Once more to the Chinese zodiac. A good friend of the Rabbit is the Sheep also known as Ram. The next Sheep year will be in 2015. Some famous Sheep people are Pamela Anderson, Robert De Niro, Mick Jagger, Nicole Kidman and Jane Austen. The Sheep is considered sympathetic, sincere shy, artistic, and compassionate. On the negative side the Sheep can be moody indecisive, a worrier, pessimistic and a complainer. 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 a Sheep 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 Sheep is ruled by Earth, and is found in the late summer portion of the year. He gets along well with the Pig and Rabbit. These are the people a Sheep person feels the most affinity for and they will support him well. The enemy of the Sheep is the Ox. When these two get together there can be misunderstandings and arguments. If opposites attract then a romantic relationship between an Ox and Sheep 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. Sheep rules the hours from 1 PM to 3 PM. 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 Sheep is at home in the Southwest.
