An essay by S D Anugyan
Despite my interest in Feng Shui, Chinese astrology remained a side-interest at best. It had always been so. I simply couldn’t take seriously a system which generalised everybody born in one year. However, in the same way I had discarded western astrology and returned to it through healthy scepticism and observation – as detailed in Real World Astrology – the same was to happen with the Chinese system.
Instrumental to my reawakening is a book called Chinese Zodiac Signs. It’s a hefty tome of over nine hundred pages and keeps turning up in my life. I lose one copy only for it to be replaced by another turning up in a charity sale or something.
I had my first copy when teaching last century and was driven to consulting it when in despair over a certain class. I prided myself on being able to appeal to almost any student, no matter how much a teaching challenge they provided. In fact, I always enjoyed that challenge, it was a way of getting to know the pupils better, to understand how they thought. This lot though had me beat. None of my numerous techniques, which had succeeded unerringly in the past, were working. I just couldn’t get them to respond.
It struck me that as a classroom comprises of kids mostly born in the same year, according to Chinese astrology that would mean there would be a dominant animal in the room. Curious, I consulted my ‘bible’, which has entire sections on children’s zodiac signs. Reading it, I realised my methods had worked particularly well on generations of Snakes, Dragons and Rabbits, but I was meeting something entirely different here, mostly Goats.
The Goat child, the book explained, responds poorly to discipline. They need to wander loose up the mountain slopes and get themselves into trouble, that is how they learn. Let them tie their own shoelaces.
This was revelatory to me and, knowing these kids, it made perfect sense. It explained where I had been going wrong. In order to teach them, I would have to stand back a bit, keeping an eye on them after providing some guidance, and allow them to follow their instincts.
There were also some Horses in the herd who, apparently, tended to fluctuate wildly between ‘I’m doing brilliantly’ to ‘Oh my god I’m a complete failure.’ The challenge with them, I felt, was to coax them kindly to the middle way.
This insight, that the class is full of animals, was one of the most helpful things I ever learnt in teaching. It helped later as well when I realised I had a room full of Roosters all crowing for attention. The Monkeys were another problem altogether. It was hard to get them off the desks.
I can’t explain how one zodiac sign can apply to an entire year, all I can bear evidence to is its pragmatic and effective application when teaching.
Even so, the deeper aspects of self-knowledge I would expect from an astrological system eluded me when it came to the year I was born. I was born in the Year of the Rat, but most of the things I read about Rats didn’t seem to apply to me at all; except for one comment, that Rats tend to survive through everything. That I could certainly identify with, looking back at some of the things I’d experienced in life. Other things didn’t sit right at all, including the generalisation that Rats make good business people. As anyone who knew me could testify, I was so bad at business, it was a joke. Going further, looking at the elements involved – I’m a Metal Rat – didn’t improve matters.
Then at another point in my life, I was in a studio flat where three women and I would meet up and work. I say work, but we spent a lot of time just taking the piss and rolling about with laughter. Still, despite that, we were highly creative and productive. One day one of us, I forget who, dug out the ‘bible’. Reading over it, we discovered that there’s a secondary zodiac sign to the main one, called The Companion.
The Companion is calculated according to the time of birth, differing from the ascendant in western astrology as it’s the same sign throughout the year. It is meant to represent ‘the secret self’, an aspect that may be hidden from most others, known only to the individual and those closest to them. The book explains:
Have you ever felt, deep inside yourself, the subtle presence of another ‘myself’ inhabiting you and with whom you live, at times in harmony, at others in conflict? Another self who sometimes criticises you and at others encourages you? That is your Companion in Life.
Chinese Zodiac Signs, Treasure Press
I discovered that my Companion was the Dragon. Reading about the Dragon as my sign, the accuracy was impressive. These weren’t vague generalisations that could apply to anyone, it was me. Some of the insights on love and relationships were so correct, I felt I should rip those pages out of the book. Certain things are meant to be private!
As the others consulted the book, there was a surprise in store. It turned out that three of us had Dragon Companions, and the fourth was born in the Year of the Dragon. That we were effectively a nest of Dragons was startling, not to say embarrassing. Apparently when Dragons get together they preen each other, saying how wonderful they all are (we really are!), and what a shame no one else can see it. This continual reflection of brilliance can be intoxicating, and also illusory, blind-siding one sometimes to the whole truth of the situations.
I realise now that I’m often drawn to other Dragons – whether born in that year, or as a Companion – and, yes, we always think each other wonderful, and that no one else can quite understand us! But I am now, thanks to the astrological insight, more aware of the pitfalls and try to be cautious – not easy for a Dragon.
That is about the limit of my empirical experience with Chinese astrology, though I do keep an eye on things as we enter different years, looking out for patterns. (This year, we’d better hold onto our Fire Horses!) For me, the jury is still out as to its accuracy in general terms, but from what I have experienced in the above accounts, I am at least partially convinced. I can definitely recommend, if you know your time of birth, that you check out your Companion, your secret self.
This is a list of Companions and the related hours. Presumably one would need to adjust for summer times etc. as one would for western astrology:
23:00 – 01:00 Rat
01:00 – 03:00 Ox
03:00 – 05:00 Tiger
05:00 – 07:00 Rabbit
07:00 – 09:00 Dragon
09:00 – 11:00 Snake
11:00 – 13:00 Horse
13:00 – 15:00 Sheep
15:00 – 17:00 Monkey
17:00 – 19:00 Rooster
19:00 – 21:00 Dog
21:00 – 23:00 Pig
Related article
- Real-world astrology – An essay by S D Anugyan. “With astrology I have moved through near-wholesale acceptance at the beginning… to a letting go of it in favour of the accepted science of astronomy; and finally to an interesting hybrid of the two, where I practise a certain detachment in favour of observation.”
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