Re: Chinese Astrology

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caileanlael

New member
Re: Chinese Astrology

The Chinese Zodiac is thousands of years old and easily predates its Western counterpart. Even today, millions of believers across the globe consult the Chinese Zodiac regularly. While Western Astrology is based upon the months of the year, Chinese Astrology is based upon a twelve year lunar cycle. Your sign is determined by the year in which you were born (to be accurate you must use a Chinese calendar). Each sign and those born under it, are represented by one of twelve animals, and are ascribed a set of attributes the Chinese believe comprise the nature of each particular animal.
 
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dr. farr

Well-known member
Re: Chinese Astrology

We can also determine which Chinese Zodiac sign is equivalent to our Western Zodiac sign: see my post in the thread entitled "Application of 5 Elements in Chinese Astrology" here in the Chinese Astrology forum...
 
Mark

Mark

Well-known member
Re: Chinese Astrology

Do you mean 12 year lunar cycle or 19 year lunar cycle? What is the 12 year lunar cycle? The problem I've always had with using "whole year" signs is that everyone born in a particular year would have the same sign. As a system, it provides much, much lower resolution than 12 signs per year. Then again, if the system accurately reflects an extant cycle that makes a real difference, then perhaps it should be that way. I've not had the resources to investigate Chinese astrology too deeply. I'm not sure, though, that I'm prepared to say that the Chinese zodiacal system is older than the Western. Honestly, I don't think we really now how old either one is. To say something like that, I would need to see some research on both of them, especially remembering that it's likely the origins of both are lost to antiquity at this point.
 
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dr. farr

Well-known member
Re: Chinese Astrology

The Chinese annual "signs" are further divided (based on the cycle) into the five elements: so, for example, there is a year of the Metal Tiger, a different year of the Water Tiger, and so on: each of these "element" subdivisions has a modification of the basic sign qualities. However, Mark's objection still remains: everyone born in a given year will have the same "sign" (same animal and same element) But in the Chinese system (systems plural is actually more accurate) there are several other factors involved in making a natal horoscopic delineation other than the annual "sign" the person is born under, and these other factors are blended with the generic indications of the annual "sign" in making a final delineation of the net astro-chonological influences at the birth.

Chinese astrological systems-and their foundation-are a very complex study, mostly because very little of the original literature has been translated into Western languages. Oral traditions still abound in the Far East involving these traditional astrological systems. For one desiring to make a study of this subject, the most reliable English language works are those by Derek Walters (easily available on Amazon books)

Note: the "Chinese Animal Zodiac"-which was ALWAYS one of SIGNS (NOT constellations) has been dated by most academic authorities (and also by Derek Walters, himself a practitioner of Chinese astrology) to approximately 100 BC; however, the Chinese had been using (and continue to use) a Lunar/Stellar "zodiac" of 28 hsiu (almost identical with the Arabic Lunar Mansions and with the 27 Vedic nakshatras) at least 2000 years prior to the introduction of their "Animal Zodiac" of signs.


*of course our use of the term "Animal Zodiac" is redundant, because the original meaning of the term "zodiac" itself meant "circle of animals".
 
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johnray111

New member
Re: Chinese Astrology

Hey nice to reading about Chinese Astrology, I am very fond of reading daily prediction but now I am really interesting to read The Chinese's point of view about my future prediction.
 
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dr. farr

Well-known member
Re: Chinese Astrology

Yes there is a great deal to the Chinese astrological model-although I follow Western, there are certain elements from the Chinese model which I have incorporated into my eclectic approach, one important element (for my astro-therapeutic purposes) being an adaptation of the Chinese Meridian Clock into Western zodiacal-sign equivalents.

The books by Derek Walters are among the best (in English) on Chinese astrological systems-his "Chinese Astrology Bible" is very useful for practical purposes.
 
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dr. farr

Well-known member
Re: Chinese Astrology

Read the link by posted SagiCap and can also recommend it.
In the link the author mentions connections between astrology and the I Ching: actually I learned about one such practice from Dr. Mo (years ago), who lived near downtown Los Angeles for many years (before moving back to his hometown of Honk Kong) On skyscript (in the thread entitled "Other Forms of Divination") I outlined a simple conversion method of astro-data to I Ching hexagrams (just as I described the method for such conversion to Tarot Major Arcana symbols here on AW) Perhaps in the future I'll post Dr. Mo's astrology/I Ching methods here as well...
 
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dr. farr

Well-known member
Re: Chinese Astrology

Yes Jupiter is the key to the calculation of the 60 year cycle used in the Chinese "Animal" Zodiac
The year/month/day/hour horoscope is called the "Four Pillars", and each component modifies the others above it; for practitioners of the 4 Pillars, a complete analytical description and predictive trends, could be delineated from those 4 Pillars; an excellent book explaining 4 Pillar astrology is available in English, by David Twicken, entitled "5 Element Chinese Astrology Made Easy"...
 
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LoLo

New member
Re: Chinese Astrology

Ciao everyone,

I would like to know more about my chinese zodiac. I know that I was born in the year of the Tiger, but I'm having a hard time figuring out the rest/details and what it all means. Can someone help me? Also, which Western sign am I to compare to? My info:

-Born in Ljubljana, Slovenia (EU)
-April 5, 1986 at 5:11am
-Year of the Tiger (fire)

Inner and secret animal? Lunar month? Year, month, day, hour, etc; Thanks in advance!
 
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LoLo

New member
Re: Chinese Astrology

Also, which animals work well together and which do not. Also, in a relationship/love. Thanks!
 
eric1981

eric1981

Active member
Re: Chinese Astrology

Mark said:
Do you mean 12 year lunar cycle or 19 year lunar cycle? What is the 12 year lunar cycle? The problem I've always had with using "whole year" signs is that everyone born in a particular year would have the same sign. As a system, it provides much, much lower resolution than 12 signs per year. Then again, if the system accurately reflects an extant cycle that makes a real difference, then perhaps it should be that way. I've not had the resources to investigate Chinese astrology too deeply. I'm not sure, though, that I'm prepared to say that the Chinese zodiacal system is older than the Western. Honestly, I don't think we really now how old either one is. To say something like that, I would need to see some research on both of them, especially remembering that it's likely the origins of both are lost to antiquity at this point.
Click to expand...

The Chinese Astrology has longer history than the western one.It can date back to 2,000BC when the Greek civilization has no written history.
 
eric1981

eric1981

Active member
Re: Chinese Astrology

Agree with dr.farr.Chinese astrology indeed has more than you can imagine.And again dr.farr is correct,very little literature is translated into English.The main reason is the that original pieces were far too difficult to translate.There are too many terminologies and words that can not find their counterpart in English.

One obvious sample is Fengshui,which is relatively popular in the western society.This is an original Chinese word literally translated into English.

About the sub-divisions dr.farr mentioned above,I wrote an article here:
http://hubpages.com/hub/Chinese-Zodiac-Signs-and-Five-Elements

I call it sub-Shenxiao,wherein Shenxiao is the Chinese for "Chinese astrology".

You may use the tool I created to find your sub-Shenxiao:
http://bit.ly/eVo5Zy
 
eric1981

eric1981

Active member
Re: Chinese Astrology

LoLo said:
Ciao everyone,

I would like to know more about my chinese zodiac. I know that I was born in the year of the Tiger, but I'm having a hard time figuring out the rest/details and what it all means. Can someone help me? Also, which Western sign am I to compare to? My info:

-Born in Ljubljana, Slovenia (EU)
-April 5, 1986 at 5:11am
-Year of the Tiger (fire)

Inner and secret animal? Lunar month? Year, month, day, hour, etc; Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...

Not quite sure what you want.If you need a reading,here it is:

[Fire Tiger]Eccentric and dramatic, Fire Tigers are aglow with passion and verve. They are outgoing, expressive and look on the bright side of things.

Your lunar month is Feb 27 in Chinese lunar calendar.
 
Mark

Mark

Well-known member
Re: Chinese Astrology

eric1981 said:
The Chinese Astrology has longer history than the western one.It can date back to 2,000BC when the Greek civilization has no written history.
Click to expand...

The Sumerians were practicing astrology around 3,000 B.C. and were said to be quite good at it. This is the point I was trying to make. I could trace back the lineage of Western astrology a little further and give an earlier date. Then, you could trace back Chinese astrology a little further and give an earlier date still. We could go back and forth like this for a long time. Personally, I don't think that the absolute origin of either one is known. I believe that both systems originated so far back in history that we couldn't even connect them to modern societies. Most of human civilisation took place long before what we now consider to be written history. It's also entirely possible that both systems of astrology came from a single, robust understanding of the workings of our Universe that is now considered lost.
 
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