John McPhee
John McPhee (born March 8, 1931, Princeton, United States), aged 95, is an American writer. McPhee is best known for Basin and Range, The Pine Barrens and The Headmaster. McPhee's honours include Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction, John Burroughs Medal and George Polk Award.
John McPhee’s zodiac sign is Pisces, and in the Chinese zodiac they are a Metal Goat, with Life Path 7 in numerology.
Pisces, and in the Chinese zodiac they are a 
Metal Goat, with 
Life Path 7 in numerology.How compatible are you with John McPhee?
Your birthday, just below, gives your match percentage with John. Under a minute.
Your AsterNym Match
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Two details and you have your number with John. 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
John McPhee’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 John in the U.S.?
#23
US rank in 2025
~5,204,377
Americans share it since 1880
1947
its peak year
US Social Security Administration public records
John’s lucky numbers, colours and stones
Traditional correspondences calculated from AsterNym’s astrology, wuxing and numerology system.
Lucky numbers
7 · 2
Lucky colours
White & Gold
Lucky day
Thursday
Direction
← West
Season
autumn
Stones
Aquamarine, Yellow Sapphire, Rutilated Quartz
Flower constellation
🌼 Daffodil · 🌸 Peony · 🤍 White Camellia
Sunlit yellow · Rose-gold · Silver
The same wuxing & numerology correspondences as your own print. One tradition, read for everyone
What the chart says
John, according to the stars
Core essence
John feels everything, and it is the best and hardest thing about them. The core of John is imagination with a soft heart behind it: the daydream, the creative pull, the instinct that knows how someone is doing before they do. They absorb the mood of a room and give back something kinder. Their softness is not weakness, it is the whole point.
The vibe
Underneath, John feels more than they will ever show, and shows it to about three people. The Moon in Scorpio is deep water: loyal, private, slow to trust and impossible to fool. What John needs to feel safe is total honesty and the sense that a secret told stays told. Betray that once and it is a long way back.
How John wants to be loved
John wants to be loved as a friend first, and then as everything. Venus in Aquarius needs freedom, conversation and a partner who finds their strangeness delightful. Rules and jealousy make them cold; acceptance makes them devoted. Let John be fully themselves and they will never want to be anywhere else.
How John creates
How John makes things happen: they keep moving. A Yang Water day master is the river, curious, restless, going somewhere even when nobody knows where. John 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: John 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 Metal year sharpens it: principled, determined, clear about what is right.
Purpose
Purpose: Life Path 7 is the seeker. John 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: feeling unsafe, or seeing their people treated badly. Mars in Cancer means John does not fight for themselves easily but will go to war for someone they love. The anger comes out sideways at first, then all at once. Protectiveness is the whole engine.
Computed from John's birth date, not guessed. The full working is below.
Where John sits
Six lines. Tap where you sit on each.
John’s dot is placed from the chart. Yours is wherever you put it.
You may run on a few close bonds rather than a crowd. Depth is your default.
You likely weigh most decisions but can move fast when it matters.
You likely share some feelings openly and keep others to yourself.
You may need space before addressing conflict. Cooling off comes first.
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 night
Dedicate a star to John McPhee
Three stars chosen from the real sky above Princeton 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.
John McPhee at a glance
Pisces Sun
Pisces SunKind, porous, easily flooded.
John McPhee's Sun was in Pisces for the whole of March 8, 1931, so no birth time is needed to settle it. Traditional Pisces readings associate the sign with imagination, empathy and permeable boundaries: absorbing the mood of a place and turning it into something. Astrologers describe it as the mutable water sign, traditionally ruled by Jupiter and in modern practice by Neptune. The corresponding tension is drift, described in the tradition as a difficulty telling one's own feelings from everyone else's.
Metal Goat
Metal GoatKind, and quietly tough.
John McPhee was born on March 8, 1931, which falls in a Metal 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 7
Life Path 7Solitary, curious, deep.
John McPhee's birth date, March 8, 1931, 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 John’s chart
- The tightest major aspect in John McPhee's date-only chart is Mercury trine Jupiter, with an orb of under 1°.
- Three planets, Mars, Jupiter and Pluto, sit together in Cancer, which astrologers call a stellium.
- Five of the ten planets fall in Cardinal signs, making Cardinal the strongest modality in this chart.
- John McPhee 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.
John’s birth chart
Reference chart · birth time unknown
No documented birth time exists for John McPhee, so the positions below are checked across the whole birth date, not fixed at noon. The Moon ranges from 8° to 22° Scorpio 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.
stableMercurytrineJupiter0.0° to 1.1° orb
John’s mind flows straight into their growth. Effortless, which is exactly why it gets taken for granted.
stableSuntrinePluto1.1° to 2.2° orb
John’s core identity flows straight into their depths. Effortless, which is exactly why it gets taken for granted.
stableSaturnoppositionPluto2.0° to 2.1° orb
John’s discipline pulls against their depths from across the wheel. Two ends of one rope.
stableSunsextileSaturn3.2° to 4.1° orb
John’s core identity opens doors for their discipline. Nothing happens until someone makes the first move.
stableJupitersquareUranus3.3° orb
John’s growth grinds against their need for freedom. The angle that irritates, and the one that teaches.
stableUranussquarePluto5.0° to 5.1° orb
John’s need for freedom grinds against their depths. The angle that irritates, and the one that teaches.
stableVenusoppositionMars5.2° to 6.3° orb
John’s affections pull against their drive from across the wheel.
stableMercuryoppositionNeptune5.6° to 7.5° orb
John’s mind pulls against their imagination from across the wheel.
stableSunconjunctionMercury6.1° to 7.0° orb
John’s core identity and mind act as one. Wherever one goes, the other is already there.
stableMarsoppositionSaturn6.5° to 6.6° orb
John’s drive pulls against their discipline from across the wheel.
possibleMoontrineMercuryorb from 0.0° to 11.4° depending on birth time
possibleMoontrineJupiterorb from 0.0° to 12.4° depending on birth time
Chart signature
Elements
- Fire1 of 10
- Earth2 of 10
- Air1 of 10
- Water6 of 10
Modalities
- Cardinal5 of 10
- Fixed2 of 10
- Mutable3 of 10
Counted across the ten planets by sign: Water leads this chart.
John’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.
⚷ ChironTaurus 14°59′ (moves 0.04° over the day)
centaur (2060) · the wound and what is learnt from it
Chiron in Taurus is read as a wound around security and worth. The reading has John building steadiness by hand after finding it could not be assumed.
⚳ Ceres ℞Libra 13°23′ (moves 0.16° over the day)
dwarf planet (1) · how a person nurtures and wants to be nurtured
Ceres in Libra is read as nurture through fairness and company. John is read as someone who feeds others by keeping the peace and the balance.
♡ Eros ℞Virgo 6°43′ (moves 0.06° over the day)
near-Earth asteroid (433) · what draws them and how they desire
Eros in Virgo is read as desire expressed through attention to detail: noticing, improving, being useful. John is read as slow to start and exact once started.
⚕ HygieaGemini 8°14′ (moves 0.18° over the day)
main-belt asteroid (10) · health, routine and what keeps them well
Hygiea in Gemini is read as health that lives in the nerves and the mind. The tradition has John needing variety and enough sleep in equal measure.
⚸ Black Moon LilithPisces 13°08′ (moves 0.11° over the day)
mean lunar apogee · the part that refuses to be tamed
Black Moon Lilith in Pisces is read as a refusal to be reasonable about longing. John is read as someone whose imagination goes where it is not invited.
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.
- Ceres opposition Uranus 0.4°
- Chiron sextile Sun 2.2°
- Hygiea square Mercury 2.4°
- Black Moon Lilith conjunction Mercury 2.5°
- Eros conjunction Neptune 2.7°
- Black Moon Lilith trine Jupiter 2.7°
- Ceres square Jupiter 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°).
John’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. ♆ Neptune6 pts
rules the Sun sign, Pisces; disposes Sun, Mercury; 1 major aspect
2. ♄ Saturn5 pts
in its own sign, Capricorn; 3 major aspects
3. ☿ Mercury4 pts
disposes Neptune; 3 major aspects
A Neptune-led chart is read as imagination and porousness leading: John is read as tuned to what is not said.
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 John’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.
- Neptune semi-square Pluto 0.3°
- Venus quincunx Neptune 0.9°
- Sun semi-square Venus 1.0°
- Venus quintile Uranus 1.4°
- Mercury sesquiquadrate Mars 1.8°
- Saturn sesquiquadrate Neptune 1.8°
Houses need a birth time. None is documented for John McPhee, so no house placements are claimed for the planets or the minor bodies above.
More people like John
Other writers
- John Updike1932
- Gary Snyder1930
- V. S. Naipaul1932
- Richard Howard1929
- Tomas Tranströmer1931
- Ted Hughes1930
Born in United States
- Malcolm BrowneAmerican photographer and journalist
- David LeeAmerican physicist and Nobel Prize laureate
- William GoldmanAmerican novelist, screenwriter and playwright
- Frank Peters Jr.American journalist
- Burton RichterAmerican physicist
- James DeanAmerican actor
More charts like John’s
Fellow Pisces suns
- Johnny CashAmerican country singer
- Heinrich HertzGerman physicist
- Linus PaulingAmerican scientist
Born in Goat years
- Ben KingsleyEnglish actor (born 1943)
- Haya HarareetIsraeli actress
- Bengt EkerotSwedish actor and director
Also born on March 8
- Marjorie Estiano1982
- Warren Zaïre-Emery2006
- Kit Connor2004
- Benny Blanco1988
- Kat Von D1982
- Freddie Prinze Jr.1976
Fellow Yang Water day masters
- Morten P. MeldalDanish chemist (born 1954)
- Hiroshi AmanoJapanese doctor of engineering and physicist (1960-), 2014 Nobel laureate in Physics
- Wilhelm OstwaldBaltic German chemist
Other Pisces Goat charts
- Tristan VukčevićSerbian-Swedish basketball player
- Olivia RodrigoAmerican singer and actress (born 2003)
- Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Al SaudSaudi Arabian businessman, investor and royal
- Francesco Gaetano CaltagironeItalian businessman
Other Tidal Seekers
- Ang LeeTaiwanese film director, screenwriter and producer (born 1954)
- Stanley KramerAmerican film director and producer
- Sydney PollackAmerican film director, producer and actor
- Mercedes RuehlAmerican actress
Famous people with Life Path 7
- Alexa PenaVegaAmerican actress
- Carrie UnderwoodAmerican singer and actor (born 1983)
- Martin SheenAmerican actor (born 1940)
From the journal: What if you don't know your birth time? · Fixed, cardinal, mutable: the modality cheat sheet
John’s cards
Every card is computed from March 8, 1931, none chosen. Tap one to flip it.
♃ Ruled by Jupiter
Tin Sn
Tap to flip
The working: BaZi pillarsshow
BaZi pillars
Day Master: yang Water.
Year
辛
yin Metal
未
Goat
Earth
roots & early life
Month
辛
yin Metal
卯
Rabbit
Wood
work & drive
Day
day master
壬
yang Water
戌
Dog
Earth
you & partnership
No birth time is on public record for John McPhee, 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
John’s birth date and birthplace come from Wikidata Q1701049, 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 The original uploader was H Debussy-Jones at English Wikipedia., Attribution, via Wikimedia Commons.
The same John McPhee at Wikipedia and IMDb.
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 John McPhee.
Quick answers about John McPhee’s chart
- How old is John McPhee?
- John McPhee is 95 years old, born March 8, 1931 in Princeton, United States.
- What zodiac sign is John McPhee?
- John McPhee is a Pisces: born March 8, 1931, which puts the Sun in Pisces for the whole of that day. That is the Western star sign. In the Chinese zodiac they are a Metal Goat.
- What is John McPhee's Chinese zodiac animal?
- The Goat, with the Metal element, from the Chinese lunar year of the March 8, 1931 birth.
- What time was John McPhee 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 John McPhee's Life Path number?
- Life Path 7, calculated in numerology from the March 8, 1931 birth date.
- What is John McPhee's Chiron sign?
- Chiron in Taurus at 14°. Position from JPL Horizons for the March 8, 1931 birth date.
- Where is John McPhee's Black Moon Lilith?
- Mean Black Moon Lilith in Pisces at 13°. This is the mean lunar apogee; the osculating Lilith some tables use can sit up to 30° away.
- What is John McPhee's dominant planet?
- Neptune, on AsterNym's dominance score (6 points: rules the Sun sign, Pisces; disposes Sun, Mercury; 1 major aspect). Saturn is second and Mercury third. Other sites weight rulerships and aspects differently and can name a different leader.
