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, Chinese zodiac was Fire Pig, with Life Path 2 in numerology.
Leo, Chinese zodiac was 
Fire Pig, with 
Life Path 2 in numerology.Your match with John
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
In 1947, 88,324 American boys and 203 girls were registered John — 3rd among boys and 600th among girls on the SSA's list that year.
US Social Security Administration public records
What John’s name adds up to
Worked from the name as published, letter by letter.
4
Expression · building what holds
3
Soul Urge · being heard
1
Personality · self-directed
The name opens on J (1) and closes on N (5). Two values tie for most repeated, 1 and 5: drive against movement.
Pythagorean letter values · A=1 to I=9, then J=1 again
John’s lucky numbers, colours and stones
Traditional correspondences, calculated not chosen.
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
Eight Mansions · Kua number
Kua 7, trigram Dui 兌, West group. Best direction Northwest, worst North.
A different tradition from the Direction above, and a different question: feng shui reads it from the solar year 1947, which turns at Li Chun rather than at New Year, and from sex, which Wikidata records as male. Work out your own →
The record
What sets John apart
The Hugo Award for Best Novella came in 1979, when John Varley was 32.
The schooling ran through Nederland High School and Michigan State University.
John Varley was 27 when the work began in 1974.
On Wikipedia the categories read Endeavour Award winners, Novelists from Oregon and Writers from Fort Worth, Texas.
Whitney Houston (1963) and Gillian Anderson (1968) share the birthday in another year, so the sun sits where it sits here.
- Educated at
- Nederland High School and Michigan State University
- Awards
- Hugo Award for Best Novella (1979), Hugo Award for Best Short Story (1982) and Prix Tour-Apollo Award (1980)
- Nominated for
- Locus Award for Best Collection and Locus Award for Best Short Fiction
- Working from
- 1974
- Citizenship
- United States
- Languages
- English
- Wikipedia editions
- 27
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. Working below.
Where John sits
Six lines
John’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 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.
A 9 p.m. reference sky, not the birth minute. Dedications are commemorative and confer no ownership of stars.
The sky over Austin that night
Computed for 30.30°N, 9 p.m. local sky.
At 9 p.m. the star closest to straight overhead at Austin was Kornephoros, in Hercules, 80.9° up.
The brightest star above the horizon was Arcturus in Boötes, and 81 catalog stars were up in all.
Austin sits at 30.3°N, low enough that no headline star is circumpolar: everything bright rises and sets there.
The trade is at the other end of the sky: nothing south of −59.7° declination ever rises from here, which puts Rigil Kentaurus, Hadar, Acrux and Toliman permanently out of view.
Sun 9° below the horizon, Moon down and 48% lit at last quarter.
The name and the places
- Born in
- Austin, United States
The death is recorded at Beaverton, Washington County in 2025.
No birth time is on record, so no astrocartography map can be drawn for John Varley: the lines move about fifteen degrees of longitude an hour. Shared Places can still draw yours.
How unusual John's chart is
Chart pattern score
76 / 100 · Rare
4-planet stellium in Leo · T-square onto Sun · A bowl chart
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 →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.
What Leo means →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.
What the Pig means →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.
What Life Path 2 means →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
Positions are checked across the whole date. The Moon ranges from 7° to 21° 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
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
stableSunconjunctionPluto2.7° to 3.6° orb
stableSunconjunctionSaturn2.9° to 3.7° orb
stableVenusconjunctionSaturn3.0° to 4.1° orb
stableVenusconjunctionPluto3.0° to 4.2° orb
stableSaturnsextileNeptune4.2° to 4.3° orb
stableNeptunesextilePluto4.4° orb
stableJupitersquarePluto5.5° orb
stableJupitersquareSaturn5.6° to 5.7° orb
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
What astrologers make of these five, at noon values.
⚷ ChironScorpio 3°39′ (moves 0.07° over the day)
centaur (2060) · the wound and what is learnt from it
⚳ CeresTaurus 7°07′ (moves 0.15° over the day)
dwarf planet (1) · how a person nurtures and wants to be nurtured
♡ ErosSagittarius 6°55′ (moves 0.23° over the day)
near-Earth asteroid (433) · what draws them and how they desire
⚕ HygieaGemini 21°54′ (moves 0.27° over the day)
main-belt asteroid (10) · health, routine and what keeps them well
⚸ Black Moon LilithCapricorn 21°20′ (moves 0.11° over the day)
mean lunar apogee · the part that refuses to be tamed
Aspects to the asteroids and Lilith
- Eros sextile Neptune 1.8°
- Ceres square Venus 2.3°
- Eros trine Venus 2.5°
- Black Moon Lilith sextile Jupiter 2.7°
John’s dominant planets
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
Configurations in John’s chart
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, semi-square, quintile, sesquiquadrate, biquintile, quincunx.
- 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°
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
Computed from August 9, 1947. Tap to flip.
Birth tarot card
JudgementAsterNym identity card
The Gilded GuardianWestern zodiac
LeoChinese zodiac
Pig 亥Life Path
2 · Diplomat☉ Ruled by Sun
Gold Au
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
Where this comes from, and how it is worked out
John’s birth date and birthplace come from Wikidata Q504805 (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.
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. The full method: how it works.
Traditional interpretations, not facts or predictions, and not 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.
- 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 was John Varley's Life Path number?
- Life Path 2, calculated in numerology.
- What was John Varley's Chiron sign?
- Chiron in Scorpio at 3°. Position from JPL Horizons.
- 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.
