There are twelve animals in the Chinese Zodiac, each governing a year. On top of the twelve animals, there are five elements which alternate across the animals. Five times twelve equals sixty so the complete Chinese Zodiac cycle is known as the Cycle of Sixty. The succession of elements over this sixty-year cycle is simple. Each element influences two consecutive years. After ten years, when all five elements have passed twice, it repeats from the beginning again. After six repetitions of elements, a cycle of sixty is complete. For example, the year 2012 was the Water Dragon. The following year, 2013 is still governed by water, so it will be the Water Snake. The cycle continues as follows: 2014: Wood Horse, 2015: Wood Ram, 2016: Fire Monkey, 2017: Fire Rooster, 2018: Earth Dog, 2019: Earth Pig, 2020: Gold Rat, 2021: Gold Ox. Then the elements repeat. The next Dragon (in 2024) will be the Wood Dragon. You can do the math for the rest of the cycle.

Kung Fu Tai Chi magazine began running Kung Fu Horoscopes by Feng Shui Master Wilson Sun with Gigi Oh and Gene Ching in the November 2000 issue. We were the first newsstand magazine to publish Chinese-based horoscopes in English (and perhaps the last – if any anyone else publishing Chinese horoscopes in print magazines now, please let us know).

Master Sun’s quarterly Kung Fu Horoscopes column was at the end of each issue and covered lunar cycle predictions for each sign of the Chinese zodiac. It was a poetic way to conclude each issue with a glimpse of the future. I’m sad to say that we’ve discontinued that. We concluded the series with the folding of our print magazine.

We were also the first to publish Chinese Horoscopes in English right here on the web. These were extracted from the same Master Sun’s Kung Fu Horoscopes that we ran in print, although we omitted some of the details. Master Sun is a major advocate of dietotherapy so he included recipes for herb-infused rice congee and other medicinal foods concocted with his astrological forecast for a balanced future. We didn’t include those in the web version. We saved them just for the print magazine.

Additionally, Gene included a relevant quote from a celebrity that shared each sign at the end of their predictions. Gene felt that showcasing public figures that shared the zodiac signs would provide subtle clues to the nature of that animal. Those are compiled within each individual zodiac prediction. The collection of quotes goes back twenty years, the entire length of the print run of Kung Fu Horoscopes. We had a great run in print.

We are continuing to publish Master Sun’s annual forecast here on the web and plan to keep publishing these as long as KungFuMagazine remains viable. Maybe someday we’ll pick up again with Master Sun’s monthly predictions, but not right now.

Thank you for your continued support.