LATESTJoin RVA Research for a reading at no-cost. Learn more

Steve Jobs (1955–2011) was an American entrepreneur who co-founded Apple, was forced out of it in 1985, and came back eleven years later to run it. Adopted at birth in San Francisco, he dropped out of college after one semester and built the company that produced the Macintosh, the iMac, the iPod and the iPhone. In between he founded NeXT and bought the studio that became Pixar. He died of pancreatic cancer at 56.

A blind reading — date, time, place and sex, no name. The astrologer works out who it is himself, twelve minutes in, from the pattern of the events rather than from anything he was told.

Date of birth
24-02-1955
Time of birth
19:15
UTC-8
Place of birth
San Francisco, California, USA
37.7749°N, 122.4194°W
America/Los_Angeles
Rodden rating
AA
Birth certificate

Birth chart

D1 Rasi · D9 Navamsa
Lahiri ayanamsa
D1 — RasiLeo ascendant
Name : Steve JobsDate : 24-02-1955Time : 19:15:00Latitude : 37:46Longitude : -122:25TimeZone : -8VIII 25:00:44Mo 14:30:59Ma 05:51:35IX 25:07:21X 28:05:04Ke 09:16:27Ju [R] 27:16:38XI 01:14:36XII 01:58:42I 29:03:38II 25:00:44Sa 27:55:55III 25:07:21IV 28:05:04Ve 27:56:28Ra 09:16:27Me [R] 21:07:52V 01:14:36VII 29:03:38Su 12:31:03VI 01:58:42
1Le2Vi3Li4Sc5Sg6Cp7Aq8Pi9Ar10Ta11Ge12CnMa 05:51IX 25:07X 28:05Ke 09:16Ju [R] 27:16XI 01:14XII 01:58I 29:03II 25:00Sa 27:55III 25:07IV 28:05Ve 27:56Ra 09:16Me [R] 21:07V 01:14VIISuVIVIII 25:00Mo 14:30
D9 — NavamsaSagittarius ascendant
Name : Steve JobsDate : 24-02-1955Time : 19:15:00Latitude : 37:46Longitude : -122:25TimeZone : -8Ma 22:44:18Ju [R] 05:29:41Sa 11:23:17Ra 23:28:07Me [R] 10:10:48Mo 10:38:55Ke 23:28:07I 21:32:43Ve 11:28:15Su 22:39:27
1Sg2Cp3Aq4Pi5Ar6Ta7Ge8Cn9Le10Vi11Li12ScMa 22:44Ju [R]SaRaMe [R] 10:10Mo 10:38KeIVeSu 22:39

The Rasi chart is the birth chart itself. The Navamsa is its ninth division — each sign split into nine parts of 3°20′ — read alongside it for the strength a planet really carries, and for marriage. Both squares are drawn by the same engine as RVA Softwares, so the cusps in orange are the Placidus house cusps the software shows; the House column in the table below counts whole signs from the ascendant, which is what the video reading uses.

Planetary positions

9 planets · Whole sign houses
PlanetSignDegreeNakshatraHouseState
SunAquarius12.52°Shatabhisha7
MoonPisces14.52°Uttara Bhadrapada8
MarsAries5.86°Ashwini9OWN
MercuryCapricorn21.13°Shravana6RETRO
JupiterGemini27.28°Punarvasu11RETRO
VenusSagittarius27.94°Uttara Ashadha5
SaturnLibra27.93°Vishakha3EXALT
RahuSagittarius9.27°Mula5RETRO
KetuGemini9.27°Ardra11RETRO

Houses here are whole sign — the whole rising sign is the first house, the next sign the second, and so on. That is what the video reading uses. RVA's own janam kundali chart uses Placidus cusps instead, so a planet early or late in a sign can show a different house number there.

Vimshottari dasha

9 mahadashas · Rahu now

Birth star Uttara Bhadrapada (Saturn), 3.06 years of the first period unspent at birth.

  1. Saturn1939-03-20 → 1958-03-2019y
  2. Mercury1958-03-20 → 1975-03-2017y
  3. Ketu1975-03-20 → 1982-03-207y
  4. Venus1982-03-20 → 2002-03-2020y
  5. Sun2002-03-20 → 2008-03-196y
  6. Moon2008-03-19 → 2018-03-2010y
  7. Mars2018-03-20 → 2025-03-207y
  8. RahuNOW2025-03-20 → 2043-03-2018y
  9. Jupiter2043-03-20 → 2059-03-2016y

Chart analysis

RVA video case study

Chapters

The reading

Whole-sign houses, as used in the video

An ascendant standing on a boundary

The ascendant is Leo at 29.06°, which is the last degree of the sign. It has just crossed out of Venus's Purva Phalguni into the Sun's Uttara Phalguni, and the reading says so out loud before deciding: Venus is ending and the Sun's star has fallen — let us take Venus. Everything after that hangs on Venus.

That is not an arbitrary choice. Venus owns the tenth house from Leo, and the tenth is empty — no planet sits in Taurus — so Venus is the career, cleanly and without competition. It sits in the fifth house in Sagittarius at 27.94°, and Jupiter aspects it. A chart whose ascendant reports to an unopposed tenth lord in the house of creation was called capable of very large professional height in the first two minutes.

The same Venus is why nothing was ever stable

Venus is in Uttara Ashadha, the Sun's nakshatra — and that Sun is afflicted, sitting in Aquarius at 12.52° in Shatabhisha, which is Rahu's star. So the planet the whole chart depends on answers to a damaged one. The call made from it was blunt: no stability in professional life, and precisely because of that instability, the possibility of rising very far.

The Sun is in the seventh sign from the ascendant but the reading places it in the sixth bhava, and treats the difference as the native's luck: in the seventh it would have taken marriage out altogether. Saturn still aspects Venus, the significator of the spouse, and the judgement given was about forty per cent damage to the marriage yoga — enough to matter, not enough to end it.

A reversal in the sixth, and money that does not leave

Mercury is retrograde in Capricorn at 21.13°, in the sixth house. Mercury owns the second and the eleventh from Leo — the houses of family wealth and of gains — and both have been pulled into a difficult house. Read flatly that is a loss. Read as vipareeta raja yoga, it is the reversal in which the difficult houses cancel into each other and produce result instead of ruin, which is how the video reads it.

Mars holds its own sign in Aries in the ninth house, and both Mars and Rahu sit in Ketu's nakshatras — Mars in Ashwini, Rahu in Mula — while Ketu itself is in the eleventh. The conclusion drawn: a testing, grasping temperament that nonetheless does not lose money. Saturn is exalted in Libra at 27.93° in Jupiter's Vishakha, and Jupiter sits in that same eleventh house. The chart balances.

Where health enters, before anyone knew whose chart it was

The Moon owns the twelfth house from Leo and has fallen into the eighth, in Pisces at 14.52°, in Uttara Bhadrapada — Saturn's star. That Saturn owns the sixth house of illness and sits in the third. Twelfth lord in the eighth, answering to the sixth lord: the video calls health the theme of the chart at 4:07, long before the name is known, and says the Sun's affliction says the same thing a second time.

Saturn and Mars both throw aspects onto the same axis, which was read as harsh communication and a native who forces matters to a conclusion — a risky candidate, in the words used. The twenty-minute reading therefore had two fixed points before any date was discussed: a career that would go very high through Venus, and a body that would be the thing to fail.

The dashas: middle age, not youth

Saturn's period runs to 1958 — exalted, in the star of the fifth lord — and was read as a decent enough household to be born into. Mercury, 1958 to 1975, was marked average and the family support discounted: the second lord is tied to a dusthana, so the money at home was not expected to carry him. Ketu, 1975 to 1982, is in mutual exchange with Rahu and follows Jupiter in the eleventh, and that was named as the pick-up point.

Then Venus, 1982 to 2002 — twenty years, no planet in its star, the tenth lord of an empty tenth house. That was called the whole story of the chart before a single event was checked. The Sun, 2002 to 2008, average. The Moon, from 2008 — twelfth lord following the sixth lord, in a water sign — was where the reading expected the health to break. Purva Ashadha means below forty and Uttara Ashadha above it, and the summary given was that this native succeeds in middle age.

Reading against reality

11 of 12 calls matched to a documented event
  1. 1955
    What the chart said

    Saturn's period at birth, exalted and in the fifth lord's star — read as a reasonable family to be born into, with the family's own support discounted for the period that follows.

    What happened

    Born in San Francisco and given up for adoption at birth; raised by Paul and Clara Jobs, a machinist and a bookkeeper.

  2. 1966–68
    What the chart said

    The tenth house taking a square from the Sun and an aspect from Mars around ages 11 and 12. Family circumstances and family health both read as unfavourable; nothing to celebrate here.

    What happened

    No event verified for this call.

  3. 1972–74
    What the chart said

    Mercury's period, all self-effort, nothing given. Financial pressure at home called explicitly from the second lord sitting in a dusthana.

    What happened

    Dropped out of Reed College after one semester because the fees were consuming his adoptive parents' savings, then stayed on campus for eighteen months auditing classes.

  4. 1974
    What the chart said

    No lift yet, but the period opening toward Ketu — a turn inward rather than a turn upward.

    What happened

    Travelled to India with Daniel Kottke looking for enlightenment, and came back a practising Buddhist.

  5. 1979–80
    What the chart said

    Ketu's period, in exchange with Rahu and following Jupiter in the eleventh, with progressive Venus trine the tenth house. Called as the door opening: the route, the map, the opportunity all arrive.

    What happened

    Saw the graphical interface at Xerox PARC in December 1979 — the technology the Macintosh was built on. Apple went public on 12 December 1980 and made him a multimillionaire at 25.

  6. 1985–87
    What the chart said

    Progressive Mars trine Saturn — a reversal aspect. Aggressive decisions, quarrels, a situation that feels bad while it is happening and works out well: <i>at the end of the day it favours you.</i>

    What happened

    Forced out of Apple in September 1985 after losing his operational role. Founded NeXT, and in February 1986 bought the Graphics Group from Lucasfilm for $5 million — the studio that became Pixar.

  7. 1988–91
    What the chart said

    Two years of dark space: work, opportunities, mental state, relationships all under strain, with Saturn holding rather than collapsing the chart. Recovery expected by 1990–91.

    What happened

    NeXT ran into cash problems and laid staff off; the workstation business never reached the volumes the company was built for.

  8. 1993–94
    What the chart said

    Uranus conjunction on a bad aspect. Four years of hard work with no output — respect and opportunity both below expectation.

    What happened

    NeXT shut down its hardware manufacturing in February 1993 and cut most of its staff, conceding defeat in the computer hardware market to concentrate on software.

  9. 1995–99
    What the chart said

    The progressive tenth house moves into self-effort mode: three years of hard work and then, from 1998 to 2000, growth described as spectacular — name, reputation and fame to the next level.

    What happened

    Toy Story, the first fully computer-animated feature, released November 1995, and Pixar went public a week later. Apple bought NeXT in December 1996 and brought him back; the iMac launched in 1998; he became interim chief executive in 1997 and permanent chief executive in January 2000.

  10. 2004–05
    What the chart said

    Sun period, Jupiter sub-period, marked negative in advance. Progressive Venus square the tenth house: a professional challenge from the people the native counts as his own.

    What happened

    Diagnosed with a pancreatic neuroendocrine tumour in October 2003 and operated on in July 2004, after which he told employees he had been cured.

  11. 2006
    What the chart said

    A pick-up point: the twelfth lord in the eighth activated, Saturn connected to the eleventh — unexpected wealth, arriving from a direction not planned for.

    What happened

    Disney bought Pixar for $7.4 billion in stock, making him Disney's single largest individual shareholder and its board member.

  12. 2008–11
    What the chart said

    The Moon's period — twelfth lord following the sixth lord, in a water sign. Health called as the thing that would not hold, with money and work still working normally around it.

    What happened

    Took six months of medical leave in 2009 and had a liver transplant in April of that year. Resigned as chief executive in August 2011 and died on 5 October 2011, aged 56.

Events were checked against public record before publishing. Two figures given on the call are corrected here: Disney paid $7.4 billion for Pixar, not $7.5 billion, and the college he left was Reed, which he entered in 1972 rather than 1973. Two readings on the video differ from the chart drawn on this page. The ascendant is given here as Uttara Phalguni, the Sun's nakshatra — the video, seeing the ascendant a whisker past the join, deliberately reads it as the tail of Venus's Purva Phalguni and says so at 2:07. And the Sun, which is in the seventh sign from the ascendant, is read in the sixth bhava; this page counts whole-sign houses throughout, so the positions table shows it in the seventh.

Explore similar charts

Find people sharing these placements

Want a reading of your own chart?

Book a telephonic or in-person consultation for an astrology session.

Book consultation