Born in the Year of Pig

Born in the Year of Pig

Chivalrous (and that's the bitter end for a Pig, let's face it!), gallant, obliging, scrupulous to a fault, the Pig flourishes day and night the banner of correctitude and purity. Put your trust in him: he won't let you down and he'll never try to. He is naive, inno­cent, confident, defenseless - a bit of a mug, in fact, if you want to be brutal about it.

To tell the truth, the Pig allows himself to be duped easily, accepts his own faults calmly, and those of others with tolerant understanding. Always the best of sports, he can never summon up a true competitive spirit himself. He's much too impartial to be sure that he's right himself, and he will keep on asking himself questions about the honesty (or loyalty) of what he can do and what he ought to do. He is incredibly sincere (to the point, sometimes, of doing himself harm) and the bad faith of others is always disarming him. He himself lies rarely – and then only to defend himself. Though he is intelligent he is a bit of a dunce about money, and as often as not he is downright clumsy in financial matters. Powerless against hypocrisy, he will often crucify himself in an attempt to justify his actions. He is an absolutely straight dealer and it's very rarely that he will accept a compromise.

Ironically he, who believes without question what­ever anyone, tells him, is always finding it necessary to produce proof of what he himself asserts!

The Pig's a splendid companion (often, strangely enough, sailing pretty near the wind, and game for a risqui evening!). He doesn't say much - but when he does decide to speak, suddenly the barriers are down and nothing can stop him until the subject's ex­hausted...

Like the Monkey, the Pig is intellectual - a char­acter with a great thirst for knowledge. He reads a lot ... but he reads anything that happens to be around. He appears to be well read, but in fact most of his knowledge is only superficial. If you were to test the depth of his understanding, you would soon find that it didn't go very deep. A Japanese proverb says that the Pig is 'wide of face but narrow in the back'.

He's a materialist for all that - a good-liver and often a sensualist.

Under his deceptive air of sweet reasonableness, the Pig hides plenty of will-power and authority.

Whatever his ambitions may be, whatever the tasks and the goals he has set himself, he will do his duty with all the strength he is capable of- and that same strength can be an inner force to be reckoned with, a force that nothing can oppose. Once a Pig has come to a decision, nothing can stop him carrying it out . . . but before he arrives at it, he spends ages weighing the pros and cons - which sometimes gives the impression that he is indecisive and doesn't know what he ₍ wants. Nothing could be farther from the truth, but to make quite sure that he is avoiding any possible complications, he will sometimes ponder for so long that he destroys his own case.

Don't ever count on the apparent weakness of a Pig, though: it's just that he's a pacifist at heart!

The Pig has few friends, but those he does have he keeps all his life; for them, he is capable of the great­est sacrifices. He is extremely considerate of the chosen few who do merit his affection. The women of this sign like nothing better than to make presents for people and organize parties. They are marvelous hostesses.

The Pig's character, despite all this talk of im­partiality, is a lively one and he would flare up often enough - if he didn't hate so much to quarrel (or even have a discussion!). As a rule, he prefers to give way in an argument, or pretend to change his views, rather than thrash it out. He won't even talk unless he likes you, and it's an honor if he condescends to argue!

One consequence of this is that the Pig, less than anybody, indulges in court cases. He's right too, because no matter how good his case is, his impul­siveness and honesty will always work against him to the advantage of those less scrupulous (we will leave to certain Asiatic the cynical reflection that, in order to win a court case, it is better to throw honesty, scrupulousness, and spontaneity out the window!).

The Pig can work in any walk of life, where his conscientiousness and aptitude for hard work will make him a success. Thanks to his basic sensitivity, he can do equally well in the arts - poetry, for ex­ample, or literature.

He can just as easily go to the dogs, however. One of his least sympathetic traits is that, once he does begin to take a turn for the worse, he'll end up wal­lowing in the mud and indulging in excesses of every kind.

From a material point of view, the Pig will always find, no matter what career he has chosen, that he's not short of the necessities of life. Work and money in sufficient quantities seem to gravitate towards him without his having to make any particular effort. People will help him all his life - and thanks to this help he will be able, if he wishes, to reach the highest spheres in the financial world.

Popular superstition says in the East that people help him thus - bringing him his daily bread, as it were - just to fatten him up so that he will make a better meal over the New Year! They say that be­cause of this he is over-wary and trusts nobody. Be that as it may, people certainly tend to take advan­tage of his credulity ...

Much the same may be said for his love life. He will often be deceived, often disappointed, often made a fool of... and often loved. The female Pig will make a good mother.

Pigs would be well advised to share their lives with those born under the sign of the Cat: for them, that's the surest way of avoiding discussion!

They must keep out of the clutches of the Snake. A Snake will make a complete slave out of a Pig in no time, enmeshing the Pig in his coils to the extent that the poor Pig loses all power of movement!

The Goat will take advantage of him.

The first phase of the Pig's life will be relatively calm. During the second, every conceivable con­jugal problem will be visited on him. But whatever his troubles, the Pig, discreet and shy, will never ask anybody else for help; he'll try to get out of the mess by himself. In fact this reluctance to wear his heart on his sleeve may do him positive harm, for nobody will even suspect the hell he's going through . ..

If his birth-date is a long time before the tradi­tional feasts, he will escape a lot of the disappoint­ments in store for him - but the closer it is to the Asiatic New Year, the more he will be betrayed, ridiculed, duped, and perhaps, in the long run . .. eaten!

Perhaps that's the secret of the famous story of the three little pigs!