In the field of astrology and Metaphysics, misinformed or misleading article are pretty much par for the course, and as common as the cold.  However, in this day and age where everything is available at the click of a mouse on the Internet, me thinks the proportion of quacks in the metaphysics industry is no more than in any other industry. Still, it does irritate me just a little whenever I read something like that:

“The Year of the Tiger symbolises vibrancy, according to Lai. But some Chinese do not think it is a good year as the first day will fall after the start of Spring on Feb 4, which is known as lichun in the Chinese calendar. To them, the Year of the Tiger will be without lichun, which marks the start of spring when farmers plant the seeds.

With that in mind, many Chinese couples are rushing to have their wedding receptions before the Year of the Tiger starts.

But according to Angus Kong, a feng shui and I-Ching scholar, “People planning their wedding date should just look at their time and date of birth and they should be able to find a good day to get married even in the Year of the Tiger.’’

Source: The Star 10 Jan 2010 Yum Cha Column (I’m not saying the columnist is wrong – she is simply expressing what is actually a commonly held view, which is what I object to)

If i had a dime for every time someone said the year has no Spring…

Fact: The Chinese have TWO Calendars.

99 percent of the people who are ethnically Chinese don’t know this. Even Chinese-educated people probably don’t know this unless they’ve dabbled in Metaphysics. Even then, there is a chance they aren’t aware that there are TWO calendars.

The Lunar Calendar is what enables us to do amazing mathematical computations without computers to predict every eclipse for the next umpteen years. It also determines the dates of all major celebrations in Chinese culture – dumpling festival, mooncake festival, and Chinese New Year.

This calendar shifts around and has double months, and missing months and all those other kind of exotic months.

In their great infinite wisdom, ancient Chinese (hey, they were a great civilisation once upon a time, and you think they didn’t FIGURE THIS ONE OUT?) also recognised they needed a calendar that didn’t keep recalibrating itself every year. Otherwise, how on earth would they know when to instruct farmers to harvest crops and plant seeds?

So the Chinese also had a Gregorian-esque calendar called the Solar Calendar or Farmer’s Calendar. In this calendar, each month is named after a very specific type of farming activity ie: Coming of Spring or Awakening of Worms, or Grain Rain or Small Sprout – you get the point.

In this calendar, the new year (not the Lunar Chinese New Year) starts on the SAME DAY each year. February 4th.

And each month starts more or less around the same time each year, give or take a few days.

And there are no missing, double, or hidden months.

And there is ALWAYS a spring or Li Chun 立 春.

WITHOUT FAIL. Come hell, heaven or high water, there is a Spring every year.

The Lunar Calendar is of course sometimes used in Metaphysical calculations – primarily the Purple Star Astrology method (Zi Wei Dou Shu) uses this calendar. But most of the time, the Solar Calendar  is the Chinese Metaphysicians BFF.

The Tong Shu btw, contains BOTH calendars in one. How nice is that? You do however need some kind of PH.D brain to be able to figure out how it works.

So, the reason indicated above for NOT getting married in the year of the Tiger is actually plain misinformation at it’s best. Please ignore the old nags who keep perpetuating this myth.

There are of course individuals who are ill suited to get married in the year of the Tiger, and these are people born in the year of the Monkey.

Date Selection principles dictate that one should never Clash the Year when it comes to selecting a date for important activities. As such, individuals born in the Year of the Monkey, who are at odds with the Tai Sui (Grand Duke) of the year, which is the Tiger, are advised NOT to get married in the year of the Tiger.Individuals who have the Monkey Branch in their Spouse Palace are also usually not advised to get married this year.

Some things really…SHOULD wait y’know. This is one of them.

But for everyone else out there who doesn’t fall into this grouping, feel free to get hitched (although please, consider getting a good date anyway. Here is my blog on that topic).

And since I’m dispelling myths here, one last point.

There is no need to go and add an extra year to your year of birth to ‘con’ the Tai Sui into thinking you’re not a Monkey if you are born in the year of the Monkey, or if you are born in the year of the Tiger, that you are not Tigger.

For those born in the year of the Monkey, yes, there are some concerns obviously as you are experiencing a Clash. But the universe is not so easily fooled – just because you pretended at a ceremony to be something you are not, does not mean, well, it works.

This is not going to fix anything. Action is better than wishful thinking any day in the world of BaZi folks.

For those who are born in the year of the Tiger, this is NOT a case of going against the Tai Sui (Grand Duke) or offending the Grand Duke. Only FOUR ANIMALS can truly offend the Grand Duke and they are the Rooster, Dragon, Pig and Horse. These four animals correspond with the Self Punishment interaction in BaZi, hence are considered actually offending the Grand Duke during the year when the Grand Duke is any of these four animals.

In any other year, it is not considered an actual offending of the Grand Duke.

Everyone else has a Get out of Jail Card okay?