky, dominant, overly self-assured, resourceful, hard-working, bullying, boastful, vain, courageous, outspoken, blunt, egotistical...sound familiar? 

Interestingly, our country's new leadership personifies this energetic like never before. Barely a month in and there have already been authoritarian rumblings from Washington that smack of an "I don't give a damn about protocol" approach to governance. We would be wise to pay close attention to where things go from here, as our nation moves ever so tentatively through this historic period.

Such a 10 Fire Rooster-esque profile is ripe for big, huge things to happen, but we cannot say of what nature. Perhaps this energetic is exactly what we need to catapult us forward into evolutionary greatness as some believe. Or perhaps this energy will tear us down in brutal ways as others believe. The potential is ripe for either to occur. And most people stand with firm conviction on one side of that belief or the other. 

 But I will say this: If you give a rat's ass about things like compassion, integrity, unity, stewardship, diversity, or equality, you best pay attention. The dark side of 10 Fire Rooster energy is not interested in such things. Nope; they are interested in only one thing: getting their way. They like their way, and they tend to disregard the rights and opinions of others to get it. That's the tricky deal with the dark side of 10 Fire Rooster energy; its nature is divisive rather than unifying.

Two verbs to ditch not only this month but this entire year are apathy and complacency. Just pitch them right out of your world because a 10 Fire Rooster energy demands the opposite - a centered, clear, assured, solid stance with deliberate and right action. Right action? Who can say what that is? 

In a nation more strongly divided into two distinct camps than we've seen for generations, with each group determined to stand up for what they believe is right...all wallowing in the cocky energy of the 10 Fire Rooster...there is potential for things to get rather ugly this year.  

Standing up for what you believe in is fine; necessary even. Just be careful not to stoop to the immature bully-antics that the cocky 10 Fire Rooster may bring to the ring. If you do, you just may find yourself on the receiving end of a mighty ass-whipping. Knee-jerk reactions do not serve the individual or our current evolution as Human Beings. Neither does being overly optimistic, overly pessimistic, or plain old apathetic. Clear, conscientious conviction with decisive, aligned action is what is called for.

Aligned action can be as simple as holding an undying faith in the inherent goodness of Humankind. Goodness is in each one of us somewhere; even those we may view as our enemies. Goodness is everywhere, actually. Just take a quick look around. People everywhere are standing up for goodness in all kinds of ways, big and small, publicly and privately, because they believe. They believe in the importance and power of things like compassion, integrity, unity, stewardship, diversity, and equality. And they believe in the importance and power of basic Human goodness.

But you won't feel a connection to that goodness if you don't do anything to cultivate it in yourself. One simple way to do so: meditate. Even 3 minutes a day of meditation can achieve this. Meditation is also a powerful way to stay out of knee-jerk reactions so you don't add to the messiness of the Fire Rooster energies at play in the world, or find yourself on the receiving end of an ass-whipping. Plus, as a bonus, every time you meditate, you shift one vibrational thread in the energetic matrix of our world toward the light and love and goodness of the Universe...and every little bit helps.

Try something basic like the universal Sanskrit syllable of Om (believed to be the basic sound of the world, containing all other sounds), or Ra Ma Da Sa Sa Se So Hung (another Sanskrit Mantra that invites unity of heart).

Or you can simply meditate on your breath, knowing it is connected to all other breaths. Or on the goodness beating in your own Human heart, knowing it is connected to the goodness in all other hearts.

So it appears, my friends, that 2017 will be a year of big change and action. Let's make it right action based on unity rather than segregation, equality rather than inequity, and compassion rather than ego...all of which start within each and every one of us Human Beings, and all of which are nurtured through meditation. Such a simple action makes a powerful difference. This month's energy tip: start meditating regularly.

Til next time... Namaste'