Year of the Monkey

Personality

The Monkey arrived ninth, having helped the Rooster and Sheep build the raft that carried all three across — but having been primarily responsible for coming up with the idea. Where the Sheep found the raft and the Rooster organised the effort, the Monkey saw the solution first. This is archetypal: Monkey people are generators of ideas, and they are often happiest once the idea has been found.

Monkey people are among the most enjoyable to be around: witty, quick, curious, and endlessly entertaining. You see angles that others miss, and you can turn almost any situation to your advantage through sheer cleverness. You are adaptable to a degree that can seem almost alarming — you can thrive in environments that would break less flexible personalities.

Challenges

The Monkey's cleverness can become a crutch. When you're the smartest person in the room, it becomes tempting to rely on that fact exclusively — and you can underestimate the importance of trustworthiness, consistency, and follow-through. You can also be easily bored, and boredom in a clever person produces mischief. The Monkey who commits to depth — to actually finishing what it starts — discovers something that wit alone cannot provide: a legacy.

In Life & Career

Monkeys thrive in roles that reward agility, creativity, and quick thinking: technology, finance, entertainment, journalism, advertising, start-ups, and research. You need an environment that keeps up with you.

Compatibility

Famous Monkey People

In Japanese

In Japanese, the Monkey is known as the character 申 (pronounced saru in the context of the zodiac). This is the traditional kanji used in the 干支 (eto) calendar system, which assigns an animal and element to each year in a sixty-year cycle.