The five monkeys: what the heavenly stem changes in the sign

Two people, both born under the sign of the monkey, twelve years apart – and a serious reading does not describe them in the same way. That is because a year in the Chinese calendar carries two details. The animal is one of them. The other is the heavenly stem, which brings with it one of the five phases: wood, fire, earth, metal or water.

The stem changes every year

A stubborn error persists here: that the phase of a year changes every twelve years. It does not. It changes from year to year, two years to a phase, and runs on in a row of its own, ten stems long, while the twelve animals turn in a row of theirs.

Because twelve and ten do not fit together, a neat side effect follows: when the monkey comes round again after twelve years, the phase has moved on by exactly one step – in the order in which the phases feed one another. The wood monkey is followed by the fire monkey, then the earth monkey, the metal monkey, the water monkey. Only after five rounds, that is after sixty years, does the same combination stand in the sky again.

The five monkeys

The monkey itself carries the phase metal as its branch. The interpretation turns on how the stem of the year stands in relation to that metal – whether it feeds it, whether it controls it, whether it lives off it. Out of that come five quite different pictures.

Wood monkey, 1944 and 2004. Metal controls wood: tension in its own house. Held to be the monkey with the widest plans, the one who takes on the most and needs a counterpart to put the brakes on now and then.

Fire monkey, 1956 and 2016. Fire controls metal, and here the stem bears down on the sign. The most visible of the five: quick, ambitious, entertaining – and the one most likely to burn out.

Earth monkey, 1968 and 2028. Earth feeds metal, and that is backing. Held to be the calmest monkey: the same inventiveness, but with staying power and a sense of what still has to hold up the day after tomorrow.

Metal monkey, 1980 and 2040. Stem and branch carry the same phase, which reinforces it. The most decisive of the five: clear in judgement, hard to fool, quick to have done with a matter – with the risk that sharpness turns into coldness.

Water monkey, 1932 and 1992. Metal feeds water, so this time it is the sign that gives. The most mobile of the five, able to fit in almost anywhere, and the one who finds it hardest to commit.

Your own monkey year

Every twelve years your own animal comes round again in the calendar. In China this year is traditionally held to be not a lucky year but one to take care in; it is met with red – a belt, a piece of clothing, often a present from the family. For monkeys, 2016 was such a year; the next is 2028. There is no astrological grounding for the custom, and it is widespread to this day.

Before you look up which of the five monkeys you are, check the year: the Chinese year does not begin on 1 January but between the end of January and the middle of February. Anyone whose birthday falls in that period often still belongs to the previous animal – and so to a different stem as well.

What depends on it, and what does not

The phase of the year is an addition, not an answer. It colours the year animal, which for its part is only one of four details in a complete picture. Anyone who knows the colour has gained something all the same: it explains why two monkeys from two generations do not recognise themselves in the same description. How the cycle is built and how it is worked out is set out under Chinese astrology.