New Year of the Green Horse forecasts for 2014

Happy new year of the Green Horse, folks! There's great guidance for the economy and finances, as well as international relations, health, and personal life from experienced five-elements and Chinese astrology practitioners. Analysts and students of cycles will also enjoy learning what this ancient system offers. So here's an introduction to the New Year of the Green Horse!

While the Chinese New Year began yesterday (January 31) this time, February 4 starts the Green Horse Year. The horse is a strong animal, which can be tamed, but one must be very careful because it can also be stubborn. If it becomes angry, then look out - and since this one has the wood (green) energy of new beginnings, it can also be characterized by jealousy and anger. All things have positive and negative aspects. So it's good to harmonize with and benefit from the positive aspects, and take steps to mitigate the negative aspects.

Raymond Lo, an experienced and respected practitioner of Fengshui which is directly related to this ancient system of astrology, the Taiji Tu, yin-yang and the Five Element cycles, includes the following guidance about markets and the economy this year:

"The wood fire element of 2014 is expected to bring prosperity to water industries and metal industries; this is because water conquers fire, so the fire element is a symbol of money to the water industry, which includes shipping, transport, communications. The second best industries could be metal, as metal conquers wood, so wood is money to metal industry. Also metal needs fire to melt it into useful tools and the fire horse is present. Metal industries are hi tech, banking, machinery, cars, engineering. Wood industry is also positive as wood produces fire, so it will be an active year for wood elements such as textile, clothing, magazine, paper, books and environmental industry. The not so good industry is fire. Fire industries are energy, restaurant, finance, entertainment, in a fire year, this industry will be very active, but competition is also very strong and the fire snake brings many competitors in the scene."

The above paragraph is from Raymond Lo's site at
http://www.raymond-lo.com/news/100041/year-of-the-horse-2014. He further states:

"Banking and financial tsunami that started in 2008 is mostly triggered by the absence of fire elements and the dominating water element which generated fear. Banking is Metal and it needs fire to melt it into useful tools. And finance and stock market are more related to fire which generates optimism. As such, the total absence of fire element in 2008 is responsible for the slowdown in economy and the banking crisis. However, the real fire year returns in 2014 therefore we see strong recovery of the economy and steady improvement in optimism. This optimism lasted into 2015 as the wood horse is very powerful fire and continues to drive up the market.

"In summary, the industries that will perform well in the year of the Horse will be industries related to Metal and Water elements. Metal industries are banking, machinery, engineering, computer, and high tech industries. Water element is referring to transport, communications and shipping, drinks, and spa. Wood industry will be moving ahead with conservatism; wood sees fire as productivity but sees wood as competition. Wood industries are textile, environment, paper, and news media. Fire industries are energy, finance and entertainment, it may not be doing very well as their money element metal is absent and the strong fire means keen competition in the financial market."

http://www.raymond-lo.com/news/100041/year-of-the-horse-2014

Be sure to read Raymond Lo's full article for more useful information on all aspects of life during this year.

If you're so inclined, you can also find information on Chinese astrology, and calculators for determining your own specific birth chart, then you can find such information at other websites too. One example (I'm sure there are others) is a popular-level site about Chinese astrology at http://www.chinesefortunecalendar.com/2014ChineseHoroscope.htm. I do recommend learning about these cycles, including the Five Elements system, one's own birth chart (and those of family members where appropriate to help them), at least for health reasons if nothing else. For example, in this year the metal (lungs, skin, and immune system) and wood (liver and eyes) aspects will be challenged, but different individuals are always affected different ways and amounts because of their individual combinations of the elements.