Overview
For the Monkey, the Ox evokes suspicion—and for good reason. Any time someone is certain of their position, your curiosity is peaked. The metal Ox is as convinced as they come. The Ox’s general world view is just a little too tidy for you not to poke a stick at. Now, this metal Ox year can be pretty tolerant of your line of questioning. But you’ll certainly cross a serious line at some point.
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While you won’t be easy for the metal Ox to catch, your contrarian tendencies could eventually make you the target of a heavy authority you can’t avoid—with real consequences. In the process of minding your own business and simply pointing out inconsistencies in the metal Ox’s reasoning, you may find yourself in some serious trouble.
Seriously though, be sure not to take the metal Ox’s accommodation to mean there isn’t a stick waiting if things don’t come to conformity. From your seat, the metal Ox is here to enforce an arbitrary convention of control. But that also means your style of creative problem-solving is out.
No one is asking your opinion this year. Best to put your talents into securing personal stability, such as a good hideout to retreat to. As long as you’re not in the way or making noise through an unsanctioned protest, the metal Ox is content to leave you alone. Get used to not attracting attention to yourself this year. That’s a talent you’re going to need when the Tiger’s year comes around next.
Love
In the metal Ox year, the diversity of choices you normally have in your love life will be reduced significantly. The Ox doesn’t support the free-wheeling single life. In reality, Monkeys may appear evasive but are very familiar with commitment. They just don’t always choose it with regularity. Even if you’re in a long-term partnership, it’s this imaginary flexibility and flirtation you enjoy that serves as a pressure value on your relationships and keeps things from feeling too static. So, you’re not as much of a player as you like to pretend you are.
However, this year, the number of available roles you have to play will want to shrink and become firmer in their expectations. Dating will feel more like courtship and courtship will seek formality. In partnerships, clocks are ticking loudly. So, whether you’re ready for these transitions or not, what you’ll feel most aware of is that every decision has unavoidable consequences. There won’t be any half measures or ambiguity that you can use to invent something brilliant. The weight of responsibility that partnership can naturally bring will be square upon you. Best to accept that you’re at a crossroads (and that crossroads make you nervous).
The intensity of such decision-making will be most profound in the third and fourth moon—and then again in the seventh moon and autumn. Try not to leave anyone at the altar. Consider an intimate ceremony in early winter.
Family & Friends
As a Monkey, you are very sensitive to the slightest shifts in the social fabric that surrounds you. Being in touch in this way is one of the principal skills that define you as an individual. Like a spider’s web, your senses and imagination reach far and wide with curiosity. You are a master at anticipating change. Usually, this gives you enormous adaptability in most social environments. As you push, pull, and dance, you’re able to use the feedback you receive to place yourself where you want to be most of the time. In your vision, nothing is truly static or fixed—not even your close ties, friendships, or acquaintances.
Yet, with the kind of thickness and density that metal Ox Qi brings this year, it could make it very hard to anticipate behavior or see changes coming. This is troubling. In the metal Rat year, you were at sea—responding with great fluidity to the shifting tides of perspectives and various social connections. In the metal Ox year, your feet are firmly on shore and it will take some time to adapt to this lack of stimulation. The notion of “what you see is what you get” makes you twitchy.
Get used to the idea of retreat and go cold turkey where you can. Go high up the tree to a place known and accessible only to a handpicked number of your close and vetted tribe. It will be important for you to know who has your back this year.
Work
Those Monkeys lucky enough to employ their creative gifts in a well-established vocation can use their work life to hide in plain sight this year. The metal Ox deeply respects your dedication—particularly as you make constructive contributions to long-standing traditions. So, there could be some narrow avenues for your inventive skills to express. By reasonably connecting the dots between the expectations of the role and how you embody it, you avoid scrutiny. But navigating criticism from purists is likely to be the kind of tightrope you’re walking this year. The metal Ox’s tendency toward rigidity and quality control could bring some friction for you.
So, expect your satisfaction with this experience to exist on a continuum and be prepared to reside at both ends of the spectrum. If your work atmosphere is generally not prone to any kind of free form or unsupervised movement—and favors the middle ground of routine—expect your dissatisfaction and feelings of suffocation to rise this year. Beware micromanagement. This could be good information and something to consider changing before the Tiger year comes to turn that suffocation into panic.
Gauge your situation carefully in the third and fourth moon. Do your best not to overreact. There won’t be much flexibility for you to create a dramatic move, so you’ll have to wait to see if one comes to you. A calm transition is actually one you can trust this year. Otherwise, if you can use your flexibility to keep the ball rolling in the right direction, consider this a victory.
Money
Special attention should be paid to the skillful management of your resources, with an emphasis on saving. Like most things for you this year, collecting resources is one way you’re preparing for the Tiger year. You’re preparing for the moments when unforeseen events can destabilize you significantly. In such cases, it will be good to have a soft place to land or a material cushion to fall back on. Do double the work now so that you can do half the work then. Metal Oxen do not fear Tigers. Use the stability and security that this year provides to give you insight on how to fortify your situation.
The metal Ox casts a long shadow of protection. Sure, it’s stuffy. But if you know how to make friends with it—prioritizing frugality and a persevering work ethic—you can gather what you need to navigate the Tiger’s year of 2022. You’ll then acquire money management skillsets in the process. Never hurts to have another set of tools in the box of tricks!
With any luck, the metal Rat should have already conditioned you for this transition toward conservation. Pairing back your excesses and providing a focus on what is essential for you, the Rat should have given you a tremendous recalibration toward maturity. Your industriousness will be very impressive in the seventh and eighth moons. Make it count toward longevity. Avoid fast money. Not only will fast money fail, but it could also cost you resources in the process! You don’t want to start over this year. Best to build your reserves slow and even.