One cell of 144
Aries + Year of the Rat
Two calendars cross at your birth date. This is the cell where Aries meets the Year of the Rat, and the animal that lives in it.
Answer first
What animal is an Aries born in the Year of the Rat?
An Aries born in the Year of the Rat is the Fossa. The month and day set the Aries half, the birth year sets the Rat half, and the crossing points at one cell in a grid of 144. Read the Fossa 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 Rat half
The Rat opens the twelve-year cycle and runs in a trine with the Dragon and the Monkey, the quick and inventive third of the wheel. You find the way in that nobody posted. Recent Rat years are 1996, 2008 and 2020. Read the Year of the Rat.
The crossing
What Aries and the Rat make together
Aries brings the nerve to move first. The Rat year brings the wit that finds the unposted door. The Fossa is what the two look like sharing one body.
You keep your speed out of sight until it counts, and nobody underestimates you the same way twice.
The Rat runs in a trine with the Dragon and the Monkey. Held to the same Aries season, those years give the Secretary Bird 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 Fossa the same as being an Aries?
Aries is half of it. The Fossa is the specific crossing of Aries with the Year of the Rat, 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 Rat 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 Fossa's trine?
The Rat runs with the Dragon and the Monkey. Held to the same Aries dates, those years give the Secretary Bird and the Kookaburra, the two animals whose instincts sit closest to the Fossa's.
One step away
Neighboring crossings
Or start over at the full 12 by 12 grid, or read how the crossing works.