Year of the Dragon: Marginal Forecast (Maelinhon)

Greetings! Let’s continue the good tradition of marginal prognosis for the upcoming year 🙂 My previous forecasts for the Tiger and the Rabbit resonated well with the audience, and I believe this continuation will not go unnoticed either.

To start, let’s have a brief review of the theoretical part: how seasons are constructed in metaphysics and how one can create an approximate forecast based on them. It’s not complicated; you need a concise table and a bit of thinking 🙂 Seasons and elements are key information for understanding the year and the period in general. Therefore, we begin with them. In essence, prognosis is about recognizing impulses and signals in the elements and time, rather than trying to guess how they will manifest in practice. For each person – it manifests uniquely. We observe that there is a conditional impulse for transformation in the year. Or – for the connection of parts. Or for the destruction of the old. Each person should roughly estimate how this will affect them: if something old and obsolete is breaking down, then for me (or in my country, home, at work), this and that will likely be affected, while this will remain untouched. In normal circumstances, no metaphysician or astrologer will tell you exactly which appliance will break or which knee will start hurting. They will indicate what will be under stress, and everyone has an extensive personal list. So, let’s outline the trends.

Seasons, Signs, and the Wheel of the Year

(for beginners)

In our world, there are five dense elements. An element is the flow of energy from the planet that passes through all available space, organizing layers that then move along with the planet. Simply put, the planet generates particles (each with its own), and they arrange themselves like building blocks in the fabric of existence. The body consists of elemental cross-sections, objects consist of them, but these five elements also fill the space itself with Qi energy of a certain frequency. There is wooden Qi, earthy, and so on. For illustration, imagine that all space is filled with five types of sounds, such as medium, high, low, etc., and in each season, one type sounds the loudest. And each type of “brick” reacts to its wave.

The year in the Chinese system is divided into five seasons, each of which is dominated by a particular element, and there is a lot of it:
— In spring, the Wood element resonates (Jupiter)
— Summer is the season of Fire (Mars/Sun)
— Autumn is the season of Metal/Air (Venus)
— In winter, the Water element resonates (Mercury)
— And in the offseason, Earth (Saturn) is active.

Accordingly, each season brings different changes, energy influxes, and challenges. Qi energy moves in a circle, with 12 phases from the weakest to the strongest and back. These 12 phases continuously circulate — a year consists of 12 segments, and every 12 years, everything in the “wheel” changes globally. Therefore, in the first sign of the circle (the Year of the Tiger), energy is at a minimum, and in the last (the Year of the Ox), it is at its maximum. At the end of the cycle, the wheel resets, and the movement begins again from the “zero” mark. Changes and new things in the life of the planet appear in the Year of the Tiger and then start to solidify over 12 years. In the Year of the Tiger and the Year of the Rabbit, we “plant” the seeds of new undertakings and break down the old ones. In the Year of the Dragon, they fall into the ground and begin to grow. And then, until the end of the cycle, we “harvest.” This is the first and key information for understanding what the Year of the Dragon is: in it, all sown deeds, initiatives, and problems grow.

Qi moves in a circle throughout the year, passing through 12 phases that form the Wheel of the Year and all the pagan holidays of the calendar. So ALL polytheists celebrate the same thing but under different names. In essence, it’s one system. On Imbolc, Qi energy enters the atmosphere; on Ostara, it stabilizes and is sown; on Beltane, it begins to spike; by Litha, it sings; on Lughnasadh, it ripens, and by Mabon, we have a harvest of events and lines. On Samhain, energy in space freezes and declines, on Yule, it stops and begins to leave the atmosphere, like spent, dirty fuel. And on Imbolc, which equals the Chinese New Year, fresh, clean Qi comes. This is how the Wheel of the Year system works; use it in your plans and decisions, and you will immediately eliminate about 50% of your problems.

In everyone’s life, there are also 12 spheres, so your finances might be in the Horse, for example, while family and children might be in the Tiger. According to the characteristics of each sign, everyone will have different success parameters and circumstances in different life sectors. And through these spheres, energy ALSO flows in a circle.

Just as a reminder, your Chinese zodiac sign is your BIRTHDAY, not the year, and everyone has four signs, not one. Your day sign is considered the main one, and based on it, we assess whether a particular activity or period is beneficial for us. For example, if you are a weak water element and it’s a highly intense fire period, you might start “drying up” like a small stream in a drought. Yes, everything is an element, and you behave roughly in line with your elemental nature: trees grow and don’t move, give fruits; water nourishes trees; mountains stand immovably, and so on.

The five elements, in turn, are divided into two polarities, Yin and Yang, creating variations of each element—one larger and stronger, the other smaller and softer. For example, in February, we have Yang Wood (an intense Jupiter), and in March, we have Yin Wood (the same Jupiter but slightly different tonality).

The cycle is entirely linked to planets and nature, meaning months and years start when the temperature changes, when it gets warmer or colder, when snow or rain seasons begin, when various ducks fly south, and so on. They rely on the sensations from the environment, not the calendar. Therefore, the year doesn’t start at midnight on December 31. Like everything in nature, it rolls in like a gradient, about ten days before the date when the new element starts replacing the old one.

It turns out like this:

Spring:

• February – Tiger – Yang Wood – Jupiter – Energy 1 (minimum)

• March – Rabbit – Yin Wood – Jupiter – Energy 2

• April – Dragon – Yang Earth – Saturn – Energy 3 – inter-season

Summer:

• May – Snake – Yin Fire – Mars – Energy 4

• June – Horse – Yang Fire – Sun/Uranus – Energy 5

• July – Goat – Yin Earth – Saturn – Energy 6 – inter-season

Autumn:

• August – Monkey – Yang Metal – Venus – Energy 7

• September – Rooster – Yin Metal – Venus – Energy 8

• October – Dog – Earth Yang – Saturn – Energy 9 – inter-season

Winter:

• November – Pig – Yin Water – Mercury – Energy 10

• December – Rat – Yang Water – Mercury – Energy 11

• January – Ox – Yin Earth – Saturn – Energy 12 (peak) – inter-season

Each planet in the cycle has one main aspect to another planet. Therefore, each month and year has a main planet (for example, in 2024, it’s Saturn), and there is its main partner. This is how Earthly Oxen and other Metallic Horses appear. I think you’ve caught the logic 🙂 Horse = Sun, Metallic = aspect with Venus. Dragon is the sign of Saturn, so the key planet of the year is Saturn.

Accordingly, the Year of the Dragon in 2024 = Jupiter + Saturn, as the Dragon is Wooden.

Knowing this division and having googled a couple of tables correlating organs and systems with elements, you can roughly estimate that during the Fire season, chronic issues with the heart might worsen, while during the Water season, there might be a financial influx. Everyone has something specific.

The Chinese didn’t bother their audience with all these aspects and degrees. They just came up with visual analogies in the form of animals. That is, the main element of space, if “humanized,” will behave and have characteristics roughly similar to this animal and its habits. For example, the Venusian Rooster is cocky, a bright handsome fighter, but a bit dim. The Horse is majestic, strong, powerful, but prone to hysteria and biting. And so on. It’s rough, but corresponds to the character of the planet to which the animal belongs. It’s important to note that the associative range doesn’t match exactly between Asians and Europeans. For example, in the Chinese tradition, it refers not to the Rabbit but to the pika, and not to the ordinary Dog but to a mythical creature—a dragon-fighter, and so on. So all these signs are adaptations.

The essence of prognostication is that events in the world and within ourselves ALSO follow this cycle. Lines of probability and event branches are laid down in the first year of the cycle, and for the next 12 years, they change and transform month by month, so that by the arrival of a new cycle, they reset to start new events. This is why the Tiger and Rabbit years are the most challenging. When the old falls away, the energy in space is minimal, and new events are pushing through. Many people die, and circumstances collapse. There is an opinion that new trends actually come in years of minimal energy so that we don’t have the strength to resist them. Jupiter is a very angry and cruel planet. Both its signs usher in the new with boots and unkind words because Jupiter is the planet that “legalizes” everything new in space. Elderly, sick, and simply sensitive individuals often do not survive these thresholds. Statistically, more people die in February-March and during the years of the Tiger and Rabbit than in other periods.

This is the theoretical foundation often missing for all bad-astrologers and enthusiasts to discuss the “Eastern horoscope”.

The Year of the Wooden Dragon 2024 — Forecast

The Year of the Dragon begins on February 4, 2024, around 11:30 AM. As we have already determined, it doesn’t start precisely at the stroke of midnight: from around the 20th of December 2023, there will be a decline in all processes and a certain calmness. Then, from January 15-20, 2024, the new year will gradually “begin to begin” — this process stretches from late January to mid-February. That’s why the Chinese can officially celebrate the Chinese New Year 2024 on any of these days, whichever is more convenient for them due to work and other commitments. So, please refrain from questions like “you say it’s the 4th, but in China, it’s the 12th!”. The 4th is the peak point of Qi entering the atmosphere, meaning the astro-metaphysical New Year, not the calendar one in China. Essentially, it’s like Imbolc, if that makes it clearer.

Firstly, about the Year of the Dragon — it feels fresher and lighter than the previous two years. In the Tiger and Rabbit years, we were at zero energy; there was a scarcity of it in the space, so most people were weighed down by an incredible heaviness and despair. This coincided with the change in the season of the Tree of Life itself, so during these two years, everything old and outdated decayed and broke intensively. Weak, obsolete connections were disrupted, lies surfaced, and true enemies and friends, which had long been held together by mere threads, collapsed. The Tree itself entered a new cycle, which is why since 2022, such chaos and turmoil have been happening: we are experiencing a simultaneous collapse both locally and globally.

The Dragon is the first year in the cycle when we stop breaking and start building. In other words, what you sowed from February 2022 to December 2023 (as those were wooden years, literally “seed” years), in 2024, we will begin to see sprouts and fruits. To put it simply, the wooden signs sowed seeds, and in the year of the Dragon, which is an Earth sign, all those endeavors are staked for the next decade. So, it’s challenging for me to answer the common question of whether the Year of the Dragon will be better or worse than the Year of the Rabbit. It depends on who you are and what you sowed. If you are a conservative person who relies on stability, static situations, and the unchangeable, the year might be very challenging, perhaps even catastrophic for you. If you have longed for change, updates, wanted to do something new and significant, the year will be excellent and will support your initiatives from start to finish. It’s all about growth, novelty, transformation, movement, lightness…

An interesting thing in Dragon is that it tends to cause infrequent but intense earthquakes to refresh the soil: it lashes its tail on the table where your life is laid out, and anything that didn’t hold well collapses from the resonance. This applies to everything in the world that is poorly structured. The current static situation is already showing cracks, and in 2024, this collapse might globally affect static objects multiple times. In other words, it won’t shake us every day, but in years like the upcoming one, there’s a risk of the collapse of entire countries, eras, global orders, and established old systems. This includes everything from religions and regimes to companies and families. In such a period, entire countries and familiar social institutions might cease to exist, not to mention marriages or regular activities.

However, for enthusiasts of the new and reform, what an opportunity it is! The Dragon is ideal for supporting everything new, marginal, fresh, and young. Essentially, it introduces new trends, ideas, and terms into the world, as this is the main option of Jupiter. What seemed unthinkable and fantastic in such periods gains meaning and stands on its own. Therefore, the main theme is the opening of businesses and projects, the implementation of new ideas, and a push against the old and tiresome. Personally, I find this message appealing because I live as a wanderer with a backpack and burning eyes 🙂 However, for those who have entrenched themselves in a static workplace for years, it might be challenging.

The year is positive also because, unlike 2022 and 2023, the Dragon does not have as many negative combinations with other signs. Therefore, we can expect significantly fewer periods when it feels like “just lie down and die” due to the overwhelming pressure. The Dragon particularly likes the Rooster sign (September) and generally nourishes the metal signs. It has a somewhat lesser but still favorable relationship with the Rat and Monkey signs. It gets along well with the wooden signs, providing them with a conducive environment for growth, and it consistently favors the fiery signs. Water signs will find it more challenging, as the year might deplete their energy and intensify restrictions, so I recommend Rats, Pigs, and generally weak water signs to spend more time near water, take baths, and visit swimming pools.

The Dragon interacts least favorably with the earth signs, often engaging in conflicts with them. It tends to shake things up and cause disruptions, creating conflicts with the Ox and the Dog. It can even be in conflict with itself, so those born in the Year of the Dragon and those whose birth charts have the Dragon in other sectors should be prepared. For everyone in these situations, if you feel overwhelmed, consider having an amulet with a Rooster or Pheasant in any form. Wear it in April and during particularly challenging periods. Avoid Dog-related items – calendars, posters, photos, and accessories with dogs – until better times.

Also, be prepared for those born in the Year of the Dog. The year will directly impact you throughout the period, especially in October. If you’re a Dog sign and feel pressured, wear Rabbit-themed items during such periods – a pendant, bracelet, or even a desktop or phone wallpaper.

In no case should you wear or hang anything with the Dragon itself! Even a calendar, decoration, etc. Two or more Dragons can create a big “boom” and push you into depression and melancholy, sometimes even out the window.

Traditionally, February 2024 and the surrounding periods will be challenging, as it is a time when many elderly and sick people pass away. From late January to early March, elderly people will need special support, as well as those battling illnesses. The risk of deaths will be at its maximum, especially due to old age and diseases because the energy in the space will become extremely scarce, affecting those who have little of their own. Take care of the elderly and the sick. Well, or don’t take care of them, depending on your plans and views on inheritance.

April 2024 will be an unpleasant period. Firstly, the end of March and the beginning of April is a convergence of eclipses, retrogrades, and the collision of the month with the year. A triple combo. In April, many may experience depression and despair, and some may even succumb to suicide or depart due to illness and old age. Again, those who “don’t hold up well” will fall. The second unpleasant period is the end of September and the beginning of October. Another retrograde and another corridor. In October 2024, the Dragon will make its major impact with global earthquakes.

The other periods vary for everyone, but globally, I only dislike April; otherwise, the year seems more interesting and lighter than the previous two. Although the thought that by planting carrots for a new period, we are also sowing new troubles and problems, bothers me. And digging up ripe carrots will come with stones.  Until February 2034.

Wishing everyone a successful Year of the Dragon, enthusiasm for marginals and strength for conservatives of spirit. 

(c) Mylene Maelinhon / material from Marginal Metaphysics Project 

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