The horse

The horse is the seventh of the twelve earthly branches, and so stands directly opposite the first, the rat.

Its place in the cycle

Phase: fire
Season: high summer
Double hour: 11:00 to 13:00 — the noon hour
Direction: south
Linked with: tiger and dog — the fire group of three
Facing: the rat

The horse holds the place in the cycle that corresponds to the Sun at its highest: noon, south, summer, fire. Within that order it is the point of greatest expansion — and at the same time the point at which the movement tips over.

What tradition hands down

Mobility, a taste for enterprise, a drive for freedom, an effect on other people — and the other side of it: impatience, volatility, difficulty with commitment and with repetition.

What the year animal is worth

The year is the coarsest of the four pillars. A complete chart is made of year, month, day and hour; the day pillar is the one that counts as the sign of the person themselves. On top of that comes the heavenly stem — a fire horse and a water horse are interpreted quite differently.

The fire horse has a particular reputation in the East Asian tradition; birth statistics show measurable drops in the years concerned. It is a well-documented example of an astrological idea producing social reality — quite apart from whether it holds true.

Checking the start of the year

The Chinese year begins between late January and mid-February. Anyone born in that stretch often still belongs to the previous animal.