In Part One of this series on Ren Chen 2012, the discussion focused on the pillar of Ren Chen itself. This of course cannot really be a sensible approach to evaluating a year if utilised singularly. Although I personally loath the saying ‘one swallow doesn’t make a summer’ in this particular case, the saying is perhaps apropos although I would prefer to paraphrase it as ‘one pillar does not make a year’. Further, given that we have the means in which to to establish a clearly look at the year by looking at it’s ‘birthday’ as it were, it seems quite silly to utilise an assessment of the pillar alone to determine the outlook for a given year. As such, Part Two will be looking at the BaZi for the year, at 4.2.2012, Hour of the Rooster. 

As was done in 2011 and 2010 my analysis of the BaZi of the year will consist of two parts: a Thematic Approach and a Conventional interpretation of the chart as if it were the person. For those who missed it,  “The concept behind a thematic approach is to study the Year Pillar AND the chart, and identify themes or big ideas that run through it”.

As per previous format, first comes the braindump and then I’ll attempt to make some sense of the blast of data.

The first thing that we do is to look at the BaZi for the year and determine what is interesting.

(Interesting is difficult to define but can be essentially described as ‘what jumps out at you’)

Of note to me here is that the Stems appear to show a uniform progression – Water growing Wood (壬 to 乙) , whilst the Branches actually reveal no particular interactions of note. This is of course, quite unlike 2011, which had one clear combination at the year end and a sandwich effect between the Month and Year Branches as a result of the Fu Yin. In 2012, the year Branches reveal a connection between the Year Branch 辰 and the Hour Branch 酉, and a seasonal commonality between the Year and Month Branches – both Dragon and Tiger belong to the season of Wood.

The first impression of this chart honestly is ho-hum. Nothing much to really get excited about and pretty sort of snooze really. However, upon exercising a few brain cells, maybe there is more than meets the eye. Here’s a sort of stream of consciousness list of thoughts:

• Double Yi and Double Ren on top with particularly double Ren coming at the start of the year. Ren itself is the great expanse of water, but also represents movement and energy. Yi is the subtle twines, representing superficial beauty and appearances but also gives rise to the perception of fingers in many pies. This strongly suggests a year filled with lots of window dressing and frenetic activity – economically and politically speaking, this suggests a massive push of economic initiatives at the start of the year (what else is new, especially in a major election year) followed by an anemic sort of window dressing – the proverbial fig leaves covering the nakedness of empty policies as it were. 
• Further, Ren => Yi is not real growth as it were since Ren does a lousy job growing Yi – Gui is better for nurturing the twines – when was the last time you saw anything growing beside a waterfall eh? Translated into an economic context, this MAY (and I want to emphasise, may since I am no seer) suggest a mismatch or just plain misguided efforts to achieve economic stimulus or the use of unnatural methods in which to achieve a raft of goals that are neither common nor unified in any way.
• Double Ren Double Yi on top suggests that we will get two polar opposite type responses to most situations – either an extremely muscular response (Ren remember is the great Tsunami) or an extremely subtle response (Yi after all being the consummate survivalist). As such, expect government responses to global events to be either extremely severe or extremely manipulative/subtle/insidious, ala Yi Wood.
• The presence of Double Yi and Double Ren could be interpreted to indicate an increased widening of the Us vs Them mentality around the world. 
• The Four Pillars of 2012 bi-sect in a sense – Ren on one side, Yi on the other. Extreme Yang on one side, Extreme Yin on the other side. In both instances, you see Power paired with Wealth – Yi Wei sits on Wealth, Ren Yin has Wealth in Growth, Yi You sits on 7 Killings, Ren Chen sits on 7 Killings. However, there is collusion between the Power parties (Yi You and Ren Chen has a combination) whereas the Wealth parties have little connect. This could suggest governments of the world ARE able to get their acts together and figure out what needs to be done or what has to be achieved economically BUT there is no buy in or little cooperation from private enterprise, business or the economic players on a global scale. As an example, governments may be able to conclude FTAs or even find that the World Trade Talks go brilliantly and they are all in agreement about what needs to be done but when governments go home and try to enforce against their individual economic powerhouses, the effects are less consistent.
• 2012 will be a year where we see soft power working at its hardest but there will be two types of soft power at work. Soft power in the form of adapting and soft power in the form of manipulating/cajoling.  Ren ultimately is a form of soft power because Water is adaptive and flexible (hard power really would be something like Geng). Yi of course, is the ultimate form of soft power – manipulative but in search of the win-win.
• The Year and the Hour are in combination – Year represents the global sentiment (the biggest possible thing out there, is represented by the year, and the world is as big as it gets) whilst the Hour represents the population and average Joe. In 2012, more and more people will feel that the events of the world at large have a greater impact on them as individuals. The economy is a good example of this – typically when a slowdown occurs, it begins with a select group feeling the effects, before the trickle down becomes so evident that everyone. In stock market parlance, this is when the vegetable sellers and housewife aunties get into the stockmarket and everyone and your uncle is talking about the stockmarket. 2012 will be the year when EVERYONE thinks the global economy somehow affects them, even if the reality is that their significant is so minor, that the global economy doesn’t actually directly affect them. In the same vein, it could be said that 2012 will be the year when humans truly celebrate and recognise the concept of HUMANITY. In other words, we, the little average normal people, realise, that hey, at the end of the day, we’re all people and that the only thing we can put our faith into is each other and maybe world peace because we sure can’t trust governments. Notably Dragon-Rooster as a Combination produces Metal, which is the element that denotes justice, suggesting a year when causes that involve fairness and equality for all, will be the ones that capture the public imagination. So 2012 may well not be the year when governments dominant the agendas eventhough there are re-elections going on in four major superpowers – instead, look for 2012 to be the year of the NGO or possibly even the United Nations.
• Agent Provocateurs remain in the picture this year – Yi You in the Hour indicates flare-ups that will occur either in the economy or in global political events, caused by the proverbial opportunistic shit-stirrer. Thus, the end of 2012 will most likely bring about some kind of unpleasant surprise again by way of political change although as it is a Peach Blossom Star involved, perhaps we may get a late in the year sex scandal instead (possibly from one of the US presidential candidates).
• It is interesting that in both the pillars that relate to Wealth (壬 寅 and 乙 未 – 乙酉 and 壬 辰 relate to Power）we have the presence of the Eating God Star of Ren and Yi. (For the confused, Ren’s Eating God is Jia, Yi’s Eating God is Ding). This is relevant in two respects methinks: firstly, 7 Killing is present but is reigned in by the Eating God. So, this possibly suggests that Governments (who else can 7K represent) are being reigned in by Economic Industry, by way of moderating the amounts of change that is envisaged. But it also suggests the levers of power are being pulled behind the scenes, away from the prying eyes of the crowds (esp since both Eating God Stars lurk within the Sub-Qi of the two branches). Secondly, the presence of the Eating God Star in the Wealth components of both the Ren and Yi denotes a change towards a more long-term outlook perhaps in terms of economic innovation and economic activity, as well as a return to basics or the old fashioned way of doing things.

There have been comments about an ‘implied’ 卯 Mao (Rabbit) in the chart due to the presence of the 寅 Tiger (Yin) and 辰 Dragon (Chen). My initial reaction would be to disagree with this assertion because the presence of the 酉 Rooster and 辰 Dragon, both which have negative interactions with the Rabbit, serve to repel the Rabbit. Further, whilst the presence of the 未Goat (Wei) together with the Tiger and Dragon is strongly suggestive of the Rabbit’s presence, I hold the view that the presence of the Goat alone is not enough to justify the attraction of the Rabbit. I also do not take the view that the presence of Tiger and Dragon results in a Rabbit being implied. Had the Hour of this chart been a Pig (Hai), then I think this could be argued, but on a 50-50 basis (Tiger-Dragon + Goat pulling, Dragon-Rooster pushing), when it comes to implied Branches, I take the view that one should presume against, rather than presume in favour. 

However, if we are to presume in favour of the implication of a Rabbit in the chart, then we must adopt an interpretation that takes into account the negative interactions that occur as a result of the presence of Rooster and Dragon in the chart. That means, insidious Clash (卯 x 酉) and insidious Harm (卯 Harms 辰). This is a more realistic interpretation than merely reading the presence of the Rabbit into the chart.

Insidious clash and insidious Harm is not in my view, something we want to see. Broadly, this suggests that there will be subtle betrayal going on through the year, and that it will relate necessarily to legal matters – for example, governments making laws that claim reform but in reality, are threaded (ah, the Yi) with a strand of reactionary elements. Reform that actually ends up being backloaded with various sweetheart deals or deals that essentially ultimately go against the spirit of the change. Watered down legislation is the best we’ll get – at worse, it will be rape and pillage under the guise of reform. The presence of Yi You in the Hour particularly strengthens the conclusion of insidious betrayal in the year.

Note: because we are not yet co-relating the exact elements with the 10 Gods, the precision of the interpretation is not there yet. Remember, we’re thinking big picture themes here. 

So, after all that lengthy theoretical discussion, it comes down to the actual determination of the theme of the year – the big idea as it were.

In 2010 and 2011, the theme was Againstness in both years, with this theme becoming magnified in 2011, after being foreshadowed strongly in 2010. In 2012, I think the theme will be about the divide between Us and Them. A natural in many respects, continuation of Againstness. The issues that pissed people off in 2010 and 2011, now have sub-issues and people are taking sides. 

Us vs Them is subtly different from the concept of Againstness. Againstness implies opposition but does not affirm division. Us vs Them is a clear sign of division, the proverbial ‘House Divided’ that Abraham Lincoln aluded to. Us vs Them can be defined on many levels – the magnification of the divide between the Haves and the Have Nots is probably going to be most prominent along with the Empowered and the Disenfranchised. (as determined by the presence of Power and Wealth as the two prominent elements in the chart).  

Since there are two versions of soft power in operation in the year, again, there is a sense of Us vs Them again on the political level – adapting to circumstances to find equilibrium (Machiavellian soft power) or manipulating the situation for win-win (different kind of Machiavellian) will compete as the methods for resolving problems in the world. Allow Iran to have nuclear power if Israel has it too. Or pay Iran to not have nuclear power? 

Us and Them I think will also manifest between government and industry, as we clearly see little connect between the Wealth and Power components of the year.

However, governments (I am talking at the G12 level or WTO or UN level) will do its best to appear to not be the Them in the Us vs Them equation when it comes to the public – the Dragon-Rooster Combination would appear to suggest that governments will want to portray a sense of solidarity with the Us that are complaining, and shove the Them blame to someone else. But in the end (sic, the Rooster subtly clashing Rabbit), we will find that the parties that we thought were in solidarity with each other, were actually playing each other out. 

2012: the year of Us vs Them, a House Divided.