Year of the Dragon

Only one animal in the twelve is not an ordinary creature, and Dragon people tend to live up to it. Fifth in the cycle, an earth animal, holding the end of spring when growth is at full strength, the Dragon turns up visible, energetic and hard to ignore. Anyone born in January or early February should look up that year's lunar new year, since the Chinese calendar does not turn over on January 1.

You are confident in a way that other people find either inspiring or exhausting, and you are rarely bothered which. You think in large pieces, you dislike small rules, and you can carry a whole group through a difficult stretch on personal energy alone. You are also more sensitive than you look: public criticism lands much harder than anyone realises, because you never show the bruise.

Strengths: You start things and you finish them at speed. Where others see obstacles, you see a schedule. You are generous with money, credit and opportunity, protective of your people, and honest to a fault, since lying feels beneath you.

Challenges: Pride is the recurring cost. You can steamroll quieter people without noticing, treat disagreement as disloyalty, and refuse help long after you needed it. You want results now, so you skip the slow groundwork and then blame the ground. And when something bores you, you drop it completely, leaving other people holding half a project.

Work and money: You suit leadership, founding a business, construction, media, politics and medicine, anything with scale and visible results. Being one small piece of a large machine makes you restless within months. You earn well and spend freely on big gestures, and bookkeeping bores you, which is a combination worth watching.

Love and compatibility: You are wholehearted, protective and openly romantic, and you expect the same energy back. Independence matters to you, so a partner who checks up on you constantly will not last. Your weak spot is assuming that providing well counts as emotional presence. Ask how the other person is, then listen without immediately proposing a solution.

Best matches: Your unlikeliest good match is the Rooster, who counts the details you sweep past and is glad to do it. In open partnership the Rat and the Monkey suit you best, the Rat drawing up the plan you then charge at, the Monkey keeping you amused and mentally awake. The difficulty is the Dog, the animal that faces you across the cycle, since the Dog asks for evidence and questions motives, and honest doubt feels like a vote against you.

Advice: Slow down enough to hear the objection; it is usually a warning, not an attack. Share credit out loud and often. And pick the projects you truly want, because a half-hearted Dragon is worse company than a Dragon with nothing to do.