Ian McKellen
Ian McKellen (born May 25, 1939, Burnley, United Kingdom, 21:30), aged 87, is a British actor. Notable films include The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. McKellen's honours include Commander of the Order of the British Empire, Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film and Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play.
Ian McKellen’s zodiac sign is Gemini, and in the Chinese zodiac they are an Earth Rabbit, with Life Path 7 in numerology.
Gemini, and in the Chinese zodiac they are an 
Earth Rabbit, with 
Life Path 7 in numerology.How compatible are you with Ian McKellen?
Your birthday, just below, gives your match percentage with Ian. Under a minute.
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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 McKellen’s AsterNym identity
The Tidal Seeker
Water represents depth and adaptability. Water-led charts are associated with instinct, memory and the ability to find a path around obstacles. Life Path 7 represents inquiry: study, solitude and the need to understand what others may simply accept.
Water Day Master (BaZi) × mutable Sun × Life Path 7, on the intuitive 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
7 · 3 · 4 · 6
Lucky colours
Yellow & Ochre
Lucky day
Wednesday
Direction
• Center
Season
the turning of seasons
Stones
Emerald, Emerald, Citrine
Flower constellation
🌿 Lily of the Valley · 💜 Lavender · 🌻 Zinnia
Ivory · Lilac · Terracotta
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 is two conversations at once and somehow following both. Curiosity is the core of it: the quick question, the sideways joke, the friend who texts you an article at midnight because it reminded them of you. Ian needs newness the way other people need sleep, and gives the people around them the gift of never being bored.
The vibe
Underneath, Ian is quietly running a checklist, and half of it is about you. The Moon in Virgo feels care as responsibility: did you eat, did you get home, is the thing you were worried about handled. What Ian needs to feel safe is order and the sense of being useful. Let them help, and thank them properly.
How Ian wants to be loved
Ian wants to be loved slowly and for real. Venus in Taurus is touch, food, the good blanket, the plan that does not change. They are sensual and steady and they want to be shown, not told: the small physical kindnesses count double. Once Ian is yours, they stay, and they expect the same.
How Ian creates
How Ian makes things happen: they keep moving. A Yang Water day master is the river, curious, restless, going somewhere even when nobody knows where. Ian 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: Ian is gentle and diplomatic, a Rabbit year, and their gut reaction is to keep the peace and read the room. Graceful, kind, quietly discerning, and much tougher than the soft manners suggest. The Earth year grounds it: practical, patient, someone people lean on.
Purpose
Purpose: Life Path 7 is the seeker. Ian is here to understand, to go deep rather than wide, to keep a private inner world that most people never see. Thoughtful, intuitive, happiest with time alone, and learning to let the right people in.
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.
You likely balance a tight inner circle with a wider orbit you dip into.
You likely weigh most decisions but can move fast when it matters.
You likely share some feelings openly and keep others to yourself.
You likely handle some friction right away and let smaller things settle.
You may be drawn to big possibilities. The practical follows after the vision.
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 sky
Dedicate a star to Ian McKellen
Three stars chosen from the real sky above Burnley on the night they were born. Choose the story that connects you.
Read from the sky above Burnley at 21:30, the birth time on Ian McKellen’s A-rated record. Dedications are commemorative AsterNym records and do not rename or confer ownership of stars.
If you only read one paragraph
Gemini Sun
Gemini SunQuick, curious, already elsewhere.
Ian McKellen's Sun was in Gemini at the documented birth time. Traditional Gemini readings associate the sign with curiosity, conversation and range: several interests held at once and a talent for connecting people and ideas. Astrologers describe it as the mutable air sign, ruled by Mercury. The corresponding tension is restlessness, with the classical caution that the next subject is always more interesting than finishing the current one.
Earth Rabbit
Earth RabbitKeeps the peace, keeps the plan.
Ian McKellen was born on May 25, 1939, which falls in a Earth Rabbit year of the Chinese calendar. Traditional Rabbit readings emphasise tact, grace and the ability to settle a room without seeming to try. The Chinese almanacs describe the Rabbit as the diplomat of the cycle, alert to subtleties and fond of comfort. The corresponding caution in the tradition is avoidance: the tendency to slip away from a conflict that needed to happen.
Life Path 7
Life Path 7Solitary, curious, deep.
Ian McKellen's birth date, May 25, 1939, reduces to Life Path 7 under the numerology method AsterNym uses. Traditional Life Path 7 readings associate the number with inquiry, analysis and solitude: the need to understand what others simply accept. Numerologists describe it as the path of the seeker, reflective and private. The corresponding tension is withdrawal, with the caution that a mind at home in its own company can forget to come out.
What stands out in Ian’s chart
- Three of the ten planets sit in angular houses in Ian McKellen's timed chart: Sun in the 7th house, Moon in the 10th house and Neptune in the 10th house.
- The tightest major aspect in Ian McKellen's timed chart is Mars opposition Pluto, with an orb of under 1°.
- Three planets, Mercury, Venus and Uranus, sit together in Taurus, which astrologers call a stellium.
- Ian McKellen combines a Water Day Master in BaZi with a mutable Sun and a Life Path on the intuitive plane, the combination AsterNym calls The Tidal Seeker.
Ian’s birth chart
Computed from the documented birth time (From the person, their family, or a contemporaneous account.), with whole-sign houses from the Ascendant.
Whole-sign houses from the Ascendant.
Placements
Tap one to light it on the wheel.
The working: aspects, Chiron and the asteroids, dominant planets and configurationsshow
Aspects, tightest first
MarsoppositionPlutoseparating · 0.6° orb
Ian’s drive pulls against their depths from across the wheel. A see-saw looking for balance, often played out through other people.
MercuryconjunctionUranusseparating · 0.7° orb
Ian’s mind and need for freedom act as one. Wherever one goes, the other is already there.
SunsextileJupiterseparating · 1.1° orb
Ian’s core identity opens doors for their growth.
MercurytrineNeptuneapplying · 1.1° orb
Ian’s mind flows straight into their imagination.
SunsquareMoonapplying · 1.6° orb
Ian’s core identity grinds against their feelings.
UranustrineNeptuneapplying · 1.8° orb
Ian’s need for freedom flows straight into their imagination. A talent so smooth it can go unnoticed.
MarssextileJupiterapplying · 2.4° orb
Ian’s drive opens doors for their growth. An easy alliance, and it pays off when it is used.
JupitertrinePlutoseparating · 3.0° orb
Ian’s growth flows straight into their depths.
SaturnsquarePlutoapplying · 3.3° orb
Ian’s discipline grinds against their depths. The angle that irritates, and the one that teaches.
SuntrineMarsseparating · 3.5° orb
Ian’s core identity flows straight into their drive.
MarssquareSaturnseparating · 3.9° orb
Ian’s drive grinds against their discipline.
SunsextilePlutoseparating · 4.1° orb
Ian’s core identity opens doors for their depths. Nothing happens until someone makes the first move.
MoontrineVenusapplying · 4.2° orb
Ian’s feelings flow straight into their affections. A talent so smooth it can go unnoticed.
MoontrineSaturnseparating · 5.8° orb
Ian’s feelings flow straight into their discipline. Effortless, which is exactly why it gets taken for granted.
VenussquareMarsseparating · 6.1° orb
Ian’s affections grind against their drive.
VenussquarePlutoseparating · 6.7° orb
Ian’s affections grind against their depths. The friction is lifelong. Worked with, it builds real strength.
Chart signature
Elements
- Fire2 of 10
- Earth5 of 10
- Air2 of 10
- Water1 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.
⚷ ChironCancer 7°58′ · House 8
centaur (2060) · the wound and what is learnt from it
Chiron in Cancer is read as a wound around belonging and being looked after. Ian is read as someone who learnt to make a home for others before finding one.
⚳ CeresGemini 25°11′ · House 7
dwarf planet (1) · how a person nurtures and wants to be nurtured
Ceres in Gemini is read as nurture through talk and attention. The tradition has Ian feeding people with information and feeling fed by conversation.
♡ ErosAries 27°59′ · House 5
near-Earth asteroid (433) · what draws them and how they desire
Eros in Aries is read as desire that moves first and asks later. Ian is read as drawn to the chase more than the catch.
⚕ Hygiea ℞Capricorn 12°25′ · House 2
main-belt asteroid (10) · health, routine and what keeps them well
Hygiea in Capricorn is read as health as discipline and a long game. Ian is read as someone who keeps going past the point others stop, for better and worse.
⚸ Black Moon LilithAquarius 17°22′ · House 3
mean lunar apogee · the part that refuses to be tamed
Black Moon Lilith in Aquarius is read as the outsider who chose it. The modern reading has Ian at odds with the group on principle and rarely lonely about it.
Aspects to the asteroids and Lilith
Major aspects only, at a tight 3° orb.
- Ceres sextile Saturn 1.2°
- Black Moon Lilith square Uranus 1.4°
- Chiron sextile Venus 1.6°
- Eros square Pluto 1.6°
- Eros conjunction Saturn 1.7°
- Black Moon Lilith square Mercury 2.1°
- Eros square Mars 2.3°
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, angularity and aspect count under the method below.
1. ☿ Mercury11 pts
rules the Sun sign, Gemini; rules the Moon sign, Virgo; disposes Sun, Moon, Neptune; 2 major aspects
2. ♀ Venus7 pts
in its own sign, Taurus; disposes Mercury, Uranus; 3 major aspects
3. ♂ Mars7 pts
disposes Jupiter, Saturn; 5 major aspects
A Mercury-led chart is read as the mind in charge: Ian is read as thinking, talking and connecting their way through life.
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.
T-square onto Venus · Mars, Pluto, VenusAn opposition with a third planet squaring both ends. Read as a driving tension that resolves through the apex planet.- T-square onto Saturn · Mars, Pluto, SaturnAn opposition with a third planet squaring both ends. Read as a driving tension that resolves through the apex planet.
Yod onto Moon · Mars, Jupiter, MoonTwo 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.
- Saturn biquintile Neptune 0.2°
- Moon quincunx Jupiter 0.5°
- Venus sesquiquadrate Neptune 0.8°
- Jupiter semi-square Uranus 1.1°
- Uranus quintile Pluto 1.2°
- Mercury semi-square Jupiter 1.8°
- Moon quincunx Mars 1.9°
Ian’s houses
Whole-sign houses from the documented birth time: each house is one sign, its ruler is the modern ruler of that sign, and an empty house is read through where its ruler sits.
| House | Sign | Ruler | Planets | Themes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sagittarius | Jupiter in Aries, house 5 | empty | self, body, how you arrive |
| 2 | Capricorn | Saturn in Aries, house 5 | empty | money, possessions, self-worth |
| 3 | Aquarius | Uranus in Taurus, house 6 | Mars | mind, siblings, the local world |
| 4 | Pisces | Neptune in Virgo, house 10 | empty | home, family, roots |
| 5 | Aries | Mars in Aquarius, house 3 | Jupiter, Saturn | creativity, romance, play |
| 6 | Taurus | Venus in Taurus, house 6 | Mercury, Venus, Uranus | work, habits, health |
| 7 | Gemini | Mercury in Taurus, house 6 | Sun | partnership, marriage, open rivals |
| 8 | Cancer | Moon in Virgo, house 10 | Pluto | shared resources, intimacy, transformation |
| 9 | Leo | Sun in Gemini, house 7 | empty | belief, travel, higher learning |
| 10 | Virgo | Mercury in Taurus, house 6 | Moon, Neptune | career, reputation, public life |
| 11 | Libra | Venus in Taurus, house 6 | empty | friends, community, the future |
| 12 | Scorpio | Pluto in Cancer, house 8 | empty | the inner world, rest, what is hidden |
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12More people like Ian
Other actors
- John Hurt1940
- Tony Renis1938
- Corin Redgrave1939
- Albert Hall1937
- John Cleese1939
- Kenny Rogers1938
Born in United Kingdom
- Zandra RhodesBritish fashion designer
- Ridley ScottEnglish filmmaker (born 1937)
- Alan BakerEnglish mathematician
- Richard RobsonBritish-Australian chemist
- Ringo StarrBritish musician, drummer for the Beatles
- Oliver ReedBritish actor
More charts like Ian’s
Fellow Gemini suns
- Anna CathcartCanadian actress
- Louis PartridgeBritish actor (born 2003)
- David IaconoAmerican actor
Born in Rabbit years
- Edmund S. MorganAmerican historian
- David HorseyAmerican cartoonist and columnist (born 1951)
- Carl DennisAmerican writer
Also born on May 25
- Cillian Murphy1976
- Kagiso Rabada1995
- David Sacks1972
- Chloé Lukasiak2001
- Amy Klobuchar1960
- Anne Heche1969
Fellow Yang Water day masters
- LizzoAmerican singer and rapper
- Damon AlbarnBritish musician
- Mackenzie FoyAmerican actress
Other Gemini Rabbit charts
- Snail MailSolo musical project of Lindsey Jordan
- Molly-Mae HagueTV Personality
- LaMonica GarrettAmerican actor
- Jamel DebbouzeMoroccan Amazigh -French comedian and actor
Other Tidal Seekers
- Jules A. HoffmannFrench biologist
- Baruch Samuel BlumbergAmerican physician, geneticist and Nobel prize winner
- Hans FischerGerman chemist
- John CornforthAustralian-British chemist
Other Sagittarius risings with documented times
- Michael BoltonAmerican singer-songwriter
- Oliver TreeAmerican singer, record producer, and comedian
- Brendon UrieAmerican singer and musician
- Christy TurlingtonAmerican model
Famous people with Life Path 7
- Taylor LautnerAmerican actor
- Keira KnightleyBritish actress
- Vanessa HudgensAmerican actress and singer
From the journal: Chinese zodiac hours and your birth hour animal · Astrology vs astronomy: when and why they separated
Ian’s cards
Every card is computed from May 25, 1939, none chosen. Tap one to flip it.
☿ Ruled by Mercury
Quicksilver Hg
Tap to flip
The working: BaZi pillarsshow
BaZi pillars
Day Master: yang Water.
Year
己
yin Earth
卯
Rabbit
Wood
roots & early life
Month
己
yin Earth
巳
Snake
Fire
work & drive
Day
day master
壬
yang Water
戌
Dog
Earth
you & partnership
Hour
辛
yin Metal
亥
Pig
Water
later life & legacy
Where this data comes from
Ian’s birth date and birthplace come from Wikidata Q170510, released under CC0, as do the occupations, works, teams and awards in the biography above. Birth time rated A on the Rodden scale, the astrological convention for how well evidenced a birth time is. That means: from the person, their family, or a contemporaneous account. Source: Astro-Databank (Rodden A). 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 Raph_PH, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
The same Ian McKellen at Wikipedia, IMDb, Instagram, X, TikTok 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 McKellen.
Quick answers about Ian McKellen’s chart
- How old is Ian McKellen?
- Ian McKellen is 87 years old, born May 25, 1939 in Burnley, United Kingdom.
- What zodiac sign is Ian McKellen?
- Ian McKellen is a Gemini: born May 25, 1939, which puts the Sun in Gemini at the documented birth time. That is the Western star sign. In the Chinese zodiac they are an Earth Rabbit.
- What is Ian McKellen's Chinese zodiac animal?
- The Rabbit, with the Earth element, from the Chinese lunar year of the May 25, 1939 birth.
- What time was Ian McKellen born?
- 21:30 local time in Burnley, United Kingdom, per Astro-Databank (Rodden A) (Rodden rating A).
- What is Ian McKellen's rising sign?
- Sagittarius rising, calculated from the documented 21:30 birth time in Burnley, United Kingdom (Rodden rating A: from the person, their family, or a contemporaneous account.).
- What is Ian McKellen's Life Path number?
- Life Path 7, calculated in numerology from the May 25, 1939 birth date.
- What is Ian McKellen's Chiron sign?
- Chiron in Cancer at 7°, in the eighth house. Position from JPL Horizons for the May 25, 1939 birth time.
- Where is Ian McKellen's Black Moon Lilith?
- Mean Black Moon Lilith in Aquarius at 17°, in the third house. This is the mean lunar apogee; the osculating Lilith some tables use can sit up to 30° away.
- What is Ian McKellen's dominant planet?
- Mercury, on AsterNym's dominance score (11 points: rules the Sun sign, Gemini; rules the Moon sign, Virgo; disposes Sun, Moon, Neptune; 2 major aspects). Venus is second and Mars third. Other sites weight rulerships and aspects differently and can name a different leader.
