Chinese anyone?

La La

Sorry if my ignorance is showing but I keep discovering new threads or forums - all these wonderful topics....
( I digress)
I'm a curious novice too lazy to read every post on every thread (I have to cheat a bit coz I can only access the forum at work lucky I have a great boss)

but has there been any discussion on the chinese astrology here?

I'm a Leo in the western astrology but don't fit the brave bold leader image at all (big ego - well that's another thing) but in the chinese astrology I'm a tiger is there any co-relation between the two cultural approaches?
 

Minderwiz

I'm not sure whether there has been much discussion before. I'm very much grounded in Western Astrology and really have not explored the Chinese side to any great degree.

Do you know much about it yourself?

Minderwiz
 

isthmus nekoi

As far as I know, they are quite different. The Chinese calendar is based on a lunar system, whereas Western astrology is solar. I never really thought about correlating symbols, and although there is some overlap - Tiger & Leo, Oxen & Taurus, Goat & Capricorn, the Western signs are heavily linked to seasonal change, and Chinese signs are linked to a year... Another difference would be the elements - Chinese have 5 (water, fire, earth, metal and wood).
 

AquarianGoddess

There's a book by Suzanne White which incorporates Western and Chinese astrology which I've read years ago, but have never applied it.

AG
 

cricket

In my personal experience, the Chinese astrology has fit -me- better than the Western astrology. It's a lot easier for me to understand, too. *L*

There is a cycle of twelve years. Each year has a different animal to represent it, the people born in those years blessed with the attributes of the animal. There are the few born with attributes of two signs, the cusp people, as in western astrology.

The elements are a little harder. I've never actually figured them out. :| Each one represents which particular part of a person's personality is exaggerated. For example: A fire elemental has a lot of spirit and fiery energy. They tend to be physical. Another example would be a metal elemental, who would be stronger, more unyielding in their views, and more a stickler for the rules.

A site that i've found that is really general but tends to be more or less right is http://chinese.astrology.com
 

Minderwiz

AquarianGoddess said:
There's a book by Suzanne White which incorporates Western and Chinese astrology which I've read years ago, but have never applied it.

AG

I'll look out for that one. I have The Handbook of Chinese Horoscopes by Theordora Lau which is quite good but I admit I've only dipped in to look up my family rather than use seriously.

As was pointed out above the Chinese year is a combination of solar and lunar year so every two and half years they need to insert a leap month to keep the two cycles together.

This means that you will have an element for the year (which rotates), for the animal of the year and month, an element for the hour of birth and an element for the country of birth as well all of which are fixed. Thus I was born at 00:30 GMT on October 24 1947 in the year of the Fire Boar, I thus have Fire for the Year, Water for the Boar, Water again for the Hour of Birth (Rat) and Water again for the month (the latter is very rough).

From this I conclude that I must be something of a drip! (occasionally steaming from the fire)

Minderwiz
 

La La

thanks for the response.
Sorry for my sporadic responses (we have a show on so it got busy here)
My only resource is a book (which I can't title as it's at home) it gives a layperson a very structured approach to the chinese astrology (and has beautiful illustrations) and shows an overview of the 12 yearly (animal) symbols and the elements (water, fire, earth, air, and metal) how to draw up life charts.
It also has an overview of how each symbol will fair in each year (eg. how a tiger will fair in the year of the dragon etc) and how each symbol relates to each other in terms of relationships (eg. a parent/child relationship between a horse and a monkey)
I found it quite interesting and have tried to draw up life charts for family members but most of those I've done have been for children so it's difficult to say how accurate they are although the personality's are pretty spot on.
I'll post the details of the book as soon as I find it.
 

Minderwiz

La La,

I'd be interested in learning about your book - Eventually, when I've finished my current course I'd like to take a deeper look at Chinese and Vedic Astrology.

Minderwiz
 

La La

My Resource

Minderwiz I found it!

The Book is titled "Ming Shu - the art and practice of chinese astrology" the author is Derek Walters and its published by Pagoda Books
In the book it also talks about the 6 houses of the 12 animal signs. It seems they are paired in a yin/yang fashion. The houses are aspects of destiny (Gender, Career, family, construction, expansion, mystery)Different periods of time favour the different houses.
There are also five forces (the fate, the seal, the official, the wealth, and the opportunity) all these aspects are brought together when drawing up the life chart, with the various elements for hour day month etc.

I found it a great introduction for the layperson (me)
 

Minderwiz

La La,

Thanks a lot, I've made a note of title and author and have added it to my wish list!

At the moment I'm taking my second course in Astrology and that tends to focus my reading around certain topics - at the moment its relationships and then I move on to horary.

As I'm also doing a Tarot course at the same time I don't get a lot of time for reading outside the course! I'm intending to look at traditional Astrology when I get my second Diploma and then look at Vedic/Chinese. Tarot has also given me the desire to improve my knowledge of Numerology so I guess I'm going to be around 60 by the time I get through all that!

Still I really enjoy discovering more about Astrology and Tarot

Minderewiz