Khyi (Dog)

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 Dog a fierce portrait. In Dorje's translation: "Those born in the dog year are seldom liked, whether at home or abroad, on account of their fierce arrogance and rage. They act in a direct forthright manner, and have no concealed wealth, for which reason they incur few losses. Finding no place for their minds to rest, they will pursue many diverse and even futile ideas, which act as a tinder to ignite their minds. Investing great faith in inferiors, they are swift-footed, extremely passionate, and prone to wanderlust. Yet they will befriend superiors who have come down in the world."

Philippe Cornu's Tibetan Astrology sees the Dog as "loyalty and honesty personified": intelligent, with a strong sense of justice, a conscientious worker and an obliging friend, careful, trustworthy and altruistic; but also a moraliser and a worrier who can turn pessimistic, whose affections last if it masters its pessimism.

The White Beryl's Dog is arrogant, direct and restless; Cornu's is loyal and dutiful. 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 Dog year shares the same vitality (srog): earth, the element of the intermediate directions, where the Dog stands on the divination turtle. Its life-spirit (bla) is fire, the element that is "mother" to earth. Its wind-horse (rlung-rta), the force of luck and good reputation, is iron: the Dog belongs to the luck group of the Tiger, Horse and Dog, whose luck is the Monkey's element, iron.

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

Dog natives fall under the numeric squares Red Nine, White Six and Blue Three, which also govern the Ox, the Sheep and the Dragon.

Wood Dog (shing-pho khyi-lo). "Highly skilled and sensitive, with a high level of recollection and excellent physical appearance", they "may become the mayor of a town or city" and enjoy abundance in the short term, though there is "a risk of blood feuds or pollution". Seventy-nine years, five obstacles, three children.

Fire Dog (me-pho khyi-lo). "Though subject to many diseases and the ending of the family line", they "display virtue and patience"; fevers and bile diseases trouble them, and "the subject's house may be incinerated". Sixty-eight years, seven obstacles, three children.

Earth Dog (sa-pho khyi-lo). "Short-tempered, wrathful, whimsical, garrulous and intensely passionate", they "take delight in cursing others"; they "will dream of befriending the dead" and possess scant resources. Seventy years, seven obstacles, three or four children.

Iron Dog (lcags-pho khyi-lo). They are "perceptive, refined in conduct, pure-hearted and intent upon virtuous actions"; they are "skilled in the arts but have little to say", and "shy and modest"; "their granaries and resources will prosper". Seventy-seven years, seven obstacles, three or four children.

Water Dog (chu-pho khyi-lo). They are "always miserly", afraid of disease and enemies and marked by "many ugly marks"; ignored by relatives and friends, they "persevere with negative and non-virtuous actions". Seventy-three years, few children and little wealth.

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 Dragon, 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. The Dog is also one of the four "adversarial" signs (gshed-bzhi) with the Ox, the Dragon and the Sheep.

According to sMon-'gro Paṇḍita, as Dorje reports, the twenty-first day of the last summer month of a Dog 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. For Cornu, a Year of the Dog is "the sign of idealism and justice", bringing generosity and reflection, a little too serious, and favourable to those with good intentions.

• Excellent day: Monday
• Good day: Wednesday
• Bad day: Thursday
• Day of basis: day 9 of the lunar month
• Day of power: day 27 of the lunar month
• Day of success: day 5 of the lunar month
• Day of obstacles: day 11 of the lunar month
• Day of disturbance: day 3 of the lunar month
• Day of enemies: day 12 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 Dog day is "light" for men and "heavy" for women; its illnesses are palpitations, fevers of the chest and the lumbar region, imbalances of temperature, eye diseases and breathlessness. 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 Dog belongs to the intermediate directions, the sector of earth, the spleen, the four trigrams Khon, Khen, Gin and Zon and the planet Saturn. Diviners use this sector to divine matters concerning "land and houses". Among the twelve hidden spirit lords, the Dog's is He-thon.

Among the five constitutional types, Ox, Dragon, Sheep and Dog years are "friend" years for the wood type, son years for the fire type, destiny years for the earth type, "mother" years for the iron type and enemy years for the water type. The Dog year itself is the year of "greater penalty" for the fire type and of "lesser penalty" for the earth and water types.

The White Beryl judges a birth by the father's sign. A father born in an Ox, Sheep, Dog or Dragon year and a child born in a Bird or Monkey year give the auspicious prediction called "spear at the top and sister at the bottom"; with a child of the Tiger or Hare, the prediction is "short lifespan, inauspicious in both the short and long term".

Seen from the child's side, a Dog child of a Horse or Snake father has the auspicious "high fortress construction"; with a Mouse or Pig father, the prediction is short life.

For a Dog child, the autumn months are the delicate ones. Birth in the Monkey month falls in the sector of ill-health, in the Bird month in that of death, and in the Dog month in that of the tomb, "inauspicious to oneself and one's father".

The White Beryl makes earth the presiding element at death when a deceased of the Ox, Dragon, Sheep or Dog sign also bears the other marks of earth: the earth constitutional type, one of the trigrams Khen, Khon, Gin or Zon, the numeric square Yellow Five, the planet Saturn, and three generations of the family, father and son included, of the same sign. "In all such cases, and during the four last seasonal months", the body should not be given sky burial in the mountains.

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

When the deceased is a Dog, the White Beryl warns that the demonic influence may fall on relatives of the Dragon, Ox or Sheep 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 Dog they contradict one another; we show them as they are. The Pig and the Hare form a loving triad with the Dog, yet another list holds that no compatible relationship is possible between the Dog and the Pig: "the dog will carry off the pig's child". With the Tiger the couple has "no descendants", but the text adds that "a dog and tiger couple will have good fortune".

With the Monkey the couple has "a long prosperous life with many children"; with the Horse, many children. With the Sheep it divorces and meets the "six inauspicious fears"; with the Ox it has difficulty raising children; with the Dragon it suffers "unremitting losses"; with the Bird it meets the "six inauspicious misfortunes". Two Dog partners face "many disputations, short-lived friendships" and the death of half their children in one list, while another calls the same couple of good auspice.

Philippe Cornu's table rates the Dog's partners differently. For him the Horse is excellent, the Monkey and the Pig neutral, the Sheep a source of intolerance and the Bird 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".