Year of the Snake
The Snake in the Chinese zodiac — personality, compatibility, career, and lucky traits.
Snake
| Animal | 巳 Snake |
|---|---|
| Order | 6 of 12 |
| Earthly branch | Si |
| Fixed element | Fire |
| Best matches | Rooster, Ox |
| Clash (avoid) | Pig |
| Lucky | Lucky numbers 2, 8, and 9; lucky colours black, red, and yellow; lucky flowers orchid and cactus. |
What is the Year of the Snake?
The Snake (巳, branch Si) is sign 6 of the twelve Chinese zodiac animals, with the fixed element Fire. The Snake is the sixth sign of the Chinese zodiac — wise, enigmatic, and deeply intuitive. Snake people are elegant thinkers and quiet strategists, calm on the surface and endlessly perceptive beneath. Private, philosophical, and alluring, they trust their intuition, keep their own counsel, and pursue their goals with patient, hidden determination. Ruled by the fixed element Fire, the Snake blends penetrating insight with magnetic charm, making it one of the most mysterious and shrewd signs of the cycle.
Snake strengths
Wise, intuitive, and perceptive, Snakes see through appearances to the truth beneath. Elegant, charming, and self-possessed, they are gifted strategists who plan carefully and act with calm precision. Determined and financially astute, they pursue their aims patiently, and their depth, discretion, and grace give them a quiet, compelling power.
Snake weaknesses
Snakes can be secretive, suspicious, and possessive, guarding their inner world closely. Their pride and cool detachment may read as aloofness, and they can be jealous, calculating, or slow to forgive. Prone to overthinking and keeping score, they sometimes manipulate quietly rather than confront, and struggle to fully let others in.
Snake love and compatibility
In love the Snake is passionate, devoted, and intensely loyal, though private and slow to trust. They match best with the Ox and Rooster of their trine, who value their depth and steadiness. Their clash is the Pig, whose openness and trusting nature unsettle the guarded, complex Snake.
Snake career and work
Snakes excel in fields rewarding insight, strategy, and discretion: research, psychology, philosophy, finance, medicine, law, and the arts. Analytical and intuitive, they read situations and people with uncanny accuracy. They prefer to work independently and behind the scenes, and their patience and shrewdness make them formidable long-game players.
What years are the Year of the Snake?
Recent and upcoming Years of the Snake:
- 1953
- 1965
- 1977
- 1989
- 2001
- 2013
- 2025
- 2037
Note: the Chinese zodiac year begins at Lunar New Year (late January to mid-February), not January 1. If you were born in that window, your sign may be the previous year’s animal — your BaZi chart settles it precisely.
Your animal is only one pillar
Your birth year gives your zodiac animal — but your full BaZi (Four Pillars) chart maps the year, month, day, and hour, revealing your elements, Day Master, and destiny.
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