Olivier Messiaen’s birth chart
Born 10 December 1908, in Avignon, France. StarMap has no verified birth time yet.
Sagittarius Sun · Cancer Moon
Olivier Messiaen’s zodiac sign and chart, in brief
Olivier Messiaen was born on Thursday, 10 December 1908, in Avignon, France. Their zodiac sign was Sagittarius, with the Moon in Cancer. Olivier died on 27 April 1992, aged 83. StarMap has not verified a birth time yet, so the chart is cast for midday on that date and has no houses.
By element the count is four water, three fire, two earth and one air. By modality the count is four cardinal, four mutable and two fixed. Closest of the aspects is the sextile between Venus and Uranus, about 0.6° from exact at midday. Aspects to the Moon are not counted, because the Moon moves about thirteen degrees in a day. Neptune and Pluto were retrograde. The Moon was waning gibbous, between full and last quarter.
StarMap's dataset holds 12 other people born on 10 December, among them Michael Clarke Duncan, Gonzalo Higuaín and Kenneth Branagh.
See the sky the day Olivier was born: the stars over Avignon, France, drawn as a star map with the date and the place beneath.
Olivier Messiaen’s Sun, Moon and rising sign
Sun sign
Sagittarius
about 18° Sagittarius at midday
A Sagittarius Sun seeks. Meaning, distance and the bigger picture are likely to pull Olivier Messiaen forward, and the honesty of this placement is a kind of generosity. Its lesson is that the journey also needs somewhere to land.
Moon sign
Cancer
in this sign all day; the degree depends on the birth time
The Moon is at home in Cancer. For Olivier that points to feelings that are tidal, strong and closely tied to the people they love, and to a memory for how everything felt. This Moon is restored by home, by cooking, and by being needed.
Rising sign
The rising sign changes about every two hours, so it cannot be known without a birth time. The table below shows which sign was rising over Avignon, France, at each hour of the day.
Olivier Messiaen’s rising sign, by birth time
StarMap has not verified a birth time for Olivier yet. It shows a birth time only when Astro-Databank rates it AA, A or B on the Rodden scale (AA from a birth certificate or record, A from the person, someone close to them or a news report, B from a biography). Until then, this is the rising sign for every possible time of birth on 10 December 1908, computed for Avignon, France.
| Born around (local time) | Rising sign |
|---|---|
| 00:00 to 00:39 | Virgo rising |
| 00:39 to 03:14 | Libra rising |
| 03:14 to 05:49 | Scorpio rising |
| 05:49 to 08:14 | Sagittarius rising |
| 08:14 to 10:09 | Capricorn rising |
| 10:09 to 11:29 | Aquarius rising |
| 11:29 to 12:34 | Pisces rising |
| 12:34 to 13:39 | Aries rising |
| 13:39 to 15:04 | Taurus rising |
| 15:04 to 16:54 | Gemini rising |
| 16:54 to 19:19 | Cancer rising |
| 19:19 to 21:54 | Leo rising |
| 21:54 to 24:00 | Virgo rising |
Times are rounded to five minutes. Close to a boundary, a few minutes either way change the answer.
The chart wheel
Drawn for midday on 10 December 1908, with only the aspects that held all day. The Moon may stand up to eight degrees either side of where it is drawn. How to read a chart wheel
Placements
| Sun | 18° Sagittarius 03' |
|---|---|
| Moon | Cancer |
| Mercury | 10° Sagittarius 28' |
| Venus | 14° Scorpio 45' |
| Mars | 9° Scorpio 45' |
| Jupiter | 13° Virgo 52' |
| Saturn | 3° Aries 22' |
| Uranus | 15° Capricorn 21' |
| Neptune | 16° Cancer 27'℞ |
| Pluto | 24° Gemini 57'℞ |
| North Node | 25° Gemini 54' |
| South Node | 25° Sagittarius 54' |
Positions at midday, local time. Without a birth time there are no houses.
Olivier Messiaen’s planets, sign by sign
Each planet by sign: what the placement is traditionally taken to mean, not a claim about Olivier Messiaen’s private life.
Growth, travel and ideas bigger than daily life are where Olivier Messiaen's Sagittarius Sun finds purpose, and their energy tends to lift the moment there is somewhere new to go. Familiarity is what wears on this placement. A few months into any routine, however good it is, restlessness usually sets in.
With the Moon in Cancer, Olivier's needs tend to be tied to home, routine and the people they check in on daily. Small rituals are steadying: a particular meal, a particular chair. The tension is reading other people's moods so closely that those moods can be taken on without noticing.
Olivier's Mercury in Sagittarius thinks in big, connective leaps and communicates with enthusiasm and a wide frame of reference drawn from everywhere they have been. The weak point is generalising past what the details support. A specific question may get a sweeping theory nobody quite asked for.
Venus in Scorpio loves intensely and privately, and Olivier is likely to value depth and total honesty over ease. Testing loyalty can create the very distance this placement fears most. There is an all-or-nothing quality to how this Venus commits, with little interest in anything in between.
In Olivier's chart, Mars in Scorpio acts with focus and intensity, and its anger, when it surfaces, tends to be controlled, cutting and hard to forget. The risk with this Mars is holding on to a grievance well past its useful life. A calm exterior gives little warning before a sharp response.
Jupiter in Virgo
13° Virgo 52' at midday
growth and excess
Jupiter in Virgo finds its growth in mastering a craft in unglamorous detail, one small correction at a time. For Olivier, perfectionism may be the excess, turning growth into an endless list of corrections. People with this Jupiter are often trusted with more responsibility than they feel they deserve, usually because the care in the work shows.
Saturn in Aries builds discipline around learning to act with patience instead of pure impulse. For Olivier, that suggests a doubt that takes the form of second-guessing: too fast, or not fast enough? Confidence in their own initiative tends to come slowly, once the rush goes out of every decision.
Uranus in Capricorn
15° Capricorn 21' at midday
freedom, generational
Many people within a few years of Olivier's age share Uranus in Capricorn, the mark of a generation that dismantles and rebuilds old institutions and structures of authority. Personally, that can mean scepticism towards any system that asks for trust without having shown why it deserves it.
Neptune in Cancer
16° Cancer 27' at midday ℞
imagination, generational
Neptune in Cancer is shared by Olivier and many people born in the same decade or so. The generation idealises home and family, often carrying a wider nostalgia for a version of belonging that may never quite have existed. Personally it can be a soft-focus longing for a childhood home.
Pluto in Gemini
24° Gemini 57' at midday ℞
power, generational
Olivier shares Pluto in Gemini with many people born in the same long stretch of years. That generation transforms communication and collective thought, often through upheavals in how information is controlled and shared. The personal portion is an intense relationship with what counts as truth.
Aspects in Olivier Messiaen’s chart
How the planets stand to each other, tightest first. Without a birth time the orbs are those at midday, and aspects to the Moon are left out because the Moon moves about thirteen degrees in a day.
Venus sextile Uranus
about 0.6° at midday
An independent streak and a warm heart get along in this sextile, which tends to give Olivier Messiaen's relationships room to breathe without cooling them. The freedom involved is easy and low on drama: enough to keep a relationship interesting, never so much that it feels unstable.
Venus sextile Jupiter
about 0.9° at midday
Warmth and generosity come naturally to Olivier and stop short of overextending, because affection and optimism work together in this sextile. Call it comfortable, unforced goodwill, the kind that makes people feel welcome without any performance being needed.
Jupiter trine Uranus
about 1.5° at midday
Jupiter trine Uranus gives Olivier a knack for spotting unconventional opportunities before other people do, which is what a sense of possibility and originality produce together. Growth arrives through new directions, ones a more cautious approach would probably have missed.
Venus trine Neptune
about 1.7° at midday
Olivier is likely to love with a romantic, artistic quality that comes naturally, because affection and imagination flow together under this trine. Compassion and creativity arrive easily, and the people nearby tend to feel cared for as a result.
Jupiter sextile Neptune
about 2.6° at midday
Inspired ideas are within Olivier's reach without any loss of footing, since possibility and imagination are gently linked by this sextile. The optimism is soft and workable, useful for keeping a project hopeful without letting it drift far from what is real.
Mercury square Jupiter
about 3.4° at midday
Thinking can run ahead of the evidence when Mercury is square Jupiter, leading to overconfident claims or promises made faster than Olivier can check them. Matching enthusiasm to what has been verified makes their confidence more durable, not less.
The rest, listed without a reading. Those between Uranus, Neptune and Pluto hold for years at a time, so everyone born while one holds shares it.
- Uranus opposition Neptuneabout 1.1°
- Mars sextile Jupiterabout 4.1°
- Sun square Jupiterabout 4.2°
- Venus conjunction Marsabout 5.0°
- Sun opposition Plutoabout 6.9°
- Sun conjunction Mercuryabout 7.6°
Sagittarius Sun and Cancer Moon, like Olivier Messiaen
Also born on 10 December
How this page is made
Planet positions are computed with the astronomy-engine ephemeris and checked against Swiss Ephemeris. Birth dates and places come from Wikidata; birth times, where StarMap has one, come from Astro-Databank and are shown with their Rodden rating. The readings describe what a placement is traditionally taken to mean. They are written by StarMap for reflection and entertainment, not as statements about the person’s private life. New to charts? How to read a birth chart.
Birth data: Wikidata. StarMap has not verified a birth time yet. Photo: Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on the file page).
StarMap is for entertainment and self-reflection. It does not predict health, money or legal outcomes.