Elizabeth Taylor’s BaZi: Early-Spring Earth Under a Sky of Wealth Stars

Elizabeth Taylor was born in London and moved to Los Angeles with her parents on the eve of the Second World War. She started acting in films at 10, became a child star at 12 with National Velvet, and went on to win the Academy Award for Best Actress twice: the last true movie queen of the studio era. Late in life she threw herself into AIDS research and charity, and earned more from her perfume business than she ever had from films. There are two accounts of her birth time, 2:00 and 2:30; both convert to the Chou hour, and the BaZi is identical: Ren-Shen, Ren-Yin, Wu-Wu, Gui-Chou (壬申 壬寅 戊午 癸丑). Wu Earth is born in early spring with three Water stems showing, a sky full of Wealth stars, and our engine reads it as balanced.

Birth data: two times, one hour

British summer time did not start until April in 1932, so late February was on standard time. London sits almost on the Greenwich meridian, and the late-February equation of time puts the true Sun thirteen minutes behind the clock; both versions convert to the Chou hour, so the BaZi is exactly the same. We also cast all twelve hours: in 7 of them the favorable elements are Fire and Earth.

Four Pillars and Ten Gods

Our strength engine scores season, roots, exposed stems, Resource and companions against Wealth, Officer and Output; below 0.35 reads weak, above 0.55 reads strong.

A score of 0.492: balanced. Wu Earth is fed by the Wu Fire Resource and rooted in Chou Earth, so it can carry the sky full of Wealth. The favorable elements are Fire (Resource) and Earth (companions); the unfavorable ones are Water (Wealth) and Wood (Officer and Seven Killings).

Wealth that shows on the stems and then combines with the self is traditionally read as “wealth and material things come looking for you”; but Wealth is unfavorable here, so money arrives with costs and wear. She was the first actress to be paid a million dollars for a film, her perfume business later earned her more than acting ever did, and she was famous for her jewelry collection. The parallel is easy to draw, but again it is a reading after the fact.

Luck pillars

For a woman born in a yang year (the year stem Ren is yang), the luck pillars run backwards, starting at age 8.

“fav / unfav” reads the stem first, then the branch: whether each one’s element is favorable (useful), unfavorable, or neither (neutral) for this chart.

The peak of her career, 1959–1968, is the Ji-Hai luck pillar: the stem Ji Earth, Rob Wealth, is favorable, while the branch Hai Water, Indirect Wealth, is unfavorable. A favorable stem over an unfavorable branch can be read as “she stands firm, but the money and the wear underneath are large too”. In this decade she won two Oscars and a record fee, and was also surrounded by tabloids and scandal year after year.

Elizabeth Taylor died in 2011. We do not use BaZi to discuss health or lifespan, on this page or any other famous chart.

A few key years

1966 is a Bing-Wu year: stem and branch are both Fire, her Resource star, so it is entirely favorable. That year she made the film widely seen as her finest performance, which won her a second Oscar. 1963 is a Gui-Mao year: the stem Gui Water is Wealth and the branch Mao Wood is Officer, so it is entirely unfavorable. That year she received the highest fee in film history, while Cleopatra ran wildly over budget, was panned by critics, and drew her into a scandal that made headlines worldwide. Here the reading “Wealth is unfavorable” is almost literal: a great deal of money, at a great price. We list these parallels and take them no further.

Where does the chart miss her real life?

Zi Wei Dou Shu chart

The same birth time, cast in Zi Wei Dou Shu (San He school, the same engine as our Zi Wei chart tool, using the same true solar time as the BaZi chart above). BaZi weighs the five elements and what the chart favors; Zi Wei looks at which stars fall in which palace. The two systems ask different questions, so the Zi Wei chart is shown on its own first, followed by where it agrees and disagrees with the BaZi reading.

The gold frame is the Life Palace; the shaded palaces are its three-sides-and-four-directions (Wealth, Career, Travel). Solid badges are the birth-year transformations (Lu, Quan, Ke, Ji), red names are the six malefic stars, and the small word after a major star is its brightness.

Elizabeth Taylor’s Life Palace (in Chou) is empty, so it borrows Wu Qu and Tan Lang from the opposite Travel Palace, and for someone born in a Ren year, Wu Qu takes Ji in exactly that palace. Wu Qu and Tan Lang are both brilliant there, a combination strong in ambition, charisma and desire; Ji adds fixation and ups and downs. The Career Palace holds Tian Fu with Wen Qu and Tian Yue, and the Wealth Palace holds Tian Xiang with Wen Chang. The Spouse Palace has Zi Wei taking Quan together with Qi Sha, traditionally read as “relationships and partners are a great stage in this life, and a very commanding one”. Her marriages are widely known; we only explain the traditional reading and make no comment on them.

For school, leap-month and Zi-hour settings see the Zi Wei chart page; for how the two systems differ see BaZi vs Zi Wei Dou Shu. The hindsight warning applies here too: once you know the outcome, any star can be made to explain it.

Western astrology chart

The same moment of birth, cast as a Western natal chart (tropical zodiac, Placidus houses, the same engine as our natal chart tool). A natal chart uses the sky at the moment of birth, so it needs no true-solar-time correction, but it does need the latitude of the birthplace to fix the Ascendant and the houses. BaZi and Zi Wei are both derived from the Chinese calendar, while a natal chart computes planetary positions directly. Because the three systems start from different places, the chart is listed on its own below, followed by where it agrees with the BaZi and Zi Wei readings.

The Sun is in Pisces and opposite Neptune with an orb of 0.7°. In astrology Neptune governs illusion, glamour, film and the screen, and Pisces is the most receptive sign, the one best able to dissolve into a role; astrologers often treat “Sun opposite Neptune” as a classic movie-star signature. Venus and Uranus are in an almost exact conjunction, traditionally read as love and taste that are intense, unconventional and changeable. The chart ruler Jupiter is in Leo, a sign of stage and spectacle. She started making films at 10 and lived her whole life in front of the camera. A hindsight warning: both her 2:00 and 2:30 birth times give Sagittarius rising, but these “star signatures” read this smoothly only because we already know her life.

Domicile, exaltation, fall and detriment in brackets are the classical categories for how comfortably a planet works in a sign; they are not verdicts of good or bad. For how to read the big three, the ten planets and aspects, see rising sign, Moon sign, the ten planets and aspects. The hindsight warning applies here too: once you know the outcome, any sign can be made to explain it.

Is Wealth favorable or unfavorable in your chart?

The pillars, strength score and luck pillars on this page all come from the same engine as the chart on our home page. Enter your birth date to see how much Wealth your chart has, whether your Day Master can carry it, and which elements are favorable for you.