What it means
The Tiger is the zodiac's rebel. It has natural authority and little patience for rules it did not choose, so Tiger people often end up in charge or out on their own. They are warm and generous when they care about something, and they bring a lot of energy into a room. The same boldness can make them impulsive, and they tend to learn by leaping first.
Strengths
Courage, confidence, generosity, a strong sense of justice and the nerve to act when others hesitate.
Challenges
Impulsiveness, a quick temper, restlessness and pushing back against authority even when it would be easier not to.
Tiger years and dates
A Tiger year starts at Lunar New Year, not on January 1. Tiger years since 1950: Metal Tiger, February 17, 1950 to February 5, 1951; Water Tiger, February 5, 1962 to January 24, 1963; Wood Tiger, January 23, 1974 to February 10, 1975; Fire Tiger, February 9, 1986 to January 28, 1987; Earth Tiger, January 28, 1998 to February 15, 1999; Metal Tiger, February 14, 2010 to February 2, 2011; Water Tiger, February 1, 2022 to January 21, 2023. The next Tiger year, a Wood Tiger, starts on February 19, 2034. If you were born in January or February, check the start date: a birthday before it belongs to the year before.
Element
Every Tiger year also carries one of five elements, which cycle so the same element and animal meet only once every 60 years. A Tiger born in 1986 is a Fire Tiger. The Tiger also has a fixed element of its own, Wood, 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 Tiger gets on most easily with the Horse and the Dog, the other two in its group. Its opposite is the Monkey, 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 Aries Sun born in a Tiger year, for example, is a Tiger. 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.