The rooster

The rooster is the tenth of the twelve earthly branches. Like every animal in the cycle, it orders not only years but months, days and a double hour as well.

Its place in the cycle

Phase: metal
Season: autumn
Double hour: 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Direction: west
Linked with: ox and snake — the metal group of three
Facing: the rabbit

In this order metal stands for what divides and what sets in order: what separates, what cuts, what puts to the test. Autumn, as the time of harvest and of sorting, belongs with it. The interpretation handed down follows from that, not from the bird.

What tradition hands down

Precision, a sense of order, an eye for what does not add up — and the other side of it: severity towards oneself and others, impatience with the approximate. The rooster announces what is coming; in this order it is the sign of the one who looks closely and says so.

A necessary caveat

Attributions of this kind hold for the year sign — and the year sign is the coarsest of the four pillars. A complete Chinese chart is made of year, month, day and hour, and the day pillar counts as the sign of the person themselves.

The heavenly stem comes on top of that: a metal rooster and a fire rooster are markedly different things in interpretation, and the same combination only comes round again after sixty years.

Checking the start of the year

The Chinese year begins between late January and mid-February. Anyone born in those weeks often still belongs to the previous animal — the commonest mix-up of all.