Elvis Presley's Birth Chart

Features are ranked by their astrological weight times their scarcity among randomly sampled births from the 1930s. The first four come from the date alone: a partial eclipse of the Sun 3.2 days earlier (within a week of any eclipse: about one chart in 6), Mercury out of bounds (about one chart in 8), the same planet combust in the Sun's glare (about one chart in 4) and Mars in Libra, its detriment (about one chart in 6).

Fifth and sixth lean on Venus staying in Capricorn, which it left at 4:43 PM: the six planets in cardinal signs (about one chart in 8) and Venus in the sign's final degree (about one chart in 5). Seventh is Saturn as Lord of the Geniture, the chart's chief significator by a traditional tally of rulerships (about one chart in 5), a choice that holds for births from 3:30 AM to 8:38 PM. Eighth, Venus under the Sun's beams (about one chart in 9), holds all day. The Moon's change of sign that night and the planets near house cusps belong to the clock, and the next section takes them up.

Dr. Hunt delivered both twins in the two-room house their father had built on Old Saltillo Road in East Tupelo, now the Elvis Presley Birthplace museum at 306 Elvis Presley Drive. Leland Meitzler's Genealogy Blog reproduced photographs of pages 919 and 920 on August 9, 2016, with the description of lot 29 in Graceland Auctions' August 13 sale. Page 920's date line reads 1-8-1935 at 4:35 AM, and the listing calls the entry 'recorded just minutes after his birth'. Elvis Day by Day (1999), by Peter Guralnick and Ernst Jorgensen, and a 1995 Deseret News feature by Edvins Beitiks give the same minute.

The clock was Central Standard Time, UTC−6, with no daylight saving in January. Of the two other times in circulation, the museum's page on the house gives 4:30 AM with no basis stated, apparently a rounding; cast for it, the Ascendant slips back to 11°19′ Sagittarius and no planet changes house. Paul Fraser Collectibles (July 27, 2016) and JustCollecting (July 28, 2016) reported 4:00 AM from the same book before the sale, page 919's time for Jesse Garon, so the two entries seem to have been run together. Cast for the twin's minute, 35 minutes earlier, the chart keeps Sagittarius rising and moves only Jupiter, into the 12th house.

The Moon changed sign that night, leaving Aquarius at 1:17 AM, 3 hours 17 minutes before the recorded minute, and staying in Pisces until January 10; all three times give a Pisces Moon. Houses are where the minute bites. Uranus, 0°48′ past the cusp of the 5th house, would sit in the 4th house 4 minutes later, the Sun in the 1st after 10 minutes, and the Midheaven would leave Virgo for Libra after 12 minutes. Run the clock back and Jupiter moves first, into the 12th house 14 minutes earlier. A bedside entry can be rounded or set down late, so these placements are what the book cannot fully guarantee.

Pluto at 25°08′ Cancer opposes Mercury (2°49′ from exact) and Venus (4°13′), and Uranus at 27°29′ Aries squares all three of them, Venus most tightly at 1°51′. Because Mercury and Venus travel together in Capricorn, the pattern doubles into two T-squares sharing Pluto and, at the apex, Uranus; some form of T-square appears in about one chart in 6 from the 1930s. All five aspects involved hold from midnight to midnight.

In modern practice the apex planet carries the strain of the opposition, and Uranus is the conventional emblem of abrupt change; its house, the 5th, belongs in tradition to children and pleasure. Uranus had resumed direct motion 2.0 days before the birth, creeping forward at 6.4 arc-seconds a day.

Capricorn's three planets run from the Sun at 17°13′ through Mercury at 22°18′ to Venus at 29°21′, all in the 2nd house by Whole Sign counting and by Placidus at the recorded minute. Venus crossed into Aquarius at 4:43 PM, 12 hours 8 minutes after Dr. Hunt's entry. A personal planet that close to a sign's end comes up in about one chart in 5 from the decade; some astrologers read it as business to be finished.

In declination, the Sun reached 22°20′ south that day, short of its 23°26′ limit, while Mercury went 0°12′ past it: out of bounds, as in about one chart in 8 from the decade, a condition declination specialists associate with a planet that ignores the usual rules.

The eclipse that tops the ranking was partial, at 05:35 UTC on January 5, 1935, and a total eclipse of the Moon followed at 15:47 UTC on January 19, 1935, so Presley arrived between the two eclipses of one season. The Moon led the Sun by 44°47′, still in the new phase, which gave way to the crescent 21 minutes after the entry (moon phase birthday calculator).

The tightest aspect is Mars at 12°49′ Libra sextile the Ascendant, 0°26′ from exact; with the rising degree moving a degree every 4.7 minutes, it was exact within 3 minutes of Dr. Hunt's entry and stays in orb from 4:13 AM to 5:00 AM. Traditional authors give a planet that aspects the Ascendant a say over the native's body and bearing, here Mars from the 10th house.

Among planet pairs, Saturn quincunx Pluto is closest at 0°36′, then the Sun sextile Jupiter at 0°50′, a link to the chart ruler that modern handbooks associate with generosity and easy confidence. The Moon's two contacts, a conjunction with Saturn at 6°16′ and a sextile to Uranus, are both out of sign, the Moon already in Pisces and Saturn still in Aquarius.

The two entries with least time to spare both involve the Midheaven: Mercury's trine to it lapses at 4:43 AM and Pluto's sextile at 4:44 AM, each within 10 minutes of the written minute.

Cardinal signs take six planets out of ten: the Capricorn group, Mars in Libra, Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Cancer. Among sampled charts from the 1930s, about one chart in 8 carries that many, and modern astrologers tie a cardinal emphasis to initiative and a habit of starting things. Fixed signs hold only Jupiter and Saturn, and earth leads the elements with five of the twelve counted points once the angles join the planets.

One stretch of zodiac stays empty, the 87°38′ from Uranus in Aries forward to Pluto in Cancer, too narrow for the stricter patterns, so the computed shape is a splash (about one chart in 8). Below the horizon lie six planets, and five crowd the first quadrant (chart pattern analyzer).

Presley was born 2 hours 26 minutes before the 7:01 AM sunrise, the Sun 29°39′ beneath Tupelo's horizon: a night chart (sect calculator) that only an entry 2 hours 31 minutes slow could overturn, sect turning on the rising of the Sun's center. At night Hellenistic rules favor the nocturnal team, and the Moon profits most, scoring 73 out of 100, second in the chart, on triplicity dignity in Pisces and swift motion.

Saturn heads the scoring at 85, at home in Aquarius and inside its own term (essential dignities calculator). Saturn in its own sign was ordinary in the 1930s (about 51% of sampled charts); less ordinary is that the strongest planet here belongs to the day team, out of sect at night, as is Jupiter, the chart ruler, third at 58.

The planets nearest the Sun pay for it. Mercury, 5°04′ away, is combust, hidden in the Sun's glare (about one chart in 4), and scores 38; Venus, at 12°07′, is under the beams, a milder form of the same weakness, and holds 50. Mars in Libra, its detriment, is lifted to 42 by its angular 10th house and its place on the night team. Neptune, retrograde and cadent in Virgo, ranks last (dominant planet calculator).

Presley was 19 when he recorded 'That's All Right' at Sam Phillips's Sun studio in Memphis on July 5, 1954, the session that began his recording career. RCA Victor bought his contract from Sun Records on November 21, 1955, and on January 27, 1956 issued 'Heartbreak Hotel', his first single for the label and his first million-seller.

He first appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show on September 9, 1956, before about 60 million viewers, and his first film, Love Me Tender, opened in New York on November 15. Inducted into the Army in Memphis on March 24, 1958, at 23, he was honorably discharged on March 5, 1960, three days after returning from Germany as a sergeant.

NBC aired his television special, later called the '68 Comeback Special, on December 3, 1968, and on January 14, 1973 he played 'Aloha from Hawaii' at the Honolulu International Center, carried by satellite. He died at Graceland, his Memphis home, on August 16, 1977, aged 42.

Timothée Chalamet's chart comes closest on the databank: the same Capricorn Sun and Pisces Moon, with Mercury near Presley's degree. Kim Kardashian shares the Pisces Moon and, alone among these four, the Sagittarius rising, which counts only when both birth times are firm enough to settle it. A. R. Rahman and Catherine, Princess of Wales, have a Capricorn Sun within a couple of degrees of his, and Rahman's Venus sits beside Presley's too.

Once the Lahiri ayanamsa of 22°57′ is subtracted, Presley's Sun reads 24°16′ Sagittarius, his Moon 9°04′ Aquarius and his Ascendant 19°25′ Scorpio: a Kumbha (Aquarius) Moon all day, and a Vrishchika (Scorpio) lagna from 3:01 AM to 5:23 AM, covering both other circulating times. At the doctor's minute the Moon stood in the nakshatra Shatabhisha.

Mars, lord of a Vrishchika lagna, falls in Kanya (Virgo). Saturn, in its own sign, shares Kumbha with the Moon, so the pair that straddles two signs in the tropical chart sits in one here. Mercury takes the last degree of Dhanu, and Venus, so late in tropical Capricorn, is early in Makara at 6°24′.

Saturn returned to 25°44′ Aquarius once in Presley's lifetime, on February 16, 1964, at age 29.1, crossing the degree a single time without a retrograde loop. Jupiter returned three times: at age 11.9, over three passes ending July 31, 1947, then on December 2, 1958 and November 16, 1970.

The chart is cast for the birthplace house at 34°15′ N, 88°40′ W, for 10:35 UTC on January 8, 1935, with precise astronomical calculations, tropical signs and Placidus houses; positions match the site's chart service (difference < 0.0002°). Recasting it every two minutes across the local day, with each change timed to the second, shows what depends on the hour. Rates are shares of a large random sample of 1930s births, in cities picked with odds that follow the square root of their population. The about page explains how birth times are traced.