sPre'u (Monkey)

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 Monkey a restless portrait. In Dorje's translation: "Those born in the monkey year are characteristically short-tempered, tense and somewhat garrulous. Their bodies are subject to muscular palpitations and they are faint-hearted. It is uncertain where their thoughts may roam, like a bird's feather blowing over a mountain pass, but they do enjoy amusements. Their words are unreliable, since they will frequently tell tales and esteem lies. Monkeys will eat all sorts of impure foods, as if they were pure. They are hyperactive, and convinced of their own superiority."

Philippe Cornu's Tibetan Astrology sees the Monkey as inventive, wily, lively and agile, "a clever diplomat and a born strategist who never acts without a plan", cultured and thirsty for knowledge; but also an opportunist with few scruples and a superiority complex, and in love "still an adolescent, seductive and passionate".

Both portraits see a quick, restless Monkey convinced of its own superiority; Cornu adds cunning and talent where the White Beryl sees unreliability. 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 Monkey year shares the same vitality (srog): iron, the element of the west, where the Monkey stands on the divination turtle. Its life-spirit (bla) is earth, the element that is "mother" to iron. Its wind-horse (rlung-rta), the force of luck and good reputation, is wood: the Monkey belongs to the luck group of the Mouse, Dragon and Monkey, whose luck is the Tiger's element, wood. The Monkey's own element, iron, is in turn the luck of the Tiger, the Horse and the Dog.

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

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

Wood Monkey (shing-pho spre-lo). "Corpulent and endowed with great yearnings", they keep the company of evil friends and have many foes; "mentally, they are extremely agile", and though they play down their own ambitions "they will come to possess two homes". Seventy-eight years, five obstacles, one or five children.

Fire Monkey (me-pho spre-lo). They "take delight in ornaments and clothes" and "may become the headmen of five villages", with abundant wealth and five children; "rough in speech and physically strong", they "proudly scrutinise the faults of others", and "in all, their wealth will be inauspicious". Sixty-seven years, five obstacles.

Earth Monkey (sa-pho spre-lo). They are "easy to befriend. Their conduct is refined, their perception measured, and their speech skilful. All their actions are meaningful, they have little pride and possess a sense of purpose, meriting the respect of all." Seventy-eight years, nine life-threatening obstacles, three children.

Iron Monkey (lcags-pho spre-lo). They "are loved by all who set eyes upon them", "extremely beautiful and attractive", with an abundance of wealth; they may suffer great losses and blood feuds, and "if they have to strive to obtain their share of food, they will be happy in old age". Seventy years, eight obstacles, one or five children.

Water Monkey (chu-pho spre-lo). "Highly skilled and sensitive, with a high level of recollection and excellent motivational factors", they may own property "in five towns or cities", protected by the spirit lords of the soil; with great resources and keen intelligence, they risk blood feuds or muggings. Fifty-seven years, seven obstacles, about three 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 Tiger, 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 sixteenth day of the first winter month of a Monkey 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 Monkey is extremely rich in surprises, a year in which "anything can happen", to be met with cunning and initiative; it is "not for the slow or timid".

• Excellent day: Friday
• Good day: Thursday
• Bad day: Tuesday
• Day of basis: day 8 of the lunar month
• Day of power: day 1 of the lunar month
• Day of success: day 2 of the lunar month
• Day of obstacles: day 9 of the lunar month
• Day of disturbance: day 10 of the lunar month
• Day of enemies: day 17 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 Monkey day is "light" for men and "heavy" for women; its illnesses are palpitations, disorders of the brain, the lungs and the heart, of the small intestine or the diaphragm, dry mouth, poor appetite and nausea, and an "inclination to stay in bed". 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 Monkey belongs to the west, the sector of iron, the lungs, the trigram Dva and the planet Venus. Diviners use it to divine matters concerning "maternal relatives and protector deities". In the six female months of the year, the lunar days are counted starting from the Monkey. Among the twelve hidden spirit lords, the Monkey's is gZig-mjug.

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

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

Seen from the child's side, a Monkey child of an Ox, Sheep, Dog or Dragon father has the auspicious "spear at the top and sister at the bottom"; with a Tiger or Hare father, the prediction is short life. A Monkey child born under the trigram Li brings the mother difficulty in raising it, and one born under the trigram Gin brings affliction by the spirit lords of the soil upon "the wife, mother-in-law and brother-in-law".

For a Monkey 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 iron the presiding element at death when a deceased of the Bird or Monkey sign also bears the other marks of iron: the iron constitutional type, the trigram Dva, one of the three white numeric squares, the planet Venus, and three generations of the family, father and son included, of the same sign. Such a body should not be cremated, "particularly during the first or second autumn month".

Interment is auspicious for someone who dies in a Monkey year if most living relatives are Tiger or Hare; entombment is auspicious if they are Horse or Snake. In each case the trigrams or numeric squares must also agree. The corpse itself should not be carried towards the south, "otherwise, it will be inauspicious for friends".

When the deceased is a Monkey, the White Beryl warns that the demonic influence may fall on relatives of the Tiger 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 Monkey they contradict one another; we show them as they are. The Bird and the Dragon form a loving triad with the Monkey, yet the Monkey and the Bird also see their family line end. With the Dragon the couple has many children; with the Snake it becomes rich and powerful; with the Dog it has "a long prosperous life with many children".

With the Sheep the family line ends, and no compatible relationship is possible between the two: "the sheep's head will butt the monkey's heart". With the Hare the couple divorces; with the Tiger it will "come to a sorry end, disliked by all". In the White Beryl's own reading, the Mouse–Dragon triad is completed by the Bird, while the painted plate shows the Monkey there instead. Two Monkey partners will "raise the child of another"; a second list calls the same couple auspicious.

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