Lunar Zodiac · The Moon's Cycle
Monkey
“Cleared the weeds, poled the raft, and enjoyed the whole thing.”
Polarity: yang · Direction: west · Element: metal
The Monkey is cleverness, mischief and improvisation. It solves problems by trying things, it is socially fearless, and it treats most situations as more entertaining than they strictly are. Quick to learn, quick to bore, and almost impossible to corner, it is the sign that finds the third option nobody had considered. In the race it did not go alone. Arriving at the river with the Goat and the Rooster, none of them able to cross unaided, the Monkey took the practical part: with the Rooster having found a raft, it hauled away the weeds fouling the water and poled the thing across, and the three of them arrived together in eighth, ninth and tenth place. It is the most Monkey solution available. Not the fastest crossing and not the most heroic, but the one that turned a dead end into a workable arrangement using whatever was floating nearby. Monkey people are funny, adaptable and genuinely inventive, the ones who find the loophole and the shortcut and cheerfully point out that the rule was badly written. They are good company in a crisis. The cost is the restlessness: a talent for improvisation is not the same as a talent for finishing, and a life can accumulate a great many clever solutions to problems that nobody stayed long enough to solve properly.
Years of the Monkey
A Monkey 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.
- 1920February 20, 1920 to February 7, 1921
- 1932February 6, 1932 to January 25, 1933
- 1944January 25, 1944 to February 12, 1945
- 1956February 12, 1956 to January 30, 1957
- 1968January 30, 1968 to February 16, 1969
- 1980February 16, 1980 to February 4, 1981
- 1992February 4, 1992 to January 22, 1993
- 2004January 22, 2004 to February 8, 2005
- 2016February 8, 2016 to January 27, 2017
- 2028January 26, 2028 to February 12, 2029
- 2040February 12, 2040 to January 31, 2041
Monkey Ancient Zodiacs
Every sign someone born in the Year of the Monkey can be, one for each Western sun sign.
- Gorilla: Aries Monkey, “All that strength, and almost none of it ever used.”
- Orca: Taurus Monkey, “Keeps the family, the knowledge, and the accent.”
- Chameleon: Gemini Monkey, “Changing colour to say something, not to hide.”
- Spider: Cancer Monkey, “Builds the whole house out of itself, then feels every thread.”
- Macaw: Leo Monkey, “Loud colour, quick wit, and a room that turns to look.”
- Orangutan: Virgo Monkey, “Thinks it all the way through, then does it once.”
- Vulture: Libra Monkey, “Does the necessary work nobody wants to be thanked for.”
- Harpy: Scorpio Monkey, “Takes what it came for, out of the sky, without warning.”
- Jaguar: Sagittarius Monkey, “Solves it in one move, and the move is decisive.”
- Jackal: Capricorn Monkey, “Patient strategist who works best just outside the light.”
- Jellyfish: Aquarius Monkey, “No blueprint, no centre, and thriving anyway.”
- Starfish: Pisces Monkey, “No centre, no plan, and it grows back from a piece.”