sTag (Tiger)

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, opens its portraits of the twelve signs with the Tiger. In Dorje's translation: "Those born in the tiger year are characterised by bravery, endeavour, ferocity, intelligence, stout-heartedness, a sense of superiority, a strong bond of kinship, coarseness of conduct, harshness of speech, audacity, a plethora of ideas, and partiality for business activities and gambling."

Philippe Cornu's Tibetan Astrology calls the Tiger "a symbol of awakening to life": unpredictable and daring, it likes to command and hates to obey, a "fierce enemy of hierarchy and convention", artistic, noble and generous, but immoderate and violent when crossed; in love, romantic, passionate and jealous.

The two portraits agree on the Tiger's courage, pride and boldness. 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 Tiger year shares the same vitality (srog): wood, the element of the east, where the Tiger stands on the divination turtle. Its life-spirit (bla) is water, the element that is "mother" to wood. Its wind-horse (rlung-rta), the force of luck and good reputation, is iron: the Tiger 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 Tiger years. In the Wood Tiger year the body is water and the power wood; in the Fire Tiger, fire and fire; in the Earth Tiger, earth and earth; in the Iron Tiger, wood and iron; in the Water Tiger, iron and water. The power element is the one that names the year.

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

Wood Tiger (shing-pho stag-lo). They are "wrathful, fierce and fond of fighting", miserly and jealous, and prone to tumours and dropsy; they "may die of injuries or wounds"; they marry late and have "many illegitimate children". The text grants them "an abundant share of food and wealth". Sixty-six years, five obstacles, three children.

Fire Tiger (me-pho stag-lo). "Most ferocious and physically strong, with round eyes and fierce pride", they harm friends who do not help them and suffer chronic internal ailments; "weak in faith and short-tempered", they are destined to have "two spouses and four children". Seventy-nine years, five obstacles.

Earth Tiger (sa-pho stag-lo). "Corpulent and full of anger", they "take delight in killing" and are "skilled in lies, in letters and in speech"; enemies and evil spirits trouble them little, but spirit lords of farmland may cause lameness, tumours or dropsy. Seventy-two years, seven obstacles, about two children.

Iron Tiger (lcags-pho stag-lo). "Wrathful, fierce and fond of killing, while being generous at the same time", with "an excellent fair-complexioned physique" and "a great craving for meat and wine". Their share of wealth will be unstable. Sixty years, five obstacles, two or four children.

Water Tiger (chu-pho stag-lo). A "coarse physique, energetic temperament and joyful disposition", but narcissistic: "they may speak nobly but hold bad intentions within their hearts". The text foresees divorce, a single child and squandered wealth. Seventy-one 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 Monkey, 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 seventh day of the first summer month of a Tiger 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 Tiger is "an unpredictable year", with "explosions, coups d'état, political unrest, catastrophes, heroic deeds, sudden and daring attacks"; caution is advised in all undertakings.

• Excellent day: Thursday
• Good day: Saturday
• Bad day: Friday
• Day of basis: day 5 of the lunar month
• Day of power: day 27 of the lunar month
• Day of success: day 9 of the lunar month
• Day of obstacles: day 14 of the lunar month
• Day of disturbance: day 12 of the lunar month
• Day of enemies: day 3 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 Tiger day is "heavy" for men and "light" for women; its illnesses are chest and back pains, dry mouth, imbalances of temperature, stiff limbs, and disorders of the kidneys or the diaphragm. 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 Tiger belongs to the east, the sector of wood, the liver, the trigram Zin and the planet Jupiter. Diviners use it to divine matters concerning "male ancestors". The months of the year are named starting from the Tiger: the first spring month is the Tiger month. Among the twelve hidden spirit lords, the Tiger's is Bya-khyung.

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

The White Beryl judges a birth by the father's sign. A father born in a Tiger or Hare year and a child born in a Horse or Snake year give the auspicious prediction called "great luminosity"; with a child of the Bird or Monkey, the prediction is "short lifespan, inauspicious in both the short and long term".

Seen from the child's side, a Tiger child of a Mouse or Pig father has the auspicious "flourishing wish-granting tree"; with an Ox, Sheep, Dog or Dragon father, the prediction is short life. A Tiger child born under the trigram Dva brings the mother difficulty in raising it, and one born under the trigram Khon "is predicted to be afflicted by the spirit lords of the soil".

For a Tiger child, the delicate months are those of the Tiger, the Hare and the Dragon: birth in them falls in the sectors of ill-health, death and the tomb, "inauspicious to oneself and one's father".

The White Beryl makes wood the presiding element at death when a deceased of the Tiger or Hare sign also bears the other marks of wood: the wood constitutional type, the trigram Zin, the numeric square Green Four, the planet Jupiter, and three generations of the family, father and son included, of the same sign. "In all such cases, and during the first or second spring month", the body should not be entombed.

Water burial is auspicious for someone who dies in a Tiger year if most living relatives are Ox, Dragon, Sheep or Dog; 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 west, "otherwise, it will be inauspicious for friends".

When the deceased is a Tiger, the White Beryl warns that the demonic influence may fall on relatives of the Ox or Bird 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 Tiger they contradict one another; we show them as they are. The Mouse and the Ox are loving partners in one list, yet of a Mouse and Tiger couple the text says that "the family line will come to an end", and of the Ox and the Tiger the text says "they will fight".

The Tiger and the Horse become rich and powerful. With the Dog the couple has "no descendants", but the text adds that "a dog and tiger couple will have good fortune". With the Hare or the Snake the family line ends; with the Bird or the Pig, divorce; with the Monkey, the couple will "come to a sorry end, disliked by all". Two Tiger partners "will move home and their house will catch fire"; a second list sees bad auspices for the same couple's people and property.

Philippe Cornu's table rates the Tiger's partners differently. For him the Rat, the Hare and the Dragon are neutral, while the Cow and the Snake are enemies; 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".