Lunar Zodiac · The Moon's Cycle
Rabbit
“Crossed on stepping stones, and got lucky at the right moment.”
Polarity: yin · Direction: east · Element: wood
The Rabbit is tact, refinement and a strong preference for avoiding trouble rather than winning it. It reads a room accurately, softens what needs softening, and keeps its life arranged so that confrontation rarely becomes necessary. Underneath the gentleness there is a great deal of quiet firmness, which people usually discover late. Its crossing was the least heroic and one of the most successful. The Rabbit could not swim, so it went by stepping stones, hopping from one to the next, and partway across it slipped. What saved it was a floating log, which it scrambled onto and rode, and which the Dragon obligingly blew toward the far bank. It came fourth. No strength, no strategy worth the name, just lightness, nerve at the moment of the slip, and the good fortune that tends to attach itself to animals that stay alert. In China the Rabbit is also the one on the moon, pounding the elixir of immortality, which is a rather grander posting than fourth place suggests. Rabbit people are diplomatic, aesthetically particular, and excellent company. They dislike raised voices and are surprisingly hard to move once they have decided something quietly. The cost is avoidance: a problem left unnamed to keep the peace, sitting there getting larger, while the room congratulates itself on how pleasant everything is.
Years of the Rabbit
A Rabbit 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.
- 1915February 14, 1915 to February 2, 1916
- 1927February 2, 1927 to January 22, 1928
- 1939February 19, 1939 to February 7, 1940
- 1951February 6, 1951 to January 26, 1952
- 1963January 25, 1963 to February 12, 1964
- 1975February 11, 1975 to January 30, 1976
- 1987January 29, 1987 to February 16, 1988
- 1999February 16, 1999 to February 4, 2000
- 2011February 3, 2011 to January 22, 2012
- 2023January 22, 2023 to February 9, 2024
- 2035February 8, 2035 to January 27, 2036
Rabbit Ancient Zodiacs
Every sign someone born in the Year of the Rabbit can be, one for each Western sun sign.
- Falcon: Aries Rabbit, “Waits, and waits, and then is simply already there.”
- Walrus: Taurus Rabbit, “Enormous, sociable, and finds dinner by touch alone.”
- Butterfly: Gemini Rabbit, “Lived two entire lives and remembers both.”
- Hedgehog: Cancer Rabbit, “Kind by default, and rolled into a ball by instinct.”
- Cheetah: Leo Rabbit, “Fastest thing on the plain, and it does not roar.”
- Ibis: Virgo Rabbit, “Quiet scholar with an eye for the overlooked detail.”
- Dove: Libra Rabbit, “Carries the peace, and finds the way home from anywhere.”
- Grasshopper: Scorpio Rabbit, “Quiet and green for years, and then something changes.”
- Moth: Sagittarius Rabbit, “Steering by a light that is very far away.”
- Gopher: Capricorn Rabbit, “Prefers its own company and an excellent set of exits.”
- Lemur: Aquarius Rabbit, “Gentle, wide eyed, and running on its own logic entirely.”
- Goldfish: Pisces Rabbit, “Remembers everything, and grows to the size of the bowl.”