“I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.

It would be terrible if we just skipped from September to November, wouldn’t it?

—L.M. Montgomery (from Anne of Green Gables)

Thank you to all of my friends and family who made my 60th birthday incredibly fun, meaningful, and memorable. Watch out world, FIRE HORSE WOMEN are being unbridled this year.

A “Curse” That Changed Demographics by Angela Chan-Danisi

In East Asian astrology, a “Fire Horse” year is said to produce women of extraordinary spirit—brilliant, independent, and unafraid to defy convention. Yet this same astrological sign is often viewed with suspicion, its energy seen as too intense or disruptive. This paradox, known as the “Fire Horse Effect,” still echoes today: powerful women are frequently celebrated for their ambition and drive, but just as often criticized for being “too much.”

In 1966, Japan saw a notable drop in births, which has been linked to the belief that women born in the Year of the Fire Horse would bring bad luck to their marriages and families.

Neither the economy nor new policies caused this drop. It was driven by superstition.

For generations, people believed women born in the Year of the Fire Horse were too strong, independent, and too disruptive for traditional families.

What matters most is not the belief itself, but its impact. Even irrational cultural stories can be strong enough to change a country’s population trends.

This isn’t about astrology. It’s about how people behave as a society.

The Fire Horse superstition illustrated this pattern symbolically. When systems feel threatened, they look for someone to blame. https://www.forbes.com/sites/angelachan/2026/02/08/the-fire-horse-effect-why-powerful-women-are-still-labeled-too-much/

GIDDY UP