The Stars of Chloe Zhao
BFI London Film Festival for Hamnet
This month I'm trying something new — sharing a mini chart reading of someone in the public eye who inspires me. I chose film director Chloe Zhao, whose most recent film, Hamnet, moved me in a way I couldn't immediately explain. I never read the book; I simply went to see the film. And I've never had such a visceral reaction to a movie. I was shaking by the end of it and didn't fully understand why.
Listening to interview clips with Chloe afterward began to illuminate it. She spoke about how she had someone on set doing energetic work with the cast — even in scenes with large numbers of extras, she would have them guided into a collective meditation or trance state before moving directly into filming. With her two lead actors, she would put them through work that brought them into extreme polarities and then let that energy clash in a filmed scene take.
In a roundtable, James Cameron asked her how she reconciled that approach — wanting something larger than any individual to carry the scene — with the practical need to give notes and direction as a filmmaker. Her answer was entirely somatic: when she felt it in her gut or her body, not her mind, that was her signal. I found that profoundly inspiring. It was such a feminine approach to creating art, and it gave me language for why Hamnet hit me the way it did.
It also made me curious about her chart. How does someone have the courage to step into such a male-dominated realm and do things in a genuinely feminine way, without bending to how things are normally done? That's the question I brought to her planets.
A note before diving in: I don't have Chloe Zhao's exact birth time, but she mentioned in a recent W Magazine interview that she is a Virgo rising. That's enough to work with. I use whole sign houses, so knowing her rising sign allows me to place her planets in their correct houses.
Exact rising sign/angle degrees and moon degree will likely be a bit different, but same signs.
Sun in Aries, Earth in Libra
The first thing that jumps out is her Aries Sun — one of the most masculine Sun signs. But the way I read charts, I give equal weight to the Earth sign as a counterbalancing force. The Earth is always in the opposite sign from the Sun, and while it doesn't appear as a planet in a traditional chart, I read it as one. Where the Sun represents awareness and consciousness, the Earth represents somatic knowing — body intelligence, embodiment, instinct. It’s my opinion that many females lean more into their Earth than their Sun.
With her Sun at 10° Aries, Chloe's Earth falls at 10° Libra. And Mars sits almost exactly on that Earth degree as well, immediately activating and highlighting the Sun-Earth polarity. We all have our Sun and Earth in opposite signs, but when a planet lands on one side of that axis, it adds extra weight there. With emphasis on her Earth, due to Mars on it, she may at times lean more somatic, and at other times her Sun may come on in emphasized ways to counterbalance the polar weight.
Libra is the sign of mirroring, relationship, and polarity. It makes perfect sense that this is where her somatic knowing lives — she has spoken so naturally through that energy in her interviews. Mars conjunct the Earth point adds considerable drive and motivation, while simultaneously lighting up her Aries Sun, which is a sign of self, clarity, and direction. It's worth noting that many great directors have strong Aries energy — it is, in many ways, the director's sign. So what we see here is a somatic energy that is constantly balancing and harmonizing, and that mirroring keeps activating a directorial awareness that gives it shape and clarity.
Her Sun falls in the 8th house — the house of entanglement, power dynamics, depth, psyche, and the taboo territories of sex, death, and transformation. Hamnet was a fitting choice for this placement, steeped as it is in grief, death, and profound emotional depth. Her Earth, opposite in the 2nd house, is the house of embodiment, voice, and what we find beautiful and valuable — which doubles down on that somatic quality she so clearly possesses.
Moon Phase and Moon Sign
Before moving to the rising sign, I always look at the Moon phase, as it tells me a great deal about how the Sun-Earth dynamic is manifesting. Chloe Zhao's Moon is nearing the end of the waxing crescent phase — one of the most mystical and artistically open placements. It carries compassion, a drive toward healing and unification, and a composing quality. It makes her Aries Sun a deeply artistic one.
In relation to her Earth — which sits near where Mars is — the Moon is in a waning gibbous phase, which is productive and skillful, but in an instinctual rather than intellectual way. It adds an organic sense of rhythm and process to that already-embodied Earth energy.
Her Moon itself is in Gemini, giving her an emotional life that is curious, flirtatious, and oriented toward connection. There's possibly some anxiety woven in. What's notable is that her Moon sits within a 30° span behind the North Node. When read against the draconic zodiac — what I call the lunar zodiac — this places her Moon in Draconic Pisces, adding a mystical, fluid, and dissolving undercurrent to that more surface-level Gemini responsiveness. Under the curiosity and light touch, there is something very spacious, very artistic, and very hard to pin down. People I know with a Moon behind the North Node tend to gather clutter in their lives or have mothers with emotional or clutter issues — it'd be interesting to know what her workspace looks like. Her airy Aries Sun loves order, which may help offset that somewhat. But regardless, it is an extraordinarily artistic signature.
Virgo Rising
Knowing Zhao is a Virgo rising makes immediate sense when you hear her speak about her process. She openly references astrology, Celtic seasons, and chakras in interviews. She builds holistic systems and brings practitioners onto set to work with the cast in process-oriented, rhythmic, somatic ways. That is Virgo through and through — skillful, refined, purposeful, and reaching toward something whole and sacred. Virgo knows how to take practice and turn it into instinct, which is exactly what her on-set process sounds like.
The impeccability of Hamnet also speaks to this. Everything felt considered and exact — not coldly so, but organically so. It's also worth noting that she has spoken about an interest in training as a death doula, which connects interestingly to her Sun in the 8th house and that deep draw toward transformation and what lies on the other side of things.
Virgo rising gives a person direction and motivation when they stay connected to those holistic, process-driven energies — and Chloe clearly does.
Chart Ruler: Mercury in Pisces in the 7th House
The planet ruling the rising sign functions as the chart's main archetype — the role its bearer most essentially inhabits. For Virgo rising, that planet is Mercury. Chloe Zhao's Mercury sits at the very last degree of Pisces, in her 7th house.
This immediately explains why she doesn't read as a typical Aries in interviews. Her speach is is slow, spacious, and intentional — composing meaning rather than delivering it quickly. Mercury at the last degree of Pisces needs time and spaciousness to let things congeal into something that carries deeper meaning. When she arrives at what she's saying, it arrives with real symbolic weight and artfulness.
Mercury as the ruler of Virgo functions less as the quick-witted messenger and more as the healer, the craftsman, the processor. In Pisces, that becomes the art-making craftsman. In the 7th house — the house associated with Libra, polarity, and relationship — she works through film and art to explore tensions, mirrors, and the space between opposing forces. It's a perfect description of what she does.
The T-Square: Moon, Neptune, and Mercury
Mercury doesn't sit in isolation. Chloe's Moon and Neptune are in direct opposition to one another, and both square her Mercury — forming a T-square. In a T-square, the planet being squared by both sides of the opposition becomes deeply invested in resolving the tension between them. Her chart ruler, Mercury, is that resolving planet.
The opposition is between the Moon (feeling, emotional response) and Neptune (dreams, mysticism, dissolution) — two of the most imaginative planets in astrology, in polar tension with each other. And her entire archetype is oriented toward resolving and expressing that tension. It couldn't be a more fitting signature for the kind of art she makes.
The Kite Formation
Finally, Chloe has a grand trine between Venus, Pluto, and the Moon, all in the final degrees of air signs. A grand trine creates a flow of fluid, harmonious energy — a gift that can be easy to take for granted. But a fourth planet opposing one point of the trine creates what's called a kite formation, bringing charge and activation to the whole configuration, like pulling back a bow and arrow. That is exactly what she has here.
Venus and Neptune are the two most artistic planets in astrology. The Moon brings feeling and emotional depth. Pluto brings transformation, psychology, and psyche. The kite activates these gifts into action. It is a deeply artistic configuration, and one that speaks directly to the kind of art she makes — emotionally vast, psychologically deep, and transformative.
Potent Strength and Authority
Chloe was born right before a Saturn-Pluto conjunction, which marks her chart with extraordinary mastery. The story and agenda between these two planets only seeds once every 32-ish years and holds the energy of societal power and socio-political frameworks. With these two planets so close and entering a new meeting, it means they have mastered their last jounrey and are working the acquired skills in integrated and solid ways. This is a strong quality arriving in her own character, giving her mastery of potency and transformation. The power, inexplicable energy that comes through her craft could partly be credited to this conjunction. She is a high witch whether she knows it or not.
Summary
Taken together, Chloe Zhao's chart answers the questions I came in with. Where does that femininity and somatic quality come from? Mars on her Libra Earth highly activates that embodied, somatic intelligence. A Virgo rising connects her to process and instinct through practice — body knowing made skillful. A mystical waxing crescent Moon phase with Piscean undercurrents runs beneath a curious Gemini Moon. A chart ruler in Pisces that composes slowly and arrives at meaning. And threaded throughout, a consistent signature of polarity, tension, and a deep investment in resolving the space between opposites — which is, in the end, what Hamnet did so powerfully.
It all makes perfect sense. And it gives me language for why that film shook me the way it did.
