the chinese zodiac | 2016-02-10

congratulations to anyone born this coming year — you will be curious, creative, and a natural prankster!

each chinese new year (based of the lunar calendar) the animal of the year changes and so does the associated yin/yang and element. the animals cycle every twelve years in the following order:

rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog, pig

the elements and yin/yang cycle as well, yang first, then yin, and each element in each form (yang, yin) in order:

yang wood, yin wood, yang fire, yin fire, yang earth, yin earth, yang metal, yin metal, yang water, yin water

combine all that and you get the sexagenary cycle (60 year cycle).

if you would like to determine which sign your birth lined up with, you can take a look at the nice little chart here.

or, i could tell you:
joel = metal rooster
mar = wood tiger
sar = fire dragon
kat = wood rat
dan = water dog

while your birth year’s animal and element tend to mean something specific about who you are, each year brings opportunities/recommendations based on its own properties. this year, being the fire monkey year, is a year during which we are all encouraged to really take the bull by the horns, get out there, and make big things happen in our lives and in the lives of others.

there are also recommendations/warnings regarding compatibility with people of other signs but i tend to not read much into that… seeing as the ‘rat’ and ‘rooster’ have no points of compatibility…

anyway… i thought this was a timely note and something kind of silly and fun to think about.

so far on the chinese zodiac