Soulmate Bestiary

Funny how Chinese zodiac signs, all governed by animals, strongly remind me of dæmons in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. For those who never heard of these books (and the great movie adaptation of the first instalment, in 2007, called The Golden Compass as pictured below), dæmons are the visible manifestation of the soul embodied in a companion animal that can change its appearance until puberty when it settles into one permanent form. Dæmons are connected to their owner through an invisible bond preventing them to become physically apart (and that is precisely what the prevailing elite in the books is actually trying to do). Interestingly, it's also reminiscent (to a lesser extent) of the Patronuses in the Harry Potter series — kinds of protective energy shields in the shape of the animal reflecting best the charm caster's personality. 

The tale of the animals

According to folklore, the tiger, the dragon, and the phoenix (respectively king of the mountain, king of the seas, and king of the skies) one day appeared before the Jade Emperor to complain about humans abusing them. So the Emperor decided to link every year of the lunar cycle to a different animal each, expecting men to show more respect and less cruelty to the animal representatives of their zodiac signs.

If you don't know what your Chinese zodiac sign is, find it in the chart below:

Soulmates

Reliable Chinese astrologers believe some zodiac signs are natural meant-to-be soulmates as together they have a greater potential for evolution than with any other compatible sign. Could it be connected to the position of the lunar nodes (life path indicators in karmic Western astrology) changing sign every year? I'm no expert in Chinese astrology, however the connections below might resonate with you.

RAT (yang) ♥ OX/BUFFALO (yin)
TIGER (yang) ♥ PIG/BOAR (yin)
CAT/HARE (yin) ♥ DOG (yang)
DRAGON (yang) ♥ ROOSTER (yin)
SNAKE (yin) ♥ MONKEY (yang)
HORSE (yang) ♥ GOAT/SHEEP (yin)

In contrast, next time I will tell you about your zodiacal pet peeve.

© La Pensine Mutine. All rights reserved. Reproduction prohibited.

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