The Diurnal Cycle and Chinese Hours

August 23, 2018 Martin K. Jones Leave a comment

Long ago in a distant land, I, Aku… wait… let me start over.

Long ago in China, the diurnal cycle of day, dusk, night, and dawn was divided into twelve two-hour hours and each hour was named after an animal in the Chinese Zodiac. The Hour of the Rat was from 11 P.M. to 1 A.M., and so on. These animals were also assigned directions: Rat being North, Ox being NNE, etc. Many are familiar with the animals having “years”, so if you were born in a certain animal’s year, you might have certain attributes. These twelve animals are certainly multi-purpose!

The Seasons and the Zodiac

August 22, 2018 Martin K. Jones 2 Comments

This isn’t a bad little diagram of the four seasons along with the twelve zodiac names and symbols. However, it might be oriented wrong by convention or going clockwise instead of counter-clockwise. Interestingly, old horoscope charts that show what was in the sky (the positions of the zodiac stars and the eight or nine planets in regards to the twelve “astrological houses”) at the time of a person’s birth were shown using the outside ring of twelve triangles instead of the more familiar circle that is used today. The inner square might be for notes or some nice drawing.