What it means
The Rooster is the zodiac's guardian. Rooster people tend to notice details and set high standards, for themselves first. They are usually punctual, well prepared and confident in their opinions, and they like to look their best. Underneath the bold front there is often a loyal friend who shows care by getting things right.
Strengths
Diligence, attention to detail, honesty, courage and a strong sense of responsibility.
Challenges
Bluntness, perfectionism, pride and finding it hard to let small mistakes go.
Rooster years and dates
A Rooster year starts at Lunar New Year, not on January 1. Rooster years since 1950: Fire Rooster, January 31, 1957 to February 17, 1958; Earth Rooster, February 17, 1969 to February 5, 1970; Metal Rooster, February 5, 1981 to January 24, 1982; Water Rooster, January 23, 1993 to February 9, 1994; Wood Rooster, February 9, 2005 to January 28, 2006; Fire Rooster, January 28, 2017 to February 15, 2018. The next Rooster year, an Earth Rooster, starts on February 13, 2029. If you were born in January or February, check the start date: a birthday before it belongs to the year before.
Element
Every Rooster year also carries one of five elements, which cycle so the same element and animal meet only once every 60 years. A Rooster born in 1981 is a Metal Rooster. The Rooster also has a fixed element of its own, Metal, and is a yin sign.
Best and hardest matches
Traditional Chinese astrology puts the twelve animals in four groups of three, and in six opposite pairs. The Rooster gets on most easily with the Ox and the Snake, the other two in its group. Its opposite is the Rabbit, 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: a Virgo Sun born in a Rooster year, for example, is a Woodpecker. 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.