Chinese Astrology, the art of the chinese zodiacs

Thursday, August 27, 2009

People consider Chinese astrology as an art. The reason of Chinese astrology is to aid people attain their objectives through alertness and continuous development of the mind and soul. Just like the western astrology, you can consult Chinese astrology to know about your future, like career, relationship, love, likes and dislikes, good fortune and lot of other things.

Chinese astrology is created of a 12 year cycle and has 12 animals to depict every year, they are better known as the Chinese Zodiacs. The animals which are arranged in a particular order are rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep (or goat), monkey, rooster, dog, and pig. The perfect begining of the twelve animal plan remain not known. But there was a legend about it, here is the legend: the Jade King was bored, and was not doing anything in Heaven. He did not see what was happening on Earth, since he had servants satisfying his every wish. He decided that he wanted to see the animals that live the earth so he sent word to his advisors to bring him twelve animals. The advisor primarisly sent an request to the Rat, asking him to even bring the cat, as the Rat was envious he avoided the cat from knowing the news.

Later on, invitations were sent to animals like, the Tiger, the Rabbit, the Dragon, the Snake, the Horse, the Ram, the Monkey, the Rooster and the Dog and were asked to attend the next days. They queued in front of the king, and later on he found out that they were just eleven, than 12 that he desired. The Jade king sent his servant down to Earth to get the twelfth animal. The servant hurried into a man carrying a Pig, and grabbed| it and presented it to the king.

The animals stood in front of the king in no particular order. The Rat, being smallest of the remaining, jumped on the Ox's back and continued to play the flute. This impressed the king greatly and he was happy. He gave the Rat primary position. The second stood the Ox for his true sportsmanship quality and the third stood the Tiger as he was quite strong. The forth place was for the Rabbit, the Dragon took the fifth position, The sixth place was fro Snake, the seventh for the Horse, the eighth one for the Ram, Monkey stood ninth, tenth was Rooster and eleventh was the Dog. By default, and due to the king's just nature, twelfth place went to the Pig. After the event got over, the cat asked the king to reconsider but he did not agree with the cat.

Chinese astrology is also composed of 5 elements. These elements were Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water, always placed in that order as it is said to be a continuous procedure, that is Wood generates Fire; Fire generates Earth; Earth generates Metal, Metal generates Water, and Water generates Wood, and as it goes back to its beginning.

Last but not least there is the cosmic and divine strength that influences the entire Chinese astrology system. This force is well known as The Yin and The Yang. The yyin stands for the female whereas the Yang stands for Male. An diverse interpretation states that the Ying stands for the Evil and the Yang stands for the Good. And when both are taken into consideration, Ying and Yang, create harmony and everlasting balance. The amalgamation of Yin and Yang is the hidden power in the wake of the Chinese Horoscope system. But the Chinese Astrologers are not stern decision makers. They do not believe a person's destiny is already given exactly the time he/she took birth. However, they do believe in the philosophy that the time and the birth place set the limits of a person's freedom and liberty. What happens in these limits is influenced not just by own decision also by external issues such as locality, monetary conditions and the like.

By; Jamie Hanson