Chinese Astrology

Chinese Astrology

Some of the oldest catalogues listing the movement of stars are still in existence in the Far East.

The Eastern or Chinese astrological system is thought to be far older than the Western Astrological system we are more familiar with. The eastern cultures tend to take a more holistic view of astrology than we westerners do.

Rather than tracking the movement of the sun through the various signs of the Zodiac on a monthly basis, the Chinese system works on a twelve year cycle rather than a twelve month cycle. The Chinese system recognizes five elements where the western system only has four. The western system names the signs of the Zodiac after the constellations the sun passes through. The Chinese system names the years after animals based on a lunar calendar year. Our western zodiac is a solar based system.

The actual beginning and true history of Chinese Astrology has been lost to the eons of time. One of the more common myths of how it started was through the intervention of the Buddha. When he left this world he invited all of the animals to join him in a feast before his departure. Even though he had invited all the animals only twelve arrived. To honor these twelve stalwart animals who had answered his invitation for their loyalty and faithfulness, each had a year named after them. In our culture rats are not very highly regarded. Yet Rat is the animal that leads off the Zodiac. The old stories say that when the animals arrived at Buddha’s invitation that ox was actually there first. However, wily and quick rat scurried up over Ox’s broad back and was the first at the door. The animals were honored (except for Ox and Rat) in the order that they arrived.

Eastern Astrology also considers the hour of birth very important and assigns them Animal associations as well. Your Year Animal will be the animal that
carriers your basic character – your essential nature – the inner you. Your birth hour speaks more of the outer you. The you that is shown to the outer world, or how other people perceive you is what is indicated by the hour of birth. The associations of the birth hour are far older than the assigning of the Animals. The significance of the birth hour are evident in the over 2,500 year history of their use in horoscopes – eastern or western.

Dr. Nikki is our Chinese Astrology expert. It should be noted that the Eastern Philosophy of life is quite different from the Western Judo-Christian ethos. The Eastern belief system tends to be more holistic and fatalistic at the same time. Eastern Astrology not only recognizes the twelve yearly animals, as modifiers to those twelve animals are the five elements. Additionally the state of balance in the Universe is depicted in the idea of Yin and Yang. In our western philosophy the Yin and Yang is somewhat comparable to our masculine and feminine associations with the signs. As with Western Astrology, the hour of your birth also says much about you.