Birthday Dictionary, by Antonia Beattie

Birthday Dictionary : Everything You Need to Know to Find the Key to Your Inner Nature and Personality, by Antonia Beattie, reviewed by Celine

Publisher:   Lansdowne Publishing Pty Ltd

Date of publication:  2005

Genre: Self-help, New Age, Astrology

REVIEW

Nobody could be happier than me when I came across this book at an Op shop this week!  What a treasure, and an excellent buy for $2.00!!

This beautiful long shaped book is a welcome compendium, amassing together knowledge about Western Astrology, Chinese Astrology and Native American knowledge of correspondences between natural forces and birth times and places.

This book is totally awesome, very well set out from beginning to end and well organised.

There are Tables at the beginning with birth dates and corresponding Chinese year sign (animal sign from 12 possible) with the Native American Indian animal totem sign, depending upon whether you were born in the Northern Hemisphere or in the Southern Hemisphere, your Native American Indian Seasonal element, also according to which Hemisphere you were born in, and the associated or harmonizing color, flowers, herbs and gemstones, according to Western Astrology!

Furthermore, a ton of other information, and of course, combined knowledge, can be derived from this wonderful book.

Antonia takes you through your birthday influences by the hour, month and year, according to Chinese Astrology; how to work out your “lucky number” or your Birth number, and putting together the information from the 3 systems.

The Birth Number or Personal Destiny Number is governed by a planetary force and is calculated by adding all the number of one’s birth date in the Gregorian calendar, to come up with a single number OR a master number, which is 11, or 22 or 33.

In the example of my date of birth, 14/09/1963 we have:

1 + 4 + 9 + 1 + 9 + 6 + 3  =    33

The book states that “Thirty-threes are compassionate on a global scale, which can make them prone to over-sensitivity.”

Yep, that’s me! Here is more about me, if you are interested in what can be gleaned from this book.

CHINESE ASTROLOGY

Dominant sign – by Year – RABBIT.   Peaceful, sensitive, intuitive, caring, quiet.

Corresponding natural element (Note: this is the fixed natural element for all Rabbits) –  WOOD.  Sensitive, intuitive, creative, communicative.

Love sign – by Month – ROOSTER. Likes approval, may try to control self and others to get approval.

Ascendant sign – by Hour – HORSE. Has vitality, physical agility, stamina and a lot of interests.  [ My Note: you can only know your Chinese Astrology Hour sign if you know your local time of birth ]

Energy Flow  – YIN:   introspective, feminine.

Changeable element (changes according to the year of birth, this is called the Dominant element in the book) – WATER. Flexible, creative, intuitive. 

Please note that Antonia provides an excellent template for you to photocopy and fill in for yourself and others, but the Template does NOT include the “Changeable Element” above. It includes “Your corresponding element” which is the Fixed Natural Element for your Chinese year sign.

HOWEVER, the book contains sections on the different Animal Year influences, and each Year refers to, what Antonia calls “dominant elements” which are natural elements or forces according to the year of birth. 

For example the fixed element for the Rabbit is WOOD but the changeable element “dominating” the year 1963 when I was born, was WATER.  You can clearly see from the page below, that there are what I call changeable elements, and a Water Rabbit (cute, hey) will be different to a Metal Rabbit!

What’s my Chinese Element Sign?

To find out from Antonia’s book, what the influence of Water rather than Metal is, I looked at the entry for WATER in the A to Z part of the dictionary, and got the Key Attributes for the Table at the top of the entry on WATER.

WESTERN ASTROLOGY

Zodiac sign – by Month of birth: VIRGO. Pays attention to detail, organised, methodical.  Prone to perfection, humanitarian.

Color:  brown.  Flower:  Aster.  Herb:  Valerian.  Gemstone:  Sapphire

The book has an A to Z section and under VIRGO there’s a Table with information, including that the “Quest” of a Virgo is ANALYSIS, and the Polarity of Virgos is “receptive.”

NATIVE AMERICAN ASTROLOGY

Birth time Totem Animal (dependent upon month of birth and the Hemisphere that you were born in, whether North or South):  WOLF (for the Southern Hemisphere).  Integrates family and personal life, highly tuned senses, sensitive, very flexible.

Energy Flow: Receptive  (corresponds to YIN in Chinese Astrology)

Elements Corresponding to WOLF

Birth time Element: WATER. Sensitive and flexible.

Elemental Clan: FROG. Adaptable and flexible, creative.

Season: LATE WINTER

Seasonal Element: AIR. Good verbal expression and logic.

Seasonal Totem Animal: WHITE BUFFALO. Related to AIR and the mind (thinking). 

Please Note: I am listing my reading in order to illustrate how the instructions and information in the book are applied. Here is some more analysis (yes I have 4 planets in Virgo so I’m always on a quest to analyze).

BUFFALO totem means being aware of the sacredness of Life.  White symbolizes purity of thought and intentions.  The book doesn’t state this, but the aforementioned is what I know from previous research.

I can say that I am “wowed” by the correlations among the data/info in the list above, e.g. sensitive, flexible and caring comes up a lot.

Also, I have had a “reading” of my Native American animal totem helpers done before, and the BUFFALO (which I’ve always loved) was my inner totem.  You can read about that HERE  if you like!

On top of that, I have always loved FROGS and been attracted to WOLVES, before I did the analysis using Antonia’s book. I kid you not!

Now, some analysis on what’s covered by the book, or on how comprehensive it is.  It may be no surprise to the person reading this long post, that I am very interested in all sorts of Astrology and typing systems.

Well, let me say this about Chinese Astrology: it is not simple. No it’s not as straightforward as many may think.  I have written about it on my blog “Fascinating Animals” and here are links for the person interested in learning more.

2014 – Year of the Horse & Chinese Astrology

Chinese New Year – 2016 Year of the Monkey

I’ve already covered the “dominant” or “changeable” element (natural force or element) in Chinese Astrology above.

The Chinese zodiac has “Four Pillars” or four influences, being Year / Month / Day and Hour influences. Antonia looks at Year, Month and Hour influences, but not Day influences.

For example, in the Four Pillars system, the Month influence is called “the inner animal” and is said to determine your later years in life or information about your parents.

Antonia states that the Month is about how you relate in intimate or close relationships. Other say the MONTH animal reflects your “archetypal inner qualities.”

Putting the two together, one could interpret my MONTH animal, the “Rooster” as showing that I feel happiest or most comfortable with my parents and family / upbringing when my family was loyal to me, and vice versa; and I expect and give loyalty to those in my immediate circle.

Now, Chinese Astrology, if you must know, also looks at the DAY one was born, and it is said by some that this influence determines your marriage or how you relate to your partner/spouse.

It’s complicated working out your DAY sign, but the page below lets you enter your birth date and calculates it for you! It shows your every day personality, that people experience and respond to.

Your Chinese Zodiac Signs

My DAY sign is the White (Male Metal) Monkey, shown in the graphic above.  Antonia’s book does NOT cover the DAY sign in Chinese Astrology, but more than makes up for this by a comprehensive covering of the basics.

The HOUR sign in the “Four Pillars system” is said by some to be the truest representation of you, and referred to as “the secret animal“.  The Hour Pillar represents your natural, spontaneous, untutored self.

Antonia refers to it as the “Ascendant sign” and describes it as modifying the personality structure determined by your dominant sign (your Year sign).

She calls it the “hidden Self“, the way that you perceive yourself and the side you may conceal from others (or that others don’t easily pick up about you). In my case, my HOUR influence is the HORSE, and I can vouch for the fact that I believe that I have unlimited stamina and a never-ending reservoir of interests and potential energy to invest in these interests!

The Four Pillars 

Last but not least, of course there is also a lot more to Western Astrology!!

For example, I have 4 “planets” in Virgo, according to Western Astrology. That is, at the time and place that I was born, the Sun plus Venus, Mercury and Pluto were all in the constellation of Virgo.

This means that I am VERY Virgoan!!

In this astrological system, Scorpio is my Ascendant or Rising Sign, the sign on the eastern horizon when I was born. This influence colors my chart or birth influences.

In Western Astrology, the Sun sign is a bit like the DAY sign in Chinese Astrology, showing how you appear to others and what you like. In my case I like to be organised and methodical and pay attention to detail.

The ASCENDANT in Western Astrology shows one’s inner impulses or spontaneous inclinations, in my case SCORPIO shows an interest in …. well, in Astrological systems and in the deeper mysteries of Life!

Note:  You NEED your time of birth as well as your place of birth, in order to get your Ascendant or Rising Sign in Western Astrology, because it is the sign that was on the horizon at the time and place of your birth.

IN SUMMARY

I cannot fault Antonia’s book.  If you take your time understanding all the systems she covers, then use the handy A to Z dictionary, you will find the Western Astrology zodiac signs covered, with their “Quests” (or keyword summarizing the actions they are disposed toward), Ruling Planet, Ruling Element, Polarity (receptive or active / similar to Yin and Yang), and Quality (cardinal / fixed / mutable / changeable).

The natural elements in the dictionary have information relating to their use specifically in the Native American Indian system, but also each description includes a Table with the Key Attributes, which can be applied to your Chinese zodiac.

The dictionary includes all the Birth Numbers and their meanings also!

Altogether I was and am “in Heaven” owning this book, and can’t wait to chart my friend’s zodiacs.  The template in the book can be filled in directly or photocopied or typed out for use, and makes it so easy to record your own findings.

The only trouble is that, for me, this book opens up vistas of…. a lot more.

And NOW, I need a lie-down and a Bex !!

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