Salvador Dalí had the Sun, Mercury, Mars and Venus in Taurus, Cancer rising and the Moon in Aries: a painter of dreams with an old master's patience, and a showman who never let anyone forget him.

He was born at 8:45 in the morning on 11 May 1904 in Figueres, Catalonia. Astro-Databank rates the time AA, from the birth record. He studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid, moved between Paris and the Catalan coast in the late 1920s, and joined the Surrealists in Paris in 1929.

Four planets in Taurus

Taurus is the senses, the body, food and slow, skilled work. Dalí's Sun, Mercury and Mars sit there in the 11th house, with Venus in Taurus at the top of the chart in the 10th. The dream images were famous, but the technique behind them was patient and precise, closer to the old masters than to the speed of modern art. The Persistence of Memory (1931), with its soft, melting clocks, is a small painting, about the size of a sheet of paper, finished in fine detail. Taurus also shows in what he painted: bread, eggs, flesh, things you can almost taste.

Sun square Saturn

The tightest aspect in his chart is a square between the Sun and Saturn, within half a degree. Saturn is authority, rules and the weight of the past. He spent much of his life pushing against authority, and his relationships with the Surrealists' leader, André Breton, and with his own father ended badly. In 1939 the Surrealists formally expelled him, and his answer was the line, often quoted, "I myself am Surrealism".

Cancer rising, with Neptune in the 12th house

Cancer rising is sensitive and protective of its own world. Neptune, the planet of dreams and the unconscious, sits in Cancer in his 12th house, the most hidden part of the chart. It describes an imagination that drew constantly on dreams, childhood memory and the landscape of home. The rocks and beaches of Cap de Creus, near his home at Portlligat, appear again and again in his paintings.

Moon in Aries in the 9th house, and an Aries Midheaven

The Moon in Aries reacts first and loudly, and his Midheaven, the public role, is in Aries too, with Jupiter in the 10th house. It is a chart that wanted to be seen, and he made sure he was: the upturned moustache, the ocelot on a lead, the lobster telephone. He designed the dream sequence for Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound (1945) and, in 1969, the Chupa Chups logo. In 1974 he opened his own museum, the Dalí Theatre-Museum, in Figueres, the town where he was born.

Compare your chart with his

If you share his Taurus Sun or his Cancer rising, you may know the pull between a love of the real, physical world and a very rich inner one. Add your details below to see how your chart meets his.