8 of 12 · branch Wei (未) · element Earth · last Goat year 2015
The Goat is also listed as Sheep or Ram in English, and 未在 the calendar is the month when the harvest is gathered. 羊 was written as 祥 in bronze inscriptions, so the animal became a shorthand for auspiciousness. It governs the early afternoon and is associated with the arts and with tolerance.
The branch repeats every twelve years, but the stem in front of it moves by two each time, so the element cycles through all five. That is why two Goat years can feel quite different.
The table above treats a whole Gregorian year as one animal, which is true for most of it. January and early February are the exception: the zodiac turns at the Start of Spring (around 4 February, exact to the minute) in divination, and at the lunar new year in festival usage. Between those two dates the animal is still the previous one.
Pick the exact date in the zodiac lookup, or open this year’s New Year date to see where the line falls.