The Rat

One of the most famous phrases linked to your sign is ‘Rats leaving a sinking ship’. You will always be drawn into group or team situations where the choice is yours. Your greatest success in life, is to find a way through shared issues, or communal challenges and create a future together.

Of course, this is not always possible, Rat. Yet if you are prepared to overlook the fact that life can sometimes feel like a rat-race between people, especially if you all have challenges together, you will find that it is possible to close the gaps, locate common ground and pull off a miracle.

The alternative is to be tempted to ‘rat’ on someone in the group, perhaps. To play the nark or informant. Maybe you have seen that in a group before…

The miracle of people power in your life, is the difference between a circle of people landing in a heap or aiming far higher and pulling off results which are a credit to the pursuit of harmony, solidarity and symmetry. It’s not unlike watching the R.A.F. at their best, even when conditions are difficult.

Rats do have a connection with the military. They are working animals, who sniff gunpowder and are used in demining. Detecting landmines is one of their skills. You may or may not have an association with the army, navy or air force (or the police and emergency services.) However, you have the potential to be extremely good in a crisis, involving any team. In fact, whole rat armies descend on India during a rat flood.

In the navy or with ship’s crews, Rattus rattus (the black rat) was part of seafaring for centuries. Stowing away on board, they formed the second crew. Today, Rattus norvegicus forms the second ships’ crew.

This idea about rats and crews can extend to sport, and the great outdoors, for obvious reasons – a rowing crew, for example, or a yachting crew.

We associate trade unions with your sign and in fact, rattening was the business of taking away a workman’s tools, in Yorkshire, thus forcing him to join a union. Even today a rat is a non-union worker. This is why unions use inflatable rats in America, during protests and demonstrations.

Other kinds of networks you might be involved with range from army units, to chamber orchestras, to online groups like Mumsnet. Charities, of course, are an obvious example.

A group of rats is known as a mischief. When you all get up to good mischief, though, or worthy shenanigans, you can collectively be powerful activists for great change for the common good.

Rats are highly intelligent creatures. They are ingenious. They are also adaptable. This will be shown most, when you are placed in group situations which require quick thinking.

Pack rats (bushy-tailed wood rats) are vegetarians. Also known as trade rats, they are bigger than most. What kind of packs do you end up with, in your life? They define your personality, achievements and learning experiences.

Sometimes called Mouse, your Asian sign also reminds us of Mickey Mouse, part of one of the most famous gangs in the world: the Disneyland gang.