Two hard problems in the origin of life question are identification of the structure of biology’s ancestral replicator(s), and the emergence of replicators from a prebiotic environment. In the discipline of cellular automata (CA), not all CA abstractions of replication include any origin pathway to the replicating structures. In this work, an origin for the J. Byl (1989) CA replicator from an isolated non-quiescent cell is described. This origin pathway requires introduction of one oriented state and three other states, all of which permanently disappear from the subsequent replication process. Origin of the replicator and subsequent replication display three sequential and spatially-expanding domains of counter-clockwise rotation: the oriented state of a single cell rotates as the first replicator structure develops around it, followed by rotation of the 2x2 cell information loop as a replication cycle proceeds, and in subsequent cycles of replication, orientation of a parent replicator also rotates counter-clockwise as directions of replication are successively blocked by the replicator’s children.