Long before the emergence of the solar zodiac, during the 2nd millennium BC a Babylonian magician-priest was interpreting heavenly omens daily, based only upon the impression the heavenly phenomena  left on him. Not bound by an imperative of any kind of mathematical or astronomical calculations, he could draw his conclusions based upon the feeling stirred up in him after he had observed the sky. The only thing he wrote down were the phenomena of the colours surrounding the discs of the Sun, Moon and the five planets in the moment of their heliacal stations.

"Ptolemy is the first to mention equinoctial hours. He and Lilly, among others, mention these hours in order to find how long the effects of an eclipse are likely to last. One hour = one year, with a maximum of three hours.
Equinoctial hours are equal hours (our usual civilian hours), and so we can obtain them correctly from our clocks without calculation."