Happy Lunar New Year!
We have just entered the month of the water tiger in the year of the water tiger. On February 18th, we will also enter the day of the water tiger, and from 3 - 5 am, it will be the hour of the water tiger. This is a rare convergence that heralds auspicious beginnings.
Chinese medicine and astrology is a language of symbols.
What does the tiger represent to you symbolically?
One of the main themes of the tiger is power. There is a phrase in Chinese: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. It refers to a person who has extraordinary talent but remains hidden, undiscovered, or veiled. In the iconic film directed by Ang Lee, a young and highly skilled princess has been secretly training in the arts of Wudan, but when her life becomes pressurized through an arranged marriage, she makes a dramatic shift, leaves her family, and reveals herself as a true master of martial arts.
This is the idea of the tiger - the power of its pounce comes through the deep pressurization of its body, crouching way back on its haunches before it springs forth. In that crouching, there is also a profound stillness and focus. When the tiger finally unleashes itself, its goal is very precise: one direction, straight ahead. This pressurization is like bending a bow into maximum tension before the arrow is released. The stillness and focus ensure the target is hit.
Where do we see this pattern in nature and our bodies?
If you take a deep breath and exhale completely, you are pressurizing your lungs like the body of the tiger. Then take an inhalation and there is the pounce. In Chinese Medicine, all of the animals are correlated to organs and the tiger is related to the lungs. The lungs are the master of qi. That pattern of breath is what moves energy through the body. When the lung qi is weak, circulation will also be weak. When lung qi is strong, there is movement throughout the body, supporting and vitalizing every organ, bone, muscle and connective tissue all the way out to the moisture of the skin.
We also see the tiger in the way a seedling will send roots down to anchor before it extends upward to break through the soil. The tiger is related to the first month of spring, when we see all of nature gathering energy underground before it presses upward from the roots.
In the hours of 3 - 5 am (the time of the Lung and the Tiger), optimally, the body has finished its process of cleaning the blood in the liver. The lungs begin to distribute the qi again through the body. Your body shifts from paralysis to subtle movements again, preparing you for waking (the “pounce”). From 3 - 5 am it is still dark. In the first month of spring, the plants are still underground, the tiger is crouching in the grasses.
The beginnings of things are often invisible.
Water is about resources, so this time is about gathering qi and securing resources, which may refer to time or energy as well as material wealth. It is a good year for self-care.
I imagine this year we feel this energy intensely, of something stirring beneath the surface and then erupting out. As a water year, it serves us to flow with what is happening instead of fighting against the current, like learning to swim in the ocean. This year, three of the four patterns are tiger, which means things might feel a bit unbalanced, there is a lot of energy in one location rather than being distributed through a variety of energy lines.
We are beginning a new 12 year cycle, so this year is also a good time to think ahead into the next twelve years and set your intentions.
Blessings to you and your families,
Jennifer and Phil
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