Fire Horse: A Year of Living Dangerously
Nuevo Mundo, October 1919, artwork by Enrique Varela de Seijas
The Chinese Year of the Fire Horse officially began at the New Moon on 17 February, which also happened to be a solar eclipse. At the same time, the god of horses, Neptune, rears and strikes sparks at the very start of the Western zodiac — 0° Aries, ready to gallop into the future. On 20 February, Saturn conjoined Neptune at that starting line. These two will stay tight until the momentous equinox now, at which point they are joined by the Sun himself. It’s a time of endings and beginnings for sure.
There are 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac, which rotate through a 12 year cycle. And there are five elements — earth, fire, metal, water, wood — which rotate through the signs — so you get Fire Horse, Wood Horse etc. This means that the year of the Fire Horse comes only every 60 years. The last Fire Horse year was 1966.
Fire Horse years have quite the reputation in Chinese astrology. They are said to be dangerous, fast, transformative, unlucky, edgy, bringing social upheaval, fighting and change. We have to run to keep up. In particular, women born in a Fire Horse year were thought to be unruly, undisciplined, headstrong, powerful.
You could sum up the story of 1966 in one phrase “the generation gap”. In China itself, this manifested through the purges of the Cultural Revolution, during which, students and school children were encouraged to bully and beat their elders, and many people were killed. In the West, the counterculture took off in 1966 — and it seemed to a bewildered older generation that the baby boomers were running amok; their music, social mores, politics, comic books, art. Youth wanted to be youthful. In Africa, young countries were sending home the old colonialists, although this was also the year that a western-backed coup removed Kwameh Nkrumah as president of Ghana. The old colonialists were changing their masks and fighting back.
Bum by Pauline Bothy, 1966
It was a groundbreaking year for art and culture. Just think of the albums that were recorded — Revolver, the Doors, Coltrane’s Watershed, Pet Sounds, Soul Sister, Ravi Shankar, multiple Motown chef d’oeuvres. So much of the music from that year is stuff we hear all the time, which makes it hard to appreciate just how fresh it must have sounded.
Looking at one small sliver of culture — book publishing in English — you can see some notable firsts. Truman Capote published In Cold Blood, the first real literary true crime book; Anais Nin published the first volume of the explicit diaries that would make her a household name; English magical realist Angela Carter published her first novel Shadow Dance which was the start of a short but dazzling writing career; the first novel of a young Peruvian writer called Mario Vargas Llosa was translated into English; an equally young Canadian poet called Margaret Atwood won a prize for her collection The Circle Game; Jean Rhys’ career was brought back from the dead by the publication of her novella Wide Sargasso Sea, which proved that fan fiction could be great literature; Jacqueline Susann published her first novel, Valley of the Dolls, which would become one of the biggest bestsellers ever. Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe wrote a novel about a coup in an African country, which was published a few months prior to a coup in Nigeria itself. And that’s not to mention the science fiction — Asimov, Ballard, Lovecraft, Le Guin, …
So you see, there was an eruption of creativity. Take a look for yourself. Ideas were bubbling, people were experimenting; even while the old men sent young men out to die in Algeria, Vietnam and China, irrepressible youthful energy was sparkling and burning. Culturally, the world that we still live in now — at least in music, fine art and fashion — was being born.
2026
There are some big differences between 1966 and now astrologically. Back then, the outer planets were in a very tough configuration with an incredibly powerful conjunction of Uranus-Pluto in Virgo opposing a conjunction of Chiron-Saturn. Mind you, this was alleviated by a beautiful trine from Neptune in Scorpio, hence perhaps the flowering of art and music.
But this time, Uranus, Pluto, Saturn and Neptune are in harmonious aspects in a beautiful grail shape that stretches from Taurus/Gemini to Aquarius. This holy grail may point the way forward — and, of course, we have the momentous conjunction at 0° Aries — which all the inner planets will be crossing this spring too.
This year, 2026, already, some things, which may have been long held, are flying off in a perning gyre. Long-held illusions are already gone, thanks to the massive file dump in the USA. This rapid unspooling may be dizzying, so try to keep your eyes on the horizon as we gallop into the future. Hold on to your centre — core values, core people, core beliefs. Keep your moral compass steady but be creative, make something new happen in your life. Wrap your hand through your horse’s mane, hold tight, and say yes to life, to passion, to existence, to fate.
Mel Gibson and Linda Hunt star in The Year of Living Dangerously, set in Indonesia in the mid-60s.
The phrase The Year of Living Dangerously is the title of a 1980s Peter Weir movie which is definitely worth a rewatch. It derives from the work of German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche who wrote:
“…the secret for harvesting from existence the greatest fruitfulness and the greatest enjoyment is— to live dangerously!”
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Thank you Christina! I will miss your podcasts… always so thought provoking ❤️
We will miss doing them, but I hope we will come up with another way. Thanks for listening.
Thank you, appreciation
I’ll miss your podcasts with Sally.
Thank you for the information.
This entire … decade? It’s only been 13 months… feels like perning in a gyre 😅
On the New Moon/New Year/Eclipse, Jupiter (in retrograde) was exactly sextile the tightest aspect of the Uranus-Pluto conjunction of 1966, 16 deg Cancer to 16 deg Virgo.
It was last there in the middle of last August. It will return to this point on the Equinox!
Whatever that U-Plu point did in 1966, is likely to be reified and embiggened. What that is may become clearer by that 3rd triggering. I have opinions & ideas, as do we all…
Last August was when the Democratic National Committee shut the voters out of the presidential nominee selection process and, despite having a strong candidate, probably lost themselves the election right then.
What else happened? This isn’t *all* about the US, though we sure seem to throw more than our share of weight around…
A few days after Autumn Equinox this year (Sept 27), the Sun, opposite Neptune; Pluto, trined by the Sun; and Uranus/Sedna trined by the Sun on the other side of the wheel: will all be in the 4th degree, in a super-tight kite.
At its head will be a Full Moon.
Mars, Chiron, and the lunar nodes will all be in the last/first degrees of signs in between the kings.
Speaking of Chiron… transiting Chiron, retrograde at the time, will be within a degree of where Sedna was in 1966.
Sedna appears (so far) to relate to the assaults on life sources — women & girls and the environment we require for food and air. Transiting Sedna will be in the 3rd degree of Gemini, with Uranus in the 6th degree. That key 4th degree is exactly between them, so I see them both being triggered equally by this alignment.
This is going to be transformative a.h., on an absolutely colossal scale! I hope/pray/focus that it means the professional pederasts and polluters meet Chiron and Mars as the tools of the celestial kings, for their assaults on Sedna’s ground. Maybe meet their fates on the horns of the lunar nodes. It’s a timely idea. The Sun and Moon in their brief and intense transits, through such long-loaded space, could bring a lot of things home to roost. SMIB.
Thanks for this Isy. This is absolutely fascinating to see. It does feel as if 1966 is being activated in a way. I remind myself that there were definitely worse years in the 20th centuries, so the Chinese tradition about the Fire Horse is not necessarily completely accurate. With your insights around Sedna, I wonder if this could be a year of angry women ready for a real revolution.
Hi Christina, many thanks for this share and I am old enought to remember this period especially the music and writings. As always i appreciate the beautiful language.
Josef
Thank you Josef.
I, too, will miss your insightful and uplifting podcasts with Sally. They were something I look forward to every month.
Thank you for listening.
I wonder how angry women who’re ready for a Revolution will live that spirit out in action, especially those of us who aren’t naturally media savvy/extrovert/high-profile/outspoken.
Personally I’m raging with disgust and fury at the patriarchy. I would destroy it with my bare hands if only I could.
I have to admit one of the effects of Saturn and Neptune moving into Aries for me has been rage. I feel the same as you.
It’s easy to say we need to organise from the ground up, but not all of us are organisers! And not all of us are politicians. I do think one thing we can do is support the people who are working for change, simply support women, and listen to them. I also think that in our own spheres — say the world of astrology — we need to take a long hard look at the establishment!
Yes, I think really looking at the filth, from Epstein et al downwards, has made me rethink my comatose like acceptance of the big, bad wolves. I’ve felt compelled to change the things I use to clean my house, laundry etc. I’m making my own now, from simple ingredients so I bypass the patriarchy…the Unilever, the Proctor and Gamble…the toxicity and greed of the multinationals. It’s my first stand I suppose, but I yes, that Astrological aspect is so powerful. My rage feels boundless and wild as never before.