Sign Of The Rabbit
(This is an excerpt from a University Of Metaphysical Sciences course at www.umsonline.org,
please feel free to visit the school website)
If you were born on a Rabbit year your good qualities are sensitivity, tact, and discretion. Rabbit people are often artists, poets, and scholarly types. The Rabbit person will be physically fit and intelligent, yet humble. The bad qualities of a Rabbit person are snobbishness, and are unnecessarily pedantic when communicating. They can also be blind, self-righteous and condescending on bad days.
Rabbits are all about carefulness and discretion, almost always living quietly without too many associations, scrutinizing the world and others’ emotions. The Rabbit is endlessly unsure of himself, even in the wake of great success. The opinion of others in positions of social supremacy is extremely important to the Rabbit person. Very habitual and home bound, the Rabbit will be intellectually adventurous, rather than literally take any kind of risks.
The Rabbit is in his element most with a few personal friends or in an accepted community. Comfortable at home, safe in the warm fur lined Rabbit hole, cleanliness and total order are important to the Rabbit person. The Rabbit's orderly nature makes them conservative in life and politics, even to a level of fascism if that's what it takes to keep “order”. The Rabbit is a bit weak hearted when it comes to enforcing his views. Psychologically, a lot of Rabbit people are conflicted, believing in opposite things simultaneously, more out of resignation than from confusion. The Rabbit will be dogmatic and avoid any conflict, especially when uncomfortable truths are spoken. There can be a denial aspect in the Rabbit's personality that resists accepting the violence of life, or disorder. This mentality agrees with labeling people in different categories and positions in a social machine. The Rabbit actually feels more comfortable in that situation, whereas for a Tiger, for example, it would be a living hell.
Messiness and disorder are enemies to the Rabbit. Any condition of entropy scares Rabbits, so they will be meddlesome socially, always thinking they know how to set things right. Subtlety is also a no-no for the Rabbit person; everything should be stated and downright contractual if the Rabbit has his way. This orderliness gives the Rabbit definite neurotic patterns in which “uncomfortable” or conflict causing thoughts and expressions are not communicated. The Rabbit person is a terrible messenger because they will actually leave out information that one may need to know, yet they feel is too controversial or conflictual in the situation the unsaid details refer to. Rabbits dodge all conflict as much as possible, completely self-absorbed in their own sufferings and tribulations. This makes them of no use when real help or support is needed because they are too cowardly to put themselves out there and take a risk. The Rabbit will always tell everyone else to do the errands, take the risk, to go for it, but then will retreat into their own security without doing anything themselves. They will throw out big ideas, yet when it comes time to act, they won't. All the Rabbit's grandiose plans never occur; plans are just a momentary pastime without sincerity to the Rabbit.
The Rabbit person will often be quite intellectual or pedantic, cultivating their minds and gathering knowledge, willing to go at length in any subjects that they are interested in. A lot of the time there are non-intellectual aspects to the Rabbit's personality that he is deep down aware of, adding a defensiveness and shiftiness to the Rabbit. Don't ever contradict or disagree with Rabbits, especially in one of those subjects they pride themselves on knowing, or you'll wind up in a four hour conversation about something you could care less about. The intellectual quality of the Rabbit is boring and often overwhelming, so most people usually decline to debate or argue with a Rabbit person.
The Rabbit also seems to revel in sorrow and neurosis. Constant conversational reminders of the woe, dread, and injustice in life will come from the Rabbit person. They will constantly talk about people's bad qualities and all the terrors of the evening news, whether you want them to or not. A Rabbit person can also be a bit of a backstabber; their non-confrontational nature will often lead them to being two faced, very critical of someone behind their back then will go out to dinner with them the same night after crucifying them socially just an hour before. The cowardly yet arrogant quality of the Rabbit may be the worst the Rabbit has to offer. Coupled with the dogmatism of their nature, this often gives their traditions and views a stale unreal quality. There is a strange hypocrisy to the Rabbit person in their simultaneously opinionated, yet cowardly nature. They are good people, but can actually be more dangerous in their pedantic folly then a Tiger is in his wrath.
There is the appearance of order and stability, but it is easily overridden by fear. There is a Chinese aphorism which says, "The cowardly Rabbit in his folly is more dangerous to the sage than the Tiger in all his righteous rage." What this means is that folly and cowardice play into the hands of evil even more than anger. Those who truly hate use folly and cowardice, in order to control people and falsely rule the world. The saying addresses the superior dignity of those who would keep their word and have the self-confidence to even go against the social norm when it is perceived as wrong, than the coward who always does what he should, yet harbors a negativity and malice toward all of humanity in his heart. This negativity has a way of emerging at all the wrong times.
From the strategic standpoint of the Tiger the Rabbit is of no use, except to keep records at some extension office unrelated to any main workings of any project. To the Dragon the Rabbit is there to write down the songs, poems and teachings the Dragons bring from on high. For a Rabbit person, the biggest challenge is to overcome a skittish nature, which can ruin friendships and families. Their insistence upon social etiquette can make them pleasant to be around for social occasions or things like shopping, however only Rabbits should move together in any deeper associations. Rabbits, because of being mainly non-conflictual, can get along with all the other signs, although most of the other signs intuitively disregard deep lasting relationships with the Rabbit at the same time.