Muhammad Ali's Birth Chart

The ranking pairs a set weight for each kind of feature with how seldom it turns up among 1940s births. Saturn's coming station is first, about one chart in 16; Venus's recent one is second, about one chart in 14, and Venus retrograde at all appears in about one chart in 14. Fourth, Venus on the western angle, is the ranked feature most tied to the clock, holding only in a narrow stretch of the day. Sixth: six of the eight bodies from Mercury to Pluto were retrograde, and five or more turn up in about one chart in 10.

The source is the Gauquelins' list of successful Americans, Series D, volume 10, online at Patrice Guinard's CURA site; its notice says the hour column copies the birth certificate. Astrotheme, crediting the Gauquelins, and astro-charts.com, crediting Edwin Steinbrecher's collection, repeat the hour, and no competing time was found. The certificate image, January 1942 Louisville newspapers and the Hauser and Eig biographies were not consulted.

The clock was Central Standard Time, UTC−6, putting the moment at 00:35 UTC on January 18, 1942; daylight time had ended on September 28, 1941, and war time began 22 days after the birth. Coordinates are the city's: the Muhammad Ali Center names Louisville General Hospital, whose 1942 site is unconfirmed.

The sample finds a T-square in about one chart in 7: the Sun in Capricorn opposes Pluto in Leo, and Mars in Taurus squares both. Only Mars square Pluto is tight, 1°44′; the Sun's legs, 7°30′ and 5°45′, cross sign lines, so sign-based astrologers would drop them. The Sun also closes an earth grand trine with Uranus and Neptune.

A birth 6 minutes later would let the Descendant overtake Venus, moving it from the 7th house to the 6th house. Of the other planets, Jupiter lies closest to a cusp: it would sit in the 11th house had Ali been born 23 minutes earlier.

Saturn, covering about 0.6 arc-minutes a day, shares the 10th house with Jupiter and Uranus. Many astrologers give a planet this near a station extra weight, and modern writers read a freshly retrograde Venus as affection turned inward; neither reading is offered as a portrait of Ali.

The Moon squares the Midheaven within 0°11′, the chart's tightest aspect, and trines Jupiter within 0°28′. The two stationing planets square each other, Venus to Saturn at 0°59′, and both aspect the Ascendant, Venus by opposition and Saturn by square.

Earth signs take five planets of ten, a lean found in about one chart in 9, and water none, as in about one chart in 8. With the angles, nine of twelve points are fixed and the Sun is the lone cardinal one. The planets spread as a seesaw, with a 117°29′ void between Neptune and the Sun.

The birth came 1 hour 46 minutes after sunset, a night chart. The Sun rules it through Leo on the Ascendant and sits out of sect in the 6th house, while the Moon, Venus and Mars sit in sect. Mercury tops the strength scores at 88 of 100; Mars, Jupiter and Neptune are in detriment. Pluto, at 23°38′ north declination, is out of bounds, and no planet is combust.

Salman Khan and Denzel Washington share the Capricorn Sun and Aquarius Moon, Marilyn Monroe the Aquarius Moon and Leo rising. Stephen Hawking, born earlier that January, has the same Sun sign, and his Venus, Jupiter and Saturn sit less than a degree from Ali's. No other databank birth falls on the same day.

Removing 23°02′ of Lahiri ayanamsa leaves the Sun at 4°14′ Capricorn and pulls the Moon, Mercury and Venus back into Capricorn beside it. The sidereal Ascendant is 26°29′ Cancer; Mars and Saturn drop from Taurus to Aries.

Saturn crossed its birth degree three times for the first return, between August 2, 1970, and April 13, 1971, and once, on May 20, 2000, for the second. By Ali's death in June 2016 Jupiter had come back six times. These are dates only, not readings.

Positions come from precise astronomical calculations, with Placidus houses for Louisville's city coordinates. Rates count the same feature across a large batch of artificial 1940s births, each with a random date and hour and a city weighted toward larger populations; the Venus-angle rate is also scaled to Louisville's latitude band, 30-45 degrees north.