The Water Horse

general summary for a person born in a Water Horse year of the Chinese calendar; outside astronomy

What the tradition reads

The Chinese zodiac is a calendrical tradition rather than an astronomical one, kept in this corpus as its own labelled system and never folded into a sun sign or a placement it happens to sit beside: it runs on the lunisolar calendar rather than on the ecliptic, and a year's animal and element are fixed by the date of the lunar new year, not by any planet's position. The twelve year animal cycle combines with the five element cycle, Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water, each element holding for two consecutive years, to make a full cycle of sixty years before the same animal and element pairing recurs. The Horse's own Wikipedia page states little beyond its years and elements, but the zodiac's traditional naming of the day's double hours credits it with a plain endurance: of the hour named for the Horse, at noon, the tradition holds that this is the time when, unlike the other animals which are lying down to rest, horses are still standing. A widely used Chinese astrology reading of the sign describes people born under it as fiery, warm hearted, generous, clever and quick witted, though, by the same reading, not good at keeping secrets and prone to leave things unfinished. Water, the element of winter and of stillness turned inward, is read as deepening the Horse's warmth and energy into reflection and adaptability, a quieter version of the same quality that runs calm on the surface but can turn elusive or withdrawn.

The story

A galloping sound announced the Horse's arrival at the crossing, close on the heels of the flying Dragon, and by every sign of speed it should have finished well. Hidden on its own hoof, unnoticed for the whole race, was the Snake, whose sudden appearance startled the Horse so badly that it fell back at the last stretch, giving the Snake sixth place and leaving the Horse to settle for seventh despite its speed. Water, the element paired with this particular Horse year, comes from the Wu Xing, the five phase system used across Chinese thought for cycles of generation and control: Water is placed in the north and in winter, a period of reclusiveness, stillness and consolidation associated with coolness, generated by Metal's collecting and purifying and, in the same cycle, giving rise to Wood, which it nourishes. The Horse and the Rat stand directly opposite one another in the twelve year wheel, six years apart, and the tradition names that particular pairing one of the six clashes, the oppositions across the cycle it considers most likely to produce friction rather than ease. Against that, the tradition pairs the Horse with the Goat in what it calls one of the six harmonies, a match it reads as running more easily than most.

Written from

Corpus key chinese:Water-Horse.