TIBETAN ASTROLOGY

What is Tibetan Astrology?

Tibetan astrology is a fate-reading practice, unique to Tibet, that draws on a calendrical system integrating the Chinese Five Elements and twelve animals with elements derived from the Indian calendar, reading personality, life periods, and compatibility. It has long been used within the tradition of Tibetan Buddhism to construct the calendar and judge auspicious and inauspicious days.

Overview

System

Fate Reading (reads from the Tibetan calendar, which integrates the Five Elements, the twelve animals, and elements of the Indian calendar)

Origin

Tibet

What You Need

Date of birth (accuracy improves with the birth time as well)

Best For

Life, timing, compatibility

Time Frame

Life as a whole, one year

Origins & History

Tibetan astrology is said to be a system formed in Tibet through the fusion of the Chinese concepts of the Five Elements and the twelve animals with calendrical and astrological elements transmitted from India. Both traditions have been passed down as part of the calendrical science of Tibetan Buddhism, used mainly by monasteries to construct the calendar and determine auspicious dates for rituals.

Two systems are said to exist side by side: “elemental astrology,” which derives a combination of the Five Elements and the twelve animals from the date of birth, and “planetary astrology,” which uses celestial calculations of Indian origin. However, scholarly study of how the two were integrated and the finer details of their calculation methods remains limited, and some aspects are still not well understood.

How It Works

1. 01Prepare the date of birth (and the birth time, if possible).
2. 02Calculate the combination of the Five Elements and the twelve animals from the birth year.
3. 03Factor in elements derived from the Indian calendar to perform Tibet’s own calendrical calculations.
4. 04Read tendencies in personality, life timing, and compatibility from the resulting combination.

What It Reveals

Tibetan astrology is well suited to reading innate personality tendencies, timing favorable for marriage or major decisions, and compatibility. At the same time, schools differ in whether they place more weight on elemental astrology or planetary astrology, and because little published material is available on the details of the calculation methods and interpretations, it is also a system whose full picture is difficult to verify from the outside.

Related Methods

Four Pillars of Destiny (Bazi)Chinese Zodiac (Twelve Animals)Panchanga (Hindu Calendar Divination)Vedic Astrology (Jyotish)

References

• Wikipedia: Tibetan astrology (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibetan_astrology)