The following is an excerpt from Beyond the Hedge, the blog of folklorist and time-slip researcher Margot Takada. Used with permission.

Last month, I received an unexpected email from Dr. Mira Halstead, curator at the Barton Museum of Antiquities. She’d gotten her hands on a strange manuscript—The Secret Garden of the Stars—which may have originated in the lost kingdom of Harandaal.

Regular readers will know that when I say “lost,” I don’t mean simply lost in the annals of history. Yep, we’re talking lost timelines, folks—a Beyond the Hedge specialty.

My research points to the possibility that Harandaal truly did exist—just not in the river of time you and I are swimming in.

If that’s true, then there’s another timeline out there in which Harandaal was as real as Athens. It’s only from our alternate vantage point that we’ve demoted it to the mythical status of Atlantis.

But back to Dr. Halstead.

I get a lot of weird messages, but rarely do they include high-res scans of an ancient manuscript. Obviously, I was hooked.

Dr. Halstead has been awesome enough to post all the scanned pages on the Barton Museum website. The manuscript appears to be part field guide to the Star Garden’s flora and fauna, and part astrological treatise.

How cool is that??

I’ve spent the past few weeks cross-referencing the star patterns, and in Harandaal, summer was divided into three distinct constellations, each said to shape the fate—and personality—of those born under its influence.

Sound familiar? Yep, even across timelines, the ancient Harandeans developed a relationship to the night sky that echoes our own. Pretty beautiful, isn’t it?

The Harandean Night Sky

Of course, their constellations weren’t identical to ours. The Harandeans saw in the stars:

• The Star Phoenix, who rises in early summer, with a bold, passionate energy.
• The Crowned Stag, who reigns in midsummer, with a loyal, protective vibe.
• The Ember Moth, who flickers on late summer nights, drawn to bittersweet endings.

As a fun experiment (and because I know you all love this stuff as much as I do), I’ve adapted this ancient system into a short quiz based on personality patterns.

When you’re done, you’ll get a fun forecast based on your Harandean star sign!

It’s speculative, of course—but aren’t most things worth doing?