Lunar New Year of the Wood Dragon
2024 is the lunar new year of the Wood Dragon. The lunar new year of the Wood Dragon begins this year on Saturday at the new moon (February 10) and ends at the full moon Lantern Festival (Saturday, February 24).
Wood indicates calmness, loyalty, and reliability and Dragons are endowed with leadership abilities and revolutionary ideas. The dragon is an auspicious, mysterious and extraordinary creature of talent and excellence, symbolizing power, nobility, honor, good fortune, blessings and success. A Dragon year is an opportune year, containing both change and challenge (which the dragon always overcomes).
Wood Dragon is a year of intelligence, courage, enthusiasm and confidence. Unafraid of challenges, often taking risks, dragons break away from tradition, paving the way for a new creative future. In Chinese culture, the dragons are powerful and majestic. They are spirited leaders. Ancient emperors of China often regarded themselves as the Dragon, the Son of Heaven.
In Chinese element theory, each sign is associated with one of five elements: Gold (Metal), Wood, Water, Fire, or Earth. Thus, five types of Dragons each with different characteristics. A person’s characteristics are decided by their birth year’s zodiac animal sign and element. The Wood Dragon is like a Scorpio or Pisces – they are introverted, and it takes a long time to create trust in relationships. Wood Dragons are more diligent, dedicated and careful in life than the other dragons, their enthusiasm is often cloaked and hidden.
Auspicious are gold, yellow, red and deep lavender. In the garden and around the door of the home, it’s good to plant bleeding heart flowers (Lamprocapnos spectabilis) and dragon flowers (snapdragons – Antirrhinum).
Dragons especially love the Chinese signs of rat, monkey and rooster. Dragons are journalists, teachers, architects, engineers. Famous Dragon people – Charles Darwin (February 12, 1809), Earth Dragon; Bruce Lee (November 27, 1940), Gold Dragon; John Lennon (October 9, 1940) Gold Dragon; Vladimir Putin (October 7, 1952), Water Dragon.
Dragon Years – 2024, 2012, 2000, 1988, 1976, 1964, 1952.The Dragon is the fifth animal sign in the Chinese zodiacal cycle. It’s fun to draw dragons. Children’s drawings are best. We too can draw like a child. We also begin to gather our lanterns for the Lantern Festival.
ARIES: Try and try again with all endeavors. However, don’t expect anything to come to fruition until after the April eclipse. You can have many trial runs, planning and perfecting activities that highlight creativity, which will be inner focused and not outwardly seen. Maintaining optimism, being fully constructive and encouraging the self and others will create a most helpful atmosphere and environment. Do not think failure on any level. Think preparation.
TAURUS: Everything will be about the correct foundations being created and stabilized, about patience being recognized as an asset and redoing everything if at first the work is not prepared with the needed perfection, harmony and balance. Perhaps you’re building a greenhouse. Give yourself and others working with you more than ample time to make sure all parts are safely intact. Many may ask your reasoning for such exactness and precision. You may remain silent or give a lesson on beauty and order. Lifting everything to the Kings of Beauty.
GEMINI: Life, people, communication, the mail, correspondence, messages – all will seem to be filled with rules and laws and this leads to difficulty as you are more of a free spirit in life. Mars is in Capricorn and it’s asking you to follow-through with thoughts, ideas, and plans that remain incomplete. It could be that patience is in short supply. What you must do is small tasks, undemanding and repetitive, including repeating information over and over. You will find your way through these interesting obstructions. You’re clever, a wizard, a trickster and sometimes the fool in Tarot.
CANCER: You may attempt to do many different projects during this time and not just one. But you realize multi-tasking doesn’t work. You don’t want to waste time, which is something you may feel is occurring. Follow up on every endeavor with care and effort. Monetarily make no changes and do not output more money than is the usual. Conserve your energy and resources and instead of action, create long term plans that you can implement the second half of the year. Create a journal where what you value is recorded and see if these values change as the year unfolds. Your garden is of value.
LEO: You find you want to change your looks, how people see you. There may be a feeling of impatience when energies, thoughts, ideas, contacts sent out into the world don’t seem to make much impact. The energies you are working with now are internal and from the past (south node) and so adjustments have to be made in how you interpret other people’s responses or non-responses. Careful with fire and sharp tools in daily life. Guard your head and face. Don’t push any river, person, event, plan or yourself. Be the tortoise, not the hare.
VIRGO: Many Virgos will go into contemplation, delve into the value of their thought processes, their conscious and subconscious minds. They may read up on Jung and archetypes, symbols, myths and Joseph Campbell books ‘til mid-year and emerge with an entirely new and different aspect on religion, spirituality and their place in the world. In between reading, assess all possessions and clean closets, garages, art spaces, drawers, shelves and under all furniture so that your places are purified and perfected, ordered and orderly – qualities that belong to you completely. The invisible world is with you the entire time.
LIBRA: Everyone’s in the same boat of realizing the world and time has accelerated. In the meantime, with this is a bit of confusion, people feeling they are not keeping up. So not much is getting done, things seem like they’re failing and falling, and group work and friends and even hopes and visions for the future seem somewhat hard pressed, difficult and, at times, carried away to… well, we don’t quite know where. It’s time to have fun, to generate parties and pastimes that dislodge any prevailing blues. Only you can initiate this. Make the gatherings plentiful and often till spring comes. Valentine’s Day is soon.
SCORPIO: It is not time to appear in the world and assume a leadership position. It is time, though, to build a firm foundation, to plan and strategize what your purpose and work truly is in the world. Consider how you want to be seen and recognized and what gifts you will bring forth. Study those you admire, those you would mentor, and those whose success reflects your aspirations. After tending to self, turn to the world and think of how to serve others. This takes the focus away from competition, survival, losing or winning. This is a time of repositioning your creative ideals and anchoring them in your heart.
SAGITTARIUS: Your goals… what are they really? Not outer goals specifically but inner ones for these are what propel you toward the direction that is yours alone. It is your pathway to discover, to keep and later to lead from. It is possible you have already discovered this path and become devoted to it. Once this Path is revealed you will march forward with focused will, strength, courage and determination. Mars is the inner arrow in the bow of the Archer. Mars reveals your values and virtues. The arrow of Mars is now on the Capricorn mountaintop, the place of Initiation. You stand in the light supernal. You have become the unicorn.
CAPRICORN: Your inner life at this time is of tremendous importance. You will encounter a new state of identity, that of the Path walker. Along the way, take care with how money in your hands is spent. Always have a list of how the money was spent, where and why. It is an excellent time to renew, reawaken, revive, relight and rekindle your most intimate relationship. This will set a new foundation for years to come. And it will be what sustains you in the changing times. Do you need new shoes? Research, assess and purchase shoes that best comfort your feet.
AQUARIUS: It’s important to offer Goodwill to all friends, relationships, partnerships, and those who work around you. Be generous with everyone around you, with those you work with and all you meet, but especially with loved ones. You receive loving generosity in return. Working together in close association can create a strong bond that will assist in rising above possible impatience and frustrations. Realize that success is linked to all parties attempting compromise and Right Relations. As the leader, you are to go first. Aquarians are the mentors of humanity.
PISCES: Create and maintain a regular schedule, one that doesn’t change often, but provides you with constancy, dependability and reliability. You will be called to work overtime which could stress you physically and emotionally. Tend to your work early, don’t try to work too long. Walk around the neighborhood often each day. Everything is in a state of realigning on inner and outer levels, all around the world. Think of everything as an experiment, which it is. It’s stated in Ancient Wisdom texts that when one is in an Initiation they are often alone. Remain poised. Each night, reviewing the day, know that the day was good.
Risa – writer, educator, teacher, psychological-spiritual counselor, mentor, astrologer & esotericist. Founder & Director of The Esoteric & Astrological Studies & Research Institute/College, a contemporary Wisdom School (center for spiritual discourse & study) for the Ageless Wisdom teachings. Foundations of the Teachings are the study & application of exoteric & esoteric Astrology, the Seven Rays, Theosophy, Esotericism, all religions, art, science & Raja Yoga meditation. risagoodwill@gmail.com www.nightlightnews.org/ Astrological, esoteric, day-to-day news – art, literature, psychology, the cosmos, consciousness, philosophy, history, religion, economics, geography & cultural journalism.