Walter Piston
Walter Piston (born January 20, 1894, Knox County, United States; died 1976), was an American composer. Piston's honours include Pulitzer Prize for Music, Guggenheim Fellowship and Officer of Arts and Letters.
Walter Piston’s zodiac sign was Aquarius, Chinese zodiac was Water Snake, with Life Path 7 in numerology.
Aquarius, Chinese zodiac was 
Water Snake, with 
Life Path 7 in numerology.Your match with Walter
Walter Piston’s AsterNym identity
The Tidal Lightkeeper
Water represents depth and adaptability. Water-led charts are associated with instinct, memory and the ability to find a path around obstacles. Life Path 7 represents inquiry: study, solitude and the need to understand what others may simply accept.
Water Day Master (BaZi) × fixed Sun × Life Path 7, on the intuitive plane.
How common is the name Walter in the U.S.?
#252
US rank in 2025
~634,804
Americans share it since 1880
1918
its peak year
In 1894, 2,010 American boys and 17 girls were registered Walter — 13th among boys and 743rd among girls on the SSA's list that year.
US Social Security Administration public records
What Walter’s name adds up to
Worked from the name as published, letter by letter.
1
Expression · starting things
3
Soul Urge · being heard
7
Personality · composed, private
The name opens on W (5) and closes on R (9). The value it repeats most is 5, which numerology reads as movement.
Pythagorean letter values · A=1 to I=9, then J=1 again
Walter’s lucky numbers, colours and stones
Traditional correspondences, calculated not chosen.
Lucky numbers
7 · 2 · 8 · 9
Lucky colours
Blue & Black
Lucky day
Saturday
Direction
↑ North
Season
winter
Stones
Garnet, Blue Sapphire, Aquamarine
Flower constellation
🌺 Carnation · 🤍 Camellia · 🪷 Lotus
Crimson · Ivory · Soft pink
The record
What sets Walter apart
The Guggenheim Fellowship came in 1935, when Walter Piston was 41.
Walter Piston was taught at Massachusetts College of Art and Design and Harvard University.
Walter Piston lies at Mount Auburn Cemetery.
On Wikipedia the categories read People from Rockland, Maine, Pupils of Edward Burlingame Hill and American ballet composers.
Buzz Aldrin (1930) and Bill Maher (1956) share the birthday in another year, so the sun sits where it sits here.
- Educated at
- Massachusetts College of Art and Design and Harvard University
- Instruments
- piano
- Awards
- Guggenheim Fellowship (1935) and Pulitzer Prize for Music (1948)
- Buried at
- Mount Auburn Cemetery
- Citizenship
- United States
- Languages
- English
- Wikipedia editions
- 23
What the chart says
Walter, according to the stars
Core essence
Walter is two steps to the left of where you expected. The core of Walter is a mind that runs on its own current, cares about the whole picture, and cannot pretend to care about the rules for their own sake. They are friend to everyone and fully known by few, and they make the people around them braver about being odd.
The vibe
Underneath, Walter is all feeling, tide in and tide out. The Moon in Cancer means moods are weather, real and passing, and memory is long: they keep every kindness and, quietly, every slight. What Walter needs to feel safe is a soft place to land that is not going anywhere. Give them that and they give you everything.
How Walter wants to be loved
Walter wants to be loved tenderly. Venus in Pisces is the romantic of the zodiac: soft, giving, a little dreamy, and easily bruised. They love without keeping score and need a partner who will not take advantage of that. Be gentle with Walter, be honest, and they will make the ordinary feel enchanted.
How Walter creates
How Walter makes things happen: they keep moving. A Yang Water day master is the river, curious, restless, going somewhere even when nobody knows where. Walter creates by exploring, by talking to everyone, by carrying ideas from one place to another. Hard to pin down, impossible to dam, and the best person to have on a long trip.
Instinct
Instinct: Walter 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 Water year softens it: intuitive, adaptable, feeling their way through people.
Purpose
Purpose: Life Path 7 is the seeker. Walter is here to understand, to go deep rather than wide, to keep a private inner world that most people never see. Thoughtful, intuitive, happiest with time alone, and learning to let the right people in.
Triggers
Triggers: being fenced in, and being lied to. Mars in Sagittarius fights loud, laughs it off, and is genuinely fine ten minutes later. Walter 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 Walter's birth date. Working below.
Where Walter sits
Six lines
Walter’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 think things through before you act. Haste rarely feels safe.
You may keep feelings close, working through them before anyone sees.
You likely handle some friction right away and let smaller things settle.
You may be drawn to big possibilities. The practical follows after the vision.
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 Walter Piston
Three stars chosen from the real sky above Knox County 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 Knox County that night
Computed for 44.12°N, 9 p.m. local sky.
Capella stood nearest the zenith over Knox County at 9 p.m. that evening, 86.6° above the horizon in Auriga.
The brightest star above the horizon was Sirius in Canis Major, and 106 catalog stars were up in all.
From 44.1°N, Capella never go below the horizon: they are circumpolar at this latitude.
Canopus, Rigil Kentaurus, Achernar, Hadar, Acrux, Mimosa and Toliman cannot be seen from Knox County at all: they sit past the −45.9° declination limit this latitude imposes.
The Moon was at full moon, 99% lit, and above the horizon, with the Sun 47° down.
The name and the places
- Born in
- Knox County, United States
The death is recorded at Belmont, Middlesex County in 1976.
No birth time is on record, so no astrocartography map can be drawn for Walter Piston: the lines move about fifteen degrees of longitude an hour. Shared Places can still draw yours.
How unusual Walter's chart is
Chart pattern score
12 / 100 · Reassuringly normal
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 →Aquarius Sun
Aquarius SunOriginal, and fine with it.
Walter Piston's Sun was in Aquarius for the whole of January 20, 1894, so no birth time is needed to settle it.
What Aquarius means →Water Snake
Water SnakeWise, cool, hard to read.
Walter Piston was born on January 20, 1894, which falls in a Water Snake year of the Chinese calendar.
What the Snake means →Life Path 7
Life Path 7Asks the better question.
Walter Piston's birth date, January 20, 1894, reduces to Life Path 7 under the numerology method AsterNym uses.
What Life Path 7 means →What stands out in Walter’s chart
- The tightest major aspect in Walter Piston's date-only chart is Mercury square Saturn, with an orb of under 1°.
- Walter Piston combines a Water Day Master in BaZi with a fixed Sun and a Life Path on the intuitive plane, the combination AsterNym calls The Tidal Lightkeeper.
Walter’s birth chart
Reference chart · birth time unknown
Positions are checked across the whole date. The Moon ranges from 9° to 25° Cancer 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
stableMercurysquareSaturn0.0° to 1.0° orb
Walter’s mind grinds against their discipline.
stableNeptuneconjunctionPluto2.0° orb
Walter’s imagination and depths act as one. Wherever one goes, the other is already there.
stableMarsoppositionNeptune2.1° to 2.8° orb
Walter’s drive pulls against their imagination from across the wheel. Two ends of one rope.
stableMercurytrineJupiter2.6° to 4.2° orb
stableVenussquarePluto3.8° to 4.0° orb
stableMarsoppositionPluto4.1° to 4.8° orb
stableSunsquareSaturn5.2° to 6.2° orb
stableSunconjunctionMercury5.5° to 6.1° orb
stableVenussquareNeptune5.8° to 6.0° orb
stableJupiteroppositionUranus6.5° orb
possibleMoonsextileJupiterorb from 0.1° to 11.5° depending on birth time
possibleMoonsquareSaturnorb from 0.1° to 15.0° depending on birth time
Chart signature
Elements
- Fire1 of 10
- Earth2 of 10
- Air4 of 10
- Water3 of 10
Modalities
- Cardinal3 of 10
- Fixed3 of 10
- Mutable4 of 10
Counted across the ten planets by sign: Air leads this chart.
Walter’s Chiron, Ceres, Eros, Hygiea and Lilith
What astrologers make of these five, at noon values.
⚷ Chiron ℞Virgo 20°51′ (moves 0.03° over the day)
centaur (2060) · the wound and what is learnt from it
⚳ CeresVirgo 23°38′
dwarf planet (1) · how a person nurtures and wants to be nurtured
♡ ErosCancer 19°17′ (moves 0.05° over the day)
near-Earth asteroid (433) · what draws them and how they desire
⚕ HygieaScorpio 10°29′ (moves 0.27° over the day)
main-belt asteroid (10) · health, routine and what keeps them well
⚸ Black Moon LilithCapricorn 2°30′ (moves 0.11° over the day)
mean lunar apogee · the part that refuses to be tamed
Aspects to the asteroids and Lilith
- Chiron trine Jupiter 0.6°
- Ceres trine Mercury 1.2°
- Ceres trine Jupiter 2.2°
- Eros sextile Jupiter 2.2°
- Black Moon Lilith sextile Venus 2.6°
Walter’s dominant planets
1. ☿ Mercury5 pts
disposes Neptune, Pluto; 3 major aspects
2. ♅ Uranus5 pts
rules the Sun sign, Aquarius; disposes Sun; 1 major aspect
3. ♄ Saturn4.5 pts
traditionally rules the Sun sign, Aquarius; disposes Mercury; 2 major aspects
Configurations in Walter’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.
- Mercury sesquiquadrate Pluto 0.9°
- Saturn sesquiquadrate Neptune 1.0°
- Saturn sesquiquadrate Pluto 1.0°
- Mercury sesquiquadrate Neptune 1.1°
- Mars semi-sextile Uranus 1.6°
More people like Walter
Other composers
- Frederick Loewe1901
- Leo Sowerby1895
- Ross Lee Finney1906
- Howard Hanson1896
- Elliott Carter1908
- Virgil Thomson1896
Born in United States
- R. Carlyle BuleyAmerican historian
- Tiny SandfordAmerican actor
- Hattie McDanielAmerican actress
- Paul GreenAmerican playwright
- Herbert FeisAmerican historian
- Martha GrahamAmerican dancer and choreographer
More charts like Walter’s
Fellow Aquarius suns
- Ariel WinterAmerican actress
- Rick RossAmerican rapper and record executive
- Bella PoarchFilipino-American singer and social media personality
Born in Snake years
- Taylor SwiftAmerican singer-songwriter
- Virginia WoolfEnglish modernist writer
- Indira GandhiPrime Minister of India
Also born on January 20
- Buzz Aldrin1930
- Bill Maher1956
- Evan Peters1987
- Rainn Wilson1966
- Blueface1997
- Kevin Parker1986
Fellow Yang Water day masters
- Koki OgawaJapanese association football player
- Ahmed Reda TagnaoutiMoroccan footballer
- Marco FriedlAustrian footballer
Other Aquarius Snake charts
- Khvicha KvaratskheliaGeorgian footballer (born 2001)
- Louis Rees-ZammitWelsh rugby and American football player
- Sergio PérezMexican racing driver (1990-)
- Liam LawsonNew Zealand motor racing driver
Other Tidal Lightkeepers
- George GershwinAmerican composer and pianist
- Mike RoykoAmerican writer and newspaper columnist
- Harrison SalisburyAmerican journalist
- Stephen Dunnpoet
Famous people with Life Path 7
- Nicola PeltzAmerican actress
- Mary-Kate OlsenAmerican businesswoman and actress
- Nicholas GalitzineBritish actor
From the journal: Flying Star feng shui: the one that changes with time · What is a birth chart? How the chart is calculated
Walter’s cards
Computed from January 20, 1894. Tap to flip.
Birth tarot card
The TowerAsterNym identity card
The Tidal LightkeeperWestern zodiac
AquariusChinese zodiac
Snake 巳Life Path
7 · Seeker♄ Ruled by Saturn
Lead Pb
The working: BaZi pillarsshow
BaZi pillars
Day Master: yang Water.
Year
癸
yin Water
巳
Snake
Fire
roots & early life
Month
乙
yin Wood
丑
Ox
Earth
work & drive
Day
day master
壬
yang Water
戌
Dog
Earth
you & partnership
Where this comes from, and how it is worked out
Walter’s birth date and birthplace come from Wikidata Q711052 (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.
The same Walter Piston at Wikipedia, IMDb and MusicBrainz.
Roster last reviewed September 10, 2026. The full method: how it works.
Traditional interpretations, not facts or predictions, and not endorsed by Walter Piston.
Quick answers about Walter Piston’s chart
- What zodiac sign was Walter Piston?
- Walter Piston was an Aquarius: born January 20, 1894, which puts the Sun in Aquarius for the whole of that day.
- What was Walter Piston's Chinese zodiac animal?
- The Snake, with the Water element, from the Chinese lunar year of the January 20, 1894 birth.
- What was Walter Piston's Life Path number?
- Life Path 7, calculated in numerology.
- What was Walter Piston's Chiron sign?
- Chiron in Virgo at 20°. Position from JPL Horizons.
- Where was Walter Piston's Black Moon Lilith?
- Mean Black Moon Lilith in Capricorn at 2°. This is the mean lunar apogee; the osculating Lilith some tables use can sit up to 30° away.
- What was Walter Piston's dominant planet?
- Mercury, on AsterNym's dominance score (5 points: disposes Neptune, Pluto; 3 major aspects). Uranus is second and Saturn third. Other sites weight rulerships and aspects differently and can name a different leader.
