2022 - Year of the Yang Water Tiger
Kirsten Isakson, MAcOM, LAc
With the arrival of the New Moon, February 1, 2022 marked the beginning of a Lunar New Year. In the Earthly Branch theory that is foundational in many East Asian cultures, from Tibet to China to Vietnam, and provides a foundation for Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture, time cycles in a 12 beat rhythm, with each 2 hour period, each month and each year correlating to a specific element. This system was rooted in ancient observations of the path of Jupiter, relative to the earth, which followed a 12 year cycle. Each earthly branch correlates to one of the 12 animals of the Chinese Zodiac, and one of the 12 major meridians, and the correlating organ, in Chinese Medicine.
The first month of every lunar year is ruled by the third Earthly Branch: which relates to yang wood. In this time, spring is preparing to burst forth, but winter is still in charge. Plants begin to shoot out of their bulbs underground, but their green tips haven’t reached the surface. Glaciers up in the mountains are plump with snow, but major snow melt has not started to make the rivers rush down low. Buds on the trees are getting rounder and juicer, but blossoms and leaves have not emerged. The world is ripe with possibility, potential energy is building and rising. It is like a pot of boiling water, with the lid on top: the pressure is building, but is not enough for the pot to boil over. We experience this potential energy every early morning, between 3-5am: most of the world is still asleep, but the energy is rising, the birds about to sing.
This rising Yang Wood energy also rules the Year of the Tiger, what we are entering into today! The world is again ripe with possibilities. The cycle that we’ve been in for the last 12 years has came to a close, something new is about to emerge! The organ most directly associated with this pattern and this time of year is the Lung. As we emerge from COVID, and in the aftermath of the disease it has caused, our Lungs could use some extra care. We are not yet through the difficult winter that we’ve been in for the last few years, but we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
With their steady pattern of inhalation and exhalation, the Lungs bring rhythm and pattern to our living. This would be a good year to deepen into the meditative practices of pranayama, working the lung qi, strengthening Qi, immune systems and calming the mind.This is a year to radically move towards what feeds you spiritually. It is a year to question and cut ties with emotional and thought patterns that do not serve you. This is a year to make peace with death and step into vitality. It is a year to merge with the dream-state, the place of potential.