Time to celebrate the Year of the Fire Horse.  Chinese astrologers say to get set for a year of change, turmoil and the need to hang on to a sense of balance.  If you’re an American expecting that already, the Chinese stargazers are telling us it could get worse.

In the Lunar calendar, which marks the beginning of spring in Asia, the Year of the Fire Horse occurs only once every 60 years. You may ask how that’s possible when the 12 animals in the Chinese Zodiac —  rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog and pig — rotate through a 12-year cycle. 

The Chinese calendar uses the 60-year Sexagenary Cycle and combines five elements — wood, fire, earth, metal and water — with each of the animals. So while the horse returns every 12 years, the fire horse returns only every 60 years.

The horse itself is the seventh animal in the cycle and represents freedom and passion. But adding the fire element suggests innovation and change and maybe upheaval.  The China Morning Post reports the Fire Horse can bring chaos, as it did in 1966 when the Cultural Revolution created a decade of turmoil and violence and the Vietnam War raged.

In Taiwan, the Tapei Times interviewed Wisdom Tsai, who reads the omens and offers predications. He too spoke of turmoil and cautioned the importance of balancing bad energy with “inner balance,”  Tsai told the Times that “luck-boosting is really a form of life management.” 

Seems like we might need a lot of luck-boosting life management this year.