Happy Chinese New Year of the Fire Monkey! The Chinese New Year of the Monkey began on Monday 8 February coinciding with the New Moon in Aquarius at 19 degrees 15′ Aquarius which for Sydney occurred 9 February 1.38:51 am. You only have to watch the antics of the monkey to get an idea of the energy we are likely to expect – scratching themselves, swinging from tree to tree, making mischief and causing mayhem for their unsuspecting victims, too quick, clever and mercurial to be caught but for all that most lovable an entertaining! Being a Fire Monkey year we can expect a year of boldness, passion, creativity and joy to be in the mix along with mischievousness and a lust for life!
Therefore, the year of the Fire Monkey is a year to be bold, take risks and expect the unpredictable so be prepared for a roller coaster ride! It certainly won’t be dull! As well as being endowed with mental acuity the monkey has great physical stamina. They are also very good with their hands exhibiting great manual dexterity, especially with mechanical devices. They have leadership potential, are uninhibited and make their own rules. Therefore, the year of the Monkey gives you permission to do your own thing, improvise and have fun while you are doing it. Monkeys are compatible with Rat, Dragon and Snake. Monkey year will be very fortunate for all Monkeys and their companions, Rat, Dragon and Snake. Monkey energy can, at times, be challenging for the Tiger. Monkey shares some traits in common with Leo in western astrology. So be alert but not alarmed!
According to Chinese Five Elements Horoscopes, Monkey contains Metal and Water. Metal is connected to gold. Water is connected to wisdom and danger. Therefore, financial events will be at the forefront in the year of the Monkey. Monkey is smart, agile mischievous, wily and vigilant. If you want a good return for your investments, then you need to outsmart the Monkey. the element Metal is also connected to the Wind. This implies that events will be changing very quickly so be prepared for the rug to pulled out from under your feet in your financial dealings, career, and professional and personal relationships.
Monkey Years are 1908, 1920, 1932, 1944, 1956, 1968, 1980, 1992, 2004, 2016, 2028. The previous Fire Monkey year occurred 60 years ago in 1956 – from 12 February 1956 to 30 January 1957.
Fire Monkey Hall of Fame
Famous Fire monkeys include Carrie Fisher, Tom Hanks, David Copperfield, Jimmy Barnes Ernie Dingo and Jerry Hall.
Carrie Fisher
Carrie Fisher (born October 21, 1956), the daughter of Hollywood couple, Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher, is an American actress and writer. She is probably best known for her role as Princess Leia in the original Star Wars Trilogy (1977–83) and Star Wars; The Force Awakens (2015). Fisher is also known for her semi-autobiographical novel Postcards from the Edge and screenplay for the film of the same name as well as her autobiographical one-woman play and the nonfiction book Wishful Drinking based on the show. Her other films include Shampoo (1975),The Blues Brothers (1980), Hannah and her Sisters (1986), The Burbs (1989), and When Harry Met Sally (1989)
Tom Hanks
Thomas Jeffrey Hanks (born July 9, 1956) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is known for his roles in Splash (1984), Big (1988), Philadelphia (1993), Forrest Gump (1994), Apollo 13 (1995), Saving Private Ryan, You’ve Got Maill (both 1998), The Green Mile (1999), Cast Away (2000), The Da Vinci Code (2006), Captain Phillips, and Saving Mr Banks (both 2013), as well as for his voice work in the animated films The Polar Express (2004) and the Toy series
Hanks has been nominated for numerous awards during his career. He won a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Philadelphia as well as a Golden Globe, an Academy Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a People’s Choice Award for Best Actor for his role in Forrest Gump. In 2004, he received the Stanley Kubrick Britannia Award for Excellence in Film from the British Academy of Film and Arts (BAFTA)..
David Copperfield
David Copperfield (born 16 September 1956) is an American illusionist, and has been described by Forbes as the most commercially successful magician in history. Copperfield’s television specials have won 21 Emmy Awards of a total 38 nominations. When Copperfield was 10, he began practicing magic as “Davino the Boy Magician” in his neighborhood, and at the age of 12, became the youngest person admitted to the Society of American Magicians.He certainly exudes the Monkey’s charisma and demonstrates manual dexterity with his sleight of hand.
Jimmy Barnes
The pop icon, Jimmy Barnes, hardly needs any introduction. James Dixon Swan (born 28 April 1956), better known as Jimmy Barnes, is a Scottish-born Australian rock singer-songwriter. His career both as a solo performer and as the lead vocalist with the rock band Cold Chisel has made him one of the most popular and best-selling Australian music artists of all time. The combination of 14 Australian Top 40 albums for Cold Chisel and 13 charting solo albums, including nine No. 1s, gives Barnes the highest number of hit albums of any Australian artist.
Ernie Dingo
Ernest “Ernie” Ashley Dingo (born 31 July 1956) is an indigenous Australian actor and television presenter, comedian, teacher and promoter originating from the Yamatji people of the Murchison region of Western Australia. He is a designated Australian National Living Treasure.
Dingo’s film career began in the early 1980s and he appeared regularly on screen through the 1990s. He appeared in Bruce Beresford’s’s 1987 drama The Fringe Dwellers and worked on the 1988 docu-drama biopic Tudawali He had a major supporting role in the international comedy blockbuster “Crocodile Dundee II” in 1988. He appeared as himself in the 1989 comedy Capuccino and had a major role in the 1991 Wim Wenders film Until the End of the World. In 1993 he starred in Blackfellas and he had a lead role in 1996’s Dead Heart. In 1998 he starred in Somewhere in the Darkness. In 2010 he returned to the silver screen with a role in the Aboriginal musical Bran Nue Dae along with Jessica Mauboy and Geoffrey Rush.
Dingo hosted the television program The Great Outdoors since 1993. He has also appeared in many Australian television series such as Blue Heelers, The Flying Doctors, Heartbreak High and Rafferty’s Rules. He appeared in the TV mini-series’ The Cowra Breakout(1984), and A Waltz Through the Hills (1987), (for which he won an AFI Award for Best Actor in a Television Drama) and Kings in Grass Castles (1997), as well as co-starring with Cate Blanchett in the Australian television drama series Heartland.
He appears in an episode of Serangoon Road, an Australian-Singaporean TV drama series which premiered on 22 September 2013 on the ABC and HBO Asia. Also in 2013, Dingo is a Vietnam veteran, a retired Army drill sergeant facing his demons in episode six of the second series of Redfern Now, Dogs of War. The episode was shown at the Adelaide Film Festival in October 2013.
Jerry Hall
Jerry Faye Hall (born July 2, 1956) is an American former model and actress, also known for her former relationship with Mick Jagger and made news headlines over her recent engagement to media mogul, Rupert Murdoch.
Email: Annefertiti@gmail.com
Annefertiti's AstroMusings 
Heather
/ February 12, 2016Anne, I did a bit of research on the Chinese year, and they follow a lunisolar year as distinct from our Gregorian solar year. Thus their months are 28 day lunar cycles and their year is 353 to 355 days. Ours is 365. They pop in a leap year every 3 years. This year their new year correlates with the New Moon in 20th degree of Aquarius. Elias Lonsdale has the Sabian degree as “A fine silk thread strung across a chasm.” This seems to symbolically link up to the gravitational waves they have discovered way out there and so long ago.
Annefertiti's Astromusings
/ February 12, 2016Thanks for your well researched comment Heather. I still have a lot to learn about Chinese astrology. Anne x