The cow or ox is the second zodiac sign in the sequence of the earthly branches. The defining trait of ox zodiac sign is talent. Oxen and cows are known for their talent.

In preparation for this article, I watched the documentary called Cow by Andrea Arnold. God! I cried so much. The movie follows a dairy cow and it’s just so sad because she’s bred over and over again and tortured.

Cows have been domesticated for 11,000 years. Throughout this time, we’ve drunk cow milk, made cows plow our fields, and hunted them. Humans are not the only animal to live on the back of the cow. Bugs also live on cow bodies with cow eyes being the sight of eyeworms. These are worms or flies that have adapted to living on cow eyes. Birds such as cranes follow cows around, relying on the way cows kick up dirt to find food. Cattle egrets do this too. That’s why we see so many pictures of cows with little birds following them around.

In the earthly branches, cow is an earth branch. There’s five phases and earth is one of them. There’s also wood, fire, metal, and water. Cow is wet earth. It’s primarily earth but it also has a little water and a little metal. The metal here is probably manure since poop is metal.

So, cow is super fertile. It’s this rich mixture of wet soil that so many things can grow out of. Cows are almost like the soil. Other animals take advantage of cows but they don’t usually mind. Cows are gentle. They don’t mind that a little bird lives around their hooves and they don’t kick at them either. They don’t like that worms live in their eyes but they don’t eradicate them either. They just stand in a circle so the flies aren’t so annoying and they even host small birds of prey that eat the worms for them.

A cow is like an ecology. Their bodies host so many different types of beings.

We know this. Walk around a grocery store and try to find products that don’t use cow in some way. Most products contain some beef, butter, or milk. We eat from cows and we take from cows. When a cow births a calf, they produce a lot of milk. They will keep producing milk after the calf is weaned and let other animals drink their milk. Cows build symbiotic relationships with other animals but they often get taken advantage of.

We see this in the story about the cow in the zodiac. In the story, both the rat and the cat decided to ride on the cow’s back. The cow didn’t mind! It allowed both animals to ride on its back! The cow was the one to do all of the hard work but it didn’t mind that two people benefited from its labor.

We already see the characteristic of the ox or cow zodiac sign. Cows are deeply, deeply generous. They’re richly creative and they benefit not just themselves but everyone around them. They collaborate well and they allow their talents to be used. The more relationships a cow cultivates, the more ways their talents can grow. Cow is like the soil. On its own, it’s not overly showy or demonstrative. They’re nurturing instead. They shine by loving other people.

There’s something else about cows that is important here. Cows don’t like to be alone. Oxen herd together. If you have ever seen a group of cows, they will cluster together under a tree and roam together. Cows have best friends and they will wait for their chosen best friend so that they can graze side by side. They lean affectionately against one another as they do this.

But why does the cow allow itself to be used? Are they unaware? Maybe they’re just not that socially savvy?

I don’t know about this one. It’s a mystery. Cows are incredibly observant and mystical. In the documentary Cow, you see the dairy cow who is our main character gaze upon the stars. Cows know what they are doing and they understand that they are integrated in the ecology they live within. But then you see the dairy cow be called back into the horrible shed that she has to live inside of. She doesn’t want to go. She wants to stay outside so that she can continue to graze under the stars. But she goes! The humans around her tell her to go and she goes. She walks reluctantly but she goes.

Both Freud and Jung were ox/cow day pillars. You remember how the ox plows the field? There’s the physical strength and the endurance but this is also about psychological plowing. Cow, as an earth branch, is opaque. It’s able to hide its own feelings and thoughts. It also digs deep psychologically.

Basically, cows are interested in other beings. They’re curious. Like the soil needs things to grow on it, they need to be in relationship with other things. They won’t share everything but they like to be side by side.

You see this in calves too. Baby cows follow. Adult cows will follow the group or their best friend.

The reason why cows allow themselves to be used is because they’re talented. They’re deep thinkers. Usually, cows have a talent for music or art. They’re incredible with beauty. The nature of talent is that it needs to be used. You can’t not use a talent. You have to use it. If you don’t use a talent, then the talent stops existing. Talent is something that has to be shared, has to be given away. It’s something that benefits everyone and not just one person.

So, this is the luminosity of cow. The earthly branch as a little metal. You might see that fertile manure or glittering gemstones. It’s earth producing fertility, producing diamonds and producing talent. As the zodiac branch that represents pure talent, cows literally can’t keep that to themselves. They have to share.

The name of the cow earthly branch is 丑. This character is a womb. A womb gestates and nurtures life. That’s talent. Talent isn’t life on its own—it’s something that supports and nurtures life. 丑 also means clown. Cows love music and they love to dance. When they dance, they don’t move with the precision of a bird or the athleticism of a rabbit. They move in a goofy way. Calves grow muscles by dancing and their dances are always a bit chaotic, a bit fumbling, and very much goofy.

If you have an ox or cow branch in your chart, you might store talent. That talent is like raw soil. It wants to be used and it wants to support life. You might be probing psychologically and you might have a deep sense of humor. You might have a goofy side and you might know how to stick close to others without ever rushing.

There’s five types of ox or cows—wood cow (yi chou), fire cow (ding chou), earth cow (ji chou), metal cow (xin chou), and water cow (gui chou).

Yi chou is a cow that is chewing some grass. It’s a cow that likes to mull things over. Remember that cows have four stomachs. Their digestive abilities are impeccable. Wood cow digests information. They’re incredibly observant and they separate truth from delusion.

Ding chou is like clinging fire. It’s a loyal cow, a best friend cow. It likes to be close by its loved one and those it knows. It’s a cow that follows freely with an easygoing personality. Ji chou or earth cow is all earth. Both Freud and Jung were ji chou day pillars. They explore depth and sense what lies in hiding. They are a bit aloof or indifferent. Earth nurtures everything equally. It doesn’t pick what stands out but nurtures everything.

Xin chou is the weird cow—the clown. This cow is also a truthsayer but it lives in disguise. Metal cow uses humor and disguise to speak its truth. Water cow is also interested in disguise but its more interested in performance than truth. It wears beauty like an illusion. Gui chou is an incredible entertainer.