One cell of 144
Aries + Year of the Dog
Two calendars cross at your birth date. This is the cell where Aries meets the Year of the Dog, and the animal that lives in it.
Answer first
What animal is an Aries born in the Year of the Dog?
An Aries born in the Year of the Dog is the Giant Otter. The month and day set the Aries half, the birth year sets the Dog half, and the crossing points at one cell in a grid of 144. Read the Giant Otter for the full reading of that cell.
The two halves
What each calendar brings
The Aries half
Aries runs from March 21 to April 19, cardinal Fire under Mars. You start things. The season opens with you, which is why waiting is the one skill the sign never hands you for free. Read Aries in the Western wing.
The Dog half
The Dog is the eleventh branch and runs with the Tiger and the Horse, the openhearted movers. You guard what you love with your whole schedule. Recent Dog years are 1994, 2006 and 2018. Read the Year of the Dog.
The crossing
What Aries and the Dog make together
Aries brings the nerve to move first. The Dog year brings the watch that never quite goes off duty. The Giant Otter carries both at once.
You call your whole family toward the threat instead of away from it, and the water clears the instant they all move as one.
The Dog runs in a trine with the Tiger and the Horse. Held to the same Aries season, those years give the Wolverine and the Pronghorn, the two crossings whose engines run closest to yours.
The boundary
Born near the boundary?
The Chinese year does not turn on January 1. It turns at the lunar New Year, somewhere between late January and mid February, so a birthday in those weeks can belong to the animal before this one. The year finder checks the real date for any year you give it.
Common questions
Questions about this crossing
Is the Giant Otter the same as being an Aries?
Aries is half of it. The Giant Otter is the specific crossing of Aries with the Year of the Dog, one cell out of 144. Two people can share a Sun sign and carry different animals, because the birth year changes the second half.
What if I was born in January or February of a Dog year?
The Chinese year turns at the lunar New Year, which lands between late January and mid February. A birthday in those weeks can belong to the previous animal, so the year finder checks the real boundary before the grid names your crossing.
Which crossings share the Giant Otter's trine?
The Dog runs with the Tiger and the Horse. Held to the same Aries dates, those years give the Wolverine and the Pronghorn, the two animals whose instincts sit closest to the Giant Otter's.
One step away
Neighboring crossings
Or start over at the full 12 by 12 grid, or read how the crossing works.