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Portrait of Charles Stross

Charles Stross

Charles Stross (born October 18, 1964, Leeds, United Kingdom), aged 62, is a British science fiction writer and blogger. Stross is best known for The Laundry Files. Stross's honours include Hugo Award for Best Novella, Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel and Edward E. Smith Memorial Award.

Charles Stross’s zodiac sign is Libra, Chinese zodiac is Wood Dragon, with Life Path 3 in numerology.

Your match with Charles

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

Charles Stross’s AsterNym identity

The Gilded Diplomat

Metal represents precision. Metal-led charts are associated with standards, boundaries, discernment and the ability to remove what is unnecessary. Life Path 3 represents expression: words, art, humour and making inner experience visible.

Metal Day Master (BaZi) × cardinal Sun × Life Path 3, on the emotional plane.

How common is the name Charles in the U.S.?

#48

US rank in 2025

~2,447,135

Americans share it since 1880

1947

its peak year

The SSA recorded 25,908 American boys and 129 girls named Charles in 1964: 17th among boys and 920th among girls for the year.

US Social Security Administration public records

What Charles’s name adds up to

Worked from the name as published, letter by letter.

5

Expression · versatility

3

Soul Urge · being heard

11

Personality · perceptive

The name opens on C (3) and closes on S (1). The value it repeats most is 1, which numerology reads as drive.

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

Charles’s lucky numbers, colours and stones

Traditional correspondences, calculated not chosen.

Lucky numbers

3 · 1 · 6 · 7

Lucky colours

Green & Teal

Lucky day

Friday

Direction

→ East

Season

spring

Stones

Opal, Diamond, Green Aventurine

Flower constellation

🧡 Marigold · 🌹 Blush Rose · 🌿 Fern

Amber · Blush · Forest

The record

What sets Charles apart

Zohran Mamdani (1991) and Ne-Yo (1979) share the birthday in another year, so the sun sits where it sits here.

What the chart says

Charles, according to the stars

Core essence

Charles makes the room fairer just by being in it. The core of Charles is a feel for balance, in people, in colour, in who has not been asked their opinion yet. They are charming because they are genuinely interested, and they can see every side of a thing, which is a gift and, on a bad day, a very slow way to choose dinner.

The vibe

Underneath, Charles is porous: other people's moods get in, and so does beauty, and so does the sad song. The Moon in Pisces feels everything and forgives most of it. What Charles needs to feel safe is gentleness and someone who does not make them explain the tears. They will love you back with their whole imagination.

How Charles wants to be loved

Charles wants to be loved attentively. Venus in Virgo shows love through service, the fixed thing, the remembered appointment, and wants to be loved the same way: notice what they did. Big words matter less than the follow-through. Be reliable with Charles and they will quietly make your whole life run better.

How Charles creates

How Charles makes things happen: they cut to it. A Yang Metal day master is the sword, decisive, principled, allergic to nonsense. Charles creates by clarifying, by deciding, by being the one who says what the thing actually is. Sharp with themselves first. The work is remembering that not every problem needs a blade.

Instinct

Instinct: Charles is larger than life, a Dragon year, and their gut reaction is to go big. Confident, lucky, a natural at the centre of things, and warm-hearted underneath the spectacle. The Wood year adds growth: ideals, ambition, a need to be getting somewhere.

Purpose

Purpose: Life Path 3 is the creative. Charles is here to express, to make, to say the thing in a way nobody has said it before. Joy is the work: the writing, the performing, the making people laugh. The lesson is finishing what the spark started.

Triggers

Triggers: being ignored, or being made small. Mars in Leo means Charles fights with pride and flair and needs the win to be seen. Generous in victory, dramatic in defeat, and never, ever petty for long. Give them the stage and the fire becomes warmth.

Computed from Charles's birth date. Working below.

Where Charles sits

Six lines

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

Intimate circleWide network
Charles

You may draw energy from a wide network, many doors, lightly held.

DeliberateSpontaneous
Charles

You likely weigh most decisions but can move fast when it matters.

PrivateExpressive
Charles

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

Cool off firstResolve immediately
Charles

You likely handle some friction right away and let smaller things settle.

PracticalVisionary
Charles

You may be drawn to big possibilities. The practical follows after the vision.

Gradual trustImmediate chemistry
Charles

You likely warm up at a pace that depends on the person and moment.

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 Charles Stross

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

Charles’s birth-night reference starAlderaminwhite · CepheusAlderamin, in Cepheus. A white star, 80.7° above the horizon at 9 p.m. local time, the bright star nearest the zenith.Dedicate Alderamin →The warmest lightCapellagolden yellow · AurigaCapella, in Auriga. A golden yellow star, 25° 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 Leeds that night

Computed for 53.80°N, 9 p.m. local sky.

Alderamin stood nearest the zenith over Leeds at 9 p.m. that evening, 80.7° above the horizon in Cepheus.

Arcturus was the brightest thing up that night, one of 94 catalog stars above the horizon.

At 53.8°N there are stars that never set at all. Vega, Capella and Deneb stay up year round.

Canopus, Rigil Kentaurus, Achernar, Hadar, Acrux, Mimosa and Toliman cannot be seen from Leeds at all: they sit past the −36.2° declination limit this latitude imposes.

The Moon was at waxing gibbous, 93% lit, and above the horizon, with the Sun 26° down.

How unusual Charles's chart is

Chart pattern score

22 / 100 · Reassuringly normal

T-square onto Mars

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 →

Libra Sun

Fair to a fault, slow to pick.

Charles Stross's Sun was in Libra for the whole of October 18, 1964, so no birth time is needed to settle it.

What Libra means →

Wood Dragon

Sets the standard, then raises it.

Charles Stross was born on October 18, 1964, which falls in a Wood Dragon year of the Chinese calendar.

What the Dragon means →

Life Path 3

Makes feelings into something.

Charles Stross's birth date, October 18, 1964, reduces to Life Path 3 under the numerology method AsterNym uses.

What Life Path 3 means →

What stands out in Charles’s chart

Charles’s birth chart

Reference chart · birth time unknown

Positions are checked across the whole date. The Moon ranges from 13° to 26° Pisces depending on the hour.

AriesTaurusGeminiCancerLeoVirgoLibraScorpioSagittariusCapricornAquariusPisces123456789101112Venus fuses with Pluto · Conjunction, 0.7° orbNeptune opens doors for Pluto · Sextile, 1.4° orbMercury flows with Saturn · Trine, 1.6° orbVenus fuses with Uranus · Conjunction, 1.6° orbSun fuses with Mercury · Conjunction, 1.8° orbVenus opens doors for Neptune · Sextile, 2° orbUranus fuses with Pluto · Conjunction, 2.3° orbMars grinds against Neptune · Square, 3° orbSun in Libra · 25°06′☉25°Moon in Pisces · 19°49′☽19°Mercury in Libra · 26°57′☿26°Venus in Virgo · 14°41′♀14°Mars in Leo · 19°45′♂19°Jupiter in Taurus · 24°18′ · retrograde♃℞24°Saturn in Aquarius · 28°31′ · retrograde♄℞28°Uranus in Virgo · 13°07′♅13°Neptune in Scorpio · 16°44′♆16°Pluto in Virgo · 15°23′♇15°

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

  • stableVenusconjunctionPluto0.1° to 1.3° orb

    Charles’s affections and depths act as one. Wherever one goes, the other is already there.

  • stableMercurytrineSaturn0.7° to 2.4° orb

    Charles’s mind flows straight into their discipline.

  • stableVenusconjunctionUranus1.0° to 2.1° orb

    Charles’s affections and need for freedom act as one.

  • stableNeptunesextilePluto1.4° orb

  • stableSunconjunctionMercury1.5° to 2.2° orb

  • stableVenussextileNeptune1.5° to 2.6° orb

  • stableUranusconjunctionPluto2.2° to 2.3° orb

  • stableMarssquareNeptune2.8° to 3.3° orb

  • stableSuntrineSaturn2.9° to 3.9° orb

  • stableUranussextileNeptune3.6° orb

  • stableMarssquareJupiter4.2° to 4.9° orb

  • stableJupitersquareSaturn4.2° to 4.3° orb

Chart signature

Elements

  • Fire1 of 10
  • Earth4 of 10
  • Air3 of 10
  • Water2 of 10

Modalities

  • Cardinal2 of 10
  • Fixed4 of 10
  • Mutable4 of 10

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

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

What astrologers make of these five, at noon values.

  • ⚷ Chiron ℞Pisces 14°48′ (moves 0.03° over the day)

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

  • ⚳ CeresCapricorn 4°20′ (moves 0.29° over the day)

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

  • ♡ ErosLibra 26°41′ (moves 0.79° over the day)

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

  • ⚕ HygieaCancer 17°09′ (moves 0.11° over the day)

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

  • ⚸ Black Moon LilithCapricorn 0°55′ (moves 0.11° over the day)

    mean lunar apogee · the part that refuses to be tamed

Aspects to the asteroids and Lilith

  • Chiron opposition Venus 0.1°
  • Eros conjunction Mercury 0.3°
  • Hygiea trine Neptune 0.4°
  • Chiron opposition Pluto 0.6°
  • Eros conjunction Sun 1.6°
  • Chiron opposition Uranus 1.7°
  • Eros trine Saturn 1.8°
  • Hygiea sextile Pluto 1.8°
  • Chiron trine Neptune 1.9°
  • Black Moon Lilith sextile Saturn 2.4°
  • Hygiea sextile Venus 2.5°

Charles’s dominant planets

  1. 1. ♀ Venus9 pts

    rules the Sun sign, Libra; disposes Sun, Mercury, Jupiter; 3 major aspects

  2. 2. ☿ Mercury5 pts

    disposes Venus, Uranus, Pluto; 2 major aspects

  3. 3. ♆ Neptune5 pts

    5 major aspects

Configurations in Charles’s chart

  • t square, the shape it makesT-square onto Mars · Jupiter, Neptune, MarsAn opposition with a third planet squaring both ends. Read as a driving tension that resolves through the apex planet.

Minor aspects

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

  • Sun quincunx Jupiter 0.8°
  • Mercury semi-square Uranus 1.2°

More people like Charles

Other writers

Born in United Kingdom

More charts like Charles’s

Fellow Libra suns

All about Libra →

Born in Dragon years

Year of the Dragon →

Also born on October 18

Fellow Yang Metal day masters

What a Day Master is →

Other Libra Dragon charts

Other Gilded Diplomats

The Gilded Diplomat explained →

Famous people with Life Path 3

Life Path numbers explained →

From the journal: Is astrology a science? · Every sign's ruling planet and what it governs

Charles’s cards

Computed from October 18, 1964. Tap to flip.

Birth tarot card

The World

AsterNym identity card

The Gilded Diplomat

Western zodiac

Libra

Chinese zodiac

Dragon 辰

Life Path

3 · Storyteller

♀ Ruled by Venus

Copper Cu

The working: BaZi pillarsshow

BaZi pillars

Day Master: yang Metal.

Year

甲

yang Wood

辰

Dragon

Earth

roots & early life

Month

甲

yang Wood

戌

Dog

Earth

work & drive

Day

day master

庚

yang Metal

子

Rat

Water

you & partnership

Where this comes from, and how it is worked out

Charles’s birth date and birthplace come from Wikidata Q345249 (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 You may re-use this image under the terms of the license using the following reference: Image: Wikipedia / Tobias Klenze / CC-BY-SA 4.0. The license must be a link!, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The same Charles Stross at Wikipedia, antipope.org and X.

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

Traditional interpretations, not facts or predictions, and not endorsed by Charles Stross.

Quick answers about Charles Stross’s chart

How old is Charles Stross?
Charles Stross is 62 years old, born October 18, 1964 in Leeds, United Kingdom.
What zodiac sign is Charles Stross?
Charles Stross is a Libra: born October 18, 1964, which puts the Sun in Libra for the whole of that day.
What is Charles Stross's Chinese zodiac animal?
The Dragon, with the Wood element, from the Chinese lunar year of the October 18, 1964 birth.
What is Charles Stross's Life Path number?
Life Path 3, calculated in numerology.
What is Charles Stross's Chiron sign?
Chiron in Pisces at 14°. Position from JPL Horizons.
Where is Charles Stross's Black Moon Lilith?
Mean Black Moon Lilith in Capricorn at 0°. This is the mean lunar apogee; the osculating Lilith some tables use can sit up to 30° away.
What is Charles Stross's dominant planet?
Venus, on AsterNym's dominance score (9 points: rules the Sun sign, Libra; disposes Sun, Mercury, Jupiter; 3 major aspects). Mercury is second and Neptune third. Other sites weight rulerships and aspects differently and can name a different leader.

More charts to explore