Birth Totems · All 12 Months
What is your spirit animal by month?
Every calendar month straddles two Medicine Wheel birth totems. Find your month, then your date range, and read the animal that carries it.
Know your exact date? Get your birth animal in three traditions at once →
The birth totem chart
12 months
How the chart works
The Medicine Wheel divides the year into twelve periods, each governed by a birth animal and one of four elemental clans — Thunderbird (Fire), Frog (Water), Butterfly (Air) and Turtle (Earth). Those periods begin around the twentieth of each month, not on the first, which is why every calendar month appears twice in the chart above.
If your birthday sits within a day or two of a boundary, read both animals. The wheel treats those edges as a blend rather than a hard cut-off.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I find my spirit animal by my birthday?
Look up your birth month in the chart below, then check which of its two date ranges your birthday falls in. The Medicine Wheel's twelve birth-totem periods run from roughly the 20th of one month to the 20th of the next, so each calendar month covers two different animals.
Why does each month have two spirit animals?
Because the birth-totem periods do not line up with calendar months. A period such as Aug 22 – Sep 21 spans the end of one month and most of the next, so every month sits across the boundary between two totems.
Is a birth totem the same as a spirit animal?
Not quite. A birth totem is fixed by the date you were born and describes your underlying temperament. A spirit animal is often understood as a guide that appears for a season of your life and can change over time.