find your animal - Chinese zodiac

All you need to know is the year in which are born. Check the table below and you have found your Chinese animal. The animal ruling the year in which you were born exercises a profound influence on your life. "This is the animal that hides in your heart".

The following table shows the 60-year cycle matched up to the Western calendar for the years 1924–2043. This is only applied to Chinese Lunar calendar. The actual year commence is based on Chinese Solar calendar, always on 04 Feb of every year.

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the meaning of the Chinese zodiac

The Chinese lunar calendar is the longest chronological record in history, dating from 2637 B.C. when the first cycle of the zodiac was introduced. One complete cycle takes 60 years and is made up of five simple cycles of 12 years each. The 78th cycle started on February 1984, and will end on February 2044.

Twelve animals were assigned to each of the 12 years when, according to legend, the Lord Buddha summoned all the animals to come to him before he departed from Earth. Only twelve animals came to bid him farewell. As a reward he named a year after each one in the order that it arrived. First came the Rat, then the Ox, the Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Boar. Thus, we have the twelve animal signs of today.

THE LUNAR YEAR

The lunar year is divided into twelve months of 29½ days. Every two and a half years, an intercalary month is added to adjust the calendar. The addition of this month every third year produces the Lunar Leap Year. For easy reference, the beginning of each lunar month is the date of the New Moon marked on the Western calendar.
You may be interested to know that on the first day of Spring, as indicated by the lunar calendar, a freshly laid egg can be made to stand erect on its base. Try it: I know this has to be seen to be believed. (In the Gregorian calendar, the first day of Spring always falls on the 4th or 5th day of February).

THE FIVE ELEMENTS

During the complete 60-year cycle each of the animal signs (sometimes also referred to as the twelve Earth branches) is combined with the five main elements: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water. The element of your lunar sign will exercise their influence on your life.

A fundamental part of Oriental philosophy is the interrelationships among the five elements. These are divided into Conducive and Controlling interrelationships, and are as follows:

CONDUCIVE

• From Metal we get Water. In this context, the metal could mean a vessel or container for holding water, so we can say that metal traps water. In another sense, metal is the only element that will change into a liquid when heated.
• From Water we get Wood. Water here means the rain or dew that makes plant life flourish, thus producing wood in the process.
• From Wood we get Fire. Fire cannot exist by itself but is produced by burning wood.
• From Fire we get Earth. Symbolically fire reduces everything into ashes, which becomes part of the earth again.
• From Earth we get Metal. All metal has to be extracted from the earth.
  
  
  
  

CONTROLLING

The entire universe is composed of these five elements. They are interdependent and each is controlled by another. Hence we find that:

• Metal is controlled by Fire. Metal can only be melted and forged with great heat.
• Fire is controlled by Water. Nothing will put out a fire as fast as water.
• Water is controlled by Earth. We dig canals in the earth to irrigate fields or build dikes to keep out or absorb water.
• Earth is controlled by Wood. Trees and their roots hold the soil together and get their nourishment from the earth.
• Wood is controlled by Metal. Even the largest tree can be felled by the metal blade of an axe.
  
  

Under this philosophy, we see that no element can be called the strongest or weakest. They are forever dependent on one another and are equal. They are linked by the chain of life that brings about their existence, and there is no power struggle. Each has its own place and function.

 The Moon, being the closest heavenly body to Earth, has shown its many visible powers to mankind since the dawn of civilization. Its magnetic pull has ruled the rising and ebbing ocean tides as well as all other bodies of water. The Chinese culture has built itself firmly around the lunar influence, believing it to affect humans so immensely because our bodies consists of three-quarters liquid. Likewise, plants and animals are subject to its all-encompassing force.

Would it be too farfetched, therefore, to speculate that even nations will be beneficially or adversely affected, depending on whether they were born under a good or a bad moon? Will the year in which a country is formed have a great bearing on its place in history? Chinese fortune-telling leaves us to draw our own conclusions, after providing us with the necessary tools.

It is said that astrology is an accurate science, based on fixed formulas and mathematical calculations. Likewise, lunar horoscopes are equally exacting and scientifically evolved. Yet I hasten to add that it can be considered as an art form: the art of recognizing relevant facts in whatever disguises they may appear or expressed in. The Chinese sages of old and the fortune-tellers of today liken themselves to medical diagnosticians of the present, probing, searching and forever interpreting telltale signs of what the future may hold.

The ancient Chinese method of chance reading is never dogmatic or fatalistic. We are never made to feel hemmed in by our weaknesses nor inhibited by our deficiencies. Rather, we are encouraged to exploit our resources in varied and imaginative ways.
Thus, Chinese horoscopes, instead of restricting us, teach us how to plot new courses if our present methods of approach do not meet with success, and how to circumvent the circumstances of birth and other barriers and to reach our goals by taking new routes. As they instruct us in self-analysis and in knowing what to expect from situations, we will be able at worst to face, at best to solve, the problems we are most fated to encounter.

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what is the Ascendant?

• In Western astrology, the Ascendant is the degree of the zodiac that rises above the eastern horizon at the moment of one's birth. If, for instance, this degree happens to be in the Cancer section of the zodiac, the newborn individual is known to be "Ascendant Cancer". Another individual may be "Ascendant Leo", "Ascendant Sagittarius", or "Ascendant Pisces". 
  
  
• Therefore, it's the hour in the day of one's birth that determines one's Ascendant. 
  
  
• In Chinese astrology, the hour of an individual's birth is also duly taken into account. Normally, it's simply known as "hour of birth". But the term "Ascendant" is so widely used that it can be substituted for "hour of birth" — although rather improperly. 
  
  
  The Chinese hours of the day
  
  
• There are twelve Chinese hours in a day, each of them consisting of 120 international minutes. Each Chinese hour is named after a symbolic animal, exactly as the Chinese years are. Following are the Chinese hours: 
  
  

  23:01 through 01:00 = hour of the Rat 01:01 through 03:00 = hour of the Ox 03:01 through 05:00 = hour of the Tiger 05:01 through 07:00 = hour of the Rabbit 07:01 through 09:00 = hour of the Dragon 09:01 through 11:00 = hour of the Snake 11:01 through 13:00 = hour of the Horse 13:01 through 15:00 = hour of the Goat 15:01 through 17:00 = hour of the Monkey 17:01 through 19:00 = hour of the Rooster 19:01 through 21:00 = hour of the Dog 21:01 through 23:00 = hour of the Pig

  
  
• If you were born between 01:01 and 03:00, for instance, you are known to be born at the hour of the Ox. And if you were born between 21:01 and 23:00, you are known to be born at the hour of the Pig. 

The twelve Chinese Ascendants

• As said above, each Chinese hour can be taken for an Ascendant. Consequently, if you were born in a year of the Dragon and at the hour of the Ox, for instance, you are known to be a Dragon Ascendant Ox (or Dragon/Ox).
  
  
• Similarly, if you were born in a year of the Pig and at the hour of the Rabbit, you are known to be a Pig Ascendant Rabbit (or Pig/Rabbit).
  
  
  The importance of the Ascendant
  
  
• The nuances brought by the Ascendant to the general characteristics of the yearly Sign are by no means negligible. The Ascendant modifies and particularizes. For instance, a Horse individual with an Ascendant Tiger (Horse/Tiger) is not the same personality as another a Horse individual but with an Ascendant Goat (Horse/Goat). The former will be inclined by the Ascendant Tiger toward dynamism, heroism, and confrontation, whereas the latter will be inclined by the Ascendant Goat toward more ponderation, moderation, and reverie. 
  
  
• This article will show you the main features of each yearly Sign as modified and particularized by each of the twelve Ascendants.
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  Feb 2011