January 31st was the new moon and the start of a new lunar cycle. The Chinese celebrated the new lunar year on February 1st, which gives us an opportunity to revisit the meaning of the year 2022. Will this year celebrate our collective return into some sort of normalcy? Or will this year prove itself to be yet another challenge to overcome? What is the year of the water tiger meaning for you?
2020 was about discovering and confronting the result of what we created, known as karma. 2021 was about exploring and clearing our subconscious, known as shadow work. What is 2022 really about?
The year of the Water Tiger
According to the Chinese tradition, 2022 is a water tiger year. The water tiger is associated with good health and well-being. It symbolizes courage, confidence, and strength, and brings about change. The energy of the water tiger encourages us to overcome challenges and difficulties and gives us opportunities to renew everything, particularly our energy and strength. There is similar symbolism in Vedic and Toltec teachings about an opportunity this year to experience our own power.
In Chinese cosmology, the tiger is an animal that expels all evil and is associated with destruction. Tigers can fill us with fear, but the power to expel evil makes it worth being courageous. Remember that ‘courageous’ comes from the French ‘coeur’ which means heart. When you lead from your heart, you’ll find that you can own your personal power and use it to destroy lies, denials, and illusions that are holding you back. In fact, this how you regain your power to create beauty and harmony in your life.
Looking at our own strengths
There is a really important step of our development at play here, one which involves looking inward at our strengths. This is different than the kind of strengths we rattle off in a job interview. These strengths are related to our personal core essence, how we operate in the world and how the world responds to us. To understand our relationship with personal power on the deepest level, we have to ask hard questions.
– “What is my relationship to power, especially my personal power?”
– “What will I do with my personal power?”
– “Have I abused my personal power before?”
A community of inner work
In the community of those who have done inner work for many years, 2022 is about showing up and making a difference. It is about being fully present in real life. The task is to put into practice what has been learned for so long, and use it to empower daily life. Maybe empowerment is personal development like meditation, or community development like volunteering. Whatever the form, 2022 is a leadership year even if you’ve never thought of yourself as a leader. This is because leadership is just a result of being empowered from within, and years of inner work can be the most empowering practice there is.
What will you make 2022 about for yourself?
Regardless of whether or not you’ve done inner work in the past, you can look beyond the basic dualistic question “Is 2022 a good year or a bad year?” and decide for yourself what you want to make the year about. You get to answer the questions:
– “What is my inner work going to be in 2022?”
– “Where is the guidance around me leading me to?”
– “How is the universe asking me to evolve and change so I can play my role in the best possible way?”
You are not your story of pain and suffering
And along with self-empowerment, 2022 is an opportunity to break the victim/perpetrator duality that has been pervasive for so long. Humanity has crossed a threshold to be able to see itself in different terms, and letting go of the victim/perpetrator duality means letting go of the pain and suffering that accompany it. It is possible for everyone, regardless of circumstances, to reach a state of inner freedom from pain and suffering.
To reach this state of inner freedom, you need to understand that you are not your story of pain and suffering. In reality, you are an eternal soul, pure and full of light, on its path of evolution. Many blessings on your path of evolution.
Resources
Learn more about how to benefit from the energies of 2022 at Toltec Empire: New Year on March 12, Toltec Empire: 5 Days That Can Change Your Life, DAYS OF THE DEAD: Ancestral Healing & Conscious Dying, and How the Coming Week Helps You Answer the Question “What to do with my life?”
Learn more about healing and consciousness at Inner Treasure Hunt. If you liked this post, you can subscribe to the Inner Treasure Hunt newsletter to stay informed about new posts, programs, and events.
Learn more about Chinese cosmology of the water tiger at Wikipedia.
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