In the context of the year, the Ox symbolizes the effort needed to pull ourselves out of winter’s darkness and into the promise of spring. After facing the year’s darkest aspects and our own shadows, the Ox embodies the commitment to self-improvement and gradual growth.

In Chinese cosmology, this month represents the moment when Yin and Yang come together and transform into one another, with the contracting Yin energy of the autumn and winter suddenly reversing and expanding into the Yang energy of light returning and growing in the world. At the same time…

Pigs represent the start of Winter in the lunar calendar, and at the same time they are also the final animal in the Zodiac cycle. Pigs are therefore symbols of both beginnings and endings, and this duality is meaningful: the energy of the Pig relates to…

As autumn settles in, colder weather and gray skies invite us to cozy up indoors. The Chinese zodiac symbol of the Dog perfectly mirrors this seasonal shift. What’s the first thing...

Let’s take a look at what the Chinese lunar calendar is, how it differs from the Gregorian calendar, and how the zodiac symbols are mapped onto this calendar...

...So the symbol of the Rooster, more than simply a signal of the coming day, is about “waking up” to the transformations taking place around us that are just dawning, whatever they may be...

The beginning of the month of the Monkey marks a pivot point in the year, where we move into a season of social animals. The year starts with…

“This is a time to digest the experiences of the year so far and make sense of how we got here, and how we feel underneath all the rushing forward and outward appearances.”