Let’s talk about the fourth earth branch now—bunnies or rabbits! Last time, we looked at tigers. Tigers are yang wood and they live in trees. Bunnies are yin wood and bunnies live in the grass.
Yin wood is really funny. Have you ever seen a tree split across the middle after a huge storm? That kind of shit doesn’t happen to grass. Why? Because grass can just bend over and lay down. Yin wood is more resilient and durable than yang wood. Yin wood in the form of weeds and vines can also pretty much grow anywhere.
That’s the bunny. The bunny is one of the most invincible animals in the world. Bunnies live in the snow and grow huge coats to keep themselves warm. They live in deserts and eat the water out of cacti. They live happily in grasslands but they can also live in Chicago. That’s right! There’s all these wild bunnies that live in the city of Chicago. Bunnies are like pigeons. They can live in a metal city. Like yin wood, bunnies often hide. They live in burrows inside of the ground and their secrecy helps their resiliency.
These are not animals that have to live in a specialized location like a tiger or monkey. Some animals are picky. They have to have a certain elevation or they prefer a certain distance to water. Maybe they eat something that can only be found in certain places…nope, not bunnies. Bunnies eat a lot of different things and they’re pretty much found anywhere. You’ll see them in the day but they’ll eat everything in your garden at night too.
I think bunnies are really hilarious because there are so many types. Take a look at this:
You know what’s cool about yin wood? It can be a vine wrapped around a tree. It can be a fuzzy little moss. It can be a flower. Yin wood is diverse. It can take almost any form. It can be spiky or soft or stringy or bulbous. Bunnies, too, can look like so many different things. They live almost anywhere in the world and they are camouflaged to fit into all of those places.
Bunny people include Kim Kardashian, Billie Eilish, and Lil Nas X. All of these people have bunny in their day pillar. What do all of those people have in common? They love fashion! Isamu Noguchi was also a bunny day pillar and he basically integrated art with design through paper (yin wood). Bunnies are designers. They’re masters of form. Did you know that bunnies also design their environment? Since they’re one of the most popular prey animals, bunnies decide how many animals get to live. They will birth less bunnies when they think the world around them is too crowded.
Bunnies are popular. They can influence their environment socially. Noguchi wanted art to be affordable for everyone. As an animal type, bunnies feed the whole world.
The name of rabbit earthly branch is 卯. This character is interesting. It’s actually just two tools being split apart. In older times, this character did mean to kill especially in a sacrificial context. Rabbits are prey. They don’t kill or eat other animals and they control their environment as prey.
Yoko Ono was a wood bunny day pillar. Remember her cut piece? She invited people to cut her clothes off as a performance piece.
But two parts isn’t just about cutting or separation. Two parts of something also implies relationship. If something can come apart, it can also come together.
The reason why 卯 is an interesting character is because there’s another meaning. 卯 means hinge.
Bunnies are prey and they’re really tasty but are they easy to catch? Oh no they are not.
First of all, they can see and hear everything. You walk around a place where bunnies live and they’re just scattered around frozen still staring you down. They notice every move you make. If you so much as take a single step in their direction, they bolt. They never ever bolt in the direction they’re facing either. They bolt in a completely unexpected direction.
Most of the time, I leave the interaction there. I’m not trying to hunt down and eat a wild rabbit. Predators who do hunt rabbits, however, have to develop finely tuned reflexes to catch them. Watch a dog chase a rabbit. The dog is fast and can catch up to a rabbit. However, dogs usually can’t catch bunnies. It’s not a test of speed. It’s a test of flexibility.
A rabbit can jump into the air and, when it does that, it can turn in any direction without losing any speed. Predators can’t do that. To keep chasing the bunny, they have to slow down before they can turn. That’s the game the bunny is playing. They don’t need to run so fast in a single line even though they can. They’re more about pivoting.
In fact, this is how bunnies flirt. They run at each other and see if the other bunny can jump high enough and fast enough to pivot. They make a game out of it. Bunnies have to impress other bunnies with their pivoting and jumping skill to mate.
Bunnies pivot. 卯 is a hinge. This is a cardinal branch situated right on the hinge of spring. That’s when grass starts to grow. It’s a time of huge transformation. Bunnies pivot and so do bunny people. Their eyes are wide open and their ears are listening. They’re turn around and do something out of the blue if they sense that they’re trapped. You might almost call them skittish if they weren’t so graceful.
I think both Billie Eilish and Kim Kardashian have been called out for their culturally appropriative style transformations. Transformation is something that bunny people do but it’s worth it to keep in mind that you don’t have to become someone else to explore dramatic change. Lil Nas X transformed his outfit three times at the 2021 Met Gala.
Min Yoongi also has bunny in his month pillar. Notice what happened in 2017 when Lee Soo Man was trying to buy BTS from BigHit. Yoongi pivoted. He started making his own music under a different name that isn’t part of BTS. He did this very quickly too. He never lost momentum and didn’t sacrifice speed. He just pivoted. And when the purchase didn’t happen? He pivoted back. He currently maintains three different personas as idol, artist, and producer. These are three different directions, three different options, he could go in. Since bunny is in his month pillar and not his day pillar, he behaves like a bunny when contending with his circumstances instead of in terms of identity or personal style like the day pillar bunnies. He makes sure that he can always pivot under pressure as a strategy.
You can see if you have bunny or rabbit in your chart by searching for any bazi chart calculator and you can make conclusions about how bunny behavior, that radical hingelike change, shows up for you! There are also five types of bunnies: wood rabbit (yi mao), fire rabbit (ding mao), earth rabbit (ji mao), metal rabbit (xin mao), and water rabbit (gui mao).
Yi mao or wood bunny is the strongest bunny. It’s super sensitive and perceptive and it instinctively responds to everything in the environment without pause. Fire rabbit or ding mao is a bunny as altar sacrifice. A sacrifice is something that the weak does to ask for help. The strong doesn’t need to sacrifice because the strong will just force its will. That’s why fire rabbit is known for sincerity and for compassion.
Earth rabbit is a disciplined bunny. All of that grass is clenching onto the dirt. Earth bunny is really careful and cares a lot about privacy. This is a rabbit that inside of its burrow. Metal rabbit expresses fertility and craft. Bunny is a soft material that can be cut or shaped by the metal. This bunny wants to make something of itself. Water rabbit goes with the flow. When it rains, rabbits will come out into the open because they know that predators hate getting wet. The water is a nice little refuge for the bunny. Water bunnies like to seek a larger structure for protection the way rain protects bunnies from cats and birds.
