Ted Chiang
Ted Chiang (born October 20, 1967, Port Jefferson, United States), aged 59, is an American science fiction writer. Chiang is best known for Exhalation, Story of Your Life and Tower of Babylon. Chiang's honours include Theodore Sturgeon Award, Astounding Award for Best New Writer and Hugo Award for Best Novelette.
Ted Chiang’s zodiac sign is Libra, Chinese zodiac is Fire Goat, with Life Path 8 in numerology.
Libra, Chinese zodiac is 
Fire Goat, with 
Life Path 8 in numerology.Your match with Ted
Ted Chiang’s AsterNym identity
The Radiant Strategist
Fire represents warmth, visibility and momentum. Fire-led charts are associated with enthusiasm, expression and the ability to encourage other people. Life Path 8 represents mastery: ambition, resources and turning sustained effort into visible results.
Fire Day Master (BaZi) × cardinal Sun × Life Path 8, on the mental plane.
How common is the name Ted in the U.S.?
#3229
US rank in 2025
~75,424
Americans share it since 1880
1958
its peak year
In 1967, 953 American boys and 10 girls were registered Ted — 230th among boys and 4,590th among girls on the SSA's list that year.
US Social Security Administration public records
What Ted’s name adds up to
Worked from the name as published, letter by letter.
8
Expression · direction and scale
6
Soul Urge · being needed
11
Personality · perceptive
The name opens on T (2) and closes on D (4). The value it repeats most is 5, which numerology reads as movement.
Pythagorean letter values · A=1 to I=9, then J=1 again
Ted’s lucky numbers, colours and stones
Traditional correspondences, calculated not chosen.
Lucky numbers
8 · 2 · 7
Lucky colours
Red & Orange
Lucky day
Friday
Direction
↓ South
Season
summer
Stones
Opal, Diamond, Carnelian
Flower constellation
🧡 Marigold · 🌹 Blush Rose · 🌺 Poppy
Amber · Blush · Flame orange
Eight Mansions · Kua number
Kua 2, trigram Kun 坤, West group. Best direction Northeast, worst East.
A different tradition from the Direction above, and a different question: feng shui reads it from the solar year 1967, 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 Ted apart
Stories of Your Life and Others, Tower of Babylon and Story of Your Life. That is the work the name is attached to.
The schooling ran through Brown University.
Ted Chiang was 23 when the work began in 1990.
On Wikipedia the categories read Writers from San Diego, American writers of Taiwanese descent and University of Notre Dame faculty.
Luigi Lo Cascio 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.
- Known for
- Stories of Your Life and Others, Tower of Babylon and Story of Your Life
- Educated at
- Brown University
- Awards
- Hugo Award for Best Novella (2011), Theodore Sturgeon Award (1999) and Nebula Award for Best Novelette (2003)
- Nominated for
- Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature and Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire for Best Foreign-Language Short Story
- Working from
- 1990
- Citizenship
- United States
- Languages
- English and American English
- Wikipedia editions
- 32
What the chart says
Ted, according to the stars
Core essence
Ted makes the room fairer just by being in it. The core of Ted is a feel for balance, in people, in colour, in who has not been asked their opinion yet. They are charming because they are genuinely interested, and they can see every side of a thing, which is a gift and, on a bad day, a very slow way to choose dinner.
The vibe
Underneath, Ted 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 Ted needs to feel safe is consistency. Show up the same way twice and you are in.
How Ted wants to be loved
Ted wants to be loved attentively. Venus in Virgo shows love through service, the fixed thing, the remembered appointment, and wants to be loved the same way: notice what they did. Big words matter less than the follow-through. Be reliable with Ted and they will quietly make your whole life run better.
How Ted creates
How Ted makes things happen: they hold the flame steady. A Yin Fire day master is the candle, the lamp, the light that is close and personal rather than blazing. Ted creates intimacy, one room, one conversation, one person made to feel seen. Moody when the fuel runs low, magnetic when it does not.
Instinct
Instinct: Ted is creative and kind, a Goat year, and their gut reaction is to make it beautiful. Artistic, gentle, easily moved, and the friend everyone confides in. The Fire year turns the volume up: warmer, bolder, more expressive, harder to overlook.
Purpose
Purpose: Life Path 8 is the powerhouse. Ted is here to build something big and run it well: money, influence, a body of work with their name on it. Ambitious, capable, generous when winning, and learning that power is for lifting people.
Triggers
Triggers: being fenced in, and being lied to. Mars in Sagittarius fights loud, laughs it off, and is genuinely fine ten minutes later. Ted 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 Ted's birth date. Working below.
Where Ted sits
Six lines
Ted’s dot comes from the chart; yours is where you put it.
You may draw energy from a wide network, many doors, lightly held.
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 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 Ted Chiang
Three stars chosen from the real sky above Port Jefferson 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 Port Jefferson that night
Computed for 40.95°N, 9 p.m. local sky.
At 9 p.m. the star closest to straight overhead at Port Jefferson was Deneb, in Cygnus, 74.4° up.
Of the 91 catalog stars above the horizon, Vega was the brightest.
Port Jefferson sits at 40.9°N, low enough that no headline star is circumpolar: everything bright rises and sets there.
Canopus, Rigil Kentaurus, Achernar, Hadar, Acrux, Mimosa and Toliman cannot be seen from Port Jefferson at all: they sit past the −49.1° declination limit this latitude imposes.
Sun 33° below the horizon, Moon up and 94% lit at waning gibbous.
How unusual Ted's chart is
Chart pattern score
59 / 100 · Unusual
4-planet stellium in Virgo · 2 unaspected planets · 1 planet 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 →Ted Chiang at a glance
Libra Sun
Libra SunFair to a fault, slow to pick.
Ted Chiang's Sun was in Libra for the whole of October 20, 1967, so no birth time is needed to settle it.
What Libra means →Fire Goat
Fire GoatGentle hands, strong opinions.
Ted Chiang was born on October 20, 1967, which falls in a Fire Goat year of the Chinese calendar.
What the Goat means →Life Path 8
Life Path 8Turns effort into standing.
Ted Chiang's birth date, October 20, 1967, reduces to Life Path 8 under the numerology method AsterNym uses.
What Life Path 8 means →What stands out in Ted’s chart
- The tightest major aspect in Ted Chiang's date-only chart is Mars square Uranus, with an orb of about 1°.
- Four planets, Venus, Jupiter, Uranus and Pluto, sit together in Virgo, which astrologers call a stellium.
- Five of the ten planets fall in Mutable signs, making Mutable the strongest modality in this chart.
- Ted Chiang combines a Fire Day Master in BaZi with a cardinal Sun and a Life Path on the mental plane, the combination AsterNym calls The Radiant Strategist.
Ted’s birth chart
Reference chart · birth time unknown
Positions are checked across the whole date. The Moon ranges from 14° to 26° 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
stableMoontrinePluto0.1° to 6.8° orb
Ted’s feelings flow straight into their depths. A talent so smooth it can go unnoticed.
stableMarssquareUranus1.1° to 1.8° orb
Ted’s drive grinds against their need for freedom. The friction is lifelong. Worked with, it builds real strength.
stableNeptunesextilePluto1.4° orb
Ted’s imagination opens doors for their depths. An easy alliance, and it pays off when it is used.
stableSunsextileMars1.5° to 1.8° orb
stableMarstrineJupiter1.7° to 2.3° orb
stableSunsextileJupiter3.2° to 4.0° orb
stableUranussextileNeptune3.7° orb
stableMercurysextilePluto4.4° orb
stableUranusconjunctionPluto5.1° orb
stableMercuryconjunctionNeptune5.7° to 5.8° orb
stableMarssquarePluto6.2° to 6.9° orb
possibleMoonoppositionMercuryorb from 0.1° to 9.4° depending on birth time
Chart signature
Elements
- Fire2 of 10
- Earth5 of 10
- Air1 of 10
- Water2 of 10
Modalities
- Cardinal2 of 10
- Fixed3 of 10
- Mutable5 of 10
Counted across the ten planets by sign: Earth leads this chart.
Ted’s Chiron, Ceres, Eros, Hygiea and Lilith
What astrologers make of these five, at noon values.
⚷ Chiron ℞Pisces 26°16′ (moves 0.04° over the day)
centaur (2060) · the wound and what is learnt from it
⚳ CeresVirgo 26°07′ (moves 0.44° over the day)
dwarf planet (1) · how a person nurtures and wants to be nurtured
♡ ErosCancer 17°08′ (moves 0.83° over the day)
near-Earth asteroid (433) · what draws them and how they desire
⚕ HygieaCapricorn 12°32′ (moves 0.28° over the day)
main-belt asteroid (10) · health, routine and what keeps them well
⚸ Black Moon LilithTaurus 3°09′ (moves 0.11° over the day)
mean lunar apogee · the part that refuses to be tamed
Aspects to the asteroids and Lilith
- Eros trine Mercury 0.2°
- Chiron opposition Uranus 0.5°
- Ceres conjunction Uranus 0.7°
- Hygiea trine Venus 0.8°
- Chiron square Mars 2.0°
- Ceres square Mars 2.1°
- Black Moon Lilith trine Jupiter 3.0°
Ted’s dominant planets
1. ♇ Pluto7 pts
disposes Mercury, Neptune; 5 major aspects
2. ☿ Mercury6 pts
disposes Venus, Jupiter, Uranus, Pluto; 2 major aspects
3. ♂ Mars5 pts
disposes Saturn; 4 major aspects
Configurations in Ted’s chart
Stellium in Virgo · Venus, Jupiter, Uranus, 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.
- Sun semi-square Venus 0.1°
- Sun semi-sextile Uranus 0.2°
- Saturn sesquiquadrate Neptune 0.4°
- Venus quintile Neptune 0.6°
- Jupiter biquintile Saturn 1.5°
Born the same day as Ted
Luigi Lo Cascio was born on October 20, 1967 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. One thing a birthday twin cannot share is the latitude. At 40.9°N, the sky above Port Jefferson stops at −49.1° declination. Same sky, different lives.
More people like Ted
Other writers
Born in United States
- Beth ChapmanAmerican reality television star
- Michael JohnsonAmerican sprinter
- Judd ApatowAmerican comedian and filmmaker (born 1967)
- Layne StaleyAmerican rock musician
- LL Cool JAmerican rapper and actor (born 1968)
- Liev SchreiberAmerican actor
More charts like Ted’s
Fellow Libra suns
- Doja CatAmerican singer and rapper
- FredBrazilian association football player
- Ranbir KapoorIndian actor
Born in Goat years
- Austin ButlerAmerican actor
- Dylan O'BrienAmerican actor
- Ne-YoAmerican R&B singer
Also born on October 20
- Kamala Harris1964
- Elfriede Jelinek1946
- Snoop Dogg1971
- Viggo Mortensen1958
- John Krasinski1979
- Dannii Minogue1971
Fellow Yin Fire day masters
- Taylor GoldsmithAmerican musician
- John GoodmanAmerican actor
- Joe FrancisAmerican criminal and founder of Girls Gone Wild (born 1973)
Other Libra Goat charts
- Anita EkbergSwedish actress
- Angie DickinsonAmerican actress (born 1931)
- James CroninAmerican physicist
- Otto Heinrich WarburgGerman physiologist, medical doctor and Nobel laureate
Other Radiant Strategists
- Michael Porter Jr.American basketball player (born 1998)
- Kobe BufkinAmerican basketball player (born 2003)
- Bogoljub MarkovićSerbian basketball player (born 2005)
- Tyrese MaxeyAmerican basketball player (born 2000)
Famous people with Life Path 8
- Meagan GoodAmerican actress and producer
- Corey HaimCanadian actor
- Faith HillAmerican country singer (born 1967)
From the journal: Your Sun, Moon and rising signs: the Big Three explained · What does Elon Musk say about astrology?
Ted’s cards
Computed from October 20, 1967. Tap to flip.
Birth tarot card
StrengthAsterNym identity card
The Radiant StrategistWestern zodiac
LibraChinese zodiac
Goat 未Life Path
8 · Achiever♀ Ruled by Venus
Copper Cu
The working: BaZi pillarsshow
BaZi pillars
Day Master: yin Fire.
Year
丁
yin Fire
未
Goat
Earth
roots & early life
Month
庚
yang Metal
戌
Dog
Earth
work & drive
Day
day master
丁
yin Fire
巳
Snake
Fire
you & partnership
Where this comes from, and how it is worked out
Ted’s birth date and birthplace come from Wikidata Q503095 (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 Arturo Villarrubia, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
The same Ted Chiang 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 Ted Chiang.
Quick answers about Ted Chiang’s chart
- How old is Ted Chiang?
- Ted Chiang is 59 years old, born October 20, 1967 in Port Jefferson, United States.
- What zodiac sign is Ted Chiang?
- Ted Chiang is a Libra: born October 20, 1967, which puts the Sun in Libra for the whole of that day.
- What is Ted Chiang's Chinese zodiac animal?
- The Goat, with the Fire element, from the Chinese lunar year of the October 20, 1967 birth.
- What is Ted Chiang's Life Path number?
- Life Path 8, calculated in numerology.
- What is Ted Chiang's Chiron sign?
- Chiron in Pisces at 26°. Position from JPL Horizons.
- Where is Ted Chiang's Black Moon Lilith?
- Mean Black Moon Lilith in Taurus at 3°. This is the mean lunar apogee; the osculating Lilith some tables use can sit up to 30° away.
- What is Ted Chiang's dominant planet?
- Pluto, on AsterNym's dominance score (7 points: disposes Mercury, Neptune; 5 major aspects). Mercury is second and Mars third. Other sites weight rulerships and aspects differently and can name a different leader.
