• Explores ancient Mesopotamian astrology, which originated with those who created Göbekli Tepe, and details the system's eighteen zodiac signs
• Shares the author's decades-long research to decipher the meanings and characteristics behind each of the original eighteen signs
• Shows how the original zodiac can enrich and expand our understanding of astrology, personal relationships, and our sense of self and destiny
Today the zodiac is divided into twelve signs through which the sun appears to travel in a year. A person's sign can influence their personality, physical characteristics, and fate. However, in ancient Mesopotamia, the first zodiac was divided into eighteen signs-different from the Western and Vedic systems in use today. The Original Zodiac reveals, for the first time in more than 4,000 years, this earliest known system of astrology.
The original Mesopotamian zodiac offered very different birth signs, including the Serpent, Swan, Crane, Horse, Wolf, and Eagle. This zodiac was recorded on a clay tablet that is now housed in the British Museum, cataloged as BM 86378, but there is no written record of how these signs were interpreted. Now, after decades of intensive research, Graham Phillips reveals the meanings of these mysterious signs and their relevance for our times.
To determine what traits might be shared by those born in each sign of the original zodiac, Phillips comprehensively surveyed hundreds of volunteers from diverse backgrounds. He measured each participant's likes, dislikes, hobbies, habits, employment, health information, and other pertinent aspects of their lives and identities. Not intended to replace or challenge our traditional understanding of astrology, his findings offer an original system to enrich our current knowledge of the personality, character, and destiny of those born in each of its enigmatic signs. Graham Phillips is one of Britain's bestselling nonfiction authors. A former radio journalist and broadcaster for the BBC, and founder of Strange Phenomena magazine, he is a historical investigator of unsolved mysteries. The author of many books, including The Templars and the Ark of the Covenant, The Lost Tomb of King Arthur, The End of Eden, and Atlantis and the Ten Plagues of Egypt, he lives in the Midlands of England. The Greek Zodiac
The zodiac we know today was devised by the Greeks around 300 BCE. Each of its 12 signs shares a name with a stellar constellation. But how did they get their names? They are not recognizable in the pictorial sense. Who could claim, for example, that the Y-shaped arrangement of stars that form the Cancer constellation in any way resembles a crab or that the line of stars forming Aries remotely resembles a ram? The stars that fall in each sign could be joined by lines to make any conceivable shape. Indeed, throughout history, separate cultures have imagined the stars to form very different patterns in the sky. For example, the Egyptians regarded the stars of Taurus as a turtle,1 the Chinese saw Virgo as a horn,2 and the Mayans envisaged Aquarius as a bat.3 Well, it was for astrological rather than astronomical reasons.
The signs were chosen not for the constellation's resemblance to what they were named after but for the symbolic qualities they represented. Ancient astrologers believed that birth dates shaped human characteristics, and the zodiac sector in which the sun was present at birth was deemed responsible. The sign was, therefore, named after a creature or mythical figure that best symbolized the character and personality traits of those born in the sign, and its stars eventually incorporated into the associated pictorial image. For example, someone born with the sun in Aries was not considered to have inherited ram-like qualities because the constellation looked anything like a ram; the ram was chosen as an image for the sign once ram-like qualities had been observed in people born at that time of year. Similarly,
