Ian McKellen: Astrological Article and Chart

Horoscope and chart of Ian McKellen

^* A planet less than 1° from the next House cusp is considered to be posited in the said House. 2° when the AS and the MC are involved

Astrological portrait of Ian McKellen (excerpt)

Disclaimer: these short excerpts of astrological charts are computer processed. They are, by no means, of a personal nature. This principle is valid for the celebrities included in our database. These texts provide the meanings of planets, or combination of planets, in signs and in houses, as well as the interpretations of planetary dominants in line with modern Western astrology rules. Moreover, since Astrotheme is not a polemic website, no negative aspect which may damage the good reputation of a celebrity is posted here, unlike in the comprehensive astrological portrait.

Introduction

Here are some character traits from Ian McKellen's birth chart. This description is far from being comprehensive but it can shed light on his/her personality, which is still interesting for professional astrologers or astrology lovers.

The dominant planets of Ian McKellen

When interpreting a natal chart, the best method is to start gradually from general features to specific ones. Thus, there is usually a plan to be followed, from the overall analysis of the chart and its structure, to the description of its different character traits.

In the first part, an overall analysis of the chart enables us to figure out the personality's main features and to emphasize several points that are confirmed or not in the detailed analysis: in any case, those general traits are taken into account. Human personality is an infinitely intricate entity and describing it is a complex task. Claiming to rapidly summarize it is illusory, although it does not mean that it is an impossible challenge. It is essential to read a natal chart several times in order to absorb all its different meanings and to grasp all this complexity. But the exercise is worthwhile.

In brief, a natal chart is composed of ten planets: two luminaries, the Sun and the Moon, three fast-moving or individual planets, Mercury, Venus and Mars, two slow-moving planets, Jupiter and Saturn, and three very slow-moving planets, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Additional secondary elements are: the Lunar Nodes, the Dark Moon or Lilith, Chiron and other minor objects. They are all posited on the Zodiac wheel consisting of twelve signs, from Aries to Pisces, and divided into twelve astrological houses.

The first step is to evaluate the importance of each planet. This is what we call identifying the dominant planets. This process obeys rules that depend on the astrologer's sensitivity and experience but it also has precise and steady bases: thus, we can take into account the parameters of a planet's activity (the number of active aspects a planet forms, the importance of each aspect according to its nature and its exactness), angularity parameters; (proximity to the four angles, Ascendant, Midheaven, Descendant and Imum Coeli or Nadir, all of them being evaluated numerically, according to the kind of angle and the planet-angle distance) and quality parameters (rulership, exaltation, exile and fall). Finally, other criteria such as the rulership of the Ascendant and the Midheaven etc. are important.

These different criteria allow a planet to be highlighted and lead to useful conclusions when interpreting the chart.

The overall chart analysis begins with the observation of three sorts of planetary distributions in the chart: Eastern or Western hemisphere, Northern or Southern hemisphere, and quadrants (North-eastern, North-western, South-eastern and South-western). These three distributions give a general tone in terms of introversion and extraversion, willpower, sociability, and behavioural predispositions.

Then, there are three additional distributions: elements (called triplicity since there are three groups of signs for each one) - Fire, Air, Earth and Water - corresponding to a character typology, modality (or quadruplicity with four groups of signs for each one) - Cardinal, Fixed and Mutable - and polarity (Yin and Yang).

There are three types of dominants: dominant planets, dominant signs and dominant houses. The novice thinks astrology means only "to be Aries" or sometimes, for example, "to be Aries Ascendant Virgo". It is actually far more complex. Although the Sun and the Ascendant alone may reveal a large part of the character - approximately a third or a half of your psychological signature, a person is neither "just the Sun" (called the sign) nor just "the first house" (the Ascendant). Thus, a particular planet's influence may be significantly increased; a particular sign or house may contain a group of planets that will bring nuances and sometimes weaken the role of the Ascendant, of the Sun sign etc.

Lastly, there are two other criteria: accentuations (angular, succedent and cadent) which are a classification of astrological houses and types of decanates that are occupied (each sign is divided into three decanates of ten degrees each). They provide some additional informations.

These general character traits must not be taken literally; they are, somehow, preparing for the chart reading. They allow to understand the second part of the analysis, which is more detailed and precise. It focuses on every area of the personality and provides a synthesis of all the above-mentioned parameters according to sound hierarchical rules.

Astrological Quadrants for Ian McKellen

Each quadrant is a combination of the four hemispheres of your birth chart and relates to a character typology. The Southern hemisphere – the top of your chart, around the Midheaven – is associated with extraversion, action, and public life, whereas the Northern hemisphere prompts to introversion, reflexion, and private life. The Eastern hemisphere – the left part, around the Ascendant – is linked to your ego and your willpower, whereas the Western hemisphere indicates how other people influence you, and how flexible you are when you make a decision.

Ian McKellen, the nocturnal North-western quadrant, consisting of the 4th, 5th and 6th houses, prevails in your chart: this sector favours creativity, conception and some sort of specialization or training, with helpfulness and relations as strong components. You need others' cooperation in order to work properly, although you are not very expansive: creating, innovating and thinking are what matter most to you because this self-expression enriches you and totally satisfies you.

Elements, Modes and House Accentuations for Ian McKellen

Ian McKellen, here are the graphs of your Elements and Modes, based on planets' position and angles in the twelve signs:

Like the majority of Earth signs, Ian McKellen, you are efficient, concrete and not too emotional. What matters to you is what you see: you judge the tree by its fruits. Your ideas keep changing, words disappear, but actions and their consequences are visible and remain. Express your sensitivity, even if it means revealing your vulnerability. Emotions, energy and communication must not be neglected; concrete action is meaningless if it is not justified by your heart, your intellect or your enthusiasm.

Ian McKellen, Fire is dominant in your natal chart and endows you with intuition, energy, courage, self-confidence, and enthusiasm! You are inclined to be passionate, you assert your willpower, you move forward, and come hell or high water, you achieve your dreams and your goals. The relative weakness of this element is the difficulty to step back or a kind of boldness that may prompt you to do foolish things.

Your natal chart shows a lack of the Water element, with only 4.31% instead of the average 25%. Whether you are aware of it or not, affective values bring about problems, for you or your close friends. In general, a lack of Water does not necessarily mean that you are unable to love as much as others do. However, you may find it difficult to express the deepness of your heart and of your feelings. In the best cases, you come to terms with it, you adjust, you manage to show more affection or, why not, you pretend to be really affected! In the worst cases, you get into the terrible habit of repressing these essential values and you tend to forget that they are the basis of the richest and strongest bonds between human beings.

The twelve zodiacal signs are split up into three groups or modes, called quadruplicities, a learned word meaning only that these three groups include four signs. The Cardinal, Fixed and Mutable modes are more or less represented in your natal chart, depending on planets' positions and importance, and on angles in the twelve signs.

The Mutable mode is the most emphasized one in your natal chart, Ian McKellen, which indicates a mobile character that is curious and thirsty for new experiences and evolution. You are lively and flexible, and you like to react quickly to solicitations, but don't confuse mobility with agitation, since this is the danger with this configuration - and with you, stagnation is out of the question. Security doesn't matter as long as you are not bored. You optimize, you change things, you change yourself... all this in a speedy way.

Houses are split up into three groups: angular, succedent and cadent.

The first ones are the most important ones, the most "noticeable" and energetic houses. They are the 1st, 4th, 7th and 10th houses. Their cuspides correspond to four famous angles: Ascendant for the 1st house, Imum Coeli for the 4th house, Descendant, opposite the Ascendant, for the 7th house and Midheaven for the 10th house, opposite the Imum Coeli.

Planets are evaluated according to a whole set of criteria that includes comprehensive Western astrology rules. At their turn, planets emphasize specific types of houses, signs, repartitions etc., as previously explained.

Cadent houses, namely the 3rd, 6th, 9th and 12th houses, are very emphasized in your chart, Ian McKellen. They indicate important potential for communication, adaptability and flexibility. These houses are symbolically linked to the mind and intellect. The relative weakness implied by these characteristics indicates your tendency to hesitate or to be indecisive, but also your remarkable ability to start off again, which is a nice quality, finally: you can easily get yourself out of a tight spot thanks to your mobility and casualness, in the best sense of the term. This group of houses corresponds to evolutionary characteristics of your personality. However, they are only indications and you must include them in the rest of your chart in order to see whether they are validated or not!

N.B.: this dominant is a minor one.

Dominants: Planets, Signs and Houses for Ian McKellen

The issue of dominant planets has existed since the mists of time in astrology: how nice it would be if a person could be described with a few words and one or several planets that would represent their character, without having to analyse such elements as rulerships, angularities, houses, etc!

The ten planets - the Sun throughout Pluto - are a bit like ten characters in a role-play, each one has its own personality, its own way of acting, its own strengths and weaknesses. They actually represent a classification into ten distinct personalities, and astrologers have always tried to associate one or several dominant planets to a natal chart as well as dominant signs and houses.

Indeed, it is quite the same situation with signs and houses. If planets symbolize characters, signs represent hues - the mental, emotional and physical structures of an individual. The sign in which a planet is posited is like a character whose features are modified according to the place where he lives. In a chart, there are usually one, two or three highlighted signs that allow to rapidly describe its owner.

Regarding astrological houses, the principle is even simpler: the twelve houses correspond to twelve fields of life, and planets tenanting any given house increase that house's importance and highlight all relevant life departments: it may be marriage, work, friendship etc.

In your natal chart, Ian McKellen, the ten main planets are distributed as follows:

The three most important planets in your chart are Jupiter, the Sun and Venus.

Jupiter, the planet of expansion, organization, power and benevolence, is quite emphasized in your chart. Like any Jupiterian, you are warm, open, sociable, consensual, active and optimistic. You can use your self-confidence to erase differences of opinion, and you leave the task of analyzing and perfecting things to specialists. Your role, and you know it since you were young, is to gather, to demonstrate your synthesizing and conciliatory mind, and to naturally reap its fruits - power.

You appreciate legality, social order but also order in general. With you as a leader, every plan or human entity can be organized and structured. You excel at supervising. The Jupiterian type is indeed the politician par excellence, and a positive Jupiter in your chart is synonymous with good integration into society, whatever the chosen path.

Is this idyllic picture really perfect? Certainly not: each planet's typology has its own weaknesses. One of yours is pride, like the Solarian, but your will of expansion at all costs may generate a form of exaggeration in everything, endless pleasure, inappropriate self-confidence that could lead you to rough materialism and the thirst for absurd material comfort - in the worst cases, of course.

One of the dominant planets in your natal chart is the Sun. He symbolizes will, magnetism, sense of honour and dignity. You are a Solar being, and you often display charismatic and leadership qualities. Your warmth and your persuasive power lead you far away from pettiness. You enjoy thinking big and, consequently, you move forward according to what you decide.

Your Solarian weakness may be related to the sin of pride or to excessive authority. The frontier between pride and vanity is tenuous: be careful not to overstep it and to keep the nobleness of heart that is part of your charm.

With Venus among your dominant planets, one of your first reflexes is... to please! Your look, your charm, and your seduction are omnipresent elements in your behaviour.

Your approach to things is connected to your heart, and for you, no real communication can flow if your interlocutors exude no sympathy or warmth. Cold and logical reasoning, clear thoughts and good sense are not important to you: if there is no affective bond with your environment, no connection can be established with the Venusian that you are, and nothing happens.

You have a strong artistic side, and you never neglect subjective but clear concepts such as pleasure, beauty, and also sensuality. However, sometimes to the detriment of efficiency, durability, logic, and... detachment.

In your natal chart, the three most important signs - according to criteria mentioned above - are in decreasing order of strength Taurus, Aries and Gemini. In general, these signs are important because your Ascendant or your Sun is located there. But this is not always the case: there may be a cluster of planets, or a planet may be near an angle other than the Midheaven or Ascendant. It may also be because two or three planets are considered to be very active because they form numerous aspects from these signs.

Thus, you display some of the three signs' characteristics, a bit like a superposition of features on the rest of your chart, and it is all the more so if the sign is emphasized.

With the Taurus sign so important in your chart, you are constructive, stable, and sensual. Good taste, sense of beauty, manners, and unfailing good sense - all these qualities contribute to your charm and seductive power. Furthermore, if some people criticize your slow pace and your stubbornness, you rightly reply that this is the price for your security, and that you like the way it is - slow and steady....

Arian blood runs through your veins! You have that enthusiasm, frankness, courage, and fastness which usually make you so likeable in spite of your somewhat rough, naive, or violent side. As a bonus, Aries' gushing fire always gives you the impetus to make a fresh start, should you stumble or undergo life hardship!

With Gemini as a dominant sign, your qualities include being lively, curious, mobile, clever, and flexible: you often make others dizzy, and you may come across as a dilettante - a bit inquisitive, shallow, and insensitive because you may be too intellectualizing. However, your natural curiosity, a nice quality, and your quick humour, allow you to demonstrate to everyone how much they may gain from your company, and that your apparent flightiness hides an appetite (particularly mental) for life, which itself conceals a terrific charm!

The 5th, 6th and 3rd houses are the most prominent ones in your birth chart. From the analysis of the most tenanted houses, the astrologer identifies your most significant fields or spheres of activity. They deal with what you are experiencing - or what you will be brought to experience one day - or they deal with your inner motivations.

The 5th house is one of your dominant houses: hobbies, love life, sports, and games, including speculation and all kinds of entertainment, are fields that you actually take seriously! On a more subtle level, artistic creation as well as other forms of creation - including begetting children - could be one of your assets. You gain from taking part in leisure associations and various activity clubs in which a catchword resounds more than for most people: pleasure.

Your 6th house is quite emphasized and indicates interest in work and daily occupations that take up a lot of your time: in analogy with Virgo, this house inclines towards perfectionism and training; somehow, you may be fulfilled through the process of being useful and investing your energy in your work. An environment appealing to you may be involved - your colleagues, for example - or a passion for one of these daily occupations. Medical positions or pets may play a role in your life; or ancillary love affairs too... These are a few possibilities indicated by an important 6th house.

As the 3rd house is one of the most important houses in your chart, communication plays a major role in your life or in your deep motivations: frequent short trips, open-mindedness - which may offset a lack of mutable signs for instance - listening, discussion, interest in learning, knowledge accumulation or long-term studies, etc., are all areas that greatly appeal to you and are part of your daily life.

After this paragraph about dominant planets, of Ian McKellen, here are the character traits that you must read more carefully than the previous texts since they are very specific: the texts about dominant planets only give background information about the personality and remain quite general: they emphasize or, on the contrary, mitigate different particularities or facets of a personality. A human being is a complex whole and only bodies of texts can attempt to successfully figure out all the finer points.

The Moon in Virgo and in House 9: his sensitivity

Votre sensibilité Ian McKellen semble dominée par la raison et vous avez tendance à vouloir analyser vos réactions émotionnelles dans les moindres détails, comme si vous cherchiez à les mettre à distance pour ne pas être submergé et affaibli par elles. Inquiet de nature, plutôt timide, vous n'aimez pas vous mettre en avant et manquez souvent de confiance en vous. Vous développez alors un perfectionnisme extrême où tout doit être examiné, organisé et planifié selon une certaine logique. Vous aimez rendre service et vous sentir utile, que ce soit pour la réalisation d'un travail bien fait ou tout simplement par l'apport de conseils judicieux et ingénieux mais vous pouvez aussi vous montrer très exigeant et critique voire même presque devenir insupportable tant vous savez insister et trouver toujours à redire à ce que disent ou font les autres. Apprenez à prendre confiance en vous et ne cherchez donc pas tout le temps la petite bête...

Vos émotions, Ian McKellen, vous poussent à expérimenter ce qui est lointain et étranger à vos racines. Vous êtes attiré en effet par l'inconnu ou ce qui est différent de vous, et c'est beaucoup en dehors des frontières que vous constatez que votre émotivité est exaltée ou... (excerpt)

Mercury in Taurus and in House 5: his intellect and social life

Votre esprit est calme et pondéré ; même si vous assimilez lentement les choses, votre mémoire est considérable. Votre jugement est basé sur la réflexion et la raison et s'appuie toujours sur l'expérience. Vous êtes, Ian McKellen, un bon conseiller, quelqu'un sur qui l'on peut compter et à qui l'on peut se confier en toute discrétion. Plein de bon sens, prudent, méthodique et discipliné, vous pouvez mener à bien des projets constructifs, d'autant que vous serez souvent très déterminé dans vos opinions et vos actions. Mais une certaine tendance à l'intolérance et aux idées préconçues risque parfois de choquer votre entourage qui aimerait vous voir faire preuve de plus de souplesse au lieu de refuser en bloc tout ce qui n'est pas immédiatement vérifiable. Vous vous exprimez  généralement avec beaucoup de charme et cela vous permet certainement de mieux faire accepter à autrui vos habitudes bien établies.

Vos pensées, Ian McKellen, sont irrésistiblement attirées vers le domaine des loisirs et distractions ou parfois si vous êtes d'une nature particulièrement active vers la création, pour peu qu'elle aussi ait trait à quelque chose qui vous amuse. Votre façon de communiquer est souvent agréable, charmante, vous êtes... (excerpt)

Venus in Taurus and in House 5, and the Sun in Gemini: his affectivity and seductiveness

Dans votre thème, le Soleil est en Gémeaux, Vénus en Taureau. L'idéal, en amour comme ailleurs, est de ne jamais s'arrêter de vibrer et découvrir, de s'étonner de tout, de rien... Idéal Gémeaux chez vous fortement contrebalancé par une Vénus Taureau en quête de stabilité. Si la curiosité dont vous faites preuve fait de vous un être en recherche, votre plein épanouissement affectif se construit au fil du temps. Découvrir est bien. Encore faut-il déguster la saveur d'une relation, bâtir patiemment un couple dont la maturité ne saurait être immédiate, au sein duquel la confiance réciproque - si indispensable - se développe au gré des expériences, des réussites et des échecs, des joies et peines. Vos attitudes peuvent déconcerter : vous cherchez tout à la fois une liaison solide et mouvante, durable mais pas monotone. Mal intégrée, une telle configuration peut faire les êtres possessifs mais intransigeants quant à leur liberté personnelle... Comment pourtant refuser à l'autre ce qu'on se permet soi ? Le risque est de laisser s'accentuer le décalage entre vos conceptions et vos affects, en revendiquant par exemple une ouverture d'esprit excluant toute oeillère alors que vos sentiments induisent possessivité, voire jalousie chronique. Pourtant, vos Signes solaire et vénusien se complètent et s'équilibrent : les attachements du Taureau stabilisent et fixent les errements du Gémeaux, un Signe en compagnie duquel on ne s'ennuie pas.

Que de volupté et de charme recèle votre personne, Ian McKellen ! Vous êtes ce que l'on appelle une "nature" et lorsque la confiance s'est installée, lentement mais sûrement, vous vous attachez profondément à votre partenaire et vous pouvez ainsi être gagné par la passion. Cela mettra des mois, voire des années, mais vous êtes si généreux et si affectueux que dans la plupart des cas votre relation de couple a des chances de s'épanouir avec le temps. Très physique, très sensuel, vous avez à coeur de savourer avec délice vos moments intimes et cet aspect de votre relation amoureuse contribue généralement à cimenter le lien existant. Tout cela semble  idyllique, Ian McKellen et en effet ce serait le cas si parfois, votre jalousie et votre possessivité ne se mettaient pas en marche en même temps que vos sentiments puissants. Mais vous avez déjà beaucoup trop d'atouts, alors soyez satisfait !

Ian McKellen, avec une affinité certaine entre maison et planète, votre Vénus se trouve ici très à l'aise pour donner le meilleur d'elle-même en terme de puissance des sentiments, création artistique, goût pour les loisirs, activités récréatives, dons pour les arts plastiques ou la musique et même... (excerpt)

The Ascendant is in Sagittarius and the ruler of the Ascendant is Jupiter, in Aries: his behaviour

The ruler of the Ascendant, also referred to as the chart ruler, brings a few interesting nuances to the meanings provided by the Sun and the Ascendant. The sign in which the ruler of the Ascendant is posited fine-tunes the style of personality described by the Sun and the Ascendant. It may strengthen it if the sign is identical to either of them.

The ruler of the Ascendant, Ian McKellen, is Jupiter. It is located in Aries and adds a note of rapidity and impulsiveness into your chart. You have a spontaneous and enterprising side which prompts you to take action quickly and to be a pioneer. However, as a consequence of this refreshing impetuosity, you may get bored quite quickly and move on to something else if you lose your enthusiasm.

The Sun in Gemini and in House 6: his will and inner motivations

Vous êtes un perfectionniste, Ian McKellen, quelqu'un dont le souci permanent demeure de s'améliorer en toutes choses, accumuler des connaissances, devenir utile au meilleur de ses performances et de ses compétences. Le travail pour vous est un domaine important et en général contrairement à d'autres, vous... (excerpt)

Mars in Aquarius and in House 2: his ability to take action

Ian McKellen, votre façon d'agir est plutôt paradoxale : vous exercez à merveille vos activités lorsque vous travaillez entouré d'une équipe dans un but collectif, mais vous le faites à votre manière d'une façon originale et individualiste : c'est là votre particularité principale, vous avez le souci de marquer et d'exprimer votre originalité et votre spécificité tout en étant bien immergé dans une communauté humaine. Plutôt sec et peu souple, vous êtes inventif et combattez facilement l'autorité pour la simple raison que son existence même va à l'encontre de ces valeurs sacrées que représentent pour vous la liberté, l'indépendance et surtout l'absence de contrainte. L'esprit de compétition vous est totalement étranger, vous préférez nettement être utile et conquérir de nouveaux territoires en général d'ordre humanitaire ou intellectuel. Sur le plan sexuel, vous êtes également souvent original et surprenant, que ce soit sur le plan de vos fantasmes ou celui de vos goûts.

Ian McKellen, votre capacité d'action est parfaitement bien adaptée pour votre enrichissement personnel, pour gagner de l'argent pour dire le mot ! Vous vous battez facilement pour acquérir, pour gagner votre sécurité matérielle, il s'agit pour vous de la meilleure façon de dépenser votre énergie : il... (excerpt)

Conclusion

This text is only an excerpt from the portrait of of Ian McKellen, which we hope will inspire you to deepen your knowledge of astrology.

Regarding the sources of the birth data in our possession, kindly note that the pages we publish constitute a starting point for more detailed research, even though they seem useful to us. When the sources are contradictory, which occurs rarely, after having analysed them, we choose the most reliable one. Sometimes, we publish a birth date just because it is made available, but we do not claim that is it the best one, by no means.