The full map
The 144 Primal Zodiac Animals
Every crossing of a Western Sun sign with a Chinese year animal, named and linked in one table.
The short answer
What are the 144 primal zodiac animals?
The grid crosses the 12 Western Sun signs with the 12 Chinese year animals to name one of 144 combined animals. Your month and day set the Sun sign along the top; your birth year, read against the lunar New Year, sets the year animal down the side. Where your row meets your column is your Primal Animal, a single named creature that carries both halves of your chart.
The grid
All 144 in one table
Find your Sun sign across the top and your year animal down the left. The cell where they meet names your animal and links to its full reading. To read your own without counting, use the Primal Zodiac calculator or browse them in the menagerie.
Download the open dataset (CSV)
The CSV lists all 144 rows as western sign, Chinese animal, animal name, slug, and link, free to reuse under CC BY 4.0.
How to read it
Two charts, one animal
The columns come from the Western zodiac, the twelve Sun signs from Aries to Pisces, set by the day you were born. The rows come from the Chinese zodiac, the twelve year animals from Rat to Pig, set by your birth year against the lunar New Year, so a birthday in late January or early February can belong to the year before. Cross the two and you land on one of the 144. The Fossa sits where Aries meets the Rat; the Aardwolf where Taurus meets the Rat; the Vampire Squid where Pisces meets the Rat. Read one animal in full, such as the Fossa or the Sun Bear, to see the shape of all of them.
Keep reading
More of the zodiac hub
See the two systems on their own in the Western zodiac and the Chinese zodiac, or read the proverbs that sit behind the tradition.