The New Astrology attempts to help us understand human behavior within the universe through the "marriage" of occidental and oriental astrologies.
The Chinese divide time differently from Westerners. Westerners have 100-year centuries but the Chinese use periods of sixty years. We divide our centuries into ten decades. The Chinese divide their sixty-year spans into "dozencades" or twelve-year periods.
In the West, we divide our year up twelve times by its moons. Each 28 to 30 day month has its own astrological name. Every year our astrological cycle begins anew. In the East, each year within the twelve-year dozencade has its own astrological name. At the end of each twelve-year period the Chinese cycle begins anew.
The twelve occidental months have celestial sign names: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces. The twelve oriental years have animal sign names: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Cat, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Pig. In both cases the astrological sign name refers to the character of people born under its influence.
So, in fact, everybody in the world has not just one but two main astrological signs. A Western "month" sign and an Oriental "year" sign. One sign is complementary to the other. Taken together, they show us more about the individual than either one can on its own. In the New Astrology, if someone is born in Aries and is also born in a Horse year, that person's New Astrology sign is Aries/Horse. Aries/Horses, as you will see, are not the same as Aries/Cats or Aries/Tigers.
There are 144 New Astrology signs. Each is a combined East/West sign. The point of this exercise is to refine our understanding of human nature. Through the New Astrology we can learn to get along better with our friends, family and loved ones. We can find out why we tend not to harmonize with certain people. We can improve our knowledge of them, and of ourselves. |