September, 2014 | Serious Feng Shui

The Rooster is one of three animal signs in the Chinese Zodiac that consist of a single element. The other two are Rat (yin water) and Rabbit (yin wood). The energy of the Rooster is pure metal. Being yin indicates a feminine quality, but most of our perceptions about Roosters have to do with an energy we would characterize as male. Naturally, the more extreme (i.e. unbalanced) cases stand out.

Common expressions or sayings about roosters and what they mean:

Hatching rooster eggs: Wasting time or resources
Cock-eyed: turned or twisted to one side
Cock and Bull story: tall tales and elaborate lies
Cock sure: to brag
Cock of the walk: to be the boss
Strutting around like a rooster: to show off
Rooster games: preferring to fight instead of trying to work out a problem

The character Foghorn Leghorn, a famous Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies rooster, seems to embody the idea of roosters as too loud and self important, making a racket and attracting attention to themselves. Attention that they expect you to pay.

Foghorn Leghorn: “Now let me know when I come to something that interests you.” He says this because he is going to keep talking until that happens.

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LCsiWL6gn0[/embedyt]

Then again, who wouldn’t be “cocky” walking around with all that plumage, a really loud voice, not to mention some nice sharp talons?

The rooster is one of the zodiac animals that carries with it the dreaded “self penalty”. This occurs when the rooster encounters another rooster, either in the natal chart or through timing. A rooster self penalty might closely resemble Foghorn Leghorn’s behavior in general, but in real life a self penalty is relative to your day master. If you have a rooster in your chart, you have probably experienced the self penalty before. Depending on your day master the rooster self penalty may show up in one of these five ways:

Metal day master: Relationships. Fighting with coworkers, friends, peers, siblings
Water day master: Resources. Problems with food, drink, health.
Wood day master: Power and control. Possibly a lack of self control or over controlling others. Or both.
Fire day master: Money. Bad decisions or reckless risk taking about money.
Earth day master: Output. Cockiness in speech, trash talking, too-sharp criticism.

Do you have a rooster in your chart?*

Rooster Years: 1921, 1933, 1945, 1957, 1969, 1981, 1993, 2005, 2017
Rooster Month: September
Rooster Day: Depends on year and month
Rooster Hour: 5-7 pm (17:00-19:00)

I’ll end this post with the chart of well known chef and restaurateur Michael Symon who has at least 3 roosters in his natal chart. I say at least because I don’t know what time he was born. His chart is a special case where it looks like the roosters (his wealth) take over the chart. Clearly that’s working out well for him!

Birth Chart of Michael Symon
Born September 19, 1969

More about that later…

One last thing: I hope you’ve noticed how throughout this post I’ve talked about rooster qualities and energy, rather than rooster people. There is no intention to criticize anyone here.

*Warning: Chinese calendar dates do not match up with the Gregorian calendar. Please contact me if you’d like to know more about your chart.

Can you feel it? The cooling and contracting metal energy of fall is here, peaking in this Rooster month. It’s a welcome relief for my garden after a long and hot summer. The nights are getting cooler, days are noticeably shorter, it’s harvest time and the leaves are already falling from the trees.

The month of the Yin Water Rooster (Gui You) began on September 8th and will end when the Yang Wood Dog (Jia Xu) month begins on October 8th. The month pillar consists of yin water in the stem and yin metal (xin) in the branch.

By the meteorological calendar fall has just begun. By the Chinese almanac we are a little more than halfway through the season of fall which is all about metal. It consists of August (Monkey), September (Rooster), and October (Dog). When it comes to the timing of gardening tasks I feel the Chinese almanac is more useful.

The energy of metal has to do with contraction and distillation. In the garden you can visualize how the metal element works by imagining how an apple tree harnesses the energy of the sun, water and nutrients of the soil, and condenses it to create fruit. After the apples are harvested the tree loses its leaves and goes dormant, seeming to shrink as if all the energy has been spent.

The arrival of the Rooster month signals the peak of metal energy and the perfect time for a fresh start. The looser pattern of summer living gives way to structure and organization of school. The contracting energy creates space for new beginnings. In the garden, the eternal return is evident as always. Deciduous plants and annuals are dying back while evergreens are setting bud for winter blooming.

The Rooster is pure yin metal. In using imagery to study four pillars the yin metal of the Rooster is likened to pruners, whereas the yang metal (geng) of the Monkey would be more like an axe. As we all know, there is literally a cutting quality to the energy of metal when it has been forged.

When the Rooster month comes I am reminded that it’s time to do some minor pruning. Snip snip. For major pruning (lop, saw and chop), it’s usually best to wait until the tree or shrub is dormant. In any case, pay attention to what the particular plant needs.

Other than that caveat, because the new growth is done, just a few little snips to remove small branches going in the wrong direction will effectively maintain the shape you intended.

Month: September 2014

Rooster Traits and Self Penalty

Rooster Month in the Garden