John Varley
John Varley (born August 9, 1947, Austin, United States; died 2025), was an American science fiction author. Varley's honours include Hayakawa Award, Hugo Award for Best Novella and Prix Tour-Apollo Award.
John Varley’s zodiac sign was Leo, and in the Chinese zodiac they were a Fire Pig, with Life Path 2 in numerology.
Leo, and in the Chinese zodiac they were a 
Fire Pig, with 
Life Path 2 in numerology.How compatible are you with John Varley?
Your birthday, just below, gives your match percentage with John. Under a minute.
Your AsterNym Match
?%Your score is waiting.
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 Varley’s AsterNym identity
The Gilded Guardian
Metal represents precision. Metal-led charts are associated with standards, boundaries, discernment and the ability to remove what is unnecessary. Life Path 2 represents partnership: cooperation, diplomacy and the ability to work with different kinds of people.
Metal Day Master (BaZi) × fixed Sun × Life Path 2, on the emotional 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
2 · 5 · 8
Lucky colours
Red & Orange
Lucky day
Sunday
Direction
↓ South
Season
summer
Stones
Peridot, Ruby, Carnelian
Flower constellation
🌸 Gladiolus · 🌻 Sunflower · 🌺 Poppy
Coral · Gold · Flame orange
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 is warm the way the sun is warm: not trying, just doing it. The core of John is a big open heart and a need to be seen loving with it. They are generous with praise, with time, with the spotlight when they trust you, and they will remember every kindness you paid them for years. Loyal to a fault, and glad of the fault.
The vibe
Underneath, John is calm in a way that steadies other people. The Moon in Taurus wants comfort that can be touched: the same mug, the same song, the friend who does not need explaining to. What John needs to feel safe is consistency. Show up the same way twice and you are in.
How John wants to be loved
John wants to be loved out loud. Venus in Leo is warm, generous and a little theatrical, and it wants a partner who is proud to be seen with them. Praise is oxygen, loyalty is the deal. Adore John openly and they will make you feel like the only person in every room.
How John creates
How John makes things happen: they cut to it. A Yang Metal day master is the sword, decisive, principled, allergic to nonsense. John creates by clarifying, by deciding, by being the one who says what the thing actually is. Sharp with themselves first. The work is remembering that not every problem needs a blade.
Instinct
Instinct: John is warm and generous, a Pig year, and their gut reaction is to trust. Big-hearted, fun, sincere, a lover of good things, and deserving of people who are as honest as they are. The Fire year turns the volume up: warmer, bolder, more expressive, harder to overlook.
Purpose
Purpose: Life Path 2 is the peacemaker. John is here to bring people together, to feel the undercurrents and smooth them, to be the reason a room works. Sensitive, diplomatic, quietly essential, and learning that their own needs count too.
Triggers
Triggers: being bored, and being talked over. Mars in Gemini fights with words and wins, then forgets it happened. John scatters energy across three projects at once and somehow finishes two. The trick is choosing the argument worth having.
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 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 likely balance practical steps with room to imagine further.
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 John Varley
Three stars chosen from the real sky above Austin 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.
Leo Sun
Leo SunPride is the engine.
John Varley's Sun was in Leo for the whole of August 9, 1947, so no birth time is needed to settle it. Traditional Leo readings associate the sign with warmth, visibility and generosity: a natural claim on attention and a habit of handing it back as encouragement. Astrologers describe it as the fixed fire sign, ruled by the Sun. The corresponding tension is pride, with the classical caution that the need to be seen can crowd out people who would rather not be.
Fire Pig
Fire PigGives more than it gets.
John Varley was born on August 9, 1947, which falls in a Fire Pig year of the Chinese calendar. Traditional Pig readings emphasise generosity, sincerity and an appetite for the good things, shared. The Chinese almanacs describe the Pig as the most open-handed sign in the cycle, trusting and hard to anger. The corresponding caution in the tradition is naivety, and a difficulty believing that anyone would take advantage of that trust.
Life Path 2
Life Path 2Listens first, then decides.
John Varley's birth date, August 9, 1947, reduces to Life Path 2 under the numerology method AsterNym uses. Traditional Life Path 2 readings associate the number with cooperation, diplomacy and mediation: working alongside others and holding a group together. Numerologists describe it as the path of the partner, and read its influence as quiet rather than visible. The corresponding tension is self-effacement, with the caution that influence exercised through others can go uncounted, including by the person exercising it.
What stands out in John’s chart
- The tightest major aspect in John Varley's date-only chart is Saturn conjunction Pluto, with an orb of under 1°.
- Four planets, Sun, Venus, Saturn and Pluto, sit together in Leo, which astrologers call a stellium.
- Six of the ten planets fall in Fixed signs, making Fixed the strongest modality in this chart.
- John Varley combines a Metal Day Master in BaZi with a fixed Sun and a Life Path on the emotional plane, the combination AsterNym calls The Gilded Guardian.
John’s birth chart
Reference chart · birth time unknown
No documented birth time exists for John Varley, so the positions below are checked across the whole birth date, not fixed at noon. The Moon ranges from 7° to 21° 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.
stableVenussextileNeptune0.1° to 1.3° orb
John’s affections open doors for their imagination. An easy alliance, and it pays off when it is used.
stableSaturnconjunctionPluto0.1° to 0.2° orb
John’s discipline and depths act as one. Each makes the other louder.
stableSunsquareJupiter1.9° to 2.8° orb
John’s core identity grinds against their growth.
stableMarsconjunctionUranus1.9° to 2.6° orb
John’s drive and need for freedom act as one. Wherever one goes, the other is already there.
stableSunconjunctionPluto2.7° to 3.6° orb
John’s core identity and depths act as one. Each makes the other louder.
stableSunconjunctionSaturn2.9° to 3.7° orb
John’s core identity and discipline act as one. Each makes the other louder.
stableVenusconjunctionSaturn3.0° to 4.1° orb
John’s affections and discipline act as one. Each makes the other louder.
stableVenusconjunctionPluto3.0° to 4.2° orb
John’s affections and depths act as one. Wherever one goes, the other is already there.
stableSaturnsextileNeptune4.2° to 4.3° orb
John’s discipline opens doors for their imagination. Nothing happens until someone makes the first move.
stableNeptunesextilePluto4.4° orb
John’s imagination opens doors for their depths. An easy alliance, and it pays off when it is used.
stableJupitersquarePluto5.5° orb
John’s growth grinds against their depths.
stableJupitersquareSaturn5.6° to 5.7° orb
John’s growth grinds against their discipline. The friction is lifelong. Worked with, it builds real strength.
Chart signature
Elements
- Fire4 of 10
- Earth1 of 10
- Air3 of 10
- Water2 of 10
Modalities
- Cardinal2 of 10
- Fixed6 of 10
- Mutable2 of 10
Counted across the ten planets by sign: Fire 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.
⚷ ChironScorpio 3°39′ (moves 0.07° over the day)
centaur (2060) · the wound and what is learnt from it
Chiron in Scorpio is read as a wound around trust and loss. The tradition has John carrying an unusual tolerance for what other people cannot look at.
⚳ CeresTaurus 7°07′ (moves 0.15° over the day)
dwarf planet (1) · how a person nurtures and wants to be nurtured
Ceres in Taurus is read as nurture through the physical: food, comfort, a steady presence. John is read as someone who shows care by providing.
♡ ErosSagittarius 6°55′ (moves 0.23° over the day)
near-Earth asteroid (433) · what draws them and how they desire
Eros in Sagittarius is read as desire for the far-off and the free. The reading has John attracted to people who open a door rather than close one.
⚕ HygieaGemini 21°54′ (moves 0.27° 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 LilithCapricorn 21°20′ (moves 0.11° over the day)
mean lunar apogee · the part that refuses to be tamed
Black Moon Lilith in Capricorn is read as ambition that does not ask to be liked. John is read as someone who takes the authority rather than waiting for it.
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.
- Eros sextile Neptune 1.8°
- Ceres square Venus 2.3°
- Eros trine Venus 2.5°
- Black Moon Lilith sextile Jupiter 2.7°
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. ☉ Sun12 pts
rules the Sun sign, Leo; in its own sign, Leo; disposes Venus, Saturn, Pluto; 4 major aspects
2. ♇ Pluto6 pts
disposes Jupiter; 5 major aspects
3. ♀ Venus5 pts
disposes Neptune; 4 major aspects
A Sun-led chart is read as identity out front: John is read as someone whose sense of self organises everything else.
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.
Stellium in Leo · Sun, Venus, Saturn, PlutoThree or more planets in one sign (four, or three with a luminary, by AsterNym's count): a concentration astrologers read as that sign's themes dominating the chart.
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.
- Jupiter biquintile Uranus 0.4°
- Venus semi-square Uranus 0.5°
- Mars semi-square Saturn 0.7°
- Mars semi-square Pluto 0.8°
- Mercury semi-sextile Mars 1.2°
Houses need a birth time. None is documented for John Varley, so no house placements are claimed for the planets or the minor bodies above.
More people like John
Other screenwriters
- John Ratzenberger1947
- Stephen Schwartz1948
- Sylvester Stallone1946
- Marsha Norman1947
- James V. Hart1947
- Andrew Lloyd Webber1948
Born in United States
- Don HenleyAmerican rock musician
- Hillary ClintonAmerican politician and diplomat
- Eric F. WieschausAmerican geneticist
- Marsha NormanAmerican playwright, screenwriter and novelist
- Jeff WorleyAmerican writer (b.1947)
- Timothy B. SchmitAmerican musician
More charts like John’s
Fellow Leo suns
- Knut HamsunNorwegian novelist
- William Alfred FowlerAmerican nuclear physicist
- Wolfgang PaulGerman physicist
Born in Pig years
- Timothée ChalametFrench-American actor
- Dove CameronAmerican actress and singer
- Mike PenceVice President of the United States from 2017 to 2021
Also born on August 9
- Whitney Houston1963
- Gillian Anderson1968
- John Key1961
- Eric Bana1968
- Willian1988
- Mário Zagallo1931
Fellow Yang Metal day masters
- Jessica LangeAmerican actress
- Mark RuffaloAmerican actor
- Eva GreenFrench actress
Other Leo Pig charts
- Shimon PeresIsraeli politician, former President and Prime Minister of Israel
- Lawrence WrightAmerican author, screenwriter, and staff writer (1947-)
- Annie ProulxAmerican novelist, short story and non-fiction author (b. 1935)
- Rick BraggAmerican writer, journalist
Other Gilded Guardians
- Wagner MouraBrazilian actor
- ShaboozeyAmerican singer
- JuJu WatkinsAmerican basketball player
- Joseline HernandezPuerto Rican television personality
Famous people with Life Path 2
- Alexander SkarsgårdSwedish actor
- Tony RobbinsAmerican author, professional speaker
- Netumbo Nandi-NdaitwahNamibian politician
From the journal: Do twins have the same birth chart? · Cusp signs aren't real | here's why
John’s cards
Every card is computed from August 9, 1947, none chosen. Tap one to flip it.
☉ Ruled by Sun
Gold Au
Tap to flip
The working: BaZi pillarsshow
BaZi pillars
Day Master: yang Metal.
Year
丁
yin Fire
亥
Pig
Water
roots & early life
Month
戊
yang Earth
申
Monkey
Metal
work & drive
Day
day master
庚
yang Metal
申
Monkey
Metal
you & partnership
No birth time is on public record for John Varley, 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 Q504805, 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 Arthur Jene, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
The same John Varley at Wikipedia, varley.net 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 Varley.
Quick answers about John Varley’s chart
- What zodiac sign was John Varley?
- John Varley was a Leo: born August 9, 1947, which puts the Sun in Leo for the whole of that day. That is the Western star sign. In the Chinese zodiac they were a Fire Pig.
- What was John Varley's Chinese zodiac animal?
- The Pig, with the Fire element, from the Chinese lunar year of the August 9, 1947 birth.
- What time was John Varley 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 John Varley's Life Path number?
- Life Path 2, calculated in numerology from the August 9, 1947 birth date.
- What was John Varley's Chiron sign?
- Chiron in Scorpio at 3°. Position from JPL Horizons for the August 9, 1947 birth date.
- Where was John Varley's Black Moon Lilith?
- Mean Black Moon Lilith in Capricorn at 21°. This is the mean lunar apogee; the osculating Lilith some tables use can sit up to 30° away.
- What was John Varley's dominant planet?
- Sun, on AsterNym's dominance score (12 points: rules the Sun sign, Leo; in its own sign, Leo; disposes Venus, Saturn, Pluto; 4 major aspects). Pluto is second and Venus third. Other sites weight rulerships and aspects differently and can name a different leader.
