One cell of 144
Aries + Year of the Dragon
Two calendars cross at your birth date. This is the cell where Aries meets the Year of the Dragon, and the animal that lives in it.
Answer first
What animal is an Aries born in the Year of the Dragon?
An Aries born in the Year of the Dragon is the Secretary Bird. The month and day set the Aries half, the birth year sets the Dragon half, and the crossing points at one cell in a grid of 144. Read the Secretary Bird 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 Dragon half
The Dragon is the fifth branch and runs with the Rat and the Monkey, the quick and inventive third of the wheel. You carry more scale than the room expects. Recent Dragon years are 2000, 2012 and 2024. Read the Year of the Dragon.
The crossing
What Aries and the Dragon make together
Aries brings the nerve to move first. The Dragon year brings a wingspan the room did not plan for. The Secretary Bird is what the two look like sharing one body.
You walk toward the thing everyone else circles, and the strike lands because the approach never hurried.
The Dragon runs in a trine with the Rat and the Monkey. Held to the same Aries season, those years give the Fossa and the Kookaburra, 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 Secretary Bird the same as being an Aries?
Aries is half of it. The Secretary Bird is the specific crossing of Aries with the Year of the Dragon, 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 Dragon 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 Secretary Bird's trine?
The Dragon runs with the Rat and the Monkey. Held to the same Aries dates, those years give the Fossa and the Kookaburra, the two animals whose instincts sit closest to the Secretary Bird's.
One step away
Neighboring crossings
Or start over at the full 12 by 12 grid, or read how the crossing works.