sBrul (Snake)

Tibetan sources present these portraits as warnings, not as a fixed fate. In Gyurme Dorje's words, the predictions "are not considered to be deterministic, but cautionary and prescriptive", and a negative portent is met with rites that "have the power to nullify" it.

The White Beryl, the seventeenth-century treatise of the regent Sangs-rgyas rGya-mtsho, gives the Snake a dark portrait. In Dorje's translation: "Natives of the snake year are characteristically consumed by their own venom and burning anger, and they have an energetic spirit. If they do not self-destruct, they will be envied by others; and even though they ponderously and stubbornly assert that they will continue to be unharmed, within their darkest thoughts such bland expressions of unanimity cannot be feigned. If smitten by gastric or liver diseases, it will be very critical for the subject's vitality."

Philippe Cornu's Tibetan Astrology sees the Snake as a deep thinker with innate wisdom, seductive, graceful and refined, an elegant sensualist who talks little and keeps secrets; but also jealous, implacably calculating and vengeful in anger. "This sign must accept its karma, and cannot escape from it", he writes, though it changes its skin and learns quickly.

Both portraits see anger and inner darkness in the Snake, but Cornu sets them beside wisdom and grace. ZodiAtlas gives the White Beryl first because it is the Tibetan text itself, written down in the seventeenth century; Cornu does not say which Tibetan text his portraits come from.

Every Snake year shares the same vitality (srog): fire, the element of the south, where the Snake stands on the divination turtle. Its life-spirit (bla) is wood, the element that is "mother" to fire. Its wind-horse (rlung-rta), the force of luck and good reputation, is water: the Snake belongs to the luck group of the Ox, Snake and Bird, whose luck is the Pig's element, water.

Body (lus) and power (dbang-thang) change with each of the five Snake years. In the Wood Snake year the body is fire and the power wood; in the Fire Snake, earth and fire; in the Earth Snake, wood and earth; in the Iron Snake, iron and iron; in the Water Snake, water and water. The power element is the one that names the year.

Snake natives fall under the numeric squares White Eight, Black Two and Yellow Five, which also govern the Tiger, the Monkey and the Pig.

Wood Snake (shing-mo sbrul-lo). "Small-minded and physically tall, beloved by superiors and hated by inferiors", they suffer few diseases, have sons and an abundance of wealth, but pursue their own interests and are "extremely narcissistic". Seventy-seven years, four obstacles.

Fire Snake (me-mo sbrul-lo). They are "corpulent, subject to few diseases, and endowed with many friendships"; they "will marry five or seven spouses and become rich, presiding over a town or city", "sustain others and be respected by all", and are "learned in all the artistic treatises". Seventy-one years, seven obstacles, two children.

Earth Snake (sa-mo sbrul-lo). They have "great mental fortitude and dexterity" and abundant wealth, but fear of thieves, declining prosperity, and a nature "proud, angry, dark-complexioned, black-hearted, passionate and jealous"; the text warns that "they may commit suicide". Seventy-nine years, four obstacles, six children.

Iron Snake (lcags-mo sbrul-lo). "Perceptive and skilled in the arts", but they "take delight in examining the faults of others" and "incite theft"; their wealth grows in later life, while illness, insanity and the demons of suicide threaten them. Seventy-eight years, six obstacles, three children.

Water Snake (chu-mo sbrul-lo). They "have smouldering anger in their hearts", "value material resources above people" and indulge in slander; many relatives will "bring an end to the family line". Sixty-eight years, few children.

The years of one's own sign, at ages 13, 25, 37, 49, 61 and 73, bring what the White Beryl calls "natural obstacles" (rang-keg). In them it advises performing virtuous actions, drawing in prosperity and long life by ritual means, and avoiding contact "with those in grief, or invalids". The years of the seventh sign, the Pig, fall at ages 7, 19, 31, 43 and 55. At seven, adversarial forces must be ritually averted; the nineteenth year is "the time for making money"; the thirty-first brings the risk of divorce, the forty-third hostile forces against wealth, and the fifty-fifth difficult breathing.

According to sMon-'gro Paṇḍita, as Dorje reports, the ninth day of the first autumn month of a Snake year is a "black day".

Philippe Cornu adds a table of good and bad days for each sign, shown below; he does not name its Tibetan source. Cornu, who describes the character of almost every year of the cycle, gives no description of the Year of the Snake.

• Excellent day: Tuesday
• Good day: Friday
• Bad day: Wednesday
• Day of basis: day 13 of the lunar month
• Day of power: day 12 of the lunar month
• Day of success: day 6 of the lunar month
• Day of obstacles: day 8 of the lunar month
• Day of disturbance: day 9 of the lunar month
• Day of enemies: day 6 of the lunar month

From Philippe Cornu, Tibetan Astrology, tables 26 and 27. Cornu does not name the Tibetan source of these days.

The White Beryl also divines illness from the animal of the day. A Snake day is "light" for men and "heavy" for women; its illnesses are blood disorders and palpitations, sweating, pains of the chest, ribs, skull, eye-sockets or joints, poor appetite and chronic ailments. For the most severe diseases, those with signs of impending death, the text adds that the rites vary with the year-sign of the sick person.

On the divination turtle the Snake belongs to the south, the turtle's head: the sector of fire, the heart, the trigram Li and the Sun. Diviners use it to divine matters concerning "oneself and one's children". Among the twelve hidden spirit lords, the Snake's is Tsang-kun.

Among the five constitutional types, Horse and Snake years are son years for the wood type, destiny years for the fire type, "mother" years for the earth type, enemy years for the iron type and "friend" years for the water type.

The White Beryl judges a birth by the father's sign. A father born in a Horse or Snake year and a child born in an Ox, Sheep, Dog or Dragon year give the auspicious prediction called "high fortress construction"; with a child of the Mouse or Pig, the prediction is "short lifespan, inauspicious in both the short and long term".

Seen from the child's side, a Snake child of a Tiger or Hare father has the auspicious "great luminosity"; with a Bird or Monkey father, the prediction is short life. A Snake child born under the trigram Kham brings the mother difficulty in raising it, and one born under the trigram Khen brings "enemies and losses, inauspicious to the paternal uncle".

For a Snake child, the summer months are the delicate ones. Birth in the Snake month falls in the sector of ill-health, in the Horse month in that of death, and in the Sheep month in that of the tomb, "inauspicious to oneself and one's father".

The White Beryl makes fire the presiding element at death when a deceased of the Horse or Snake sign also bears the other marks of fire: the fire constitutional type, the trigram Li, the numeric square Red Seven or Red Nine, Mars or the Sun as planet, and three generations of the family, father and son included, of the same sign. "In all such cases, and during the first or second summer month", the body should not be given to rivers or the sea.

Cremation is auspicious for someone who dies in a Snake year if most living relatives are Mouse or Pig; sky burial is auspicious if they are Bird or Monkey. In each case the trigrams or numeric squares must also agree. The corpse itself should not be carried towards the north, "otherwise, it will be inauspicious for friends".

When the deceased is a Snake, the White Beryl warns that the demonic influence may fall on relatives of the Bird or Pig sign, and prescribes rites "for the slaying of the avengers".

For every negative reading the White Beryl gives a remedy. In the years of one's own sign it prescribes recitations, such as the sNang-brgyad and the Pañcarakṣā at thirteen and the Vajravidāraṇa and the Amitāyus Sūtra at twenty-five, together with long-life rituals. Weak forces are restored with a ransom for vitality (srog-bslu) and with prayer flags for the wind-horse. As the book itself says, "if the appropriate rituals are correctly undertaken, the negative conjunctions will turn out to be auspicious."

The White Beryl manuscript gives several lists of couples, each with its own prognosis, and for the Snake they contradict one another; we show them as they are. The Horse and the Sheep form a loving triad with the Snake, yet the Snake and the Horse also see their family line end, "will have no descendants" and form a "mediocre" ill-omen, in which the "family line will end, especially if groom of the snake year takes a bride of the horse year"; and the Snake and the Sheep are the "greater" ill-omen, "utterly incapable".

With the Bird the couple has many children, but its family line ends; with the Monkey it becomes rich and powerful. With the Hare it has no descendants; with the Mouse it divorces; with the Pig "the mother-in-law will die prematurely, and the family line will be ended"; with the Tiger it meets the "six inauspicious misfortunes". No compatible relationship is possible between the Dragon and the Snake: "they will become entangled". Two Snake partners will find life hard in the short term and better in the long term, "but they will risk disputes and divorce"; a second list calls the same couple auspicious.

Philippe Cornu's table rates the Snake's partners differently. For him the Cow is excellent, the Rat and the Dragon good, the Hare neutral and the Tiger an enemy; he prints nothing for the other six signs. Cornu himself admits that "Chinese, Tibetan, and Western writers are not in complete agreement as to compatibility".