Based on the Asian zodiac, the February 1, 2022 new moon signals the end of a Yin Metal Ox year in 2021 and the beginning of a Yang Water Tiger year in 2022. Through the final lunar cycle leading into the lunar new year, I reflected upon 2021 and pondered the arrival of 2022. On my little part of Gaia, I had awakened to a winter wonderland of fresh, deep, powdery snow, after a restless sleep—the full moon often unsettles my rest and my focus. Leading up to this final full moon of the lunar year—a Wolf Moon—I truly felt like howling with rather rageful, pent-up angst. The full moon brings a climax of energy (much like ovulation in the female reproductive cycle) and this full moon felt intense, perhaps because it also hailed the completion of a cycle and the beginning of a new one—the lunar new year. This full moon signaled the tail end of a Yin Metal Ox year in 2021 and the final days ushering in the new moon and a Yang Water Tiger.
In the 12-year cycle of the Asian zodiac, there are 12 animals: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Pig.
Each year’s animal is influenced by one of the five elements, representing the relationship and interdependence between all things: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water. These five elements align closely with the seven Thrivival elements that make up our blog categories: aether, air, water, energy, metal, fire, earth.
Years also alternate between yin and yang energy:
Yin: passive female principle, characterized as sustaining, associated with earth, cold, and dark.
Yang: active male principle, characterized as creative, associated with heaven, heat, and light.
2023, year of the Yin Water Rabbit
2022, year of the Yang Water Tiger
2021, year of the Yin Metal Ox
These zodiac symbols alone—the shift from Yin Metal Ox to Yang Water Tiger—intimate a significant change in energies. Like metal, 2021 felt cold and immutable—entrenched in lockdowns and unbendable restrictions. Enduring 2021 too often felt like embodying the ox, shouldering a yoke of heavy emotional burden, leaning against the weight of it to struggle forward, making little progress and choking on the dust of exhausted, infertile terrain—unforgiving work levied by world leaders who wielded their arguably undeserved powers like bulls in a china shop.
How will 2022, a Yang Water Tiger year, feel in comparison?
In Asia, the Tiger is known as the king of beasts and a symbol of strength, courage, and the ability to triumph over evil. Tigers walk their wild terrain with sovereign independence.
Water flows along the path of least resistance, feeling its way around the largest obstacles and through the smallest openings. Water gracefully adapts to its environment—hot spring, frozen lake; crashing ocean, still pond; raging rapids, babbling brook.
Bruce Lee’s words to “be like water”—formless and changeable—offer sound advice for 2022. Roll with the punches; ‘turn the other cheek’ and watch the fist sail through the air as the opponent who threw it teeters sideways, unbalanced. In 2022, we will find ways to quietly remain centred within our sovereignty. We will learn to ride the changing streams with formless grace.
How did you navigate the Year of the Water Tiger? I look back on my experience of 2022 in Farewell Water Tiger: Reflecting on 2022.
How do we best begin a Water Tiger year?
With a list of New Year’s resolutions?
New Year’s resolutions often focus around not doing something—resisting the urge to act in a certain way—to stubbornly stop or cease some small act or habit, or list of them. They often require a rather bull-headed determination—much like our beast of burden, the ox. The very word ‘resolution’ sounds harsh and inflexible, like metal. To be resolute is to be unmoving, uncompromising, unwavering—like the resolute rock worn down to sand by the unceasing waves of the ocean. Perhaps resolution—the process of reducing or separating something into its components—is based on old, Metal Ox energy. Now, with the beginning of this new cycle, we embrace a new strategy, based on new energy—Water Tiger energy.
res·o·lu·tion
noun: resolution
- a firm decision to do or not to do something.
- the quality of being determined or resolute.
- the action of solving a problem, dispute, or contentious matter.
- the process of reducing or separating something into its components.
- the smallest interval measurable by a scientific (especially optical) instrument; the resolving power.
- the conversion of something abstract into another form.
Rather than reducing or restricting through additional rules and lockdowns, we focus on expanding and liberating; rather than separating and segregating groups, we choose to connect and strengthen bonds; rather than becoming distracted in measuring the smallest intervals, we see the big picture.
How do we navigate this change in perspective?
We at Thrivival invite you to join us in pledging PACTS—Powerful Acts of Consciousness, Truth, and Sovereignty—at the beginning of this new year and throughout 2022. Unlike resolutions, which focus on doing differently, PACTS focus on seeing and being differently.
PACTS are not about peaceful resistance but peaceful intention.
Sometimes the tiger silently seeks an alternate path to avoid the bear and the water gently flows in a new rivulet around the tumbled boulder. We envision new solutions that work around old problems.
This year, we embody the supple strength of the tiger and the graceful fluidity of water.
PACTS
Powerful, Purposeful Acts of Consciousness, Truth, and Sovereignty
I pledge to:
Practice the Power of awareness and Purposeful intention…though ignorance may be bliss and inaction is more comfortable.
Act like a master…though I feel insignificant.
Consciously focus on the positive…despite seeing negativity all around me.
Courageously express my Truth…even when it differs from everyone else’s.
Confidently stand in my Sovereignty as the expansive spiritual being that I know I AM…even if I stand alone.
Truly,
Me, Myself, and I
(i am that I AM)
pledge
verb: pledge
- Commit by a solemn promise.
(My own personal promise with my Higher Self.) - Give as security for the fulfillment of a contact.
(A spiritual contract.) - Drink to the health of.
(In the spirit of celebrating now.) - Promise to join.
(With kindred spirits, known and unknown.)
Tips for Practicing PACTS
- Find the zero point between breaths (seek and ye shall find).
- Stay in neutrality (resist not evil).
- Observe quietly (be the witness).
- Rise above (be in this world, not of it).
This website, and the community it intends to bring together, is itself the fulfillment of a PACT.
We humbly invite you to cross over the narrow bridge, through the mist, and enter through the gate to sit with us at the centre of the realm of Thrivival, in the warmth of a communal fire. Together, we gather to pledge enduring PACTS—Powerful Acts of Consciousness, Truth, and Sovereignty.
Freedom lives here.
Thank you, this post has resonated with me so much! I’ve been leaning heavily on I AM THAT I AM meditations lately. Glad to see this affirmed by you as well!
I’m so glad this post resonated with you positively!
The I AM energy is very empowering. I hope you also enjoy my I AM Series: https://www.thrivival.ca/tag/i-am/
I’ve enjoyed this post. I needed a reminder to flow like water and release resistance.
Thank you sweet friend.
Awesome post!
Love this post! Thank you!!
Find the zero point between breaths!!! Love this!!! Love the whole post!