this is the one you already know, and that is exactly why it is worth doing properly. Almost everyone can name their animal. Almost nobody has been told where it comes from.
The Chinese calendar writes every year with two characters from two wheels that turn together. The lower wheel has twelve animals; the upper wheel has ten characters, each carrying an element such as fire or water. Because the wheels are different sizes, the same pair only comes round once every sixty years. Your animal says your broad type; the character above it says which kind of that animal you are.
One honest note: your animal is also one of the eight characters chapter one read, so when the five traditions are scored against each other, the scoring knows the two overlap and counts their agreement for less, so one shared fact cannot pass for two independent ones.
Read straight from your birth year: the animal first, then the character above it that says which kind you are.
The tradition reads the twelve animals as a circle, and draws three kinds of tie from yours. Tap any animal in the circle to see its ties instead.
The circle turns once every twelve years, so your own animal's year keeps coming back. Every other year has its own tie to you.
Everything above, turned into something you can act on.
綜 All five are inwhere they agree, the synthesis →