Cast & Chart

Horse and Dog

These are traditional rules about the twelve signs. No chart decides a relationship.

The traditional relations

  • 三合 Three Harmonies

    Two members of a trio of branches that tradition groups together.

What tradition says

午 and 戌 are two-thirds of the fire group in 三合, the Three Harmonies, and the Tiger's 寅 would complete it. The Wuxing Dayi places 午 in the south as fire at full power and 戌 in the west as fire dying down. Only 午 is fire in its own right, since 戌 is an earth branch. Fire makes earth, which suits the image of heat settling into the ground.

Many popular zodiac books rate this among the friendliest matches, an eager Horse and a steadfast Dog who share a dislike of pretense. Popular writers enjoy it because the triad gives them a classical hook. What the hook actually says is about the phases of fire.

A peak and a cooling are different moods to bring to the same problem. When something goes wrong, does one of you want to act while it is hot and the other to sleep on it? Decide together which problems get which treatment.

The fire group gathers 午 and 戌 as signs, and the warmth or coolness between two actual people is theirs alone.

Where this text comes from

The relation tables follow 五行大義 volume 2 and 三命通會 volumes 2 and 3 on Wikisource. The popular readings are modern and come from neither.

The English here is our own plain wording, not a translation of a single source.