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Chinese Astrology:
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It is believed that astrology was introduced into China approximately 5,000 years ago through the trade routes from the west. Whether the original influences came from Babylon, Egypt or India (or all three), the Chinese adopted astrology in a unique way and developed it into a highly complex system.
The Chinese astrologers believe that the universe is divided into five "palaces", a center point and four cardinal regions. In addition, there are five elements: Wood, Fire, Metal, Water and Earth. There are also the influences of the five inner planets, the Sun, and the Moon. All of the parts of this elaborate structure are interrelated. Finally, everything is either Yang (male, bright and mobile) or Yin (female, dark and unmoving).
Chinese astrology maintains that everything in the universe is balanced by its opposite. Day and Night, Birth and Death, Love and Hate, Positive and Negative, Male and Female, etc. These opposites, Yin and Yang, have been compared to the poles of a magnet: opposites attract when brought together, similar forces repel each other. Using this concept, Chinese astrologers have excelled in the ability to predict compatibility between people. Compatible and incompatible relationships are identified for each animal sign.
The main difference between Chinese and Western (occidental) astrology, at least as far as classifying personality types is concerned, is that the Chinese look at a "bigger picture". Under the Western system, an individual is one of twelve basic types (Aries, Taurus, Gemini, etc.) with detailed analysis coming from the birth chart. The Chinese classify people as belonging to one of sixty distinct personality types: Earth Dragon, Water Snake, Fire Rat, etc. The Chinese classifications are annual, while the Western are monthly.
Chinese personal astrology is vastly more complex than just describing an individual from their year of birth. In the following pages we hope to help you understand some of the fundamental aspects of the Chinese system. However, in a broad sense, the personality types described by the annual system are mostly very accurate.
An interesting way to appreciate the Chinese system is to look at schools. Schools segregate pupils by age and, in an astrological sense, it is remarkable to look at the differences between the years. For example, in any school on the planet, the ten-year olds are Fire Tigers, the eleven-year olds are Wood Oxes, and the twelve-year olds are Wood Rats. If you look back on your own school years, you will probably remember the differences between the children of your year and those above and below you (talking to a teacher about this can be amusing!).
The Chinese lunar calendar has been in use for over 4,600 years. A full lunar cycle takes 60 years. We are currently in the early years of the 78th cycle. The lunar month commences with the New Moon every 29 1/2 days. An extra month is added every two and a half years to adjust the calendar. This produces a Lunar Leap Year every three years. These variations cause the Lunar New Year to occur between late January and mid-February.
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