Posts Tagged Year of the Sheep

By Carole Hyder

The Chinese calendar is comprised of a 12-year cycle with each year assigned an animal. There are a few stories of how these exact animals were selected. One of the legends says that Buddha summoned all of the animals of the earth to come visit him before he died. In appreciation for those who showed up, the Buddha named a year after each of them, given out in the order they arrived. The Horse was the 7th animal to show up which corresponds to last year (2014); the Sheep arrived right after the Horse so is the 8th in the 12-cycle line-up. The Monkey came in 9th so will be the animal representing 2016.

A lot of people are happy to cut the reins on the Year of the Horse—-it was a challenging year for many. Some people had plenty of good things happen during the course of the year but it became almost unmanageable; others ran into difficulties like a string of pearls—–one after the other. The difficulties were not specific to one area of life but across the board—-health, financial, relationships, job.

However, we’re moving toward a softer year as 2015 approaches. Just from an outward perspective, Sheep are gentle animals—–they move slow, their coat is soft, they’re rather small—–they are by far less intimidating than Horses. The Year of the Sheep can also be called the Year of the Goat or the Ram which does bring some feistiness and spunk with it as opposed to the ever-docile Sheep. That said, this will be all-round a less frenzied year.

The Year of the Sheep begins on Tuesday, February 3rd at 5:20 PM (Central time). Although this is not the big New Year’s celebration that the Chinese celebrate (their New Year festival will take place on February 18th at 4:47 PM Central), this is the date that Feng Shui adjustments are made.

So in anticipation of a year that will more than likely exude a slower tempo, don’t let yourself get stuck or mired down, which can be the downside to the Year of the Sheep. It will be important to keep some of that Horse energy from 2014 so you can still scale those mountains, but at a slower pace.