[Sca-cooks] Once again, Tentative New Year's Menus

[Christiane]

>That said, there are, as I understand it, five elements (the Western /  
>Greco-Roman world tends to have four): metal, wood, fire, water, and  
>earth. For this reason, one should only have a year associated with  
>his or her astrological sign _and_ a particular element every sixty  
>years, so I'm all confused: the last Fire Ox Year was 1997-1998.
>
>It may be some informal good-luck term to associate fire with "your"  
>year. According to Wikipedia (which has some pretty extensive entries  
>on Chinese astrology), we're entering an Earth Rat Year, to be  
>followed by an Earth Ox Year, which will be followed by a Metal Tiger  
>Year.
>
>I'm thinking this will all be very clear after some coffee...
>
>Adamantius
When I was studying tai chi, every class began with Standing Five Elements meditation; start with the Pearl position, then go on to water, fire, earth, wood, and metal. Then end in the Lotus position (the positions refer to what the hands are doing, you were standing the entire time). I'll still do a modified form of this from time to time. It's wonderfully calming.

I am a Fire Sheep, born in the hours of the Ox. The Wiki entry told me my inner animal is a Fire Snake, though (based on my day of birth). Being a Fire Sheep gives me more backbone than a typical Sheep-sign person, apparently.

Gianotta