Lunar Zodiac · The Moon's Cycle
Dragon
“Could have won it, and stopped to make it rain.”
Polarity: yang · Direction: east · Element: earth
The Dragon is the only creature in the cycle that never existed, and it is the most admired sign in it. This is scale, charisma and ambition, the animal that fills a room without effort and is expected to do something remarkable with the space. In China it is the imperial symbol and a bringer of rain, which means power and generosity are supposed to be the same gesture. Its place in the race is the best answer to why it is not first. The Dragon could fly. It should have crossed the river before anything else got wet, and when the Jade Emperor asked what had delayed it, the Dragon explained that it had passed a village suffering a drought and stopped to bring them rain, then seen a small animal struggling on a log and blown it safely to shore. That animal was the Rabbit, which finished ahead of it. The Dragon came fifth, having given away four places doing exactly what dragons are for. Dragon people are confident, generous and often genuinely lucky, and they attract expectation from the moment they arrive anywhere. They champion people and take real risks on their behalf. The cost is the altitude: pride that cannot easily admit a mistake, a low tolerance for the ordinary middle of any project, and the quiet strain of being the one everybody assumes does not need helping.
Years of the Dragon
A Dragon year opens at Chinese New Year, which falls between late January and the middle of February, so it does not line up with the calendar year. Anyone born in the weeks before it belongs to the animal before.
- 1916February 3, 1916 to January 22, 1917
- 1928January 23, 1928 to February 9, 1929
- 1940February 8, 1940 to January 26, 1941
- 1952January 27, 1952 to February 13, 1953
- 1964February 13, 1964 to February 1, 1965
- 1976January 31, 1976 to February 17, 1977
- 1988February 17, 1988 to February 5, 1989
- 2000February 5, 2000 to January 23, 2001
- 2012January 23, 2012 to February 9, 2013
- 2024February 10, 2024 to January 28, 2025
- 2036January 28, 2036 to February 14, 2037
Dragon Ancient Zodiacs
Every sign someone born in the Year of the Dragon can be, one for each Western sun sign.
- Peacock: Aries Dragon, “Arrives in full colour and refuses to apologise for it.”
- Elephant: Taurus Dragon, “Remembers the way to water from forty years ago.”
- Chimera: Gemini Dragon, “Several people, all of them real, all of them enormous.”
- Lobster: Cancer Dragon, “Armoured, imperial, and completely soft while it grows.”
- Sphinx: Leo Dragon, “Answer correctly, or do not approach at all.”
- Wyvern: Virgo Dragon, “Yes, it is a dragon. No, it is not that kind.”
- Koi: Libra Dragon, “Serene on the surface, climbing the whole time.”
- Crocodile: Scorpio Dragon, “Waits without moving, and the wait is the strategy.”
- Giraffe: Sagittarius Dragon, “Sees the whole savannah, and it cost a heart to get there.”
- Condor: Capricorn Dragon, “Rules the high country without ever flapping hard.”
- Dragonfly: Aquarius Dragon, “Brilliant, iridescent, and gone before you finish the sentence.”
- Siren: Pisces Dragon, “Offers you the thing you most wanted to know.”