Glang (Ox)

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 Ox a mild portrait. In Dorje's translation: "Natives of the ox year are not easily provoked into anger or quarrels. They like to rest and are poor in movement, obdurate, and ponderous. Without placing their trust in anyone — for if they were to do so it would be said that heaven and earth had been agitated — they are completely relaxed. They do not rejoice in anything, nor do they not rejoice! Patient, far-removed from negative actions, and broad-minded, the ox enjoys eating and sleeping. Yet by dint of dependent origination, the impact of this sign is shown by association to be not so different from that of the deluded neighbouring pig sign."

Philippe Cornu's Tibetan Astrology, which calls the sign the Cow, sees it as "a real monolith": stable, solid, tenacious and obstinate, a great worker and an excellent leader, traditionalist and persuaded only by logic. Behind a rough surface it is patient but terrible in anger, slow in feeling and faithful under any test.

Both portraits see a slow, steady, unshakeable nature, but Cornu turns it into strength and leadership where the White Beryl stresses calm and inertia. 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 Ox year shares the same vitality (srog): earth, the element of the intermediate directions, where the Ox 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 water: the Ox 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 Ox years. In the Wood Ox year the body is iron and the power wood; in the Fire Ox, water and fire; in the Earth Ox, fire and earth; in the Iron Ox, earth and iron; in the Water Ox, wood and water. The power element is the one that names the year.

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

Wood Ox (shing-mo glang-lo). The White Beryl says they "sleep well during the night" and are "intelligent and extremely jealous". They "amass food and wealth", but their life-spirit is "assaulted by enemies", and spirit lords of the soil afflict them for having disturbed exorcised spirits and excavated tombs. Sixty years, six obstacles.

Fire Ox (me-mo glang-lo). "Well-built, but sluggish and fond of over-sleeping", they may come to have defective eyesight, "but their houses will be well furnished". Their grain and servants increase and enemies harm them only slightly; seventy-one years, eight obstacles, one son and two daughters, and phlegm disorders.

Earth Ox (sa-mo glang-lo). They are "ponderous, and endowed with excessive pride, but scant food, wealth and material resources"; "their minds will be harsh, quarrelsome and fierce". Fifty years, one child, seven obstacles.

Iron Ox (lcags-mo glang-lo). They are "learned in diverse arts and crafts", "appreciative of ethical behaviour", with "few afflictions due to ill-health or enemies"; they enjoy "the company of friends and kings". Yet "in all, they are fierce and extremely stubborn". Fifty-five years, seven obstacles, two children.

Water Ox (chu-mo glang-lo). They are "extremely foolish, fond of over-sleeping and indolence", "evil-minded, harsh in word", and, the text says, "they will witness the corpses of countless children". Seventy years, seven obstacles.

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

According to sMon-'gro Paṇḍita, as Dorje reports, the fifth day of the last spring month of an Ox 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 Cow is "a year of toil": its fruits come from constant work, it is a bad year for the idle, and one must be steadfast, patient and keep one's cool.

• Excellent day: Saturday
• Good day: Wednesday
• Bad day: Thursday
• Day of basis: day 17 of the lunar month
• Day of power: day 14 of the lunar month
• Day of success: day 12 of the lunar month
• Day of obstacles: day 12 of the lunar month
• Day of disturbance: day 18 of the lunar month
• Day of enemies: day 5 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. An Ox day is "light" for men and "heavy" for women; its illnesses are palpitations and fatigue, disorders of the serum, the brain, the stomach and the liver, and disturbing dreams. 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 Ox 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 Ox's is gNyan-ljang.

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 Ox year itself is the year of "greater penalty" for the iron type and of "lesser penalty" for the wood type.

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, an Ox 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 an Ox 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 an Ox 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 an Ox, the White Beryl warns that the demonic influence may fall on relatives of the Snake 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 Ox they contradict one another; we show them as they are. The Mouse appears both among the loving couples and among those that "will have no descendants". The Tiger is a loving partner in one list, yet in another "they will fight". The Hare is listed among the couples that "will have no descendants" and among the "six inauspicious fears", while the text adds that "an ox and hare couple will have long prosperous lives and good reputation".

The Ox and the Sheep will have many children but "losses in business", and "if a groom of the sheep sign takes a bride of the ox sign they will have a short life and their children will become orphans". With the Bird the couple becomes rich and powerful; with the Pig it has "a long prosperous life with many children", yet the Ox and the Pig also appear among the couples with difficulty raising children. Two Ox partners will have "a disabled child, prone to ill-health and short life"; a second list promises the same couple great wealth and an average number of children.

Philippe Cornu's table rates the Cow's partners differently. For him the Snake is excellent, the Rat very good and the Hare good, the Dragon 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".