What it means
If there is a way around a problem, the Monkey finds it. Monkey people tend to be curious and quick. They learn fast, get bored fast and usually have a joke ready. Their flexibility is a real gift, and their love of a clever trick can occasionally get them into trouble.
Strengths
Intelligence, inventiveness, humor, adaptability and a fast grasp of new skills.
Challenges
Restlessness, mischief, overconfidence and a habit of starting more than they finish.
Monkey years and dates
A Monkey year starts at Lunar New Year, not on January 1. Monkey years since 1950: Fire Monkey, February 12, 1956 to January 30, 1957; Earth Monkey, January 30, 1968 to February 16, 1969; Metal Monkey, February 16, 1980 to February 4, 1981; Water Monkey, February 4, 1992 to January 22, 1993; Wood Monkey, January 22, 2004 to February 8, 2005; Fire Monkey, February 8, 2016 to January 27, 2017. The next Monkey year, an Earth Monkey, starts on January 26, 2028. If you were born in January or February, check the start date: a birthday before it belongs to the year before.
Element
Every Monkey year also carries one of five elements, which cycle so the same element and animal meet only once every 60 years. A Monkey born in 1980 is a Metal Monkey. The Monkey also has a fixed element of its own, Metal, and is a yang sign.
Best and hardest matches
Traditional Chinese astrology puts the twelve animals in four groups of three, and in six opposite pairs. The Monkey gets on most easily with the Rat and the Dragon, the other two in its group. Its opposite is the Tiger, six years apart, which is said to bring the most friction.
How Cosmic Array reads it
Cosmic Array reads your animal next to your Western Sun sign. Together they give your Primal Zodiac, one of 144 combinations: an Aquarius Sun born in a Monkey year, for example, is a Capuchin. The Architect blueprint shows your animal, its element and your Primal Zodiac, worked out from the exact Lunar New Year date, and reads them against the rest of your chart.