The Pig

The Sino-Vietnamese associate pigs with the sow and her litter – and large families. The Ancient Egyptians called their sow goddess, ‘eternal mother of the stars.’ In Europe pigs had two litters every year.

The mother-child relationship is a big part of your destiny and personality, no matter if this is your own bond with your mother, or you as a mother, yourself. It may also be central for you, thanks to your own wife or girlfriend’s role as mother.

Pigs are nest-builders. They are also keen nurses for their piglets. Your memory of childhood or your dreams about future mother-child relationships characterise you. If not a mother, then an aunt, godmother or grandmother figure looms large in your unconscious.

Pigs are centre-stage in children’s books, film and television.

The Tale of Pigling Bland by Beatrix Potter is one such example, when Pigling Bland escapes with a beautiful sow called Pig-wig. In Richard Scarry’s Mr Frumble books, a pig in a green suit and hat drives a pickle car. And then, of course, there is Babe, Dick King-Smith’s The Sheep Pig.

The Three Little Pigs and ‘This Little Piggy’, the finger-counting rhyme, are reminders of the important part that childhood memory and dreams of childhood plays, for Pigs.

Potter also had The Tale of Little Pig Robinson. Piglet is Pooh’s friend in A.A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh. In Charlotte’s Web, Wilbur the pig is the central character. Stories at a mother’s knee, or a mother substitute’s knee (like a lady teacher) are writ large in your mind’s eye.

The saint most associated with the pig is St. Anthony the Abbott. He was an early Christian hermit. You also discover your soul and spirit when you are alone. You are a natural meditator or dreamer.

Also known as Tantony, St. Anthony the Abbott is the patron saint of swineherds, or pig-keepers. He relied upon his pet pig to remind him of the correct hours for prayer.

You may be a religious Pig or just in tune with your own connection to the universe. You are a natural recluse who needs time by yourself to process and absorb everything life throws at you.

Just like a real pig, or piglet, you can find yourself ducking and diving through life. What Shakespeare called ‘the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune’ have a way of finding you. Perhaps this is why you are habitually by yourself, so you can gain perspective. Rather like Tantony and his pig, you tune into a regular connection with something greater than yourself, to do that.