Dear Friend and Reader:
The wonders of the Internet.
When I was new to reading about astrology, I found a book that covered the Western signs in the context of the Chinese zodiac. It’s called The New Astrology by Suzanne White – a book where you can look up some ideas to go with being a Leo Rooster or a Pisces Dragon, and it was intelligent (the Pisces Dragon, my own sign, should seek employment as a philosopher or photographer, Ms. White suggests).
Knowing that I needed to sound vaguely intelligent about Chinese astrology with the New Year happening, I drove to Mirabai Books in Woodstock yesterday to fetch the book, which is in print and selling copies 20 years after it came out.
Then it occurred to me to call the author and see what she had so say. I found her email address, wrote to her and the next day, we were in a long conversation about this, that and several other things. And at the end of that conversation, one of the truly eloquent writers on the Chinese horoscope offered Planet Waves readers her Earth Ox article, as well as one we’ll print Monday about the Leo Ox — that is, Barack Obama’s combined sign.
Suzanne, a Wave of love and appreciation for your work.
— Eric Francis
for Planet Waves
The Year of the Earth Ox – by Suzanne White
1709 Samuel Johnson
1769 Napoleon Bonaparte, Le Marquis de Sade, Adolph Hitler, Jean Cocteau, Erle Stanley Gardner, Robert Benchley, Jawaharlal Nehru, Claude Rains
1889 Charlie Chaplin, Sessue Hayakawa, Jean Cocteau
1949 Ivana Trump, Lindsay Wagner, Billy Joel, Sigourney Weaver, Paloma Picasso, Jessica Lange, Richard Gere, John Belushi, Jeff Bridges, Sissy Spacek, Niki Lauda, Hank Williams, Fanny Ardant, Patty Lupone, Ken Follett, Lionel Ritchie, Meryl Streep, Lindsay Wagner, Shelly Duval, Keith Caradine, Robert Caradine, Twiggy, Ed Begley Jr., Bruce Springsteen, Sigourney Weaver, Bonnie Raitt, Joan Armatrading, Ted Danson, Sissy Spacek, Tom Waits, Victoria Principal
Here we enter the year of the busybody dictator Ox. Curious to a fault, nosy and meddlesome, Earth Oxen think they know best, and they often do. In general, these folks consider themselves superior to other people. They not only think they are better; they believe they were born to lead others, to teach the poor things how to live, and sometimes even to push them around like pawns on the chessboard of life. What we have here is a very nature-oriented, earth-bound, power-mad megalomaniac whose nose for locating flies in life’s various ointments is practically infallible.