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, and in the Chinese zodiac they were a Water Goat, with Life Path 6 in numerology.
Virgo, and in the Chinese zodiac they were a 
Water Goat, with 
Life Path 6 in numerology.How compatible are you with James Alan McPherson?
Your birthday, just below, gives your match percentage with James. Under a minute.
Your AsterNym Match
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Two details and you have your number with James. Under a minute, and it is real astrology, not a quiz.
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
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
US Social Security Administration public records
James’s lucky numbers, colours and stones
Traditional correspondences calculated from AsterNym’s astrology, wuxing and numerology system.
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 same wuxing & numerology correspondences as your own print. One tradition, read for everyone
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, not guessed. The full working is below.
Where James sits
Six lines. Tap where you sit on each.
James’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 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.
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.
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. Traditional Virgo readings associate the sign with precision, service and improvement: noticing what is off and quietly putting it right. Astrologers describe it as the mutable earth sign, ruled by Mercury, and read it for craft and analysis. The corresponding tension is perfectionism, described in the tradition as a standard applied hardest to the self.
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. Traditional Goat readings emphasise gentleness, creativity and a preference for harmony over conflict. The Chinese almanacs describe the Goat as the artist of the cycle, kind and easily moved, and associate it with taste and care for others. The corresponding caution in the tradition is dependence: a need for reassurance that can become a reluctance to decide alone.
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. Traditional Life Path 6 readings associate the number with care, responsibility and beauty: home, family and the instinct to support the people nearby. Numerologists describe it as the path of the nurturer. The corresponding tension is over-responsibility, with the caution that carrying other people's burdens can become a way of avoiding one's own.
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
No documented birth time exists for James Alan McPherson, so the positions below are checked across the whole birth date, not fixed at noon. The Moon ranges from 19° to 3° Aries or Taurus depending on the hour. The wheel's houses are a solar chart, counted from the Sun's sign, because the Ascendant needs a time.
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.
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.
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
James’s affections grind against their need for freedom.
stableSunsquareSaturn2.8° to 3.7° orb
James’s core identity grinds against their discipline. The angle that irritates, and the one that teaches.
stableMarsconjunctionUranus2.9° to 3.3° orb
James’s drive and need for freedom act as one. Wherever one goes, the other is already there.
stableMercurytrineMars3.4° to 4.4° orb
James’s mind flows straight into their drive. Effortless, which is exactly why it gets taken for granted.
stableMarssextilePluto3.6° to 4.1° orb
James’s drive opens doors for their depths. An easy alliance, and it pays off when it is used.
stableMarssextileJupiter4.7° to 4.9° orb
James’s drive opens doors for their growth. An easy alliance, and it pays off when it is used.
stableVenussquareMars4.9° to 5.7° orb
James’s affections grind against their drive.
stableSaturnsquareNeptune5.3° orb
James’s discipline grinds against their imagination. The angle that irritates, and the one that teaches.
stableMercuryconjunctionNeptune6.3° to 6.9° orb
James’s mind and imagination act as one.
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
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.
⚷ ChironVirgo 7°01′ (moves 0.14° over the day)
centaur (2060) · the wound and what is learnt from it
Chiron in Virgo is read as a wound around never being good enough. The reading has James turning that pressure into craft and an eye for what others miss.
⚳ CeresCancer 0°56′ (moves 0.26° over the day)
dwarf planet (1) · how a person nurtures and wants to be nurtured
Ceres in Cancer sits in the sign the tradition links to it most closely: care as instinct. James is read as someone for whom looking after others is not a decision.
♡ ErosLibra 18°47′ (moves 0.78° over the day)
near-Earth asteroid (433) · what draws them and how they desire
Eros in Libra is read as desire for the beautiful and the mutual. James is read as someone who wants the pairing itself as much as the person.
⚕ HygieaVirgo 20°36′ (moves 0.39° over the day)
main-belt asteroid (10) · health, routine and what keeps them well
Hygiea in Virgo sits in the sign the tradition links to it most closely: health as maintenance. James is read as attentive to small signals and prone to over-attending.
⚸ Black Moon LilithLeo 12°48′ (moves 0.11° over the day)
mean lunar apogee · the part that refuses to be tamed
Black Moon Lilith in Leo is read as a pride that will not perform on demand. James is read as most dangerous when underestimated.
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.
- 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°
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°).
James’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. ☿ 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
A Mercury-led chart is read as the mind in charge: James 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 James’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.
No stellium, grand trine, T-square, grand cross, yod or kite closes among the planets that can be placed. That is the common case, not a gap.
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 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°
Houses need a birth time. None is documented for James Alan McPherson, so no house placements are claimed for the planets or the minor bodies above.
More people like James
Other writers
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- Carl Bernstein1944
- Joe Biden1942
- Douglas Hofstadter1945
- Steven Millhauser1943
- Jil Sander1943
Born in United States
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- David GilerAmerican filmmaker
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- 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
Every card is computed from September 16, 1943, none chosen. Tap one to flip it.
☿ Ruled by Mercury
Quicksilver Hg
Tap to flip
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
No birth time is on public record for James Alan McPherson, 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
James’s birth date and birthplace come from Wikidata Q355793, 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.
The same James Alan McPherson at Wikipedia 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 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. That is the Western star sign. In the Chinese zodiac they were a Water Goat.
- 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 time was James Alan McPherson 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 was James Alan McPherson's Life Path number?
- Life Path 6, calculated in numerology from the September 16, 1943 birth date.
- What was James Alan McPherson's Chiron sign?
- Chiron in Virgo at 7°. Position from JPL Horizons for the September 16, 1943 birth date.
- 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.
