If you know me personally, if you know me well, anything having to do with rats/mice have me high on furniture, freely sharing my vocal range and looking for a hero. These details of my life are revealed to anyone that gets close.
I was dismayed a few years ago when a colleague confirmed I indeed had Rat in my chart. There’s lots of details as to what it means to have Rat in your chart and Chinese Astrology and Geomancy that I won’t really go into here. It’s so big and full of lots of little parts that I won’t break down in this blog. However, you can read more about this particular Rat year, (which is that it is the start of a whole new sixty year cycle and a twelve year rotation). Basically a big change is coming, one little detail at a time!
How do we live the details of life? It might be the Year of the Rat that finally scares me into some of the nitty gritty of my own. What have you been avoiding? Cause this might be the year for you too, connecting with the energies of cycles is the foundation of Chinese Medicine, why not ride the wave?
Twelve years ago I worked with Cecelia. I was needing to shift my relationship with my life and where I was living. I lived in an apartment in a neighbourhood that I adored. It was unfortunately owned by someone who didn’t love it like I did, and the place was crawling with (ironically) mice and cockroaches. I wasn’t sleeping, going to acupuncture school, on a pretty tight budget and didn’t really want to move. I had no idea it was the year of the Rat.
Cecelia asked me to look in my cupboards, the corners, the closets, all the dark spaces. It was extremely terrifying for me. Part of my work then, twelve years ago, in the last year of the Rat, was to look into the places that not everyone looks, figuratively and literally.
So, I did. I got brave, looked and gained so much more control over my life. For the last twelve years I’ve continued this inquiry. Looking into the scary parts of myself and whatever else scares me. Though as one does, at some point I lost momentum, got overwhelmed and forgot this strength of the Rat.
This is one of the gifts this animal brings us. It lives in the dark spaces, it pays attention to the details there and it is able to deal with it all piece by piece. This is the energy I hope to harness. Another thing the Rat brings us is the knowledge that we don’t do it alone, community and working together is everything.
It’s been getting clearer for me that there are two big areas of my life that I’ve been avoiding. Here’s an exercise, as Rat is about doing shit together, do this with me…
Sit up straight, plant your feet to the floor, take a deep breath, let it go with a sigh, take another deep breath and release s l o w l y.
Make yourself small, like a tiny mouse. Walk into a room of your life, your house, your relationships, your work, your family, your heart/mind.
Take another breath. Where are you avoiding? What is scaring you? What appears too big to manage?
Imagine you are not one, imagine you are many. Remind yourself of the support you have around you that helps divide the physical, emotional or financial load. Begin with one piece. And piece by piece imagine that you are able to break the big into bite size chunks.
See yourself dealing with each little piece one by one and when you need a break you go to a friend, family, community member or another inner dimension of yourself that comforts you and allows you to rest.
Rest some and come back to do it again, little bit by little bit.
The Rat starts the twelve year cycle. (There’s a cute story about how it cunningly made it to the first spot in this link read more ) It comforts me to know that it’s not expected to have everything accomplished in one year. However, it’s a good place to start. Looking at the foundation; seeing where the blind spots are, approaching it all one piece at a time, taking stock of the resources, numbers and floor plan to get building for the next twelve years.
Are you ready? This year I am committed to leaning into my community, becoming my own hero and from a small determined place facing the big mountains I’ve been avoiding.
Here comes the Rat!