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Chinese Astrology

     About five thousand years ago, Empe­ror Huang Ti worked on the first cycle marking the birth of Chinese Astrology. Unlike Western Astrology which is based on the earth's yearly orbit of the sun thereby passing through the zodiac's twelve signs, Chinese astrology is founded on the sixty-year period it takes for Saturn to make two full orbits of the sun. This is also the amount of the time it takes for Jupiter to orbit the sun five times. The sixty-year cycle therefore, can be divided astrologically into five periods of twelve years, the time it takes for Jupiter to make one complete orbit. The Chinese calendar is represented by twelve signs with each of the five periods covering a complete rotation of the Chi­nese signs.

     The Chinese cycle commences with the Year of the Rat and ends with the Year of the Pig. The naming of the twel­ve signs after animals comes more from legend than from fact. The Lord Buddha, as  legend would have it, once invited all animals to meet Him one New Year. The twelve animals that turned up were those that Buddha honored by having the astrological years named after them. Buddha named the years in order of the appearance of the animals before him— the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit (or hare), dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig (or boar).

The years are classified according to the polarity of all 'natural energies. The Yang which is positive, masculine and daytime makes the years under it active, assertive, vigorous, and spontaneous. On the other hand, the Yin known to be feminine, negative and nighttime, also makes the signs under it passive, gentle, intellectual and intuitive. The Yang signs are the Rat, Tiger, Dragon, Horse, Monkey and Dog; the Yin signs are the Ox, Rabbit, Snake, Goat, Rooster and Pig.

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