chinese astrology animal zodiac many

Chinese Astrology- Animal Zodiac

Chinese Astrology - Animal Zodiac

(Many of my friend ask me about chinese animal zodiac, what it's all

about, how does it work etc. Not knowing much myself, I had refer to

some website and hope this explains.)

Introduction:

Chinese astrology (as it is known today) is the divination of the

future from the Chinese calendar, particularly its 12-year cycle of

animals, referred to as the Chinese Zodiac. This fortune-telling

system is derived from the principle characteristics of the system:

the Zodiac, the five elements of Chinese thought, calendrical cycles

based on astronomy, and ancient Chinese religion. The Chinese Zodiac

refers to a pure calendrical cycle: there are no equivalent

constellations like those of the occidental zodiac. In imperial times

there were astrologers who watched the sky for heavenly omens that

would predict the future of the state, but this was a quite different

practice of divination than the popular present-day methods.

Story Time- ORIGIN of ANIMAL ZODIAC Sequence

My prefered version of legend has it that a race was used to decide

the animals to report to the Jade Emperor-

While we are all aware of the hatred between a cat and a rat, these

two animals were actually very good friends once. Good friends they

may be, but these two animals are the worst swimmers in the animal

kingdom. Although bad swimmers, they were both intelligent. They

decided that the best and fastest way to cross the river is to hop on

the back of the ox.

The ox, being a na�ve and good-natured animal, agreed to carry them

across. However, when there is a carrot dangling in front, it is

sometimes difficult to stick to friendship and the crafty rat decides

that in order to win, it must do something and promptly pushed the cat

into the river. Because of this, the cat had never forgiven the rat,

and no doubt, hated the water too. After the ox had crossed the river,

the Rat jumped ahead and reached the shore 1st, and it cleverly

claimed first place in the race!

Following closely behind was the strong Ox, and it was named the 2nd

animal in the zodiac.

After the ox, came the Tiger, panting away while explaining to the

emperor just how difficult it was to cross the river with the heavy

currents pushing it downstream all the time. But with powerful

strength, it made to shore and was named the 3rd animal in the cycle.

Suddenly, from a distance came a thumping sound and out pop the

rabbit. It explained how it crossed the river: by jumping from one

stone to another in a nimble fashion. Halfway through, it almost lost

the race but the rabbit was lucky enough to grab hold of a floating

log that later washed him to shore. For that, it became the 4th animal

in the zodiac cycle.

Coming in 5th place was the gallant Dragon, flying and belching fire

into the air. Of course the Emperor was deeply curious as to why a

strong and flying creature such as the dragon should fail to reach

first. The mighty dragon explained that he had to stop and make rain

to help all the people and creatures of the earth, therefore he was

held back a little. Then on his way to the finish line, he saw a

little helpless rabbit clinging on to a log so he did a good deed and

gave a puff of breath to the poor creature so that it could land on

the shore. The emperor was very pleased with the actions of the dragon

and he was added into the zodiac cycle.

As soon as he had done so, a galloping sound was heard and the horse

appeared. Hidden on the horse's hoof is the slimy sneaky snake whose

sudden appearance gave the horse a fright thus making it fall back and

gave the Snake 6th spot whilst the Horse took the 7th.

Not long after that, a little distance away, the ram, monkey and

rooster came to the shore. These three creatures helped each other to

get to where they are. The rooster spotted a raft, and took the other

two animals with it. Together, the ram and the monkey cleared the

weeds, tugged and pulled and finally got the raft to the shore.

Because of their combined efforts, the Emperor was very pleased and

promptly named the Ram as the 8th creature, the Monkey as the 9th, and

the Rooster the 10th.

The 11th animal is the Dog. His explanation for being late although he

was supposed to be the best swimmer amongst the rest was that he

needed a good bath after a long spell, and the fresh water from the

river was too big a temptation. For that, he almost didn't make it to

finish line.

Just as the emperor was about to call it a day, an oink and squeal was

heard from a little pig. The term "lazy pig" is due here as the pig

got hungry during the race, promptly stopped for a feast then fell

asleep. After the nap, the Pig continued the race and was named the

12th and last animal of the zodiac cycle. The cat finished too late

(thirteenth) to win any place in the calendar, and vowed to be the