Fire Rat: Water Season
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Metal gives way to Water at the end of this year of the Fire Rat. This is the winter, the time of stilness, when the work of the year is completed and the world rests.There are many kinds of stilness and many kinds of rest. Does the world rest because it is asleep? or because it has been put in shackles and cannot move? :-) In this year, the world shall come to rest because nothing can be accomplished by working together. There is goodwill, but no dedication to the tasks at hand. People are intent on doing their own thing, on self-fulfilment and not communal achievement. People turn their backs on their obligations and responsibilities to the group at even the slightest provocation. There is a general disengagement of interest and commitment. The world becomes introspective and self-absorbed and it goes into retreat.
But, because this is still the year of the Fire Rat, we can expect this introspection to produce internal structures and private achievements. Nations will concentrate on putting their own house in order. Internal issues, disputes and grievances of long standing will be smoothed over, healed and, hopefully, laid to rest at last. These achievements will take the shape of tangible, visible and concrete results --- the Rat needs things that can be seen and felt and touched. The Rat cannot be content with rituals or symbolic gestures, unless accompanied by concrete and meaningful changes.
If there must be change, then how is the world at rest? Good question! The Rat feels uncomfortable about Change and hates surprises. The best way to avoid nasty surprises is to leave nothing to chance. That is what happens here: governments and their people lose interest in things happening beyond their bounds; they focus instead on internal stability. This Rat will be in a remarkably forgiving frame of mind. This Rat can absorb any number of insults and turn the other cheek, all in the name of not rocking the boat. Concessions will be made if only to persuade others of the wisdom of doing the same. In this way, the world is lulled to sleep. ...
As is to be expected in any time of Water, judicial and legal matters will have great prominence in the news of the day. This is doubly true in this year of the Fire Rat because the Rat's element is also Water. It is no mere coincidence that so many nations have experienced their "Trials of the Century" in these Water years --- the USA (O.J. Simpson), Canada (Paul Bernardo), Italy (the Mafia) and Japan (Shoko Asahara)!!
Weather Notes: Ping Wu has been observing weather patterns for many years. He has no conclusions to give us yet, but here are his feelings about the coming Season for people in the upper northern hemisphere: "Until the end of the Fire Rat in February, we will have the experience of extremes within microclimates. There will be no prevailing general pattern of mildness or coldness, but areas where winter brings rain and mild temperatures may have much snow and areas accustomed to frigid cold and dry snow may get weeks of cold drizzle instead. The one common element should be higher than normal precipitation, whether wet or frozen, in all areas. This heightens the likelihood of flooding both during the winter in areas where it falls as rain and then again in the spring, when the Fire Ox comes on the scene."
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