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Portrait of Catherynne M. Valente

Catherynne M. Valente

Catherynne M. Valente (born May 5, 1979, Seattle, United States), aged 47, is an American writer (born 1979). Valente's honours include Andre Norton Award, Theodore Sturgeon Award and Lambda Literary Award.

Catherynne M. Valente’s zodiac sign is Taurus, Chinese zodiac is Earth Goat, with Life Path 9 in numerology.

Your match with Catherynne

Free, no account, stays on this device. Add a birth time later.

Catherynne M. Valente’s AsterNym identity

The Tidal Lightkeeper

Water represents depth and adaptability. Water-led charts are associated with instinct, memory and the ability to find a path around obstacles. Life Path 9 represents compassion: generosity, completion and the ability to consider more than one person’s experience.

Water Day Master (BaZi) × fixed Sun × Life Path 9, on the intuitive plane.

What Catherynne’s name adds up to

Worked from the name as published, letter by letter.

7

Expression · depth and research

22

Soul Urge · legacy

3

Personality · bright, quick

The name opens on C (3) and closes on E (5). The value it repeats most is 5, which numerology reads as movement.

Pythagorean letter values · A=1 to I=9, then J=1 again

Catherynne’s lucky numbers, colours and stones

Traditional correspondences, calculated not chosen.

Lucky numbers

9 · 2 · 7

Lucky colours

Yellow & Ochre

Lucky day

Friday

Direction

• Center

Season

the turning of seasons

Stones

Emerald, Diamond, Citrine

Flower constellation

🌿 Lily of the Valley · 🌹 Blush Rose · 🌻 Zinnia

Ivory · Blush · Terracotta

Eight Mansions · Kua number

Kua 4, trigram Xun 巽, East group. Best direction North, worst Northwest.

A different tradition from the Direction above, and a different question: feng shui reads it from the solar year 1979, which turns at Li Chun rather than at New Year, and from sex, which Wikidata records as female. Work out your own →

The record

What sets Catherynne apart

Catherynne M. Valente took the Otherwise Award in 2006, at 27.

Training came by way of University of California, San Diego.

Wikipedia's editors put Catherynne M. Valente under Postmodernists, Rhysling Award for Best Long Poem winners and Novelists from Washington (state).

The same date carries Vincent Kartheiser. The sky is shared; nothing after it is.

Educated at
University of California, San Diego
Awards
Theodore Sturgeon Award (2017), Andre Norton Award (2010) and Otherwise Award (2006)
Nominated for
Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children's Literature and Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature
Citizenship
United States
Languages
English
Wikipedia editions
23

What the chart says

Catherynne, according to the stars

Core essence

Catherynne is the steady one, the person whose yes means yes and whose Sunday looks the same as it did last year because it was a good Sunday. The core of Catherynne is a deep loyalty to what is real: good food, a good bed, people who show up. They move slowly on purpose. Once they have decided something, it is decided, and that is a comfort to everyone around them.

How Catherynne wants to be loved

Catherynne wants to be loved boldly. Venus in Aries falls fast, says so, and wants you to chase back. Grand gestures land, so does a fight followed by a proper make-up. What bores them is hesitation. Be direct, be a little brave about them, and keep the spark lit on purpose.

How Catherynne creates

How Catherynne makes things happen: they keep moving. A Yang Water day master is the river, curious, restless, going somewhere even when nobody knows where. Catherynne creates by exploring, by talking to everyone, by carrying ideas from one place to another. Hard to pin down, impossible to dam, and the best person to have on a long trip.

Instinct

Instinct: Catherynne is creative and kind, a Goat year, and their gut reaction is to make it beautiful. Artistic, gentle, easily moved, and the friend everyone confides in. The Earth year grounds it: practical, patient, someone people lean on.

Purpose

Purpose: Life Path 9 is the humanitarian. Catherynne is here for the bigger picture, to give, to finish what others started and hand it on. Wise beyond their years, compassionate, a little world-weary, and learning to receive as freely as they give.

Triggers

Triggers: being told to wait. Mars in Aries means Catherynne gets angry fast, says it, and is over it before you have finished being hurt. The temper is honest and short. Give them a clear path and something to fight for, and all that heat turns into drive.

Computed from Catherynne's birth date. Working below.

Where Catherynne sits

Six lines

Catherynne’s dot comes from the chart; yours is where you put it.

Intimate circleWide network
Catherynne

You likely balance a tight inner circle with a wider orbit you dip into.

DeliberateSpontaneous
Catherynne

You likely think things through before you act. Haste rarely feels safe.

PrivateExpressive
Catherynne

You likely share some feelings openly and keep others to yourself.

Cool off firstResolve immediately
Catherynne

You may need space before addressing conflict. Cooling off comes first.

PracticalVisionary
Catherynne

You likely balance practical steps with room to imagine further.

Gradual trustImmediate chemistry
Catherynne

You may build trust slowly, letting closeness earn its way in.

Tap each line where you sit.

All twelve of yours, from your birth date →

✦ A real star from their birth night

Dedicate a star to Catherynne M. Valente

Three stars chosen from the real sky above Seattle on the night they were born. Choose the story that connects you.

Catherynne’s birth-night reference starTania Australisdeep red · Ursa MajorTania Australis, in Ursa Major. A deep red star, 82.7° above the horizon at 9 p.m. local time, the bright star nearest the zenith.Dedicate Tania Australis →The warmest lightCapellagolden yellow · AurigaCapella, in Auriga. A golden yellow star, 36.4° above the horizon at 9 p.m. local time, the warmest-toned bright star up that night.Dedicate Capella →

A 9 p.m. reference sky, not the birth minute. Dedications are commemorative and confer no ownership of stars.

The sky over Seattle that night

Computed for 47.60°N, 9 p.m. local sky.

Overhead at Seattle at 9 p.m. that evening: Tania Australis of Ursa Major, within 7.3° of the exact zenith.

Sirius was the brightest thing up that night, one of 104 catalog stars above the horizon.

At 47.6°N there are stars that never set at all. Capella and Deneb stay up year round.

Canopus, Rigil Kentaurus, Achernar, Hadar, Acrux, Mimosa and Toliman cannot be seen from Seattle at all: they sit past the −42.4° declination limit this latitude imposes.

The Moon, 69% lit at first quarter, was still up; the Sun sat 5° below the horizon.

How unusual Catherynne's chart is

Chart pattern score

15 / 100 · Reassuringly normal

1 unaspected planet

An AsterNym index built from stelliums, yods, grand crosses and chart shape. It is not a population percentile, and a high score is not a better chart. Without a birth time the houses are left out of it.

Score your own chart →

Catherynne M. Valente at a glance

Taurus Sun

Comfort first, then everything else.

Catherynne M. Valente's Sun was in Taurus for the whole of May 5, 1979, so no birth time is needed to settle it.

What Taurus means →

Earth Goat

Artist first, everything second.

Catherynne M. Valente was born on May 5, 1979, which falls in a Earth Goat year of the Chinese calendar.

What the Goat means →

Life Path 9

Wide view, open hands.

Catherynne M. Valente's birth date, May 5, 1979, reduces to Life Path 9 under the numerology method AsterNym uses.

What Life Path 9 means →

What stands out in Catherynne’s chart

Catherynne’s birth chart

Reference chart · birth time unknown

Positions are checked across the whole date. The Moon ranges from 26° to 8° Leo or Virgo depending on the hour.

AriesTaurusGeminiCancerLeoVirgoLibraScorpioSagittariusCapricornAquariusPisces123456789101112Mercury fuses with Mars · Conjunction, 0.4° orbMercury flows with Neptune · Trine, 1.7° orbVenus faces off with Pluto · Opposition, 1.9° orbMars flows with Neptune · Trine, 2.1° orbNeptune opens doors for Pluto · Sextile, 2.9° orbSun faces off with Uranus · Opposition, 4.5° orbMercury faces off with Pluto · Opposition, 4.6° orbVenus flows with Neptune · Trine, 4.8° orbSun in Taurus · 14°41′☉14°Moon in Virgo · 2°08′☽2°Mercury in Aries · 21°42′☿21°Venus in Aries · 15°13′♀15°Mars in Aries · 22°08′♂22°Jupiter in Leo · 1°29′♃1°Saturn in Virgo · 7°05′ · retrograde♄℞7°Uranus in Scorpio · 19°10′ · retrograde♅℞19°Neptune in Sagittarius · 20°01′ · retrograde♆℞20°Pluto in Libra · 17°07′ · retrograde♇℞17°

No birth time, so the houses are a solar chart: the Sun’s sign counts as house 1.

Tap a planet, a sign, a house, an aspect line or an element to see what it means and what sits in it.
Lines drawn
Conjunction 0°
Sextile 60°
Square 90°
Trine 120°
Opposition 180°

Placements

Tap one to light it on the wheel.

The working: aspects, Chiron and the asteroids, dominant planets and configurationsshow

Aspects across every possible birth time

  • stableMercuryconjunctionMars0.0° to 0.8° orb

    Catherynne’s mind and drive act as one. Each makes the other louder.

  • stableMercurytrineNeptune0.9° to 2.5° orb

    Catherynne’s mind flows straight into their imagination.

  • stableVenusoppositionPluto1.3° to 2.5° orb

    Catherynne’s affections pull against their depths from across the wheel. A see-saw looking for balance, often played out through other people.

  • stableMarstrineNeptune1.7° to 2.5° orb

  • stableNeptunesextilePluto2.9° orb

  • stableMercuryoppositionPluto3.8° to 5.4° orb

  • stableSunoppositionUranus4.0° to 5.0° orb

  • stableVenustrineNeptune4.2° to 5.4° orb

  • stableMarsoppositionPluto4.6° to 5.4° orb

  • stableMercuryconjunctionVenus6.3° to 6.7° orb

  • stableVenusconjunctionMars6.7° to 7.1° orb

  • possibleMoonconjunctionSaturnorb from 0.0° to 10.9° depending on birth time

Chart signature

Elements

  • Fire5 of 10
  • Earth3 of 10
  • Air1 of 10
  • Water1 of 10

Modalities

  • Cardinal4 of 10
  • Fixed3 of 10
  • Mutable3 of 10

Counted across the ten planets by sign: Fire leads this chart.

Catherynne’s Chiron, Ceres, Eros, Hygiea and Lilith

What astrologers make of these five, at noon values.

  • ⚷ ChironTaurus 9°44′ (moves 0.06° over the day)

    centaur (2060) · the wound and what is learnt from it

  • ⚳ CeresPisces 27°49′ (moves 0.34° over the day)

    dwarf planet (1) · how a person nurtures and wants to be nurtured

  • ♡ ErosAquarius 20°59′ (moves 0.40° over the day)

    near-Earth asteroid (433) · what draws them and how they desire

  • ⚕ HygieaPisces 17°29′ (moves 0.30° over the day)

    main-belt asteroid (10) · health, routine and what keeps them well

  • ⚸ Black Moon LilithLeo 22°44′ (moves 0.11° over the day)

    mean lunar apogee · the part that refuses to be tamed

Aspects to the asteroids and Lilith

  • Black Moon Lilith trine Mars 0.6°
  • Eros sextile Mercury 0.7°
  • Eros sextile Neptune 1.0°
  • Black Moon Lilith trine Mercury 1.0°
  • Eros sextile Mars 1.2°
  • Hygiea trine Uranus 1.7°
  • Eros square Uranus 1.8°
  • Hygiea square Neptune 2.5°
  • Chiron trine Saturn 2.6°
  • Black Moon Lilith trine Neptune 2.7°
  • Hygiea sextile Sun 2.8°

Catherynne’s dominant planets

  1. 1. ♀ Venus9 pts

    rules the Sun sign, Taurus; disposes Sun, Pluto; 4 major aspects

  2. 2. ♂ Mars8 pts

    in its own sign, Aries; disposes Mercury, Venus; 4 major aspects

  3. 3. ☿ Mercury5 pts

    disposes Saturn; 4 major aspects

Configurations in Catherynne’s chart

No stellium, grand trine, T-square, grand cross, yod or kite — the common case.

Minor aspects

semi-sextile, semi-square, quintile, sesquiquadrate, biquintile, quincunx.

  • Mars sesquiquadrate Saturn 0.1°
  • Saturn quintile Uranus 0.1°
  • Mercury sesquiquadrate Saturn 0.4°
  • Sun semi-sextile Venus 0.5°
  • Sun biquintile Neptune 0.7°
  • Uranus semi-sextile Neptune 0.8°
  • Sun quincunx Pluto 2.4°

Born the same day as Catherynne

Vincent Kartheiser was born on May 5, 1979 too, the same date and the same year. With no birth time for any of them the chart is identical, not similar: the same Sun, the same pillars, the same Life Path. The sky over the birthplace is not shared: from Seattle, at 47.6°N, Capella and Deneb never set at all. Same sky, different lives.

More people like Catherynne

Other writers

Born in United States

More charts like Catherynne’s

Fellow Taurus suns

All about Taurus →

Born in Goat years

Year of the Goat →

Also born on May 5

Fellow Yang Water day masters

What a Day Master is →

Other Taurus Goat charts

Other Tidal Lightkeepers

The Tidal Lightkeeper explained →

Famous people with Life Path 9

Life Path numbers explained →

From the journal: The Lo Shu square: the oldest magic square there is · What if you don't know your birth time?

Catherynne’s cards

Computed from May 5, 1979. Tap to flip.

Birth tarot card

The Hermit

AsterNym identity card

The Tidal Lightkeeper

Western zodiac

Taurus

Chinese zodiac

Goat 未

Life Path

9 · Healer

♀ Ruled by Venus

Copper Cu

The working: BaZi pillarsshow

BaZi pillars

Day Master: yang Water.

Year

己

yin Earth

未

Goat

Earth

roots & early life

Month

戊

yang Earth

辰

Dragon

Earth

work & drive

Day

day master

壬

yang Water

申

Monkey

Metal

you & partnership

Where this comes from, and how it is worked out

Catherynne’s birth date and birthplace come from Wikidata Q859065 (CC0), as do the occupations, works and awards above. With no documented birth time this chart is rated X on the Rodden scale, the astrological convention for how well evidenced a birth time is. The banner above lists what that leaves out. Entries are matched to Wikidata by entity id rather than by name, kept at day precision, and dropped where sources disagree on the date.

Tropical zodiac, whole-sign houses, modern rulers. Aspects on the western_v1 orb policy; minor ones at 1.5° to 2.5°, skipped where a major already holds. Minor bodies from JPL Horizons heliocentric vectors, Lilith as mean apogee. Dominance is an AsterNym score — rulerships, dispositors, aspect count — so other methods can name a different leader.

Portrait by Johan Jönsson (Julle), CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The same Catherynne M. Valente at Wikipedia, catherynnemvalente.com, IMDb, Instagram, X and MusicBrainz.

Roster last reviewed September 10, 2026. The full method: how it works.

Traditional interpretations, not facts or predictions, and not endorsed by Catherynne M. Valente.

Quick answers about Catherynne M. Valente’s chart

How old is Catherynne M. Valente?
Catherynne M. Valente is 47 years old, born May 5, 1979 in Seattle, United States.
What zodiac sign is Catherynne M. Valente?
Catherynne M. Valente is a Taurus: born May 5, 1979, which puts the Sun in Taurus for the whole of that day.
What is Catherynne M. Valente's Chinese zodiac animal?
The Goat, with the Earth element, from the Chinese lunar year of the May 5, 1979 birth.
What is Catherynne M. Valente's Life Path number?
Life Path 9, calculated in numerology.
What is Catherynne M. Valente's Chiron sign?
Chiron in Taurus at 9°. Position from JPL Horizons.
Where is Catherynne M. Valente's Black Moon Lilith?
Mean Black Moon Lilith in Leo at 22°. This is the mean lunar apogee; the osculating Lilith some tables use can sit up to 30° away.
What is Catherynne M. Valente's dominant planet?
Venus, on AsterNym's dominance score (9 points: rules the Sun sign, Taurus; disposes Sun, Pluto; 4 major aspects). Mars is second and Mercury third. Other sites weight rulerships and aspects differently and can name a different leader.

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