Rat

Most people have negative associations with rats, seeing them as pests, something unclean, and they are linked in popular culture and old beliefs with cowardice, thievery, shady dealings, and so on.  

However, rats also possess a range of positive qualities. They are intelligent, empathetic, and extraordinarily adaptable and capable of survival.  

On one hand, we try to kill rats with poison, and on the other, rats are carriers of disease. The rat is connected to both illness and healing; both Apollo, as the god of mice, and the "rat god" in Indian tradition have the power to both inflict and cure disease.  

Rats have a trickster quality in stories and tales. Those born under the rat's sign are considered clever, quick-witted, and successful, according to Chinese astrology. In many parts of the world, the rat has been associated with prosperity. (These qualities are shared with the mouse, as well as the fact that both the mouse and the rat are pathfinders.)

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