Lunar Zodiac · The Moon's Cycle
Rooster
“Spotted the raft, said so loudly, and got everyone across.”
Polarity: yin · Direction: west · Element: metal
The Rooster is precision, pride and an announcing voice. It notices the detail, keeps to the time, and says what it has concluded without much cushioning, which makes it invaluable and occasionally exhausting. It takes real satisfaction in a job done properly and real offence at the suggestion that it was not. Its part in the race is usually told as a footnote and deserves better. Three animals were stuck at the river with no way over, and it was the Rooster who spotted the raft. The Monkey and the Goat did the clearing and the poling, and all three crossed together, finishing eighth, ninth and tenth. The Rooster came last of the three, having found the thing that got all of them there. That is the sign in miniature: the one who sees what everybody else walked past, contributes the observation that makes the plan possible, and ends up behind the animals who carried it out. Rooster people are well organised, exacting and more sensitive to criticism than their confidence suggests. They are loyal, punctual, and honest to a fault about other people's work as well as their own. The cost is the volume: being right is not the same as being easy to hear, and the observation that saves the day still lands as a correction to whoever is receiving it.
Years of the Rooster
A Rooster 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.
- 1921February 8, 1921 to January 27, 1922
- 1933January 26, 1933 to February 13, 1934
- 1945February 13, 1945 to February 1, 1946
- 1957January 31, 1957 to February 17, 1958
- 1969February 17, 1969 to February 5, 1970
- 1981February 5, 1981 to January 24, 1982
- 1993January 23, 1993 to February 9, 1994
- 2005February 9, 2005 to January 28, 2006
- 2017January 28, 2017 to February 15, 2018
- 2029February 13, 2029 to February 1, 2030
- 2041February 1, 2041 to January 21, 2042
Rooster Ancient Zodiacs
Every sign someone born in the Year of the Rooster can be, one for each Western sun sign.
- Phoenix: Aries Rooster, “Burns it down, and is the first thing standing after.”
- Beetle: Taurus Rooster, “Armoured, exact, and navigating by the Milky Way.”
- Eagle: Gemini Rooster, “Sees the whole valley and says exactly what is in it.”
- Goose: Cancer Rooster, “Devoted for life, and will absolutely make a scene about it.”
- Griffin: Leo Rooster, “King of the ground and the air, and unwilling to choose.”
- Raven: Virgo Rooster, “Thought and memory, and it never forgets a face.”
- Owl: Libra Rooster, “Weighs both sides of the sound before it moves.”
- Wasp: Scorpio Rooster, “Precise, unloved, and it can sting as often as it likes.”
- Parrot: Sagittarius Rooster, “Says the true thing, loudly, in your own voice.”
- Duck: Capricorn Rooster, “Composed on the surface, and the effort is genuinely hidden.”
- Cockatoo: Aquarius Rooster, “Inventive showman with an eye for the smallest detail.”
- Seagull: Pisces Rooster, “Drinks the sea, takes the chips, regrets nothing.”