A guide to understanding your Chinese horoscope

A guide to understanding your Chinese horoscope

FEBRUARY 16, 2024

You probably already know that you were born in the Year of the Rat or the Snake, for example, but did you know that there is so much more to unravel when it comes to Chinese astrology? Chinese astrology consists of three important components: the year sign, hour sign and month sign. Your year sign shows your personality and behavior towards the outside world. Your hour sign shows who you really are deep down. It’s your true self that is not shown to the outside world. Your month sign shows how you behave in relationships. Each sign is linked to one of the five elements. Putting your three signs and elements together will give you a complete picture of your Chinese horoscope.

Step 1: Finding your year sign

Chinese astrology is based on the lunar calendar. Every second new moon after the winter solstice, a new lunar year begins. This is known as the Chinese New Year or Lunar New Year. In China it’s better known as the Spring Festival and in Indonesia as Imlek. In Western astrology the Lunar New Year always coincides with the New Moon in Aquarius. Since the lunar calendar is not synchronized with the Gregorian calendar, which is based on the Sun, the new year sometimes falls in January and sometimes in February. Therefore, if you are born in January or February, you should not look at your year of birth, but look up the exact start and end dates of the lunar years to determine your year sign. You can find your Chinese year sign here.

Step 2: Finding your hour sign

You can look up your Chinese hour sign below. If you are born at 23:00, your Chinese hour sign is the Rat.

✷ 23:00-00:59: Rat

✷ 01:00-02:59: Ox

✷ 03:00-04:59: Tiger

✷ 05:00-06:59: Rabbit

✷ 07:00-08:59: Dragon

✷ 09:00-10:59: Snake

✷ 11:00-12:59: Horse

✷ 13:00-14:59: Goat

✷ 15:00-16:59: Monkey

✷ 17:00-18:59: Rooster

✷ 19:00-20:59: Dog

✷ 21:00-22:59: Pig

Step 3: Finding your month sign

You can look up your Chinese month sign below. If you are born in January, your Chinese month sign is the Ox.

✷ January: Ox

✷ February: Tiger

✷ March: Rabbit

✷ April: Dragon

✷ May: Snake

✷ June: Horse

✷ July: Goat

✷ August: Monkey

✷ September: Rooster

✷ October: Dog

✷ November: Pig

✷ December: Rat

Step 4: Finding your elements

The five elements in Chinese astrology are water, wood, fire, metal and water. The following elements are assigned to the Chinese zodiac signs. This applies to the year sign, hour sign and month sign.

✷ Rat: Water

✷ Ox: Water

✷ Tiger: Wood

✷ Rabbit: Wood

✷ Dragon: Wood

✷ Snake: Fire

✷ Horse: Fire

✷ Goat: Fire

✷ Monkey: Metal

✷ Rooster: Metal

✷ Dog: Metal

✷ Pig: Water

Step 5: Putting it all together

Now it’s time to put your year sign, hour sign, month sign and the corresponding elements together. Suppose you were born on May 6, 1995, at 14:52, then your Chinese horoscope is as follows.

Example:

✷ Year sign: Pig (water)

✷ Hour sign: Goat (fire)

✷ Month sign: Snake (fire)

Your year sign shows your personality and behavior towards the outside world.

Your hour sign shows who you really are deep down. This sign is like your true self that is not shown to the outside world.

Your month sign shows how you behave in relationships.

In short:

✷ Year sign: outward personality

✷ Hour sign: true self

✷ Month sign: personality in relationships

This means that your outward personality will have the characteristics of the Pig, your true self will have the characteristics of the Goat and in relationships you will express the characteristics of the Snake.

Step 6: Defining the connections between the elements

We’re not done! We have to add an extra layer of information. In Chinese astrology the elements can nurture (help) or dominate (control) each other. Each element nurtures an element, dominates an element, is nurtured by an element and is dominated by an element. It is important to find out how the elements are connected to each other to understand how your year sign, hour sign and month sign are expressed.

Wood: Wood is nurtured by water (trees need water to grow), nurtures fire (a fire can be created by burning wood), dominates earth (the roots of trees can tear the earth's surface), and is dominated by metal (metal axes can cut down trees).

Fire: Fire is nurtured wood (a fire can be created by burning wood), nurtures earth (fire turns wood into ash, which is a raw material), dominates metal (fire melts metal), and is dominated by water (water extinguishes fire).

Earth: Earth is nurtured by fire (fire turns wood into ash, which is a raw material), nurtures metal (deep underground the earth forms metals), dominates water (soil mixed with water creates mud), and is dominated by wood (the roots of trees can tear the earth's surface).

Metal: Metal is nurtured by earth (deep underground the earth forms metals), nurtures water (metal buckets can carry and transport water), dominates wood (metal axes can cut down trees), and is dominated by fire (fire melts metal).

Water: Water is nurtured by metal (metal buckets can carry and transport water), nurtures wood (trees need water to grow), dominates fire (water extinguishes fire), and is dominated by earth (soil mixed with water creates mud).

This means that a metal sign will always enhance the qualities of a water sign in a positive way, if you have a sign in the element of water and another sign in the element of metal, for example. If you have a sign in the element of water and another sign in the element of fire, the qualities of the fire sign will be undermined by the water sign. When a sign dominates another sign, its characteristics will be co-present.

Example:

✷ Year sign: Pig (water)

✷ Hour sign: Goat (fire)

✷ Month sign: Snake (fire)

Since water dominates fire, deep down you will not only feel like the Goat (fire), but also like the Pig (water). Moreover, in your relationships you will not only show the characteristics of the Snake (fire), but also show the characteristics of the Pig (water). The qualities of the Pig (water) will be even more pronounced than the qualities of the Goat (fire) and Snake (fire).

Example:

✷ Outward personality: Pig

✷ True self: Goat and Pig

✷ Relationship personality: Snake and Pig

Step 7: Getting to know the signs

Now that you know your year sign, hour sign and month sign and how they relate to each other, it’s time to find out what the characteristics of your signs are. There are countless books written about the Chinese zodiac signs, but this is what the signs represent in a nutshell.

Rat: ambitious, resourceful, intelligent, diligent, patient, friendly, witty, communicative, intuitive, social, sensitive, quick-witted, astute, strong-willed, easily bored. The Rat shows many similarities with the western zodiac signs Gemini, Virgo and Scorpio.

Ox: reserved, introverted, passive, thoughtful, emotionally stable, patient, reliable, strong-willed, goal-oriented, slow, conservative, loyal, honest, grumpy. The Ox shows many similarities with the western zodiac sign Capricorn.

Tiger: passionate, confident, outgoing, impulsive, active, self-centered, courageous, hasty, reckless, righteous, humanitarian. The Tiger shows many similarities with the western zodiac signs Aries and Aquarius.

Rabbit: intuitive, sensitive, discreet, social, friendly, humble, peaceful, artistic, caring, indecisive. The Rabbit shows many similarities with the western zodiac sign Libra.

Dragon: enthusiastic, inspiring, successful, restless, intelligent, pushy, warm, courageous, direct, independent, demanding, materialistic. The Dragon shows many similarities with the western zodiac sign Leo.

Snake: intelligent, mysterious, intuitive, selfish, creative, efficient, cunning, funny, artistic, subtle, secretive, jealous. The Snake shows many similarities with the western zodiac sign Scorpio.

Horse: friendly, energetic, extrovert, smart, strong-willed, intolerant, easily bored, easily distracted, indiscreet, diligent, ambitious, charming, well-liked, unpredictable, stubborn, temperamental. The Horse shows many similarities with the western zodiac signs Aries and Sagittarius.

Goat: calm, creative, indecisive, honest, imaginative, sensitive, concerned, caring, docile, sociable, peaceful, gentle, patient, flexible, sincere. The Goat shows many similarities with the western zodiac sign Pisces.

Monkey: independent, inventive, obstinate, touchy, active, manipulative, competitive, jealous, humorous, lively, quick-witted, funny, creative, charming, impatient, vain, curious, imaginative. The Monkey shows many similarities with the western zodiac signs Aries and Gemini.

Rooster: extrovert, brave, honest, active, eccentric, extravagant, observant, irascible, smart, proud, punctual, critical, reliable, protective, enthusiastic, communicative, tactless. The Rooster shows many similarities with the western zodiac signs Leo and Virgo.

Dog: faithful, loyal, responsible, sensitive, imaginative, intuitive, polite, traditional, conservative, modest, reserved, impatient, stubborn, helpful. The Dog shows many similarities with the western zodiac signs Taurus and Cancer.

Pig: cheerful, tolerant, caring, honest, calm, kind, social, charming, sensitive, stubborn, reliable, vulnerable, gourmand. The Pig shows many similarities with the western zodiac signs Taurus and Pisces.

In the example, your outward personality will share many similarities with Taurus and Pisces, but deep down you’ll identify the most with the sign of Pisces. In your relationships, you’ll not only express the characteristics of Taurus and Pisces, but also the characteristics of Scorpio. You’ll not express the characteristics of Scorpio outside your relationships.

What are your Chinese zodiac signs? Do you recognize yourself in it?