AsterNymAsterNym
Portrait of Ian McDonald

Ian McDonald

Ian McDonald (born March 31, 1960, Manchester, United Kingdom), aged 66, is a British science fiction novelist (1960–). McDonald's honours include Theodore Sturgeon Award, Hugo Award for Best Novelette and John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel.

Ian McDonald’s zodiac sign is Aries, Chinese zodiac is Metal Rat, with Life Path 5 in numerology.

Your match with Ian

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

Ian McDonald’s AsterNym identity

The Steadfast Pioneer

Earth represents stability. Earth-led charts are associated with patience, responsibility and the ability to make people or projects feel supported. Life Path 5 represents freedom: change, movement, variety and resistance to restrictive routines.

Earth Day Master (BaZi) × cardinal Sun × Life Path 5, on the physical plane.

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

#83

US rank in 2025

~258,479

Americans share it since 1912

2005

its peak year

The SSA recorded 242 American boys named Ian in 1960: 511th for the year.

US Social Security Administration public records

What Ian’s name adds up to

Worked from the name as published, letter by letter.

9

Expression · the bigger picture

8

Soul Urge · achievement

1

Personality · self-directed

The name opens on I (9) and closes on N (5). The value it repeats most is 4, which numerology reads as craft.

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

Ian’s lucky numbers, colours and stones

Traditional correspondences, calculated not chosen.

Lucky numbers

5 · 2 · 3

Lucky colours

White & Gold

Lucky day

Tuesday

Direction

← West

Season

autumn

Stones

Aquamarine, Red Coral, Rutilated Quartz

Flower constellation

🌼 Daffodil · 🌺 Red Dahlia · 🤍 White Camellia

Sunlit yellow · Crimson · Silver

The record

What sets Ian apart

Octavio Paz (1914) and Ewan McGregor (1971) share the birthday in another year, so the sun sits where it sits here.

What the chart says

Ian, according to the stars

Core essence

Ian leads with the body. First in, first to speak, first to say the thing everyone was thinking, and honestly a little surprised when the room needed a second to catch up. The core of Ian is courage that does not look like courage from the inside, it just looks like Tuesday. They would rather be wrong fast than right slowly, and it is why people follow them.

How Ian wants to be loved

Ian wants to be loved tenderly. Venus in Pisces is the romantic of the zodiac: soft, giving, a little dreamy, and easily bruised. They love without keeping score and need a partner who will not take advantage of that. Be gentle with Ian, be honest, and they will make the ordinary feel enchanted.

How Ian creates

How Ian makes things happen: they are the ground everyone else stands on. A Yang Earth day master is the mountain, reliable, slow to move, immovable once it has. Ian creates by holding: the plan, the people, the standard. They are trusted before they have said a word, and the work is remembering that mountains are allowed to want things too.

Instinct

Instinct: Ian is quick, clever and alert, a Rat year, and their gut reaction to a problem is to find the angle nobody has tried. Charming, resourceful, a little bit of a hoarder of good things and good people. The Metal year sharpens it: principled, determined, clear about what is right.

Purpose

Purpose: Life Path 5 is the free spirit. Ian is here to explore, to change, to taste everything and report back. Adventure, variety and freedom are not distractions from their purpose, they are it. The lesson is choosing, sometimes, and staying.

Triggers

Triggers: being told "because that's how it's done." Mars in Aquarius fights for the idea, the group, the principle, rarely for themselves. Ian goes cool and distant rather than hot, and then does the surprising thing. Point them at a cause and they will rewrite the rules around it.

Computed from Ian's birth date. Working below.

Where Ian sits

Six lines

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

Intimate circleWide network
Ian

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

DeliberateSpontaneous
Ian

You may leap first and adjust as you go. Waiting can feel like losing momentum.

PrivateExpressive
Ian

You may wear your feelings openly. What you feel tends to show.

Cool off firstResolve immediately
Ian

You may want to resolve tension the moment it appears, rather than let it sit.

PracticalVisionary
Ian

You likely balance practical steps with room to imagine further.

Gradual trustImmediate chemistry
Ian

You may feel connection fast. Chemistry can arrive before the details do.

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 Ian McDonald

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

Ian’s birth-night reference starTalithawhite · Ursa MajorTalitha, in Ursa Major. A white star, 82.8° above the horizon at 9 p.m. local time, the bright star nearest the zenith.Dedicate Talitha →The warmest lightArcturuswarm orange · BoötesArcturus, in Boötes. A warm orange star, 26.5° above the horizon at 9 p.m. local time, the warmest-toned bright star up that night.Dedicate Arcturus →

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

The sky over Manchester that night

Computed for 53.47°N, 9 p.m. local sky.

Talitha stood nearest the zenith over Manchester at 9 p.m. that evening, 82.8° above the horizon in Ursa Major.

Of the 105 catalog stars above the horizon, Sirius was the brightest.

From 53.5°N, Vega, Capella and Deneb never go below the horizon: they are circumpolar at this latitude.

Canopus, Rigil Kentaurus, Achernar, Hadar, Acrux, Mimosa and Toliman cannot be seen from Manchester at all: they sit past the −36.5° declination limit this latitude imposes.

Sun 19° below the horizon, Moon up and 20% lit at waxing crescent.

How unusual Ian's chart is

Chart pattern score

34 / 100 · Quietly distinctive

Yod onto Uranus

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 →

Ian McDonald at a glance

Aries Sun

Starts the thing. Then plans it.

Ian McDonald's Sun was in Aries for the whole of March 31, 1960, so no birth time is needed to settle it.

What Aries means →

Metal Rat

Quick, clever, never stuck.

Ian McDonald was born on March 31, 1960, which falls in a Metal Rat year of the Chinese calendar.

What the Rat means →

Life Path 5

Change finds them anyway.

Ian McDonald's birth date, March 31, 1960, reduces to Life Path 5 under the numerology method AsterNym uses.

What Life Path 5 means →

What stands out in Ian’s chart

Ian’s birth chart

Reference chart · birth time unknown

Positions are checked across the whole date. The Moon ranges from 23° to 5° Taurus or Gemini depending on the hour.

AriesTaurusGeminiCancerLeoVirgoLibraScorpioSagittariusCapricornAquariusPisces123456789101112Moon grinds against Mars · Square, 0.6° orbJupiter flows with Pluto · Trine, 1° orbVenus opens doors for Saturn · Sextile, 1.2° orbMercury opens doors for Saturn · Sextile, 3.5° orbMars opens doors for Jupiter · Sextile, 4.4° orbNeptune opens doors for Pluto · Sextile, 4.4° orbMercury fuses with Venus · Conjunction, 4.6° orbMoon grinds against Pluto · Square, 4.8° orbSun in Aries · 10°47′☉10°Moon in Taurus · 29°14′☽29°Mercury in Pisces · 14°21′☿14°Venus in Pisces · 19°00′♀18°Mars in Aquarius · 28°38′♂28°Jupiter in Capricorn · 3°01′♃3°Saturn in Capricorn · 17°50′♄17°Uranus in Leo · 17°11′ · retrograde♅℞17°Neptune in Scorpio · 8°29′ · retrograde♆℞8°Pluto in Virgo · 4°03′ · retrograde♇℞4°

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

  • stableMoonsquareMars0.1° to 6.2° orb

    Ian’s feelings grind against their drive. The angle that irritates, and the one that teaches.

  • stableVenussextileSaturn0.6° to 1.8° orb

    Ian’s affections open doors for their discipline. Nothing happens until someone makes the first move.

  • stableJupitertrinePluto1.0° to 1.1° orb

    Ian’s growth flows straight into their depths.

  • stableMercurysextileSaturn3.2° to 3.8° orb

  • stableMarssextileJupiter4.0° to 4.7° orb

  • stableMercuryconjunctionVenus4.3° to 5.0° orb

  • stableNeptunesextilePluto4.4° orb

  • stableMarsoppositionPluto5.0° to 5.8° orb

  • stableMercurytrineNeptune5.6° to 6.2° orb

  • stableSuntrineUranus5.9° to 6.9° orb

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

  • possibleMoonsextileVenusorb from 4.8° to 15.6° depending on birth time

Chart signature

Elements

  • Fire2 of 10
  • Earth4 of 10
  • Air1 of 10
  • Water3 of 10

Modalities

  • Cardinal3 of 10
  • Fixed4 of 10
  • Mutable3 of 10

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

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

What astrologers make of these five, at noon values.

  • ⚷ ChironPisces 0°17′ (moves 0.06° over the day)

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

  • ⚳ CeresAquarius 13°19′ (moves 0.32° over the day)

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

  • ♡ ErosPisces 9°23′ (moves 0.59° over the day)

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

  • ⚕ Hygiea ℞Leo 16°57′ (moves 0.03° over the day)

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

  • ⚸ Black Moon LilithGemini 25°46′ (moves 0.11° over the day)

    mean lunar apogee · the part that refuses to be tamed

Aspects to the asteroids and Lilith

  • Hygiea conjunction Uranus 0.2°
  • Eros trine Neptune 0.9°
  • Chiron conjunction Mars 1.7°
  • Ceres sextile Sun 2.5°
  • Chiron sextile Jupiter 2.7°
  • Black Moon Lilith trine Mars 2.9°

Ian’s dominant planets

  1. 1. ♂ Mars7 pts

    rules the Sun sign, Aries; disposes Sun; 3 major aspects

  2. 2. ♄ Saturn5 pts

    in its own sign, Capricorn; disposes Jupiter; 2 major aspects

  3. 3. ☿ Mercury4 pts

    disposes Pluto; 3 major aspects

Configurations in Ian’s chart

  • yod, the shape it makesYod onto Uranus · Venus, Saturn, UranusTwo planets in sextile, both quincunx a third. Astrologers call it the finger of fate and read the apex as an adjustment the chart keeps returning to.

Minor aspects

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

  • Sun biquintile Pluto 0.7°
  • Mercury quintile Jupiter 0.7°
  • Saturn quincunx Uranus 0.7°
  • Jupiter sesquiquadrate Uranus 0.8°
  • Saturn sesquiquadrate Pluto 1.2°
  • Venus quincunx Uranus 1.8°
  • Sun quincunx Neptune 2.3°

More people like Ian

Other screenwriters

Born in United Kingdom

More charts like Ian’s

Fellow Aries suns

All about Aries →

Born in Rat years

Year of the Rat →

Also born on March 31

Fellow Yang Earth day masters

What a Day Master is →

Other Aries Rat charts

Other Steadfast Pioneers

The Steadfast Pioneer explained →

Famous people with Life Path 5

Life Path numbers explained →

From the journal: Dragon babies: the real demographics behind the belief · Zodiac clashes and the ben ming nian year

Ian’s cards

Computed from March 31, 1960. Tap to flip.

Birth tarot card

The Hierophant

AsterNym identity card

The Steadfast Pioneer

Western zodiac

Aries

Chinese zodiac

Rat 子

Life Path

5 · Explorer

♂ Ruled by Mars

Iron Fe

The working: BaZi pillarsshow

BaZi pillars

Day Master: yang Earth.

Year

庚

yang Metal

子

Rat

Water

roots & early life

Month

己

yin Earth

卯

Rabbit

Wood

work & drive

Day

day master

戊

yang Earth

午

Horse

Fire

you & partnership

Where this comes from, and how it is worked out

Ian’s birth date and birthplace come from Wikidata Q455228 (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 Unknown, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The same Ian McDonald at Wikipedia, ianmcdonald.livejournal.com, IMDb, 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 Ian McDonald.

Quick answers about Ian McDonald’s chart

How old is Ian McDonald?
Ian McDonald is 66 years old, born March 31, 1960 in Manchester, United Kingdom.
What zodiac sign is Ian McDonald?
Ian McDonald is an Aries: born March 31, 1960, which puts the Sun in Aries for the whole of that day.
What is Ian McDonald's Chinese zodiac animal?
The Rat, with the Metal element, from the Chinese lunar year of the March 31, 1960 birth.
What is Ian McDonald's Life Path number?
Life Path 5, calculated in numerology.
What is Ian McDonald's Chiron sign?
Chiron in Pisces at 0°. Position from JPL Horizons.
Where is Ian McDonald's Black Moon Lilith?
Mean Black Moon Lilith in Gemini at 25°. This is the mean lunar apogee; the osculating Lilith some tables use can sit up to 30° away.
What is Ian McDonald's dominant planet?
Mars, on AsterNym's dominance score (7 points: rules the Sun sign, Aries; disposes Sun; 3 major aspects). Saturn is second and Mercury third. Other sites weight rulerships and aspects differently and can name a different leader.

More charts to explore