I'm sitting at JFK airport waiting for a puddle jumper to Burlington, Vermont. Its new year's day. The great year of the Rabbit has begun. In the Vietnamese zodiac, the cat takes the place of the rabbit. I find it incredibly fascinating the transmutation of animal spirits to interpret our human personalities and the age in which we live. Its as if we live vicariously through their mystery, whilst captivated by their obliviousness to their own power and magic. As we enter the year of the Rabbit I think of one the greatest personalities of the 20th century: Pablo Picasso; and his painting entitled Cat Devouring a Bird and a photograph of him holding his pet owl. Pablo Picasso was born in the year of the Snake. That says a lot. Or does it? I believe that the mystical powers of animals to represent cycles, years, epochs and their cosmic associations is more real than we imagine. If in the Chinese Zodiac the Rabbit is interpreted as agile, versatile, abundant, artistic, and compassionate than why can't we hope that in fact our lives in the the new year will be the same. The motto for the year of the Rabbit is "I Retreat." Hard to do in an airport with thousands of frantic, confused, wanderlust travelers. In the Chinese Zodiac each animal has a ruling hour of the day. The rabbit's ruling hours are between 5 and 7 a.m. Sunrise. Its currently half past 6 in the morning Eastern time. Today we are all Rabbits in one strange momentary paroxysm, in the inexorable gravity, the great miasma, always being pulled closer and farther away.
Text by Oliver Maxwell Kupper for Pas Un Autre