Chinese Astrology is based on a twelve-year cycle as opposed to the twelve-month cycle of Western astrology. It has its origins in the legend that Buddha called together all the animals in creation, but only twelve of them turned up, and those that did were each given a year, in the order of their arrival. Just as Western astrology presupposes that your character is influenced primarily by the astrological sign that the sun was in at the moment of your birth, so Chinese astrology decrees that your character is influenced by the animal sign governing the year in which you were born.

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