The pig

The pig is the twelfth and last of the earthly branches, and it closes the cycle before it starts afresh with the rat.

Its place in the cycle

• Phase: water
• Season: early winter
• Double hour: 9 p.m. to 11 p.m.
• Direction: north-northwest
• Linked with: rabbit and goat — the wood group of three
• Facing: the snake

The pig carries water and stands at the crossing into winter — the phase of gathering in and hiding away, out of which what comes next arises. That the cycle ends here and begins again in the north at midnight is not arbitrary; it follows the same order.

What tradition hands down

Straightforwardness, generosity, a capacity for enjoyment, forbearance — and the other side of it: credulity, difficulty in saying no, a tendency to let oneself be taken advantage of.

In East Asia the pig is a sign of prosperity and plenty. The disparaging second meaning the word carries in English is no part of it — a good reminder that the animal names of the cycle are to be read within their own culture.

What the year animal is worth

The coarsest of the four pillars. A complete picture is made of the year, the month, the day and the hour; the day pillar counts as the sign of the person themselves. The heavenly stem tells a water pig from an earth pig, and the same combination does not come round again for sixty years.

Checking the start of the year

Between late January and mid-February the animal changes — and depending on the school it is the New Year festival or the start of spring that counts. See the Chinese calendar.

See also: Chinese astrology, the monkey.