丑
The Ox
The patience to finish what it starts
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 are the ones still here. Everybody who set off with us has found something more interesting to do by now.
The Ox in Korean Saju
You finish what you start. Other people need enthusiasm to keep going; you only need to know the direction, and you keep going long after the enthusiasm is gone. The cost is that you keep doing a job long after you should have handed it over.
Basic facts about this animal
- Its hours of the day
- 1am – 3am
- Its month
- January 5 – February 4
- late winter
- Element
- Yin Earth
- Yang is the outward, active form; Yin is the inward, quiet form
- Place in the order
- 2nd of twelve
If this is your day animal
The Ox is the animal of endurance: slow to get moving, and very hard to stop.
What this animal is like in a chart
An Ox day is someone who keeps going without praise or proof that it will pay off. The Ox rules the last month of winter, when the ground is frozen and the work is preparation nobody sees. This is endurance in the plainest sense. It suits long projects, land, and any craft where the tenth year matters more than the first.
The cost is letting go too late. The Ox carries Water and Metal hidden inside its Earth, so an Ox day feels more and holds firmer than it shows, and tells nobody how much it has taken on. It tends to keep doing jobs long after they stopped being its own. Asking once a year what you are still carrying, and why, is a good habit.
How it gets on with the other animals
Pulls together — The Rat
Easy to fall into, hard to leave. The Ox and the Rat are one of the six pairs that pull together, the closest link two animals can have.
Clashes head-on — The Goat
A pairing that does not let either person stay the same. The Goat sits directly opposite the Ox on the circle of twelve: a head-on clash. That makes it a restless match, not a bad one.
Team of three — The Snake & The Rooster
These three get the most done together. With the Snake and the Rooster, the Ox makes a team of three that pulls toward Metal.
To find your own day animal, enter your birth date. It takes about a minute.