I have many areas of interest as an artist, designer and grubby gardener including the gentle art of wabi sabi and feng shui. I have some depth of experience and study in chinese astrology so offer this those of you who share this interest - even if its only passing......
Only a fool would offer predictions in a year known for being unpredictable. Yet I'll try. This is the first principle of any Dragon year – you cannot see the head and the tail at the same time and so to ride the dragon is to not know where you are going, but to hold on, relax and open one’s eyes to the big picture, the panorama of life’s possibilities.
For those who have dragons in their astrological charts, or wish to discover the dragon within, you now have the license to be unapologetically you. Dragons are strong, healthy, powerful personalities, playing the human experience to the hilt, always there for their friends but quick to point out when errors have been made.
These are firm but fair people who understand the twin horns of power and duty, and great to have on your side. To make an enemy of the dragon is a most foolish thing to do. They will unapologetically swat you, claw you, or eat you for breakfast if you upset them enough. If you don’t like what they are up to, get out of their way and out of their sight and do your own thing, and if you are compelled to question their quest, do it diplomatically – the year of the Rabbit has honed our diplomacy skills so don’t lose them in the excitement of the Dragon year.
Famous dragon people include St Joan of Arc, Mae West, Salvador Dali, Che Guevara, John Lennon and Frank Sinatra. To get yourself in the dragon year mood I suggest you start dropping a few Mae West quotes like:
“When I'm good, I'm very good, but when I'm bad, I'm better.”
“I generally avoid temptation unless I can't resist it.”
“Too much of a good thing can be wonderful!”
“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”
Or try singing your favourite Frank Sinatra or John Lennon songs like:
‘I did my way’, ‘Whatever gets you through the night’, ‘Imagine’, ‘Power to the People’,
or ‘Give peace a chance’ – when Lennon saw footage of nearly half a million anti Vietnam protestors singing this song outside the Whitehouse in 1969, he considered it to be ‘one of the moments of my life’. Now that is what we call a dragon moment!
The concepts in Feng Shui and Tibetan Astrology are manifestations of a time where people had a deeper more coherent understanding of land and seasons and their patterns. A water dragon in a landscape is a lake. For those of us living in the Yarra Valley and especially in the Upper Yarra we are living close to some of the largest (man made) water dragons around – the Upper Yarra and Thompson Dams. Before they existed, local aboriginal history suggests that the valley would experience regular flooding – so we would have had that water moving into the valley creating billabongs and wetlands – smaller water dragons. This is the right year to get up there and visit or camp at the Upper Yarra Dam and feel the power of all that water, and take the opportunity to reflect on how lucky we are to be drinking some of the best water in the world.
What makes a water dragon year different from other dragons is that the water has a calming effect, enabling us to know how to act wisely and to do only what is essential to one’s progress. Far less conspicuous than other dragons (the great dividing range), one is able to be less opinionated and able to take and wait and see approach. While it is important to be true to oneself, this allows for others to go their own way, and defeat and rejection can be accepted without bitterness.
Enjoy 2012 and remember you’ll only be doing it once in this lifetime.
“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”
This piece is dedicated to my friend Robb Venn, a Dr. Feelgood and one of the best Shiatsu practitioners around, and has been informed and inspired by the books by Susan Leavitt, Suzanne White and Theodora Lau. If you wish to deepen your understanding of these concepts I suggest you purchase one of their books or even better, experience a shiatsu by Robb (o431 4o1 438).
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