In Chinese astrology Ox is after Rat and 2009 is the year of the Ox. In the very beginnings of Chinese astrology, over 3 000 years ago they named the 12 Earthly branches after animals. The 10 Heavenly stems were also named, and this helped people keep the time as well as know when the seasons were changing.

It made sense to name the 12 Earthly stems after animals as people found them simple to relate to and most Chinese people were illiterate in those times. The animals are simple to identify with and consist of mouse, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and pig in that order.

Legend tells that Buddha was celebrating Chinese New Year and he invited all animals to partake of the festivities. Unfortunately only these 12 animals arrive. In honor of them he named the years after them. There are other variations of this story, but for the purposes of this information we shall use this one. People who are born in the year of the animal it is represented by are supposed to have some traits of these animals inherent in them.

As well as the animal cycles we find element cycles. The five elements are wood, fire, earth, metal (gold) and water, each element is represented by color with fire being red, earth, brown, wood, green, water black and metal, white (although the metal element is supposedly gold). These are placed at the top of each animal and the sign would read, "wood rooster", or "metal dragon".

The elements are then arranged in a cycle of ten and combined with the binary Yin and Yang. Together with the animals and colors this forms a cycle of 60 years, with no animal appearing twice in either the Yin or the Yang years. The animals are divided by two and are either Yin or Yang. For instance a snake is Yin, while a dragon is Yang. We are currently in a 60 year cycle which commenced in 1984 and all Chinese astrology cycles begin with "wood rat" and end with "Water Pig".

In Chinese astrology, ox is the second zodiac animal. Like Rat, Ox signifies new beginnings. The difference being, Ox is chiefly associated with slow sure action. It is important to make good choices as long term consequences are attached Ox years. 2009 is an earth year and it is also a Yin year, so this could indicate less turmoil. It is however unfortunate that the fixed element for Ox it water, to which earth is destructive, and this is the fourth out of six years where elements have conflicted. It comes as very little surprise to Chinese Astrologers that there has been so much trouble in the world during these years.