Water Ox (癸丑): personality and meaning in the Chinese zodiac

Character

癸丑 sets 癸, yin water, the rain and the dew, over the Ox's earth. Earth contains water, and the tradition reads this pair as rain soaking into winter fields: quiet nourishment that prepares the ground for spring.

People born in a Water Ox year are read as patient and methodical like every Ox, with a gentler, more perceptive way with people. They listen well, think before they speak, and adapt their methods without abandoning their goals. The tradition's shadow for the Water Ox is a tendency to absorb other people's worries until they weigh it down, and to keep its own feelings below the surface.

In love and at work

In love the Water Ox is read as tender, loyal and understanding, a partner who notices and quietly helps. At work it is a thoughtful and dependable professional — research, healthcare, counselling, planning. The tradition suggests the Water Ox share its own concerns as readily as it holds other people's.

A question to take with you

Whose worries are you carrying that are not yours to carry?