![\"dragon-boat-festival-vector\"](\"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/dragon-boat-festival-vector.jpg\")
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Horse Moon is the time of year when annual yang reaches its peak (summer solstice).\u00a0 The tidal hexagram<\/a> associated with this moon is #44 (Copulation), \u2630\/\u2634, which suggests qi rising upward and losing its ground \u2013 and being brought back down to earth whether it wishes to or not.\u00a0 Because of the full-throttle nature of this moon, it is considered a precarious and inauspicious time \u2013 a time of pernicious heat, when seduction, aggression, and danger abound.\u00a0 Horse Moon is when cavalries in ancient China supposedly would march off to war.\u00a0 While certainly a time to be active, it is also a time to pull back the reins a bit, as unrestrained aggression or exuberance is likely at this time to lead to injury or exhaustion.\u00a0 \u201cCalm down or crash\u201d is the essential qi-message of Horse Moon.\u00a0 Hexagram 44 is about the severe consequences of failing to restrain ourselves \u2013 letting ourselves overheat.<\/p>\n Horse is the seventh animal in the 12-animal Chinese zodiac.\u00a0 Because the Chinese recognize the Tiger Moon, rather than the Rat Moon (winter solstice) as the beginning of the new year, Horse is considered the 5th<\/sup> Moon.\u00a0 Five is of course a significant number in Chinese numerology, symbolizing completion and balance \u2013 the Five Elements.\u00a0 Five also relates to the emperor, meaning the heart of any particular swirl of phenomena.\u00a0 Doubling a number emphasizes its quality, so the fifth day of Horse Moon \u2013 \u201cDouble-Five Day\u201d \u2013 is considered particularly potent and precarious.\u00a0 This year (2021), Double-Five Day is June 14.<\/p>\n According to Chinese legend, Qu Yuan, a loyal minister in the southern state of Chu during the Warring States period, was a fervent Chu nationalist and poet.\u00a0 When the Chu emperor joined forces with the aggressive Qin emperor, Qu Yuan drowned himself in a lake in despair on the fifth day of Horse Moon.\u00a0 The locals venerated Qu Yuan and gathered in dragon boats to splash the water, beat drums, and drop sticky rice into the water so that the fish would not eat his corpse.\u00a0 The Chinese still celebrate \u201cDragon Boat Festival\u201d in veneration of Qu Yuan\u2019s loyal character and national pride.<\/p>\n As with most aspects of the Chinese almanac, insofar as it interests Daoist practitioners, calendrical festivals are not merely about celebrating culture but calibrating qi.\u00a0 Observing Double-Five Day thus means entering summer with our eyes open \u2013 recognizing the danger of summer heat and watching how excess yang affects our conduct.\u00a0 Things can turn for the worse quickly and severely if we do not manage ourselves cautiously, so this is a time to check our conduct \u2013 assess our direction and momentum, and recognize that the rising winds beneath our wings are not going to last forever, so it is time to start looking downward to the ground to line ourselves up for a smooth landing \u2013 don\u2019t get carried away.<\/p>\n If we are practicing internal cultivation, how well we manage this moon largely influences the qi that will be available to us in the heart of winter \u2013 exhaust ourselves or fly off the rails now, and we may stumble through the fall and spend the winter recovering rather than really deepening our cultivation.\u00a0 So this month, we are well advised to check ourselves, calibrate our conduct, and make ritual offerings \u2013 relax excess, cool down.\u00a0 Balance yang with yin.\u00a0 Pull back the reins from a gallop to a trot.\u00a0 Beat on drums and splash around in the water.\u00a0 Cool down now to retain some warmth as we head into winter.<\/p>\n Subscribe\u00a0<\/a>to\u00a0our\u00a0Dark Moon Newsletter<\/a>\u00a0to join us in our\u00a0ongoing\u00a060-moon observation<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Horse Moon is the time of year when annual yang reaches its peak (summer solstice).\u00a0 The tidal hexagram associated with this moon is #44 (Copulation), \u2630\/\u2634, which suggests qi rising upward and losing its ground \u2013 and being brought back down to earth whether it wishes to or not.\u00a0 Because of the full-throttle nature of … Continue reading “Dragon Boat Festival”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[28,29],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1010"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1161,"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010\/revisions\/1161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}