Let’s move on to another animal in the Chinese zodiac a friend of the Ox- Snake. The next Snake year will be in 2013. Some famous Snake people are Mahatma Ghandi, Martin Luther King, Bob Dylan, Edgar Allen Poe and Jacqueline Kennedy. The Snake is considered a deep thinker, wise, sensual ambitious and strong. On the negative side the Snake can be a loner, poor communicator, over bearing and violent. Each animal has both positive and negative characteristics.
Just like with the trigrams, each animal belongs to an element, a personality, direction, a time of year and a time of day.
But first a little review so you can tell if you are an Snake or not. Because the Chinese year is ruled by the lunisolar calendar and not the calendar that we use in the west, the New Year does not start on January first. Instead it usually starts around the fourth or fifth of February, changing slightly each year. Each year is represented by one of the animals of the Chinese zodiac. They are rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig. So when you look at the placements in a Chinese restaurant to find out your animal sign remember when the year begins. If you were born before the fourth or fifth on February you must take the animal of the previous year. If you were born on the day of the New Year you must know the hour of your birth to determine which animal is yours. Most people don’t know this but you do now.
The Snake is ruled by wood, is found in the spring portion of the year. He gets along well with the Ox and Rooster. These are the people a Snake person feels the most affinity for and they will support him well. The enemy of the Snake is Pig. When these two get together there can be misunderstandings and arguments. If opposites attract then a romantic relationship between a Snake and Pig can be very exciting but it takes a great deal of care and understanding to maintain. The hours of the day are also divided up and assigned to the 12 animals of the zodiac. We think of the day as 24 hours but the Chinese divide it into twelve-two hour periods. Snake rules the hours from 9 AM to 11 AM. Just as in Western astrology we consider not only our sun sign but also our rising sign. In Chinese astrology you can consider the animal of your birth hour as an influence on your character. The Snake is at home in the Southeast.
