Hour of the Rooster

The secret self

Those born in this double-hour carry the Rooster as their hidden hour-self, the private creature only the closest people meet. The clock remembers it like this:

• Born in the Rooster hour, your secret self lives awake and pays attention. Under whatever face you wear, there is a precise eye that names what is wrong with the room and would like to fix it.
• The dusk animal in you holds a standard for itself before it holds one for anyone else. The gift is honesty as a kind of love; the shadow is the small unsolicited correction that wears on the people you mean to help.
• Your hidden hour is the hour the birds come home and the day is counted. There is a part of you that needs the books squared, the paperwork home, the schedule kept. Let it order the day without ordering the people.
• Inside you is a pride that does not let the apology arrive cleanly. Your secret self thinks bluntness is care, and is often right and sometimes hard. Praise one thing fully and out loud this week.
• The Rooster at dusk will help you move, fix the leak, tell you the shirt does not fit. Your secret self defends the slighted friend and the small business with the rude landlord. It is a sharp, loyal, honest core.

More on the Rooster

Up before the rest of the yard, feathers in order, eye sharp, the day announced before anyone wanted it. The Rooster is precise in the body, precise in the dress, precise in the opinion. There is real pride here, the good kind, the kind that holds a standard for itself before it holds one for anyone else. You will hear about vanity, about pickiness, about the loud voice in the morning. All a little true and a little unfair. The fuller picture is a creature that has decided to live awake. The Rooster pays attention. The Rooster names what is wrong with the room and would like to fix it. There is an honest streak under the plumage, often blunter than is comfortable, that the right people learn to love.