Malvin Artley has been a practising astrologer for more than 10 years. He is an accredited member of the American Federation of Astrologers.
His primary focus over the past 25 years has been on the sciences as they express occultism and with bridging work between the two. His special interests are the human subtle energy system and all the chakras, or energy centres, physics and technology, astronomy and all aspects of Chinese occultism. He has done extensive work with Chinese astrology and the cycles they use and seeks to synthesize the great Western and Oriental systems on such matters.
Malvin lives in Adelaide, South Australia. He also works in the engineering trades and sends out periodic emails about astrological happenings and developments. Click here to subscribe to Malvin's periodic letters.

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The Walrus and the Carpenter, by John Tenniel

Chinese New Year 2011 [part 2]

The Year of the Iron Rabbit,
"The Rabbit in the Burrow"

Our esoteric astrologer and Chinese Astrology expert Malvin Artley looks at the meanings of the Chinese Year of the Rabbit in 2011. The Chinese New Lunar Year begins on February 3, 2011, in association with the New Moon in Aquarius, but the effects for all of us cover the whole of the twelve months ahead.

â€œThe time has come,â€ the walrus said, â€œto talk of many things: of shoes and shipsâ€”and sealing waxâ€”of cabbages and kings.â€

â€” Lewis Carroll, author
photographer, magician, Rabbit

There is something quite magical about our friend the Rabbit. They are social and great conversationalists. They are the alchemists and healers of the Chinese zodiac. The most unassuming of types, they are always very much aware of what goes on around them, especially when it comes to people's motives. The Rabbit's great sensitivity and easy-going nature often conceals a very clever and deft mind. You never really know what they are thinking. The Rabbit in the Four Pillars grants one the ability to divine the social scene and the prevailing consciousness of the public. As such, Rabbits make brilliant actors and politicians, for the Rabbit can take on a role very well. Thus, they can appear as a sort of everyman, with whom the public easily identifies and empathizes. Examples of such, especially among Iron Rabbits, are St. Jeanne d'Arc, Lewis Carroll, Albrecht Durer (painter, printmaker and theorist), Richard Burton, L. Ron Hubbard, James Madison, Augustus Caesar, Marion Davies, Ulysses Grant, Grace Kelley and Lynn Redgrave, to name a few.

Rabbits are Great Dreamers

Dreams are especially important to them and their dreams can be quite prophetic, for the Rabbit is a prophet and a seer if their insights are given heed. Rabbits find the mysteries of love to be a great turn-on. Love can be a quest for them, the magical alchemical formula that will transform their life. The Rabbit is exemplary of yin Wood (their native Element). They like 'inner space' and can create huge mental vistas. They are very good at visualization and they are usually quite visionary. Perhaps one of the more notable Iron Rabbits, especially in terms of breadth of vision and the courage to put it across, can be found in the personage of Helena Blavatsky, founder of the Theosophical Societyâ€”a true visionary, rebel, iconoclast, fighter against entrenched orthodoxy and just all-around great character. She was born and died in Iron Rabbit years, 60 years of age when she passed on to greater service.

Iron Rabbit years also produce great inventors and some very life-changing inventionsâ€”the first commercial computer, the first electric transformer, the microphone and the typewriter, the patenting of radio, the transistor, the kinetoscope, the first thermonuclear (H-bomb) test, the first long-range AC power lines and the first LP record (remember those?). Some of the great inventors and scientists born in those years are the likes of E.I. Dupont (chemist), Alois Senefelder (lithography), Thomas Wedgwood (1st photographer), James Clerk Maxwell (physicist), David Edward Hughes (inventor), George Pullman (inventor and industrialist), John Northrup (biochemist), Walther Bothe (physicist) and James Chadwick (physicist).

Metal Feeds Water

Unfortunately, there tend to be great floods in such years, too, as well as rail (Metal) and sea disasters. We just saw a rail disaster in Germany, which is usually unheard of in a country renowned for its love of precision and scheduling. Metal feeds water in the Five Element system, so expect to see more extremes of weather, such as the Great US Blizzard of 1891, the Great Flood of '51 (US), the Po River floods in Italy and the Tyne Floods of 1771 (Britain). Thus, we see that we cannot think the worst is over in terms of weather. With weather patterns in mind, we need to have a look at what yin Metal actually rules and means in a Four Pillars chart.

Yin Metal rules the lungs in TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine). The Lung Official (the TCM name for Yin Metal) is called the 'Controller of Receiving Pure Chi from the Heavens'. Its associated Animal Sign is the Rooster, though in this case it is the 'master' of the Rabbit Year. The lung as an organ is said to take in the quality of the heavens. Rooster types can produce the most sublime workâ€”very polished and finished. Metal Rabbits do the same along their own line. The lungs bestow quality to the systemâ€”value, life, vitality, brilliance and self-esteemâ€”inspiration. They revitalize the system by taking in pure chi from the surroundings. In refined Metal types there is always a quality of purity about to whatever they set their hand. Metal confers or is the seat of the animal soul, the anima mundi, which animates all material existence. The lungs also confer the ability to receive and welcome, hence the association of Metal with 'front men'. Many great orators and those of 'vocal occupations' have Metal dominant in their makeup.

The skin and the body hair are the primary indicators of lung function. The lungs open into the nose and healthy Metal chi gives one the ability to 'take it on the nose' (chin) and keep on going in the face of any difficulty. Deficient lung chi weakens the entire system because the system is thus starved of air. So, in Yin Metal years people are after quality of life, and not quantity. The lungs govern the voice, and in Yin Metal years the populace can get very vocal. We are seeing that in Tunisia and Egypt at this moment in history. Therefore, with the fact that Metal governs the finer things in life and the ability of people to stand up and be heard, one would expect that a great many good things will come of this year, too, and one would expect that in the arena of social reforms and great inventions.

Many Uprisings

There have been many uprisings in Iron Rabbit years. In 1951 we saw the NZ waterfront strikes, the start of the Korean conflict, the dismissal of General McArthur, the ANZUS Treaty, to name a few; the Chilean Civil War, the Portuguese Revolution, the May Day Massacre in France, all of 1891; revolts in Italy, the Bosnian Uprising, Nat Turner's slave rebellion, the Merthyr Rising of coal miners, Polish revolutionaries and the Battle of Warsaw, and the banning of slave trading in Brazil, all in 1831, and last but neither least nor inclusive, the War of the Regulation in my home state of North Carolina in 1771. This will be a year that ushers in a period of great change, and sets the scene for 2012. Metal years are times when the populace stands up, especially in yin years, as yin has a lot to do with inner strength ad fortitude.

Who knows what this year will bring? If you want an idea of what, let your imagination roam free and remember the words of Lewis Carroll:

â€œWhy, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast!â€

So, to see what we might expect and what we have to deal with coming into this year, let us have a look at what last year brought us, and how that forecast panned out:

economic unrest
100 Billion Euro bailout package for Greece, the French riots over the retirement age, British students rioting over university fees
mid-year looks to be fairly unstable and volatile, especially politically and economically
Again, the Greek bailout, bloody military crackdown in Thailand, Israel and the Gaza blockade, ethnic riots in Kyrgyzstan, floods in Pakistan.
elections, especially in the US and Australia, will be very hotly contested and the conservative elements in those countries will be out in force
The Tea Party in the US and the conservative backlash throughout the world, most notably in the US and Australia. Hung parliaments/congresses as a result.
uprisings up against injustice, and this year will see that magnified. This is the last roar of the Iron Tiger, but built in strength all year, most notably in Tunisia and Egypt.
strong alliances formed on both sides. We can expect the same sorts of things this year as well. The big difference between this year and past Iron Tiger years is the ubiquity of the internet, however. It is not so easy to keep things secret these days.
We have seen this in the arena of politics especially.
big challenges to privacy and legislation for privacy this year.
Wikileaks
expect new security measures to come out as well as increased attempts at hacking, inventions and new ways of doing things
The shutdown of the Iranian nuclear sites' computers, we finally trapped antimatter at the CERN reactor, the Neanderthal genome findings (we interbred with them, most likely), the first functional synthetic genome
There were also particularly deadly air crashes, natural and man-made disasters last year, most notably the Pakistan floods, Deepwater Horizon, mining disasters in Chile, New Zealand and China, the Iceland volcano, floods in Brazil and Queensland, and so forth.

The Four Pillars

With the preceding in mind, what does the Four Pillars chart for this year show us?

Chart Name: CHINESE LUNAR NEW YEAR 2011

Date/Time: 3 Feb 2011, 10:31 AM (CCT -8:00)

THE CHINESE CALENDAR
Solar Period: (Fortnightly Festival Period): 24 Great Cold (N); Great Heat (S)
Lunar New Year: 3 Feb 2011 10:31 am (CCT -8:00) This is a Bright Year.
Li Ch'un (Start of the Chinese Solar Year): 4 Feb 2010 6:47 am (CCT -8:00)

CONSTELLATION OF DAY
Unicorn
This is a good day for physical labor.
Day Indicator: A â€“ Establish
This is a good day to start small and plan big.

9 STAR QI (CHINESE):
Trigram â€“ Sun
Year Number â€“ 8 Yin Earth
Month Number â€“ 9 Yang Fire
House Number â€“ 4 Yang Wood

Tetragram 10

To start with, we see primarily that this will be a yin year. Three of the four Pillars are yin. One should never underestimate yin in terms of its power, especially in terms of sustained effort and inner strength. If one doubts the strength of all things yin, consider this: Without any one of the single or pairs of yin organs in the body (heart, spleen, lungs, kidneys or liver) death occurs fairly quickly. True, one can live without a spleen, but without any one the others, one would pass away within a matter of minutes or hours. On the other hand, one could live for days without intestines, a stomach, a bladder or gall bladder. Of course they are all essential for quality of life, but the yin organs are the ones that sustain us primarily. In the yin/yang system yin is the foundation from which all things arise. Yang gives structure and protects yin, whereas yin fills yang and gives it sustenance. So, in yin years we are looking at what sustains us, whereas in yang years, such as last year, we are looking at the structure of things and our protective mechanisms. Our structures were shaken in a big way last year.

From some of my previous writings on the matter, Yang Metal concerns the following:

It is said to carry away the impurities..., leaving us clean and brilliant. Brilliance is a term often associated with Metal. Yang Metal gives one the ability to let go and to move on. It is said to be the beginning of change and it allows energy to flow and move. ...is said to be like the officials who propagate the right way of living (the Tao), thus generating change and evolution. This quality of 'propagating the right way of living' is what makes Metal types such good technicians and technical people because they restore order to systems that are otherwise either not working or are totally broken down. A good technician can also take a system that is deficient or already good and completely transform it into something even better.

Last year initiated sweeping changes and purged us of impurities in a way, clearing the way for bigger changes this year. This year we will finesse the changes started last year and find our strengths. Being a Rabbit year, we will do so in the way of alchemical process in a way. How will that happen? I hear a song arising: To dream the impossible dream...

In part three of this article, Malvin looks at the likely outcomes for 2011, featuring sweeping changes at the political and social level.

Read part three of The Chinese New Year, the Year of the Iron Rabbit

Malvin Artley is an accredited member of the American Federation of Astrologers. His primary focus over the past 25 years has been on the sciences as they express occultism and with bridging work between the two. His special interests in those fields are the human subtle energy system and all the chakras, or energy centres, physics and technology, astronomy and all aspects of Chinese occultism.
He sends out periodic emails about astrological happenings and developments. These letters are sent out as a gift and a service. If you wish to be added to or deleted from the mailing list please let me know. If you feel inspired to pass them on please do so, but do so without alteration or charge. They are sent to people of many persuasions, not just astrologers. Blessings. Click here to subscribe to Malvin's periodic letters.