The Rat

The Rat is the first of the twelve earthly branches and opens the cycle.

Its place in the cycle

Phase: water
Season: midwinter
Double hour: 23:00 to 1:00 — the hour of midnight
Direction: north
Linked with: Dragon and Monkey — the water triad
Opposite: the Horse

The cycle begins in the north, at midnight, in the depth of winter — at the point, that is, where nothing is visible and everything begins. In Chinese natural philosophy, water is the phase of what is hidden and of what gathers, out of which the next thing comes. That the Rat opens the cycle follows from this order, not from the well-known story of the race of the animals — that story is the later, folk explanation.

What has been handed down

Alertness, resourcefulness, foresight, an eye for opportunity and for danger — and the other side: restlessness, calculation, difficulty in leaving anything unused.

In East Asia the rat is not a disparaging image. It stands for cleverness and prosperity, and this difference from the European view is a good reminder that the animal names of the cycle are to be read within their own culture.

What the year animal is worth

It is the coarsest of the four pillars. Anyone who wants more precision has the year, the month, the day and the hour worked out; the person themselves is read from the day pillar. The heavenly stem is part of it — a metal rat and an earth rat are not the same thing.

Checking the start of the year

Between the end of January and the middle of February the animal changes — the most common mix-up of all.