Merle Haggard
Merle Haggard (born April 6, 1937, Bakersfield, United States; died 2016), was an American country music songwriter, singer, and musician. Haggard's honours include Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, Kennedy Center Honors and California Hall of Fame.
Merle Haggard’s zodiac sign was Aries, Chinese zodiac was Fire Ox, with Life Path 3 in numerology.
Aries, Chinese zodiac was 
Fire Ox, with 
Life Path 3 in numerology.Your match with Merle
Merle Haggard’s AsterNym identity
The Tidal Diplomat
Water represents depth and adaptability. Water-led charts are associated with instinct, memory and the ability to find a path around obstacles. Life Path 3 represents expression: words, art, humour and making inner experience visible.
Water Day Master (BaZi) × cardinal Sun × Life Path 3, on the emotional plane.
How common is the name Merle in the U.S.?
#3485
US rank in 2025
~45,389
Americans share it since 1880
1925
its peak year
The SSA recorded 519 American boys and 302 girls named Merle in 1937: 229th among boys and 370th among girls for the year.
US Social Security Administration public records
What Merle’s name adds up to
Worked from the name as published, letter by letter.
9
Expression · the bigger picture
3
Soul Urge · being heard
6
Personality · caring, responsible
The name opens on M (4) and closes on E (5).
Pythagorean letter values · A=1 to I=9, then J=1 again
Merle’s lucky numbers, colours and stones
Traditional correspondences, calculated not chosen.
Lucky numbers
3 · 1 · 9
Lucky colours
Red & Orange
Lucky day
Tuesday
Direction
↓ South
Season
summer
Stones
Diamond, Red Coral, Carnelian
Flower constellation
🌼 Daisy · 🌺 Red Dahlia · 🌺 Poppy
White · Crimson · Flame orange
Eight Mansions · Kua number
Kua 8, trigram Gen 艮, West group. Best direction Southwest, worst South.
A different tradition from the Direction above, and a different question: feng shui reads it from the solar year 1937, 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 Merle apart
The Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame came in 1997, when Merle Haggard was 60.
Merle Haggard was taught at Bakersfield High School.
Merle Haggard was 26 when the work began in 1963.
Cause of death is recorded as pneumonia.
The family line: married Bonnie Owens.
Wikipedia files Merle Haggard under Bakersfield sound, Curb Records artists and Country musicians from California.
Billy Dee Williams shares the birth date exactly, so the chart below is nearly the same document for them both. What follows the chart is where they part.
- Educated at
- Bakersfield High School
- Instruments
- guitar and voice
- Awards
- Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (2006), California Hall of Fame (2010) and Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame (1997)
- Working from
- 1963
- Cause of death
- pneumonia
- Citizenship
- United States
- Languages
- English
- Wikipedia editions
- 41
What the chart says
Merle, according to the stars
Core essence
Merle leads with the body. First in, first to speak, first to say the thing everyone was thinking, and honestly a little surprised when the room needed a second to catch up. The core of Merle is courage that does not look like courage from the inside, it just looks like Tuesday. They would rather be wrong fast than right slowly, and it is why people follow them.
The vibe
Underneath, Merle needs air. The Moon in Aquarius feels things at a slight distance, thinks them over, and comes back with an answer that is kinder than the reaction would have been. What Merle needs to feel safe is space, friendship first, and to be accepted as exactly the odd shape they are. Then they are the most loyal person you know.
How Merle wants to be loved
Merle wants to be loved slowly and for real. Venus in Taurus is touch, food, the good blanket, the plan that does not change. They are sensual and steady and they want to be shown, not told: the small physical kindnesses count double. Once Merle is yours, they stay, and they expect the same.
How Merle creates
How Merle makes things happen: they seep in. A Yin Water day master is rain, mist, the still pool that reflects everything. Merle creates by sensing, by imagination, by noticing what nobody else said. Their influence is quiet and total. The work is not dissolving into everyone else's weather.
Instinct
Instinct: Merle is steady under pressure, an Ox year, and their gut reaction is to keep going. Patient, stubborn in the useful way, the one still working when the others have gone home, and quietly very proud of it. The Fire year turns the volume up: warmer, bolder, more expressive, harder to overlook.
Purpose
Purpose: Life Path 3 is the creative. Merle is here to express, to make, to say the thing in a way nobody has said it before. Joy is the work: the writing, the performing, the making people laugh. The lesson is finishing what the spark started.
Triggers
Triggers: being fenced in, and being lied to. Mars in Sagittarius fights loud, laughs it off, and is genuinely fine ten minutes later. Merle has boundless energy for anything with a horizon in it and none for the small print. Aim them at something far away and step back.
Computed from Merle's birth date. Working below.
Where Merle sits
Six lines
Merle’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 may leap first and adjust as you go. Waiting can feel like losing momentum.
You may wear your feelings openly. What you feel tends to show.
You may want to resolve tension the moment it appears, rather than let it sit.
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 Merle Haggard
Three stars chosen from the real sky above Bakersfield 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 Bakersfield that night
Computed for 35.37°N, 9 p.m. local sky.
Tania Australis stood nearest the zenith over Bakersfield at 9 p.m. that evening, 83.0° above the horizon in Ursa Major.
The brightest star above the horizon was Sirius in Canis Major, and 103 catalog stars were up in all.
Bakersfield sits at 35.4°N, low enough that no headline star is circumpolar: everything bright rises and sets there.
Rigil Kentaurus, Achernar, Hadar, Acrux, Mimosa and Toliman cannot be seen from Bakersfield at all: they sit past the −54.6° declination limit this latitude imposes.
The Moon was at waning crescent, 21% lit, and already below the horizon, with the Sun 30° down.
The name and the places
- Born in
- Bakersfield, United States
The death is recorded at Palo Cedro, Shasta County in 2016.
No birth time is on record, so no astrocartography map can be drawn for Merle Haggard: the lines move about fifteen degrees of longitude an hour. Shared Places can still draw yours.
How unusual Merle's chart is
Chart pattern score
65 / 100 · Unusual
2 unaspected planets · T-square onto Mercury · No Air planets
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 →Merle Haggard in 15 seconds
Aries Sun
Aries SunImpatient, and usually right to be.
Merle Haggard's Sun was in Aries for the whole of April 6, 1937, so no birth time is needed to settle it.
What Aries means →Fire Ox
Fire OxReliable to the bone.
Merle Haggard was born on April 6, 1937, which falls in a Fire Ox year of the Chinese calendar.
What the Ox means →Life Path 3
Life Path 3Creative, loud, warm.
Merle Haggard's birth date, April 6, 1937, reduces to Life Path 3 under the numerology method AsterNym uses.
What Life Path 3 means →What stands out in Merle’s chart
- The tightest major aspect in Merle Haggard's date-only chart is Jupiter opposition Pluto, with an orb of about 1°.
- Merle Haggard combines a Water Day Master in BaZi with a cardinal Sun and a Life Path on the emotional plane, the combination AsterNym calls The Tidal Diplomat.
Merle’s birth chart
Reference chart · birth time unknown
Positions are checked across the whole date. The Moon ranges from 11° to 24° Aquarius 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
stableSaturntrinePluto1.3° to 1.4° orb
Merle’s discipline flows straight into their depths. Effortless, which is exactly why it gets taken for granted.
stableJupiteroppositionPluto1.4° to 1.5° orb
Merle’s growth pulls against their depths from across the wheel.
stableMercurysquarePluto2.1° to 4.0° orb
Merle’s mind grinds against their depths. The friction is lifelong. Worked with, it builds real strength.
stableJupitersextileSaturn2.8° orb
stableMercuryconjunctionVenus3.0° to 5.3° orb
stableMercurysquareJupiter3.6° to 5.4° orb
stableVenusconjunctionUranus4.2° to 4.7° orb
possibleSunsextileMoonorb from 0.0° to 7.8° depending on birth time
possibleMoonsquareUranusorb from 3.3° to 16.6° depending on birth time
possibleMercuryconjunctionUranusorb from 7.7° to 9.6° depending on birth time
Chart signature
Elements
- Fire3 of 10
- Earth4 of 10
- Air1 of 10
- Water2 of 10
Modalities
- Cardinal4 of 10
- Fixed3 of 10
- Mutable3 of 10
Counted across the ten planets by sign: Earth leads this chart.
Merle’s Chiron, Ceres, Eros, Hygiea and Lilith
What astrologers make of these five, at noon values.
⚷ ChironGemini 18°54′ (moves 0.05° over the day)
centaur (2060) · the wound and what is learnt from it
⚳ CeresAquarius 15°57′ (moves 0.31° over the day)
dwarf planet (1) · how a person nurtures and wants to be nurtured
♡ ErosPisces 2°36′ (moves 0.56° over the day)
near-Earth asteroid (433) · what draws them and how they desire
⚕ HygieaCancer 6°06′ (moves 0.20° over the day)
main-belt asteroid (10) · health, routine and what keeps them well
⚸ Black Moon LilithScorpio 20°34′ (moves 0.11° over the day)
mean lunar apogee · the part that refuses to be tamed
Aspects to the asteroids and Lilith
- Ceres sextile Sun 0.6°
- Eros sextile Venus 1.2°
- Chiron square Neptune 2.1°
- Hygiea sextile Uranus 2.2°
- Chiron sextile Sun 2.3°
- Hygiea sextile Venus 2.3°
- Eros square Mars 2.6°
Merle’s dominant planets
1. ♀ Venus5 pts
in its own sign, Taurus; disposes Uranus; 2 major aspects
2. ♂ Mars5 pts
rules the Sun sign, Aries; disposes Sun, Mercury
3. ☿ Mercury4 pts
disposes Neptune; 3 major aspects
Configurations in Merle’s chart
T-square onto Mercury · Jupiter, Pluto, MercuryAn opposition with a third planet squaring both ends. Read as a driving tension that resolves through the apex planet.
Minor aspects
semi-sextile, semi-square, quintile, sesquiquadrate, biquintile, quincunx.
- Sun quincunx Neptune 0.2°
- Mercury biquintile Mars 0.4°
- Venus quincunx Mars 1.4°
- Mercury semi-sextile Saturn 1.7°
- Venus sesquiquadrate Neptune 2.0°
Born the same day as Merle
Billy Dee Williams was born on April 6, 1937 too, the same date and the same year. With no birth time for any of them the chart is identical, not similar: the same Sun, the same pillars, the same Life Path. The sky over the birthplace is not shared: from Bakersfield, at 35.4°N, nothing below −54.6° declination ever rises, which keeps Rigil Kentaurus, Achernar, Hadar, Acrux, Mimosa and Toliman permanently out of sight. Same sky, different lives.
More people like Merle
Other composers
- Hugh Masekela1939
- Donald Martino1931
- John Harbison1938
- Jerry Herman1931
- Fela Kuti1938
- Michael Colgrass1932
Born in United States
- Roger ZelaznyU.S. science fiction and fantasy writer and poet
- Philip GlassAmerican composer (born 1937)
- George CarlinAmerican stand-up comedian
- David NewmanAmerican screenwriter
- Jack NicholsonAmerican actor and filmmaker
- Robert D. McFaddenAmerican journalist
More charts like Merle’s
Fellow Aries suns
- Duncan LaurenceDutch singer
- Thiago AlcântaraSpanish association football player
- Anya Taylor-JoyActress
Born in Ox years
- Hermann HesseNobel Prize winning German-Swiss poet, novelist and painter
- Carol GreiderAmerican molecular biologist
- Martti AhtisaariPresident of Finland from 1994 to 2000
Also born on April 6
- James Watson1928
- Paul Rudd1969
- Zach Braff1975
- Todd Chrisley1969
- Marilu Henner1952
- Shaheen Afridi2000
Fellow Yin Water day masters
- Hank WilliamsAmerican singer-songwriter
- James Phinney Baxter IIIAmerican historian
- Evan VucciAmerican photographer, chief Washington photographer at Associated Press
Other Aries Ox charts
- AkonSenegalese-American singer, songwriter, and record producer
- Roberto CarlosBrazilian footballer
- Lisa GerrardAustralian musician, singer and composer
- LisaThai rapper, singer, model, dancer and actress
Other Tidal Diplomats
- Abigail HeringerAmerican reality television participant
- Ali KriegerAmerican soccer player
- Charles KelleyAmerican musician
- Vanessa KirbyBritish actress (born 1987)
Famous people with Life Path 3
- Marissa MayerAmerican business executive and engineer, former CEO of Yahoo!
- Indra NooyiIndian-American business executive and former CEO of PepsiCo
- Kobbie MainooEnglish footballer
From the journal: Your animal plus your element: the 60-year cycle · Flying Star feng shui: the one that changes with time
Merle’s cards
Computed from April 6, 1937. Tap to flip.
Birth tarot card
The WorldAsterNym identity card
The Tidal DiplomatWestern zodiac
AriesChinese zodiac
Ox 丑Life Path
3 · Storyteller♂ Ruled by Mars
Iron Fe
The working: BaZi pillarsshow
BaZi pillars
Day Master: yin Water.
Year
丁
yin Fire
丑
Ox
Earth
roots & early life
Month
甲
yang Wood
辰
Dragon
Earth
work & drive
Day
day master
癸
yin Water
亥
Pig
Water
you & partnership
Where this comes from, and how it is worked out
Merle’s birth date and birthplace come from Wikidata Q183092 (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 whittlz at https://www.flickr.com/photos/whittlz/, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
The same Merle Haggard at Wikipedia, IMDb, X and MusicBrainz.
Roster last reviewed September 10, 2026. The full method: how it works.
Traditional interpretations, not facts or predictions, and not endorsed by Merle Haggard.
Quick answers about Merle Haggard’s chart
- What zodiac sign was Merle Haggard?
- Merle Haggard was an Aries: born April 6, 1937, which puts the Sun in Aries for the whole of that day.
- What was Merle Haggard's Chinese zodiac animal?
- The Ox, with the Fire element, from the Chinese lunar year of the April 6, 1937 birth.
- What was Merle Haggard's Life Path number?
- Life Path 3, calculated in numerology.
- What was Merle Haggard's Chiron sign?
- Chiron in Gemini at 18°. Position from JPL Horizons.
- Where was Merle Haggard's Black Moon Lilith?
- Mean Black Moon Lilith in Scorpio at 20°. This is the mean lunar apogee; the osculating Lilith some tables use can sit up to 30° away.
- What was Merle Haggard's dominant planet?
- Venus, on AsterNym's dominance score (5 points: in its own sign, Taurus; disposes Uranus; 2 major aspects). Mars is second and Mercury third. Other sites weight rulerships and aspects differently and can name a different leader.
