Year of the Rat: Personality, Element and Stones
Rat is the first sign of the Chinese zodiac and the one that reads the room before speaking. Quick, thrifty with effort, and far more careful than the stories suggest.
How this sign is usually described
- Notices what everyone else walked past, and files it away.
- Generous with advice, guarded with their own situation.
- Comfortable with a plan B, C and D; uncomfortable with none.
- Restless in slow rooms — the mind needs somewhere to go.
Stones often chosen for this sign
Birth years
1936 · 1948 · 1960 · 1972 · 1984 · 1996 · 2008 · 2020 · 2032 · 2044
Lucky colours, numbers and directions
Colours blue and gold; numbers 2 and 3; the north.
Signs it tends to get on with
Dragon · Monkey · Ox
Stones often chosen for this sign
Common questions
Am I a Rat if I was born in January?
Not necessarily. The Chinese zodiac turns at Li Chun (around 4 February), not 1 January. Someone born on 20 January 1996 is still a Pig, not a Rat.
Which stone is 'mine'?
Tradition pairs a sign with a set of stones rather than one. If you want it narrowed down, the free reading also weighs your birth hour and your Western sign.
Related reading
Want to see where you actually sit?
The Stone Oracle reads your Western sign, your Chinese zodiac, your BaZi hour and a drawn tarot card, then maps the result onto stones we carry. It is free and nothing is uploaded.
Feng shui, the five elements, zodiac pairing and tarot are cultural traditions, not science. Everything on this page is offered as a way to think about a choice of stone — it is not a prediction, and it guarantees no outcome.