16 questions · Mythology
Almost every high culture has divided the sky into sections and almost every one arrived at a different answer. The Maya counted with the Tzolkin, a 260-day calendar of 20 day signs and the numbers one to thirteen; each day carried a name such as Imix or Ahau, and those born on it often received that name too. In Burma the Mahabote system sorts people by the weekday of their birth into eight groups: eight, because Wednesday splits into morning and afternoon, and each group has its animal. The Aztecs kept their own version of the 260-day cycle, the Tonalpohualli. Tibet, meanwhile, combines Chinese animals with its own elements and lunar reckoning. Two systems traded as especially ancient, however, are astonishingly young. The Celtic tree horoscope with birch, rowan and ash comes not from the Celts but from the 20th century: French authors invented it in the 1970s, inspired by Robert Graves and his free reading of a medieval tree alphabet. The Egyptian horoscope with Nile and Anubis is much the same: a creation of the esoteric market. Equally popular and equally skewed is the story of the thirteenth sign. Ophiuchus is a real constellation the sun genuinely crosses: but the astrological zodiac is an even grid of twelve calculated segments and never was a map of constellations.
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Tzolkin
It combines 20 day signs with the numbers 1 to 13; a pairing recurs only after 260 days. Many Maya carried their birthday in their name.
20
Imix, Ik, Akbal, Kan and on to Ahau. With the numbers 1 to 13 they make 260 combinations: roughly the length of a pregnancy, one proposed explanation.
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Tonalpohualli
Literally "count of days". Here too the birth date shaped the name and priests read from it whether a day suited war, trade or marriage.
The weekday of birth
It has eight groups because Wednesday is split into morning and afternoon. Each day has an animal: Sunday the garuda, Saturday the naga dragon.
Wednesday counts twice
Morning and afternoon count as separate signs. Pagodas accordingly have eight corners where people pour water according to their birthday.
It dates from the 20th century
Invented in the 1970s, inspired by Robert Graves and his free reading of a medieval tree alphabet. There is not a single Celtic-era source for it.
Also a modern invention
It arose on the 20th-century esoteric market. The ancient Egyptians did know decans (36 star groups for telling the hours) but no birth horoscope of this kind.
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The decans
36 star groups that rose one after another before dawn and divided the night into hours. They later passed into astrology via Greece.
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Ophiuchus
The serpent bearer. The sun really does pass through it for about two weeks a year: but the astrological zodiac divides the sky into twelve equal calculated segments, not by constellation.
No
The astrological zodiac is a grid of twelve equal segments and never was a map of constellations. The story resurfaces every few years regardless.
Because of precession
Earth's axis completes one wobble in about 25,800 years. Since antiquity everything has shifted by roughly one sign: most self-described Aries had the sun in Pisces.
Tibetan astrology
It blends Chinese, Indian and native Bön traditions. The Tibetan calendar therefore needs leap months and occasionally drops a day entirely.
The Pawukon
Weeks of one to ten days run in parallel; every 210 days everything realigns. Temple festivals follow this grid: each day carries several names at once.
Foto: Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
The Babylonians
In the 5th century BC: before that they were unequal constellations. The twelvefold division matched the twelve lunar months and travelled via Greece to Europe and India.
Foto: Michele da Rodi · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Circle of animals
From Greek zodiakos kyklos. Only half apt: Libra and Virgo are no animals and Libra was originally part of the scorpion.
Libra
Among the Babylonians it was still the scorpion's claws, becoming independent only later: fitting for the equinox, when day and night are in balance.
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