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Every civilization looked at the sky and made a calendar out of animals or gods.

Six zodiac systems — same stars, six different stories about who you are.

Cover — every civilization looked at the sky and made a calendar out of animals or gods.
Chinese zodiac — the 12-year shengxiao animal cycle
Western zodiac — Babylon's 12-segment solar zodiac, 1st millennium BCE
Aztec Tonalpohualli — the 260-day sacred count
Vedic Rashi — the Hindu lunar-solar zodiac with 27 lunar mansions
Egyptian decans — 36 ten-day star groups
Medicine wheel — Indigenous North American circular teachings, varying by nation
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China's zodiac assigns one of 12 animals by birth year. Babylon divided the sun's yearly path into 12 constellations around the 1st millennium BCE, a system Greek astrologers spread into today's horoscopes. The Aztec Tonalpohualli combined 20 day-signs with 13 numbers into a 260-day sacred count, Hindu Vedic astrology layers 27 lunar mansions onto its zodiac, and Egyptian priests tracked 36 ten-day star groups. Many Indigenous nations of North America use their own circular teachings, with no single shared system.