The nature of the Chinese Dog might influence the overall state of mind on a massive scale this year.  Whether you consider this dog-eat-dog world to be the battlefield whereupon this warrior figure stands the chance of winning the game through extensive training in the form of civil obedience or you consider it to be the test of loyalty to one’s own set of principles and moral codes as well as important people, businesses or ideas, one thing is for sure – you might have the mild impression of being on a short leash.  The underlying vibration of the year might just be the call for self-awareness as well as modesty and humbleness to accept whatever your life will be treating you with readiness to invest hard work, dedication and sacrifice for the sake of accomplishing success. The aroused sensitivity, sharpened senses as well as the trained impulses of being always on guard might characterize the Year of the Dog as the year of realization of necessity to invest the maximum of your efforts for the sake of attaining the clear goal ahead as well as raising awareness on personal responsibility for your professional life as well as coming to your senses regarding your personal life and realizing the basic needs and emotional attachments from the perspective of security, stability and devotion whereupon the loyalty will be the central issue.

Chinese Dog is considered to be a warrior who guards the underground treasure and fights the way through the valley of shadows with utmost persistence, readiness and courage no matter what happens with a simple task in mind – the job must be done. The sense of duty and responsibility is the natural characteristic of the Year of the Dog who has got the trained instinct to guard, protect and take care of business as well as people responsible for. The Year of the Dog is deprived of excessive behavior or lavish exhibitionism but focused on everyday task set before, whether they are professional demands or personal impulse to take care of the loved ones. Most importantly, it will take high dedication to one’s own goals and ambitions, a lot of efforts invested with courage and readiness to cope with all the problems and circumstances a Dog enjoys resolving. Basically, the task of resolving difficult situations, solving the mysteries, fighting through complicated entanglements for the sake of clearing up the area is the typical mind-set of the Year of the Dog. That means whatever crossroad you might find yourself at, whatever difficult entanglement you are experiencing, whatever complicated issue you are facing, this year might be the year of resolution if you summon up your resources and strive to be the most efficient possible. What counts for this year are the results and it might take a year for you to accomplish the balance, the score, the ultimate goal that has been brewing for several years now, however only through focus, dedication, hard work, humbleness and readiness to put up with a lot of problems Dogs are naturally used to.

There is no challenge big enough for a Dog who is ready to cope with persistence and dedication. However, a Dog usually needs an authority, important figure to orbit around, the support of some kind or just somebody to lean on. Dogs does not like the spotlight but they represent the shadow warriors where the major business or the most important development is taking place and normally Dog would be the best associate behind the public figure that gets an applause after the job is done. Very often happens that Dogs don’t even get awarded properly for the invested efforts the secure the success of the company, enterprise, business or a project. Very often undervalued, Dogs take the greatest deal of credit for what they do, meaning that Dogs represent the most important links in the chain of business getting done by investing the biggest efforts and playing the most important part to secure the success. Dogs have the executive power and there is no task hard enough for they will stick to the plan and accomplish the 100% efficiency. You might find them behind so many important projects, companies, important figures that hire hard working people to do the important work. They are usually Dogs. Rarely Dogs do succeed in gaining the material wealth reciprocal to their invested work and dedication. Praise they do get, however they tend to be financially undervalued throughout life. If they could really cash in for the energy they invest they would have to be millionaires. Most often, they are not.

So, this year might be somewhat alike the life of the Dog: A lot of invested efforts with no adequate compensation.  It’s a tough job, but somebody’s gotta do it. The lesson of this hard-working Year of the Dog would be to show humbleness and modesty, to show gratitude for all the life’s blessings to count on the next year of the Wild Boar to materialize and gain financial satisfaction for all the good seeds planted this year. Anyhow, playing safe would be the modus operandi.

Within the area of personal life and emotional fulfillment, this year might awaken the sense of loyalty towards all the beloved people you tend to gravitate to with respect to their needs. The prevailing impulse might be to take care of the people who need your help and assistance for the sake of providing generous support. You might become aware of all those important bonds and ties that take priority and the very dedication and sacrifice would be the most important impulse. If you have been wondering for a while now about the people who deserve your dedication, this year might crystallize the important people who deserve your affection versus those who don’t.  You might realize that time is so precious to waste it on those who you don’t have feedback from so that you might clear up the area of your social background and focus on those who you might consider to be valuable. Personally, this might be the year when you might realize where exactly is your heart at and where you want to invest your energy i.e. what brings you emotional satisfaction and joy. The lesson would be to show gratitude for all the blessings you get from people around you and to realize objectively who those people are that you want to be loyal to.  It might be a good year for relationships and marriages that have proven to be valuable and solid and they will most certainly represent a solid base in the future, the base you can count on. The key issue of all the relationships this year would be the TRUST. Namely, the nature of dog is to play safe, to act sensibly with a lot of perceptiveness and even intuition that might guide you this year. The odds are that people might generally decide to play safe in order to feel more confident and secure and establish, re-establish or strengthen the existing bonds for the sake of having a trustworthy partner in life. Many might decide to start new relationships on grounds of making sure previous tests have proven important people have passed them for the sake of becoming loyal, trustworthy and reliable. For all those who haven’t passed the trial of time, this year might bring the bitter sweet taste that might eventually lead to separation. Loyalty and Trust become central issues.

In the psycho-dynamics, the Year of the Dog might be tense and dissatisfying, with aroused sensitivity of the Dog that minds and perceives all the subtle nuances in the surroundings. Dogs have the growing concern of something that just might go wrong and always consider even the smallest signs along the road, being however capable of preventing difficulties by taking an attitude of a warrior who has the courage to cope with.  The readiness of the Dog is extraordinary when it comes to unpredictability, however very powerful intuition is perfectly capable to anticipate all the changes and upcoming events this year for the sake of resolving the issue. Nevertheless, the constant pressure imposed on the psyche to monitor every move, every tendency, every change that might lead to jeopardy of some kind and endanger the very existence with readiness to get onto the battleground and fight for a good cause, drains a lot of mental and physical energy so that the Year might prove to be exhausting. Intuition is a valuable guide of the Dog, who anticipates perfectly the upcoming tendencies so that relying on intuition this year might be a step ahead in the battlefield of the Year of the Dog. The prevailing feeling of humbleness and generosity might raise awareness on how little it actually takes to be happy and reveal that your actual state of affairs might exactly be happier than you think.  Also, growing concern about the loved ones as well as about personal affairs might put you in the state of anxiety or insomnia very often so that you might have to deal with all the perceptiveness and worry with regard to your personal integrity. Namely, Dogs possess quite developed integrity and a very powerful personality that now stands the test trial and the underlying resolution of the upheaval in your psyche might be exactly in responding to a request of your personal integrity. Anyhow, you will be called upon to make choices with regard to your personal integrity and the very backbone of your personality. Dogs have dignity and the very dignity might become your favorite word in the world of consumers and all those who can be bought or sold. This year around, Dog teaches you to settle for less, however not to allow to become cheap but to establish the personal price, if any. Dog teaches you about the most valuable things in life that are precious and cannot be bought for the money: Integrity, Loyalty, Courage, Dignity, Self-Awareness that represent the key issues all the lessons of this year lead to. This year might be the time to reset, regain power and establish the attitude for the years to come arising from raising awareness on personal individuality with respect to the demands of the contemporary world that resides on the pillars of Dogs Warriors.

Within the polarized paradigm of black-and-while world, taking the road less traveled and becoming a Warrior is of the holy enterprise. With respect to all the humanity, realizing one’s own personal power of individuality and accepting the Higher Power to be the Guide, the Holy Warrior not only protects oneself but guards the humanity on a righteous path, worthy of dignified man. The Holy Warrior raises awareness on the most important issues and walks the path towards salvation with no compromises whatsoever. This Year of the Dog will set a challenge for you to choose a side and live accordingly. There will always be a Watcher to keep you safe. The Year of the Dog.