AsterNymAsterNym
Portrait of Shirley Ann Grau

Shirley Ann Grau

Shirley Ann Grau (born July 8, 1929, New Orleans, United States; died 2020), was an American writer. Grau is best remembered for The Keepers of the House. Grau's honours include Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

Shirley Ann Grau’s zodiac sign was Cancer, Chinese zodiac was Earth Snake, with Life Path 9 in numerology.

Your match with Shirley

Free, no account, stays on this device. Add a birth time later.

Shirley Ann Grau’s AsterNym identity

The Evergreen Visionary

Wood represents growth. Wood-led charts are associated with patience, adaptability and the drive to keep developing. Life Path 9 represents compassion: generosity, completion and the ability to consider more than one person’s experience.

Wood Day Master (BaZi) × cardinal Sun × Life Path 9, on the intuitive plane.

How common is the name Shirley in the U.S.?

#1586

US rank in 2025

~695,934

Americans share it since 1880

1935

its peak year

Shirley ranked 9th among girls and 347th among boys in 1929, the year of this birth, with 14,576 American girls and 263 boys on the register.

US Social Security Administration public records

What Shirley’s name adds up to

Worked from the name as published, letter by letter.

1

Expression · starting things

1

Soul Urge · independence

9

Personality · generous, worldly

The name opens on S (1) and closes on Y (7).

Pythagorean letter values · A=1 to I=9, then J=1 again

Shirley’s lucky numbers, colours and stones

Traditional correspondences, calculated not chosen.

Lucky numbers

9 · 2 · 8

Lucky colours

Yellow & Ochre

Lucky day

Monday

Direction

• Center

Season

the turning of seasons

Stones

Ruby, Pearl, Citrine

Flower constellation

💠 Larkspur · 🤍 Jasmine · 🌻 Zinnia

Sky blue · Pearl · Terracotta

The record

What sets Shirley apart

John D. Rockefeller (1839) and Son Heung-min (1992) share the birthday in another year, so the sun sits where it sits here.

What the chart says

Shirley, according to the stars

Core essence

Shirley feels the room before entering it. The core of Shirley is care, the practical kind that remembers what you said in March and has already made the tea. They protect their people with a fierceness that surprises anyone who only knew the soft exterior. Home is not a place for Shirley, it is whoever they have decided to keep.

The vibe

Underneath, Shirley needs to be adored a little, and there is nothing wrong with that. The Moon in Leo feels things dramatically and generously and wants them noticed. What Shirley needs to feel safe is to be chosen out loud: the compliment said in front of people, the text that says you were thinking of them. They repay it tenfold.

How Shirley wants to be loved

Shirley wants to be loved in conversation. Venus in Gemini falls for a mind first: the banter, the shared joke, the person who keeps them guessing a little. Attention is the love language and boredom is the enemy. Keep talking to Shirley like it is the first week, and it can feel like it for years.

How Shirley creates

How Shirley makes things happen: they grow upward. A Yang Wood day master is the tree, the one with a direction and the patience to keep at it through a bad season. Shirley builds in the open, wants to be useful, and is at their most creative when there is something to reach for. Bend rather than break is the lesson they learn a few times.

Instinct

Instinct: Shirley is wise and watchful, a Snake year, and their gut reaction is to observe before moving. Elegant, intuitive, private, and usually right about people long before saying so. The Earth year grounds it: practical, patient, someone people lean on.

Purpose

Purpose: Life Path 9 is the humanitarian. Shirley 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: sloppiness, and being told they are overthinking it. Mars in Virgo means Shirley channels energy into fixing, sorting, getting it right, and gets sharp when others do not care. The critic turns inward first. Give them a problem worth solving and watch them come alive.

Computed from Shirley's birth date. Working below.

Where Shirley sits

Six lines

Shirley’s dot comes from the chart; yours is where you put it.

Intimate circleWide network
Shirley

You may run on a few close bonds rather than a crowd. Depth is your default.

DeliberateSpontaneous
Shirley

You likely weigh most decisions but can move fast when it matters.

PrivateExpressive
Shirley

You likely share some feelings openly and keep others to yourself.

Cool off firstResolve immediately
Shirley

You likely handle some friction right away and let smaller things settle.

PracticalVisionary
Shirley

You may be drawn to big possibilities. The practical follows after the vision.

Gradual trustImmediate chemistry
Shirley

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 Shirley Ann Grau

Three stars chosen from the real sky above New Orleans on the night they were born. Choose the story that connects you.

Shirley’s birth-night reference starIzarwarm orange · BoötesIzar, in Boötes. A warm orange star, 84.2° above the horizon at 9 p.m. local time, the bright star nearest the zenith.Dedicate Izar →The warmest lightAntaresdeep red · ScorpiusAntares, in Scorpius. A deep red star, 30.7° above the horizon at 9 p.m. local time, the warmest-toned bright star up that night.Dedicate Antares →

A 9 p.m. reference sky, not the birth minute. Dedications are commemorative and confer no ownership of stars.

The sky over New Orleans that night

Computed for 29.98°N, 9 p.m. local sky.

Overhead at New Orleans at 9 p.m. that evening: Izar of Boötes, within 5.8° of the exact zenith.

The brightest star above the horizon was Arcturus in Boötes, and 79 catalog stars were up in all.

From 30.0°N not one of the brightest stars stays permanently above the horizon — all of them rise and set.

Nothing below −60.0° declination clears the horizon at this latitude, so Rigil Kentaurus, Hadar, Acrux and Toliman were never visible from New Orleans on any night.

Sun 11° below the horizon, Moon up and 8% lit at waxing crescent.

How unusual Shirley's chart is

Chart pattern score

17 / 100 · Reassuringly normal

2 planets at a critical degree

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 →

Shirley Ann Grau at a glance

Cancer Sun

Feeds you before you ask.

Shirley Ann Grau's Sun was in Cancer for the whole of July 8, 1929, so no birth time is needed to settle it.

What Cancer means →

Earth Snake

Calm surface, fast strike.

Shirley Ann Grau was born on July 8, 1929, which falls in a Earth Snake year of the Chinese calendar.

What the Snake means →

Life Path 9

Wide view, open hands.

Shirley Ann Grau's birth date, July 8, 1929, reduces to Life Path 9 under the numerology method AsterNym uses.

What Life Path 9 means →

What stands out in Shirley’s chart

Shirley’s birth chart

Reference chart · birth time unknown

Positions are checked across the whole date. The Moon ranges from 4° to 19° Leo depending on the hour.

AriesTaurusGeminiCancerLeoVirgoLibraScorpioSagittariusCapricornAquariusPisces123456789101112Mercury faces off with Saturn · Opposition, 0.3° orbMoon flows with Uranus · Trine, 0.8° orbVenus grinds against Neptune · Square, 1.1° orbSun fuses with Pluto · Conjunction, 1.8° orbVenus grinds against Mars · Square, 1.9° orbMars grinds against Jupiter · Square, 3.1° orbMars fuses with Neptune · Conjunction, 3.1° orbSaturn flows with Neptune · Trine, 3.7° orbSun in Cancer · 16°01′☉16°Moon in Leo · 12°09′☽12°Mercury in Gemini · 25°31′☿25°Venus in Gemini · 0°38′♀0°Mars in Virgo · 2°35′♂2°Jupiter in Gemini · 5°42′♃5°Saturn in Sagittarius · 25°49′ · retrograde♄℞25°Uranus in Aries · 11°21′♅11°Neptune in Leo · 29°31′♆29°Pluto in Cancer · 17°52′♇17°

No birth time, so the houses are a solar chart: the Sun’s sign counts as house 1.

Tap a planet, a sign, a house, an aspect line or an element to see what it means and what sits in it.
Lines drawn
Conjunction 0°
Sextile 60°
Square 90°
Trine 120°
Opposition 180°

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

  • stableMercuryoppositionSaturn0.0° to 1.0° orb

    Shirley’s mind pulls against their discipline from across the wheel.

  • stableVenussquareNeptune0.6° to 1.6° orb

    Shirley’s affections grind against their imagination. The friction is lifelong. Worked with, it builds real strength.

  • stableSunconjunctionPluto1.4° to 2.3° orb

    Shirley’s core identity and depths act as one. Each makes the other louder.

  • stableVenussquareMars1.7° to 2.1° orb

  • stableMarsconjunctionNeptune2.8° to 3.4° orb

  • stableMarssquareJupiter2.9° to 3.3° orb

  • stableMercurysextileNeptune3.4° to 4.6° orb

  • stableSaturntrineNeptune3.6° to 3.7° orb

  • stableSunsquareUranus4.2° to 5.1° orb

  • stableVenusconjunctionJupiter4.7° to 5.5° orb

  • stableJupitersquareNeptune6.1° to 6.3° orb

  • stableUranussquarePluto6.5° orb

Chart signature

Elements

  • Fire4 of 10
  • Earth1 of 10
  • Air3 of 10
  • Water2 of 10

Modalities

  • Cardinal3 of 10
  • Fixed2 of 10
  • Mutable5 of 10

Counted across the ten planets by sign: Fire leads this chart.

Shirley’s Chiron, Ceres, Eros, Hygiea and Lilith

What astrologers make of these five, at noon values.

  • ⚷ ChironTaurus 13°38′ (moves 0.04° over the day)

    centaur (2060) · the wound and what is learnt from it

  • ⚳ CeresTaurus 26°32′ (moves 0.35° over the day)

    dwarf planet (1) · how a person nurtures and wants to be nurtured

  • ♡ ErosVirgo 4°59′ (moves 0.86° over the day)

    near-Earth asteroid (433) · what draws them and how they desire

  • ⚕ HygieaAries 13°39′ (moves 0.14° over the day)

    main-belt asteroid (10) · health, routine and what keeps them well

  • ⚸ Black Moon LilithCapricorn 5°24′ (moves 0.11° over the day)

    mean lunar apogee · the part that refuses to be tamed

Aspects to the asteroids and Lilith

  • Eros square Jupiter 0.7°
  • Hygiea conjunction Uranus 2.3°
  • Chiron sextile Sun 2.4°
  • Eros conjunction Mars 2.4°
  • Hygiea square Sun 2.4°
  • Black Moon Lilith trine Mars 2.8°
  • Ceres square Neptune 3.0°

Shirley’s dominant planets

  1. 1. ☿ Mercury7 pts

    in its own sign, Gemini; disposes Venus, Mars, Jupiter; 2 major aspects

  2. 2. ☽ Moon5 pts

    rules the Sun sign, Cancer; disposes Sun, Pluto

  3. 3. ♆ Neptune5 pts

    5 major aspects

Configurations in Shirley’s chart

No stellium, grand trine, T-square, grand cross, yod or kite — the common case.

Minor aspects

semi-sextile, semi-square, quintile, sesquiquadrate, biquintile, quincunx.

  • Mars semi-square Pluto 0.3°
  • Sun semi-square Venus 0.4°
  • Sun semi-square Neptune 1.5°
  • Sun semi-square Mars 1.6°

More people like Shirley

Other writers

Born in United States

More charts like Shirley’s

Fellow Cancer suns

All about Cancer →

Born in Snake years

Year of the Snake →

Also born on July 8

Fellow Yang Wood day masters

What a Day Master is →

Other Cancer Snake charts

Other Evergreen Visionarys

The Evergreen Visionary explained →

Famous people with Life Path 9

Life Path numbers explained →

From the journal: Fixed, cardinal, mutable: the modality cheat sheet · Why there are 12 signs and not 13

Shirley’s cards

Computed from July 8, 1929. Tap to flip.

Birth tarot card

The Moon

AsterNym identity card

The Evergreen Visionary

Western zodiac

Cancer

Chinese zodiac

Snake 巳

Life Path

9 · Healer

☾ Ruled by Moon

Silver Ag

The working: BaZi pillarsshow

BaZi pillars

Day Master: yang Wood.

Year

己

yin Earth

巳

Snake

Fire

roots & early life

Month

辛

yin Metal

未

Goat

Earth

work & drive

Day

day master

甲

yang Wood

寅

Tiger

Wood

you & partnership

Where this comes from, and how it is worked out

Shirley’s birth date and birthplace come from Wikidata Q459631 (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 Associated Press, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

The same Shirley Ann Grau at Wikipedia and IMDb.

Roster last reviewed September 10, 2026. The full method: how it works.

Traditional interpretations, not facts or predictions, and not endorsed by Shirley Ann Grau.

Quick answers about Shirley Ann Grau’s chart

What zodiac sign was Shirley Ann Grau?
Shirley Ann Grau was a Cancer: born July 8, 1929, which puts the Sun in Cancer for the whole of that day.
What was Shirley Ann Grau's Chinese zodiac animal?
The Snake, with the Earth element, from the Chinese lunar year of the July 8, 1929 birth.
What was Shirley Ann Grau's Life Path number?
Life Path 9, calculated in numerology.
What was Shirley Ann Grau's Chiron sign?
Chiron in Taurus at 13°. Position from JPL Horizons.
Where was Shirley Ann Grau's Black Moon Lilith?
Mean Black Moon Lilith in Capricorn at 5°. This is the mean lunar apogee; the osculating Lilith some tables use can sit up to 30° away.
What was Shirley Ann Grau's dominant planet?
Mercury, on AsterNym's dominance score (7 points: in its own sign, Gemini; disposes Venus, Mars, Jupiter; 2 major aspects). Moon is second and Neptune third. Other sites weight rulerships and aspects differently and can name a different leader.

More charts to explore