The Year of the Yin Fire Rooster
Happy lunar new year! We welcome the Rooster to head up this new year, and more specifically, a Yin Fire Rooster. So, what does this mean for this year? A lot. The Rooster’s crow is a wake up alarm, and I don’t think it could’ve come at a better time.
On Friday, January 27, the new moon that joined the sun in Aquarius initiated Lunar New Year. If you were born during a Rooster year you’re considered a rooster and this is your year. And just like Western astrology, Vedic astrology, etc, Chinese astrology is rich, complex, and cannot be understood by the simple and surface descriptions most people are used to when it is discussed. There are twelve animals in the zodiac, each assigned an element, season, positive or negative charge. Rooster corresponds to the Western sun sign of Virgo.
The direction associated with Rooster is west and autumn is the season (guards the lungs, controls Wood). It is a yin sign and its fixed element is Metal. This year is a yin fire Rooster, so it will have specific attributes. You can think of yin as more passive, or more focused on personal relationships and boundaries. If you were born between the hours of 5 and 7pm, you have Rooster as your ascendant and will have an affinity for Roosters and many of the characteristics. The animal that rules your birth year (and your rising sign), according to a Chinese saying, is known as “the animal that hides in your heart.”
Roosters can be paradoxical and misunderstood, similar to the signs of Aquarius and Scorpio. They are generally attractive, organized, direct and critical. Roosters can be great performers and big personalities, can be either fantastic at handling money or bankruptcy prone, and similar to the sign of Virgo can lean more toward the puritanical in sex and love, or just more discerning and cautious. They spend money on themselves and on their wardrobes, being chic dressers, and often wearing outfits that attract attention. Even as youngsters Roosters are self-starters and fast learners, meticulous, self-disciplined and dependable. There is a sense of perfectionism with Rooster, a sincerity underneath the opinions and strong ego, and a sharp, inquisitive mind. Roosters are resilient and loyal. They prefer praise to criticism, which they don’t take well, and are no strangers to controversy.
Along with these strong traits, this feisty sign can also be demanding and egotistical, abrasive, and a compulsive worker. Rooster can be suspicious of idealism, serious and stubborn. They can get cranky when things go south, cynical, and overly self-involved without caring much for the feelings of others. There’s a quixotic air about them with quite a few idiosyncrasies. Of course to some this is only endearing. Interestingly, I’ve found in my research that a lot of millionaires are Roosters and besides all the money they have, they also possess two major rooster traits in common- being opinionated and eccentric.
The Fire Rooster, out of the five roosters, can be temperamental and inflexible, is authoritative and a strong leader, is independent, unswayed and ethical.
The Rooster gets along best with Ox and Snake, and will encounter the most conflict with Rabbit (and Rabbit ascendant), unless the Rooster has a Rabbit ascendant or vice versa.
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We can take on the characteristics of Rooster, such as great leadership, responsibility, directness, tenacity. With the fire element present we must watch out for out of control egotism or aggression as we do our work, as fire tends to bring out the feisty side. Rooster’s approach is no nonsense and straightforward, dealing with facts and the visible head on and doing nothing half way. As we embark into 2017 and this new era of the US and the world, most people are feeling overwhelmed and confused, overcome with despair, or impassioned toward revolution, all of which are appropriate responses to current affairs. This is not a time to play small or feel too dainty to get dirty, to cling to old paradigms and our tendency to bury our heads in the sand. Instead this wake up call should incite great courage and propel us toward success. It’s a time of awakening change and of spiritual transformation. The main word for this Rooster year will be resilience.
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Famous Roosters include Steve Martin, Emperor Akihito of Japan, Quincy Jones, King Birendra of Nepal, Katharine Hepburn, Beyonce, John Glenn and Grover Cleveland.
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This year’s theme: Roost in resilience, then rise up like fire Roosters; resist and reclaim!
Xo,
KK