申
The Monkey
A talent for unexpected solutions
This page is about a birth-day animal, not a birth-year animal. Everyone has a day animal, from the day they were born, and it is often not the year animal they know.
You and I take the window rather than the door. Half the pleasure is that nobody expects it of us.
The Monkey in Korean Saju
You solve problems by going around them. If the usual way is blocked you try another, and you are pleased when the obvious answer turns out to be wrong. You are inventive, funny and quick. The cost is that you get bored before you finish.
Basic facts about this animal
- Its hours of the day
- 3pm – 5pm
- Its month
- August 7 – September 7
- early autumn
- Element
- Yang Metal
- Yang is the outward, active form; Yin is the inward, quiet form
- Place in the order
- 9th of twelve
If this is your day animal
The Monkey is the animal of cleverness and quick changes of plan.
What this animal is like in a chart
A Monkey day is someone who solves problems sideways. The Monkey opens autumn, when Metal arrives while things are still moving. Its cleverness is practical: mechanisms, improvising, workarounds. It is strongest where rules exist to be understood thoroughly and then worked around.
The cost is not finishing. Inside its Metal the Monkey carries Water and Earth, which turn its intelligence into technique, and it is among the most capable animals in the cycle. But everything competes for its attention. A Monkey day will abandon a working solution for a more interesting problem without noticing what it gave up.
How it gets on with the other animals
Pulls together — The Snake
Easy to fall into, hard to leave. The Monkey and the Snake are one of the six pairs that pull together, the closest link two animals can have.
Clashes head-on — The Tiger
A pairing that does not let either person stay the same. The Tiger sits directly opposite the Monkey on the circle of twelve: a head-on clash. That makes it a restless match, not a bad one.
Team of three — The Rat & The Dragon
These three get the most done together. With the Rat and the Dragon, the Monkey makes a team of three that pulls toward Water.
To find your own day animal, enter your birth date. It takes about a minute.