Ray Charles
Ray Charles (born September 23, 1930, Albany, United States; died 2004), was an American singer, pianist and songwriter. Charles is best remembered for Georgia on My Mind / Carry Me Back to Old Virginny. Charles's honours include Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Blues Hall of Fame and Kennedy Center Honors.
Ray Charles’s zodiac sign was Virgo or Libra (the Sun changed sign that day, and no documented birth time settles which), Chinese zodiac was Metal Horse, with Life Path 9 in numerology.
Metal Horse, with 
Life Path 9 in numerology.Your match with Ray
How common is the name Ray in the U.S.?
#792
US rank in 2025
~210,307
Americans share it since 1880
1957
its peak year
The SSA recorded 3,254 American boys and 102 girls named Ray in 1930: 57th among boys and 682nd among girls for the year.
US Social Security Administration public records
What Ray’s name adds up to
Worked from the name as published, letter by letter.
11
Expression · sensing what is coming
7
Soul Urge · understanding
4
Personality · steady, dependable
The name opens on R (9) and closes on Y (7). The value it repeats most is 1, which numerology reads as drive.
Pythagorean letter values · A=1 to I=9, then J=1 again
Ray’s lucky numbers, colours and stones
Traditional correspondences, calculated not chosen.
Lucky numbers
9 · 2 · 3 · 7
Lucky colours
White & Gold
Lucky day
—
Direction
← West
Season
autumn
Stones
Sapphire, Your planetary stone, Rutilated Quartz
Flower constellation
⭐ Aster · 🤍 White Camellia
Lavender · Silver
Eight Mansions · Kua number
Kua 6, trigram Qian 乾, West group. Best direction West, worst Southeast.
A different tradition from the Direction above, and a different question: feng shui reads it from the solar year 1930, 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 Ray apart
Bruce Springsteen (1949) and Julio Iglesias (1943) share the birthday in another year, so the sun sits where it sits here.
- Citizenship
- United States
- Languages
- English
What the chart says
Ray, according to the stars
The vibe
Underneath, Ray cannot fully relax while anyone in the room is unhappy. The Moon in Libra feels through harmony and hates conflict in their own house. What Ray needs to feel safe is fairness, softness and a partner in the small decisions. They are at their best when someone else picks the restaurant and they get to enjoy it.
How Ray wants to be loved
Ray wants to be loved completely or not at all. Venus in Scorpio is intense, private and all in, and wants the same depth back: no games, no half measures. Trust is the whole thing. Be honest with Ray even when it costs you, and they will be the most devoted person you have ever met.
How Ray creates
How Ray makes things happen: they light the room. A Yang Fire day master is the sun, warm, visible, impossible to ignore, generous with energy and expecting the same back. Ray creates in front of people and is at their best with an audience and a cause. The work is learning to rest before the fire does it for them.
Instinct
Instinct: Ray is free-spirited, a Horse year, and their gut reaction is to run toward the new thing. Energetic, warm, popular, honest to a fault, and impossible to keep indoors. The Metal year sharpens it: principled, determined, clear about what is right.
Purpose
Purpose: Life Path 9 is the humanitarian. Ray is here for the bigger picture, to give, to finish what others started and hand it on. Wise beyond their years, compassionate, a little world-weary, and learning to receive as freely as they give.
Triggers
Triggers: feeling unsafe, or seeing their people treated badly. Mars in Cancer means Ray 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 Ray's birth date. Working below.
✦ A real star from their birth night
Dedicate a star to Ray Charles
Three stars chosen from the real sky above Albany 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 Albany that night
Computed for 31.58°N, 9 p.m. local sky.
Overhead at Albany at 9 p.m. that evening: Albireo of Cygnus, within 3.9° of the exact zenith.
Of the 85 catalog stars above the horizon, Arcturus was the brightest.
Albany sits at 31.6°N, low enough that no headline star is circumpolar: everything bright rises and sets there.
Rigil Kentaurus, Hadar, Acrux, Mimosa and Toliman cannot be seen from Albany at all: they sit past the −58.4° declination limit this latitude imposes.
The Moon, 3% lit at new moon, had already set; the Sun sat 19° below the horizon.
The name and the places
- Born in
- Albany, United States
- Lived in
- Los Angeles · Greenville
Wikidata records Los Angeles and Greenville as Ray Charles's home, against Albany as the birthplace.
The death is recorded at Beverly Hills, Los Angeles County in 2004.
No birth time is on record, so no astrocartography map can be drawn for Ray Charles: the lines move about fifteen degrees of longitude an hour. Shared Places can still draw yours.
How unusual Ray's chart is
Chart pattern score
58 / 100 · Unusual
3-planet stellium in Virgo · T-square onto Mars · 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 →Ray Charles at a glance
Virgo or Libra Sun
Ray Charles was born on a day when the Sun moved from Virgo into Libra. Without a documented birth time, the exact Sun sign cannot be determined reliably, so AsterNym shows both rather than choosing one.
Metal Horse
Metal HorseBright, restless, warm.
Ray Charles was born on September 23, 1930, which falls in a Metal Horse year of the Chinese calendar.
What the Horse means →Life Path 9
Life Path 9Endings come naturally.
Ray Charles's birth date, September 23, 1930, reduces to Life Path 9 under the numerology method AsterNym uses.
What Life Path 9 means →What stands out in Ray’s chart
- The tightest major aspect in Ray Charles' date-only chart is Venus trine Mars, with an orb of under 1°.
- Three planets, Sun, Mercury and Neptune, sit together in Virgo, which astrologers call a stellium.
- Six of the ten planets fall in Cardinal signs, making Cardinal the strongest modality in this chart.
- This chart has an even Earth/Water emphasis, with four planets in each.
Ray’s birth chart
Reference chart · birth time unknown
Positions are checked across the whole date. The Moon ranges from 8° to 23° Libra 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
stableVenustrineMars0.0° to 0.2° orb
Ray’s affections flow straight into their drive.
stableSaturntrineNeptune1.1° orb
Ray’s discipline flows straight into their imagination. Effortless, which is exactly why it gets taken for granted.
stableVenustrineJupiter1.2° to 2.0° orb
Ray’s affections flow straight into their growth.
stableMarsconjunctionJupiter1.4° to 1.8° orb
stableMarssquareUranus1.5° to 2.1° orb
stableSunconjunctionMercury2.7° to 4.7° orb
stableJupitersquareUranus3.3° to 3.5° orb
stableJupiterconjunctionPluto3.3° to 3.4° orb
stableVenustrinePluto4.6° to 5.4° orb
stableMarsconjunctionPluto4.7° to 5.2° orb
stableSunsquareSaturn5.0° to 6.0° orb
stableUranussquarePluto6.8° orb
Chart signature
Elements
- Fire1 of 10
- Earth4 of 10
- Air1 of 10
- Water4 of 10
Modalities
- Cardinal6 of 10
- Fixed1 of 10
- Mutable3 of 10
Counted across the ten planets by sign.
Ray’s Chiron, Ceres, Eros, Hygiea and Lilith
What astrologers make of these five, at noon values.
⚷ Chiron ℞Taurus 18°28′ (moves 0.03° over the day)
centaur (2060) · the wound and what is learnt from it
⚳ CeresVirgo 2°11′ (moves 0.44° over the day)
dwarf planet (1) · how a person nurtures and wants to be nurtured
♡ ErosGemini 18°02′ (moves 0.67° over the day)
near-Earth asteroid (433) · what draws them and how they desire
⚕ HygieaGemini 17°07′ (moves 0.08° over the day)
main-belt asteroid (10) · health, routine and what keeps them well
⚸ Black Moon LilithAquarius 24°38′ (moves 0.11° over the day)
mean lunar apogee · the part that refuses to be tamed
Aspects to the asteroids and Lilith
- Chiron sextile Jupiter 1.1°
- Ceres conjunction Neptune 2.1°
- Chiron sextile Pluto 2.3°
- Chiron opposition Venus 2.7°
- Chiron sextile Mars 2.7°
Ray’s dominant planets
1. ☿ Mercury8 pts
rules the Sun sign, Virgo; in its own sign, Virgo; disposes Sun, Neptune; 1 major aspect
2. ♂ Mars5 pts
disposes Uranus; 4 major aspects
3. ♇ Pluto5 pts
disposes Venus; 4 major aspects
Configurations in Ray’s chart
Stellium in Virgo · Sun, Mercury, NeptuneThree 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.
- Sun quintile Jupiter 0.6°
- Venus quintile Neptune 0.6°
- Sun semi-square Venus 0.8°
- Neptune semi-square Pluto 1.4°
- Venus quincunx Uranus 1.8°
- Jupiter semi-square Neptune 2.0°
More people like Ray
Other composers
- Berry Gordy1929
- Quincy Jones1933
- Jacob Druckman1928
- Buddy Guy1936
- Chuck Berry1926
- Jerry Herman1931
Born in United States
- Sonny RollinsAmerican jazz saxophonist and composer
- Alvin AileyAfrican-American dancer, choreographer and activist
- Frank GiffordAmerican football player, television sportscaster
- James DeanAmerican actor
- Gena RowlandsAmerican actress
- Frank Peters Jr.American journalist
More charts like Ray’s
Born in Horse years
- Gleb FetisovFilm producer
- Harald LinkThai businessman
- David FiloAmerican businessman
Also born on September 23
- Bruce Springsteen1949
- Julio Iglesias1943
- Michel Temer1940
- Napheesa Collier1996
- Jason Alexander1959
- Skylar Astin1987
Fellow Yang Fire day masters
- Shaun TanAustralian illustrator, writer, and animated filmmaker (born 1974)
- Wang DuluChinese wuxia author, creator of Crane Iron Pentalogy series
- James GunnAmerican science fiction author
Famous people with Life Path 9
- Dolores HuertaAmerican labor leader
- André 3000American rapper, singer, record producer and actor
- Coco RochaCanadian fashion model
From the journal: The modern vs traditional rulers debate · 2027, Year of the Goat: what it means for every sign
Ray’s cards
Computed from September 23, 1930. Tap to flip.
The working: BaZi pillarsshow
BaZi pillars
Day Master: yang Fire.
Year
庚
yang Metal
午
Horse
Fire
roots & early life
Month
乙
yin Wood
酉
Rooster
Metal
work & drive
Day
day master
丙
yang Fire
子
Rat
Water
you & partnership
Where this comes from, and how it is worked out
Ray’s birth date and birthplace come from Wikidata Q544387 (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 William Morris Agency (management)/Photo by Maurice Seymour, New York., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
The same Ray Charles at Wikipedia, raycharles.com, IMDb, Instagram, YouTube and MusicBrainz.
Roster last reviewed September 10, 2026. The full method: how it works.
Traditional interpretations, not facts or predictions, and not endorsed by Ray Charles.
Quick answers about Ray Charles’s chart
- What zodiac sign was Ray Charles?
- Ray Charles was born on a day when the Sun moved from Virgo into Libra. Without a documented birth time, the exact Sun sign cannot be determined reliably, so AsterNym shows both rather than choosing one.
- What was Ray Charles's Chinese zodiac animal?
- The Horse, with the Metal element, from the Chinese lunar year of the September 23, 1930 birth.
- What was Ray Charles's Life Path number?
- Life Path 9, calculated in numerology.
- What was Ray Charles's Chiron sign?
- Chiron in Taurus at 18°. Position from JPL Horizons.
- Where was Ray Charles's Black Moon Lilith?
- Mean Black Moon Lilith in Aquarius at 24°. This is the mean lunar apogee; the osculating Lilith some tables use can sit up to 30° away.
- What was Ray Charles's dominant planet?
- Mercury, on AsterNym's dominance score (8 points: rules the Sun sign, Virgo; in its own sign, Virgo; disposes Sun, Neptune; 1 major aspect). Mars is second and Pluto third. Other sites weight rulerships and aspects differently and can name a different leader.
