Tiger Wave: Surfing with the Yang Water Tiger, 2022
By Karen Abler Carrasco
On February 1st, 2022, we enter the Yang Water Tiger year. Hopefully you worked with the 2021 Yin Metal Ox year’s energies to plow the ground of your lifestyle well, clearing away rocky and weedy obstacles to future growth, because here come the big rains! Lay down a thick mulch of nurturing self care early on this year to absorb and benefit from the outpouring of this passionate, active, strong Water Tiger year. The freshly turned earth of your accomplishments last year needs a well-packed layer of clear boundaries so that the compelling force of the Water Tiger’s reign, and rain, does not wash it all away.
Self confidence is the key to thriving this year. This requires knowledge of one’s True Self and a steadfast dedication to defending it. The last two years of Metal element energy pushed us into defining and refining what works for us and what hampers us in our quest for Self-fulfillment. Metal years are all about clarity and boundaries; they highlight the sharp distinctions between the yes’s and no’s surrounding us. Water years are when those clear divisions become wavy and blurred. This year we are being called to plunge deeper, and hold fast to the inner anchors of honesty, integrity and truth-telling, no matter how the outer world tries to dilute our resolve, to tug us into its stronger current, away from our truest selves.
Towards this end, the powerful, passionate Tiger year offers the bold self assurance we need, if we can embody its positive qualities. The Tiger is a fierce master of its territory, defending its boundaries with swift, graceful precision and unapologetic self-interest. It acts alone and is very protective of its independence. Tiger energy is bold, ambitious and impulsive, but never capricious. The underlying motive of the Tiger is always self preservation.
The Tiger energy of this year will support creativity, imagination and travel. Here are where the qualities of boldness and audacious confidence can foster growth. When making plans for movement or change in your life this year, consider how the tiger in its quest for food acts. It lies silently in wait, sometimes for hours, until the correct moment to pounce ensures its success. Tiger energy is therefore boundless, because of its ability to first be still, gathering strength and weighing options. When it does leap forward, it has all the power and confidence to attain its objective with seemingly uncanny precision. The outside world sees only the hunter’s startling action, yet it was the hidden hours of patient calculation where the real work was done.
So cultivate this unique skill now. When faced with life choices this year, be very patient during the process. Take time to relax into the watery unknown that always precedes action. Include some luxurious rest, or a long meandering stroll out in nature, before making a move. Rather than stressing over any periods of uncomfortable uncertainty, which characterize Water years, settle more fully into your own True Self, which exists beyond the pushes and pulls of the external society. In the “Deep Lake” of the Self there are surprising quantities of talents, skills and wisdom.
Water years such as this one are when we are encouraged to bring these qualities to the surface, to be shared with honesty and integrity. It can feel scary. We risk being misunderstood or even rejected. Because Yang Water years bring floods of emotion and public drama, any threats to personally thriving this year spring from self doubt or hesitancy in declaring our boundaries. Empaths beware, resist the temptation to take on more passengers or cargo than your boat can carry this year.
Again, this is where the Tiger’s reservoirs of strength and brilliant survival skills provide the necessary anchor. We can sink deeply into this Yang Water year because we are supported by a wave of very personal, self-focused CONFIDENCE, if we will choose to “grab the Tiger by the tail” and swim towards our goals. Seek out whatever “floats your boat,” carefully imagine it, patiently affirm it and then sail out into the experience of it with joy and a calm expectation of success. The unique paradox of vulnerability and confidence that is the Yang Water Tiger year comes once every 60 years. Let’s make the most of it by discovering and revealing more of our loving True Selves to each other now.
