This is a simple yet comprehensive guide to using the ancient Chinese system of horoscopes in order to do your own readings. Much more is involved than just the twelve famous animal signs. The author shows how the animal year sign cycle is enmeshed with a repeating cycle of the five elements, yielding a 60-year birth year cycle (5 x 12); and this in turn is modified by an hour of birth cycle, which uses the animal signs in a different way. Yin and yang forces also play a part in the system, which has a classic beauty of design, yet is supple enough to embrace the multiplicity of human experience.

The book includes extensive year charts, followed by a 14-page section for each animal sign, covering personality and aptitude traits, as well as tendencies and potential outcomes with regard to leisure, career, health, money and family life. A separate section covers the relationship potential for each sign, giving helpful scores for every possible combination, with an ingenious graphic chart offering an at-a-glance summary. The last major section enables you to work out upcoming astrological influences for years to come, helping you to make decisions, deal with change, and cope with other life challenges.