James Alan McPherson
James Alan McPherson (born September 16, 1943, Savannah, United States; died 2016), was an American short story writer and essayist. McPherson is best remembered for Elbow Room. McPherson's honours include Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, MacArthur Fellows Program and Guggenheim Fellowship.
James Alan McPherson’s zodiac sign was Virgo, Chinese zodiac was Water Goat, with Life Path 6 in numerology.
Virgo, Chinese zodiac was 
Water Goat, with 
Life Path 6 in numerology.Your match with James
James Alan McPherson’s AsterNym identity
The Radiant Healer
Fire represents warmth, visibility and momentum. Fire-led charts are associated with enthusiasm, expression and the ability to encourage other people. Life Path 6 represents care: home, responsibility, beauty and the instinct to support the people nearby.
Fire Day Master (BaZi) × mutable Sun × Life Path 6, on the emotional plane.
How common is the name James in the U.S.?
#6
US rank in 2025
~5,274,520
Americans share it since 1880
1947
its peak year
The SSA recorded 80,278 American boys and 272 girls named James in 1943: 1st among boys and 453rd among girls for the year.
US Social Security Administration public records
What James’s name adds up to
Worked from the name as published, letter by letter.
7
Expression · depth and research
1
Soul Urge · independence
6
Personality · caring, responsible
The name opens on J (1) 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
James’s lucky numbers, colours and stones
Traditional correspondences, calculated not chosen.
Lucky numbers
6 · 2 · 7
Lucky colours
Blue & Black
Lucky day
Wednesday
Direction
↑ North
Season
winter
Stones
Sapphire, Emerald, Aquamarine
Flower constellation
⭐ Aster · 💜 Lavender · 🪷 Lotus
Lavender · Lilac · Soft pink
The record
What sets James apart
Lee Kuan Yew (1923) and Amy Poehler (1971) share the birthday in another year, so the sun sits where it sits here.
What the chart says
James, according to the stars
Core essence
James notices. That is the whole thing: the detail everyone else walked past, the small fix that makes the day work, the way you looked slightly off when you said you were fine. The core of James is devotion expressed as usefulness. They love by improving things, and they are far kinder to other people than to themselves.
How James wants to be loved
James 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 James and they will quietly make your whole life run better.
How James creates
How James makes things happen: they hold the flame steady. A Yin Fire day master is the candle, the lamp, the light that is close and personal rather than blazing. James creates intimacy, one room, one conversation, one person made to feel seen. Moody when the fuel runs low, magnetic when it does not.
Instinct
Instinct: James 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 Water year softens it: intuitive, adaptable, feeling their way through people.
Purpose
Purpose: Life Path 6 is the nurturer. James is here to care, to make a home wherever they are, to be the person others come to. Responsible, warm, a little too willing to carry everyone, and learning to let themselves be looked after.
Triggers
Triggers: being bored, and being talked over. Mars in Gemini fights with words and wins, then forgets it happened. James scatters energy across three projects at once and somehow finishes two. The trick is choosing the argument worth having.
Computed from James's birth date. Working below.
Where James sits
Six lines
James’s dot comes from the chart; yours is where 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 favor what's proven and workable over the untested idea.
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 James Alan McPherson
Three stars chosen from the real sky above Savannah on the night they were born. Choose the story that connects you.
A 9 p.m. reference sky, not the birth minute. Dedications are commemorative and confer no ownership of stars.
The sky over Savannah that night
Computed for 32.05°N, 9 p.m. local sky.
At 9 p.m. the star closest to straight overhead at Savannah was Sulafat, in Lyra, 85.9° up.
Of the 83 catalog stars above the horizon, Arcturus was the brightest.
Savannah sits at 32.1°N, low enough that no headline star is circumpolar: everything bright rises and sets there.
Rigil Kentaurus, Hadar, Acrux, Mimosa and Toliman cannot be seen from Savannah at all: they sit past the −57.9° declination limit this latitude imposes.
Sun 19° below the horizon, Moon down and 89% lit at waning gibbous.
How unusual James's chart is
Chart pattern score
44 / 100 · Quietly distinctive
A bowl chart · No Water planets · Venus retrograde
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 →Virgo Sun
Virgo SunOrder first. Then rest, in theory.
James Alan McPherson's Sun was in Virgo for the whole of September 16, 1943, so no birth time is needed to settle it.
What Virgo means →Water Goat
Water GoatNeeds beauty like air.
James Alan McPherson was born on September 16, 1943, which falls in a Water Goat year of the Chinese calendar.
What the Goat means →Life Path 6
Life Path 6Responsible before asked.
James Alan McPherson's birth date, September 16, 1943, reduces to Life Path 6 under the numerology method AsterNym uses.
What Life Path 6 means →What stands out in James’s chart
- The tightest major aspect in James Alan McPherson's date-only chart is Mercury sextile Pluto, with an orb of under 1°.
- Three planets, Mars, Saturn and Uranus, sit together in Gemini, which astrologers call a stellium.
- Five of the ten planets fall in Mutable signs, making Mutable the strongest modality in this chart.
- James Alan McPherson combines a Fire Day Master in BaZi with a mutable Sun and a Life Path on the emotional plane, the combination AsterNym calls The Radiant Healer.
James’s birth chart
Reference chart · birth time unknown
Positions are checked across the whole date. The Moon ranges from 19° to 3° Aries or Taurus depending on the hour.
No birth time, so the houses are a solar chart: the Sun’s sign counts as house 1.
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
stableMercurysextilePluto0.0° to 0.3° orb
James’s mind opens doors for their depths. An easy alliance, and it pays off when it is used.
stableMercurytrineUranus0.5° to 1.0° orb
James’s mind flows straight into their need for freedom. A talent so smooth it can go unnoticed.
stableUranussextilePluto0.7° orb
James’s need for freedom opens doors for their depths. Nothing happens until someone makes the first move.
stableVenussquareUranus2.0° to 2.4° orb
stableSunsquareSaturn2.8° to 3.7° orb
stableMarsconjunctionUranus2.9° to 3.3° orb
stableMercurytrineMars3.4° to 4.4° orb
stableMarssextilePluto3.6° to 4.1° orb
stableMarssextileJupiter4.7° to 4.9° orb
stableVenussquareMars4.9° to 5.7° orb
stableSaturnsquareNeptune5.3° orb
stableMercuryconjunctionNeptune6.3° to 6.9° orb
Chart signature
Elements
- Fire3 of 10
- Earth2 of 10
- Air5 of 10
- Water0 of 10
Modalities
- Cardinal3 of 10
- Fixed2 of 10
- Mutable5 of 10
Counted across the ten planets by sign: Air leads this chart, with no planets in Water signs.
James’s Chiron, Ceres, Eros, Hygiea and Lilith
What astrologers make of these five, at noon values.
⚷ ChironVirgo 7°01′ (moves 0.14° over the day)
centaur (2060) · the wound and what is learnt from it
⚳ CeresCancer 0°56′ (moves 0.26° over the day)
dwarf planet (1) · how a person nurtures and wants to be nurtured
♡ ErosLibra 18°47′ (moves 0.78° over the day)
near-Earth asteroid (433) · what draws them and how they desire
⚕ HygieaVirgo 20°36′ (moves 0.39° over the day)
main-belt asteroid (10) · health, routine and what keeps them well
⚸ Black Moon LilithLeo 12°48′ (moves 0.11° over the day)
mean lunar apogee · the part that refuses to be tamed
Aspects to the asteroids and Lilith
- Chiron conjunction Venus 0.4°
- Ceres square Neptune 0.5°
- Black Moon Lilith sextile Mars 0.8°
- Chiron square Uranus 1.8°
- Eros sextile Jupiter 2.0°
- Hygiea conjunction Sun 2.3°
James’s dominant planets
1. ☿ Mercury12 pts
rules the Sun sign, Virgo; disposes Sun, Venus, Mars, Saturn, Uranus; 4 major aspects
2. ♂ Mars5 pts
5 major aspects
3. ♀ Venus4 pts
disposes Mercury, Neptune; 2 major aspects
Configurations in James’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.
- Sun semi-square Pluto 0.2°
- Jupiter semi-square Neptune 0.3°
- Mercury semi-sextile Venus 1.5°
- Venus quintile Saturn 1.5°
- Venus semi-sextile Pluto 1.5°
More people like James
Other writers
- Newt Gingrich1943
- Carl Bernstein1944
- Joe Biden1942
- Douglas Hofstadter1945
- Steven Millhauser1943
- Jil Sander1943
Born in United States
- Stephen KurkjianAmerican journalist
- Michael ParksPulitzer Prize winning journalist and educator
- David GilerAmerican filmmaker
- David GerroldAmerican science fiction screenwriter and novelist
- Gloria GaynorAmerican singer
- Stephen GreenblattAmerican literary critic, theorist and scholar
More charts like James’s
Fellow Virgo suns
- Susan SheehanAmerican journalist
- Elizabeth A. FennAmerican historian and professor
- Stephen KurkjianAmerican journalist
Born in Goat years
- Alice MunroCanadian writer
- Chris PrattAmerican actor
- George HarrisonEnglish musician and member of the Beatles
Also born on September 16
- Lee Kuan Yew1923
- Amy Poehler1971
- Fan Bingbing1981
- Alexis Bledel1981
- Marc Anthony1968
- Jennifer Tilly1958
Fellow Yin Fire day masters
- R. A. LaffertyAmerican writer
- Seanan McGuireAmerican writer
- George Roy HillAmerican film director
Other Virgo Goat charts
- Geraldine BrooksAustralian-American journalist and author
- Relman Morin20th-century American journalist
- Lois WilleAmerican journalist and author
- Reed WhittemoreAmerican poet
Other Radiant Healers
- Joseph EllisAmerican historian (born 1943)
- Ann Telnaescartoonist
- Elizabeth FrankAmerican academic
- Ellen BarryAmerican journalist
Famous people with Life Path 6
- SlayyyterAmerican singer and songwriter
- Abby Lee MillerAmerican dance instructor and choreographer
- Mike Adenuga
From the journal: Your Kua number, and why it splits households · Do twins have the same birth chart?
James’s cards
Computed from September 16, 1943. Tap to flip.
Birth tarot card
The LoversAsterNym identity card
The Radiant HealerWestern zodiac
VirgoChinese zodiac
Goat 未Life Path
6 · Guardian☿ Ruled by Mercury
Quicksilver Hg
The working: BaZi pillarsshow
BaZi pillars
Day Master: yin Fire.
Year
癸
yin Water
未
Goat
Earth
roots & early life
Month
辛
yin Metal
酉
Rooster
Metal
work & drive
Day
day master
丁
yin Fire
丑
Ox
Earth
you & partnership
Where this comes from, and how it is worked out
James’s birth date and birthplace come from Wikidata Q355793 (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.
The same James Alan McPherson at Wikipedia and MusicBrainz.
Roster last reviewed September 10, 2026. The full method: how it works.
Traditional interpretations, not facts or predictions, and not endorsed by James Alan McPherson.
Quick answers about James Alan McPherson’s chart
- What zodiac sign was James Alan McPherson?
- James Alan McPherson was a Virgo: born September 16, 1943, which puts the Sun in Virgo for the whole of that day.
- What was James Alan McPherson's Chinese zodiac animal?
- The Goat, with the Water element, from the Chinese lunar year of the September 16, 1943 birth.
- What was James Alan McPherson's Life Path number?
- Life Path 6, calculated in numerology.
- What was James Alan McPherson's Chiron sign?
- Chiron in Virgo at 7°. Position from JPL Horizons.
- Where was James Alan McPherson's Black Moon Lilith?
- Mean Black Moon Lilith in Leo at 12°. This is the mean lunar apogee; the osculating Lilith some tables use can sit up to 30° away.
- What was James Alan McPherson's dominant planet?
- Mercury, on AsterNym's dominance score (12 points: rules the Sun sign, Virgo; disposes Sun, Venus, Mars, Saturn, Uranus; 4 major aspects). Mars is second and Venus third. Other sites weight rulerships and aspects differently and can name a different leader.
