rTa (Horse)

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 Horse a favourable portrait. In Dorje's translation: "Those born in the horse year are characteristically hyperactive, for the year is one endowed with a magical energy. Even though pursued by a thousand miscreants, they will not fear being overwhelmed, for which reason they will be happy throughout their lives. Horse natives heed the advice of others, and in turn the horse is beloved by others. Swift in motion and playful, they sacrifice their own goals in the interest of others. Yet they are talkative insomniacs, and their health will be subject to great fluctuations."

Philippe Cornu's Tibetan Astrology sees the Horse as full of energy, passionate and charming, adventurous and always on the move, very sociable, "more brilliant than intelligent", an eloquent leader who talks too much and cannot keep a secret; "falsely independent", with a deep fear of failure, impatient, and quick to lose interest.

Both portraits see a lively, talkative, restless Horse, but the White Beryl's is generous and happy, while Cornu's is fragile and self-centred. 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 Horse year shares the same vitality (srog): fire, the element of the south, where the Horse 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 iron: the Horse 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 Horse years. In the Wood Horse year the body is iron and the power wood; in the Fire Horse, water and fire; in the Earth Horse, fire and earth; in the Iron Horse, earth and iron; in the Water Horse, wood and water. The power element is the one that names the year.

Horse natives fall under the numeric squares Red Seven, Green Four and White One, which also govern the Mouse, the Bird and the Hare.

Wood Horse (shing-pho rta-lo). They are "most deceitful and are not easily befriended", with "an angry temperament and dull intellect", yet with "considerable strength and ascetic qualities"; talkative, they delight in the company of their few friends. Sixty years, one child, and "three sets of three obstacles".

Fire Horse (me-pho rta-lo). "Wrathful and fierce, stubborn and fond of fighting", they value horses and dogs but must strive to make friends; their wealth diminishes over time, yet "they will love their spouses". Lung ailments and fevers threaten them. Seventy-eight years, seven obstacles, two children.

Earth Horse (sa-pho rta-lo). "Brave and short-tempered, while their words are unreliable", they are people on whom "all those of lesser skills invest their hopes", but great obstacles and many afflictions impede their merits. Seventy-five years, seven obstacles, two children.

Iron Horse (lcags-pho rta-lo). "Extremely indolent", they enjoy the company of their relatives and "delight in the company of their spouse", but lose much wealth and struggle to raise their children; spirit lords of the soil afflict them through the trades of plastering and masonry. Fifty-seven years, nine obstacles, four children.

Water Horse (chu-pho rta-lo). "Extremely intelligent", they "do not disclose the faults of others", are "skilled in arts and crafts", "possess a number of fine virtues", have "little anger or guile" and "will not become dependent on others". They enjoy abundance, though heart and wind disorders and many spirits trouble them. Seventy-seven or fifty-seven years, three or four 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 Mouse, 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 nineteenth day of the mid-autumn month of a Horse year is a "black day". As a general rule, in Horse months the Hare day is black.

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 Horse is "a period of great activity of all sorts": it "offers many freedoms and is good for energetic people", a year of excitement and daring in which projects reach completion.

• Excellent day: Tuesday
• Good day: Friday
• Bad day: Wednesday
• Day of basis: day 17 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 20 of the lunar month
• Day of disturbance: day 5 of the lunar month
• Day of enemies: day 27 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 Horse day is "heavy" for men and "light" for women; its illnesses are giddiness and convulsions, shaking hands and cold sweats, disorders of the brain and the heart, numb eyes, pains or chills in the limbs and dry mouth. 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 Horse 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 Horse's is Byi-lam.

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 Horse child of a Tiger or Hare father has the auspicious "great luminosity"; with a Bird or Monkey father, the prediction is short life. A Horse 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 Horse 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 Horse 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 Horse, the White Beryl warns that the demonic influence may fall on relatives of the Mouse or Hare 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 Horse they contradict one another; we show them as they are. The Snake and the Sheep form a loving triad with the Horse, yet the Horse and the Snake 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".

With the Dog the couple has many children; with the Tiger it becomes rich and powerful. With the Mouse it has "no descendants" in the text, where the plate puts a Bird instead, and "unhappiness and many sorrows"; with the Ox it meets the "six inauspicious misfortunes"; with the Dragon it is a mediocre ill-omen. No compatible relationship is possible between the Horse and the Bird: "the bird will hold onto the horse's saddle". Two Horse partners will have a long life as farmers "but with few children"; a second list rates the same couple higher than average.

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