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, and in the Chinese zodiac they are a Metal Rat, with Life Path 5 in numerology.

How compatible are you with Ian McDonald?

Your birthday, just below, gives your match percentage with Ian. Under a minute.

Your AsterNym Match

?%Your score is waiting.

Two details and you have your number with Ian. Under a minute, and it is real astrology, not a quiz.

Free · no account · stays on this device. Add a birth time later for the full chart.

Your result includes:

  • · Your compatibility percentage
  • · What attracts you to each other
  • · What you would bring to the match
  • · Where you might clash
  • · Whether you share lucky numbers, colours, stones or seasons

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 1880

2005

its peak year

US Social Security Administration public records

Ian’s lucky numbers, colours and stones

Traditional correspondences calculated from AsterNym’s astrology, wuxing and numerology system.

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 same wuxing & numerology correspondences as your own print. One tradition, read for everyone

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, not guessed. The full working is below.

Where Ian sits

Six lines. Tap where you sit on each.

Ian’s dot is placed from the chart. Yours is wherever 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 →

No public birth time is available, so this is a 9:00 p.m. reference evening sky for that date and place. It is connected to the night of birth; it is not the sky at the birth minute, and no other reading on this page uses that time. Dedications are commemorative AsterNym records and do not rename or confer ownership of stars.

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. Traditional Aries readings associate the sign with initiative, directness and a preference for acting before the plan is finished. Astrologers describe it as the cardinal fire sign: the one that starts things. The corresponding tension is impatience, with the classical caution that what Aries begins quickly it may leave for someone else to complete.

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. Traditional Rat readings emphasise quickness, resourcefulness and an eye for the opening nobody else has noticed. The Chinese almanacs describe the Rat as the strategist of the cycle, first in the order because it saw the shortcut. The corresponding caution in the tradition is scatter: too many angles worked at once, and charm spent where patience was needed.

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. Traditional Life Path 5 readings associate the number with freedom, change and variety: movement, new experience and resistance to restrictive routine. Numerologists describe it as the path of the traveller, adaptable and restless. The corresponding tension is instability, with the caution that constant motion can become a way of avoiding commitment to any one direction.

What stands out in Ian’s chart

Ian’s birth chart

Reference chart · birth time unknown

No documented birth time exists for Ian McDonald, so the positions below are checked across the whole birth date, not fixed at noon. The Moon ranges from 23° to 5° Taurus or Gemini depending on the hour. The wheel's houses are a solar chart, counted from the Sun's sign, because the Ascendant needs a time.

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. A documented time would place them from the Ascendant instead.

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

Stable aspects hold for any birth hour. Possible ones depend on the hour, so their orb is a range rather than a number. Orb policy western_v1.

  • 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

    Ian’s mind opens doors for their discipline.

  • stableMarssextileJupiter4.0° to 4.7° orb

    Ian’s drive opens doors for their growth. An easy alliance, and it pays off when it is used.

  • stableMercuryconjunctionVenus4.3° to 5.0° orb

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

  • stableNeptunesextilePluto4.4° orb

    Ian’s imagination opens doors for their depths. An easy alliance, and it pays off when it is used.

  • stableMarsoppositionPluto5.0° to 5.8° orb

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

  • stableMercurytrineNeptune5.6° to 6.2° orb

    Ian’s mind flows straight into their imagination.

  • stableSuntrineUranus5.9° to 6.9° orb

    Ian’s core identity flows straight into their need for freedom.

  • 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

Four minor bodies and the mean lunar apogee, placed in the same tropical zodiac as the planets above. None of these feed the chart signature, the rarity score or any ranking on this site: they are listed for readers who use them. Chiron, Ceres, Eros and Hygiea positions come from JPL Horizons; Black Moon Lilith is the mean apogee, the point most published Lilith tables use. The readings are the modern tradition’s, not AsterNym’s. Without a birth time the degree is the noon value and the day's movement is shown alongside it.

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

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

    Chiron in Pisces is read as a wound around boundaries and faith. The reading has Ian absorbing more of a room than most, and needing somewhere to put it down.

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

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

    Ceres in Aquarius is read as nurture at the scale of the group. Ian is read as someone whose care shows up as fairness to many rather than fuss over one.

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

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

    Eros in Pisces is read as desire as dissolving: the wish to merge, and the trouble that follows. Ian is read as easily moved and hard to pin.

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

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

    Hygiea in Leo is read as vitality that runs on purpose and recognition. The reading has Ian at their best with something to be proud of.

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

    mean lunar apogee · the part that refuses to be tamed

    Black Moon Lilith in Gemini is read as the part of Ian that says the unsayable and does not take it back.

Aspects to the asteroids and Lilith

Major aspects only, at a tight 3° orb. The Moon is left out because its position moves 13° across an untimed day.

  • 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°

Method: JPL Horizons heliocentric vectors, 1700–2100, cubic Hermite interpolation; geocentric, true ecliptic of date, tropical; geometric (no light-time or aberration); Lilith = mean lunar apogee (Chapront/Meeus mean perigee + 180°).

Ian’s dominant planets

Scored from rulerships, dispositors and aspect count. Without a birth time there is no Ascendant or house to score, and the Moon's sign is left out where it could change with the hour.

  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

A Mars-led chart is read as drive setting the pace: Ian is read as acting first and reflecting after.

How the score is built
  • Rules the Sun sign, Moon sign or Ascendant sign: 3 points each (traditional co-rulers of Scorpio, Aquarius and Pisces score half).
  • Sits in a sign it rules: 2 points.
  • Disposes another planet (that planet sits in a sign it rules): 1 point each.
  • Angular: 2 points in the first or tenth house, 1 point in the fourth or seventh (timed births only).
  • Every major aspect it makes: 1 point.

Dominance scoring is an AsterNym method. Other sites weight differently and can name a different leader for the same chart.

Configurations in Ian’s chart

Closed shapes among the ten planets under the site’s one aspect-orb policy. The Moon is excluded without a birth time, so a shape that needs it is not claimed.

  • 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 30° (orb 2°), semi-square 45° (orb 2°), quintile 72° (orb 1.5°), sesquiquadrate 135° (orb 2°), biquintile 144° (orb 1.5°), quincunx 150° (orb 2.5°). Pairs already in a major aspect are not repeated. Moon excluded without a birth time.

  • 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°

Houses need a birth time. None is documented for Ian McDonald, so no house placements are claimed for the planets or the minor bodies above.

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

Every card is computed from March 31, 1960, none chosen. Tap one to flip it.

Birth tarot card

The Hierophant

Tap to flip

AsterNym identity card

The Steadfast Pioneer

Tap to flip

Western zodiac

Aries

Tap to flip

Chinese zodiac

Rat 子

Tap to flip

♂ Ruled by Mars

Iron Fe

Tap to flip

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

No birth time is on public record for Ian McDonald, so this chart has three pillars rather than four. The hour pillar, the rising sign and the birth-sky star all need a time, and we would rather leave them out than invent one.

Where this data comes from

Ian’s birth date and birthplace come from Wikidata Q455228, released under CC0, as do the occupations, works, teams and awards in the biography above. No documented birth time is available, so this chart is rated X on the Rodden scale, the astrological convention for how well evidenced a birth time is. Time-dependent results use a clearly labelled reference time and should not be read as their exact birth chart. Entries are matched to Wikidata by entity id rather than by name, kept only at day precision, and dropped where sources disagree on the date.

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. Every entry is checked against its Wikidata record; where a person shares a name with someone else, the entity id is what settles which of them this is. What we will not tell you sets out the claims this site refuses to make.

These are traditional interpretations, not facts or predictions. AsterNym is not affiliated with or 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. That is the Western star sign. In the Chinese zodiac they are a Metal Rat.
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 time was Ian McDonald born?
No reliably documented birth time is public, so AsterNym does not calculate an Ascendant. This chart uses date-only positions: the wheel shows a reference solar chart (the Sun's sign as house 1), and the Ascendant is left uncomputed instead of guessed from an unverified time.
What is Ian McDonald's Life Path number?
Life Path 5, calculated in numerology from the March 31, 1960 birth date.
What is Ian McDonald's Chiron sign?
Chiron in Pisces at 0°. Position from JPL Horizons for the March 31, 1960 birth date.
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