Back in the 1960s, folk singer Len Chandler wrote a song called “Time of the Tiger” (there is a link to that song at the end of this post). It begins: “This is the time of the tiger/Here alone as he lays with the lamb/The tiger’s just flexing his muscles/The tiger’s just licking his fangs.”

That may be a good metaphor for the upcoming Year of the Tiger, which begins on February 1, 2022. There can be periods that seem calm and placid, but beneath that surface is a wild animal that may lash out violently at any time.

As you probably know, Oriental astrology is based on a cycle of 12 years, each of which is named after an animal. The order of the years in each cycle is: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit or Cat, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat or Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig. The coming year is the third in the cycle that began in 2020.

The Year of the Rat (2020) was a troubling one with the onset of the Covid pandemic and a contentious presidential election in the United States. The Year of the Ox (2021) continued those same problems as certain Republicans pushed “the Big Lie” that the election had been marred by fraud and COVID-19 intensified through a number of variants. We could only hope that the Year of the Tiger would be better, but I’m not convinced that it will. I think we are in for another difficult year in a difficult cycle. Continue reading →