These days, when it comes to Chinese horoscopes most people know which of the 12 Chinese animals they are, based on the year they were born. However, nothing in life is ever that simple.

If all there was to it was 12 animals that would mean there wouldnt be much variation between the characteristics of people, just 12 types, or possibly 24 if you consider male and female.

Well I can tell you there is FAR more to a Chinese horoscope than knowing which of the 12 animals you are.

The first thing to remember is that Chinese horoscopes are based on the Lunar calendar not the solar one, that is why Chinese New Year falls anywhere between the middle of January and the middle of February.

So you see if your birthday is during this period you may not be the dog you thought you were, you may be a pig instead!

But, with 12 animals in the list each twelfth year the animal is repeated as they cycle through doesnt seem so complicated? Well unfortunately the Chinese calendar works on a 60 year cycle not a 12 year one. This means that each animal occurs 5 times in the 60 year cycle (12 x 5 = 60) and each one is unique so there are actually 5 types of each animal.

So if you are a Rat, you could be a Rat on the roof, or a Rat in the field, or a Rat in the Warehouse, or a Rat on the beam or finally a Rat on the mountain.

Then there are the 12 Palaces, Ming, Brothers and Sisters, Marital, Man and Woman, Wealth, Sickness, Moving, Servants, Officials, Property, Fortune and Virtue and finally the Parents Palace. Each Palace influences a different aspect of your life.

There are 5 elements, Wood, Metal, Water, Fire and Earth and 37 Stars and they all come together to produce a unique chart just for you.

The key to it all is your 8 character horoscope determined from your year, month, hour and time of birth, 2 characters for each, in Lunar years of course.

In fact your very own personalised Chinese horoscope has so many possible variations that there are millions and millions of combinations

So you see with all these parts that make up a full Chinese horoscope it is not enough just to know that you are a Pig or a Dog or a Cock.