David Bowie birth chart.
Musician and actor — five decades of reinvention.
The data behind this chart. Born January 8, 1947 at 09:00, Brixton, London, UK. Source: Astrodatabank, Rodden rating AA (birth record). This atlas publishes only charts whose birth data carries an Astrodatabank Rodden rating of AA or A — birth records and personal reports, never fan-wiki estimates. Everything below is computed from those inputs by the observatory engine; nothing is copied from another reading.
The Big Three
- Sun in Capricorn at 17°15′ — house 12
- Moon in Leo at 3°50′ — house 7
- Aquarius Rising at 3°25′ — chart ruler Saturn
This is a Capricorn Sun, Leo Moon, Aquarius Rising chart — a day-sect chart, so the Sun leads and Jupiter is the benefic of sect.
Timeline
David Bowie’s natal chart on the Dial, from birth to death: the sky of any day of the life as a transit ring around the natal wheel, the transits in orb as bars with their entering, exact and leaving dates, the annual profection as the time-lord band, and the day’s reading in plain words. Drag the track, tap a pinned event or a bar, or use the arrow keys.
Reading the year's sky events…
Method
The first clause is the sky event nearest the shown instant in its year: a planet entering a sign, a station (a planet turning retrograde or direct), or a new or full Moon. Eclipses are not on this strip yet.
Motion: daily samples from the engine, interpolated within 0.0005° of it. Exact contacts across the site are measured with one orb table, by transiting body:
| Body | Orb |
|---|---|
| Sun | 2.0° |
| Moon | 2.0° |
| Mercury | 1.5° |
| Venus | 1.5° |
| Mars | 1.5° |
| Jupiter | 1.2° |
| Saturn | 1.0° |
| Uranus | 0.8° |
| Neptune | 0.8° |
| Pluto | 0.8° |
| North Node | 1.0° |
1947–2016 · drag the track, tap an event, or use the arrow keys (N and P for the next and previous event)
Tap a planet or a sign on the wheel.
Rodden AA · Astrodatabank, Rodden rating AA (birth record) · Born January 8, 1947 at 09:00, Brixton, London, UK. Events below are dated public record, each with the page it was checked against; their pins sit at noon UTC because no event here carries a verified hour.
- Pisces · 2nd house
Layers
BaZi luck pillars: not drawn (direction unknown).
Method
- Zodiac: tropical. North Node: the true (osculating) node; the South Node is opposite it.
- Annual profection: one sign a year from the Ascendant, each year running solar return to solar return; the sign's ruler is the year's time lord.
- Zodiacal Releasing from Spirit: 360-day years from the Lot of Spirit; peaks ranked by their place from Fortune: 1st and 10th major, 7th moderate, 4th minor; LB marks a period entered by the loosing of the bond.
- Zodiacal Releasing from Fortune: 360-day years from the Lot of Fortune; peaks ranked by their place from Fortune: 1st and 10th major, 7th moderate, 4th minor; LB marks a period entered by the loosing of the bond.
- Vimshottari dasha: Lahiri ayanamsa, 365.2425-day year; mahadashas, with antardashas under them.
- BaZi annual pillars: the GanZhi year, Li Chun (the Sun at 315°) to Li Chun.
- Transit orbs: Sun 2.0°, Moon 2.0°, Mercury 1.5°, Venus 1.5°, Mars 1.5°, Jupiter 1.2°, Saturn 1.0°, Uranus 0.8°, Neptune 0.8°, Pluto 0.8°, North Node 1.0°.
- BaZi luck pillars: not drawn (direction unknown).
What would you like the first person you meet today to notice about you? Neptune in Sagittarius offers a workable angle to your Aquarius Ascendant. Haze, where outlines blur and images drift in. The ground here is your body and the first impression you make. A light breeze links imagination to how you present yourself and pace your day; it favours a first small move. It is the late sextile of this cycle. The gap is widening for now; the planet turns back for another pass in 119 days.Neptune sextile natal Ascendant · within 0.8° · whole-sign houses, traditional rulers · phase read from the sky at the instant · a symbolic reading of the geometry, not a forecast
Saturn in Gemini opens a window onto your Pluto in Leo in the 7th house of partners and the open other. Weight and structure: a slower season. At stake is your grip on things. A light breeze links structure to control and influence; it favours a first small move. It is the late sextile of this cycle. Through the 1st and 12th it rules, self and body and retreat are part of the picture. Turned up: Saturn rules your current sub-period in the Vedic count, and two timing systems point at Saturn at once. It is gathering: exact in 6 days. If a disagreement keeps returning, what boundary or question could help without assigning motives?Saturn sextile natal Pluto · within 1.0° · whole-sign houses, traditional rulers · phase read from the sky at the instant · a symbolic reading of the geometry, not a forecast
Mercury in Cancer faces your Mercury in Capricorn in the 12th house of withdrawal, the unseen, and endings. Chatter on the wire, fast and changeable. This is where words, notes and plans get made. A tug of war, with curiosity at one end and communication at the other. Through the 5th and 8th it rules, pleasure and children and shared resources are part of the picture. Louder: Mercury rules your current long period in the Vedic count, and two timing systems point at Mercury at once. It is fading: exact 0 days ago, in orb until 16 June. What changes when you write an observation separately from your interpretation?Mercury opposition natal Mercury · within 1.5° · whole-sign houses, traditional rulers · phase read from the sky at the instant · a symbolic reading of the geometry, not a forecast
- 'Space Oddity' is released as a singlesource
- Marries Angela Barnett in Bromleysource
- The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars is releasedsource
- Let's Dance is releasedsource
- Marries Iman in Lausannesource
- Blackstar is released, on his 69th birthdaysource
- Dies in New York Citysource
Turning points against ordinary days
Any astrology site will tell you what the sky was doing on a famous day, and there is always something: a slow planet or the lunar node is within orb of some point in a chart on a large share of the days of any life. So here is the count for David Bowie’s six dated events above, beside the rate it has to beat: how often the same body was in orb on an ordinary day of the same life.
At 4 of 6 of the events, Saturn was in orb of a point in the chart; on an ordinary day of the life it was 40% of the time, about 2.4 of 6 expected. Chance alone does at least that well about 1 time in 5.
| Body | At the events | Ordinary day | Chance alone does as well |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jupiter | 3 of 6 | 47% (2.8 expected) | more often than not |
| Saturn | 4 of 6 | 40% (2.4 expected) | about 1 time in 5 |
| Uranus | 3 of 6 | 34% (2.0 expected) | about 1 time in 3 |
| Neptune | 2 of 6 | 34% (2.0 expected) | more often than not |
| Pluto | 1 of 6 | 32% (1.9 expected) | more often than not |
| North Node | 0 of 6 | 11% (0.7 expected) | more often than not |
Across all seven lives on the observatory (36 dated events), the body furthest above its ordinary-day rate is North Node: in orb at 6 of 36 events against 4.3 expected, which chance alone matches about 1 time in 4. Seven lives and six bodies make 42 comparisons, and chance alone gives about two of them a 1-in-20 look on average; here two do.
A few famous dates cannot show that the sky shapes a life, and the largest study of people born minutes apart found effect sizes near zero (how we date a transit). What this table shows is the method: on this site, a contact comes with the rate it has to beat.
Method
In orb means inside the engine’s orb of one of the chart’s twelve points (the ten planets, the Ascendant and the Midheaven) by conjunction, sextile, square, trine or opposition: the bars of the timeline above, for Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and the North Node. Each event is read at noon UTC of its day, because none carries a verified hour. The day the life ended is not read (one event left out). The ordinary-day rate is the share of every moment from birth to death with at least one contact of the body in orb (Pluto only from 1885, where its series starts). “Chance alone” is the probability that the same number of moments picked at random from the life would land in orb at least as often (binomial; pooled over the lives, each event at its own life’s rate).
The contacts at each event
- 'Space Oddity' is released as a single: Saturn square natal Saturn; Saturn trine natal Mercury.
- Marries Angela Barnett in Bromley: Jupiter square natal Moon; Saturn square natal Saturn; Uranus sextile natal Saturn.
- The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars is released: Saturn sextile natal Pluto; Neptune conjunct natal Midheaven; Neptune sextile natal Ascendant; Neptune trine natal Moon.
- Let's Dance is released: Jupiter sextile natal Neptune.
- Marries Iman in Lausanne: Jupiter square natal Midheaven; Uranus conjunct natal Sun; Pluto conjunct natal Jupiter.
- Blackstar is released, on his 69th birthday: Saturn trine natal Pluto; Uranus square natal Mars; Uranus square natal Sun; Neptune sextile natal Mercury.
All ten placements
- Sun in Capricorn at 17°15′, house 12
- Moon in Leo at 3°50′, house 7
- Mercury in Capricorn at 8°12′, house 12
- Venus in Sagittarius at 2°09′, house 11
- Mars in Capricorn at 16°44′, house 12 — exaltation
- Jupiter in Scorpio at 21°38′, house 10
- Saturn in Leo at 6°52′, house 7, retrograde — detriment
- Uranus in Gemini at 18°41′, house 5, retrograde
- Neptune in Libra at 10°48′, house 9
- Pluto in Leo at 12°45′, house 7, retrograde
Condition and emphasis
- On the angles: Moon, Jupiter, Saturn, Pluto — planets in angular houses carry the loudest voice in a chart.
- Mars is essentially dignified (net +7: exaltation, triplicity (cooperating), decan).
- Near-exact aspects: Sun conjunction Mars (0.5°).
- Chart shape: Planets span two-thirds of the wheel, leaving one-third empty — the 'locomotive' is the leading planet pulling the cargo behind it. Self-driven, forward-directed.
The Vedic view
Sidereal (Lahiri ayanamsa, 23.11° subtracted from the tropical longitudes): Sun in Dhanu (Sagittarius), Moon in Karka (Cancer), Makara (Capricorn) rising. The Moon occupies Pushya nakshatra, pada 3, ruled by Saturn — the lunar mansion that opens the Vimshottari dasha sequence.
The BaZi view
Four Pillars: year 丙戌, month 辛丑, day 丁亥, hour 乙巳. The Day Master is 丁 (Fire), year of the 狗; Fire leads the five-element tally.
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