Horoskopanalysen

The Dog

The Dog is the eleventh of the twelve earthly branches, and so one of the four branches that bring a season to its close.

Its place in the cycle

The four branches at the end of a season — Dragon, Goat, Dog, Ox — all carry the earth phase. Earth stands here for keeping and for mediating: for what sits between two states and holds both of them together.

What has been handed down

Loyalty, watchfulness, a sense of justice — and the other side of them: mistrust, worry, the reluctance to let a wrong rest. The Dog keeps watch, and anyone who keeps watch reckons with danger.

That these attributions suit the animal is neither accident nor proof: the branches carry animal names, and the interpretations have grown up along those names over centuries. The older layer is the calendar one — phase, season, direction.

What the year animal is worth

Less than is claimed everywhere. The year is the coarsest of the four pillars; the person themselves is read from the day pillar. Anyone who wants to know in earnest has all four worked out — and that takes the hour of birth.

Checking the start of the year

The animal changes between the end of January and the middle of February. Births in that period are regularly assigned to the wrong one.

See also: Chinese astrology, the Rooster.