Kamala Harris

[Jim Eshelman]

Kamala Harris accepted her party's nomination August 22, 2024, at 9:44:20 PM CDT (per an atomic clock) at The United Center in Chicago, 41N52'50" 87W40'27".

So... does this tell us anything about the accuracy of her birth time?

There's the one factor I keep watching - hinting at a slightly earlier birth time. Solar arc Ascendant last night at 0°32' Leo was 0°44 past its square to natal Jupiter. This feels more like a building aspect (though that, of course, presumes a successful outcome - that the energies are still strong in January). I don't think we can draw any conclusions from this at present.

Hert local solar arc and natal angles for Chicago add nothing.

Her SNQ shows promise, though: Calculated by Solar Fire, in what I think is a slightly incorrect way (relying on the length of the tropical year), progressed Ascendant is 3°34' Cancer, 10' from square her Moon and 0°00' from square her Sun. Progressed Moon squares MC within 0°04'. That's all in the "as good as it gets" category except that I think the calculation method is a bit off.

If (as I think is the case) secondary progressions are based on the length of the sidereal year, then her SNQ is calculated for December 19, 1964, 7:33:36 PM CDT and has Ascendant 2°54' Cancer, MC 15°56' Pisces. This puts Ascendant farther from natal Sun-Moon; worse yet, it suggests (for the perfect chart) that the birthtime be about two minutes later (which is unlikely in a carefully recorded time, and is opposite the suspicious that she was born a minute or two earlier). It this is the correct way to calculate progressions, we could settle for SNQ Ascendant being within 1° of natal Sun-Moon - certainly good enough - though not the 0°00' of the other calculation method. Furthermore, it says that if the birth time IS earlier than 9:28 PM, it surely isn't any more than two minutes earlier - to keep that SNQ Ascendant within partile orb.

Moving on to the SQ: The message is clear that it was an occasion of peak emotion (and perhaps more uncertainty than she showed). SQ MC was 0°52' Pisces, 32' from solar Neptune. Sure, the birth time could be as much as two minutes earlier to make it exact, though it's perfectly good the way it is. - Asc 21°30' Gemini is square transiting Moon and, as before, we couldn't move back more than two minutes of birth time and keep this aspect.


This leaves the PSSR. After years of not performing reliably, PSSRs have been doing pretty well using the mean flow of time (as with the SNQ and SQ) rather than apparent solar rate. By that calculation, her PSSR is calculated for 10/23/2023 3:38:45 AM CDT. This gives us several possibilities of angularities - quite a mix of things - and no real clear indication whether to keep the time or tip it. It's a good chart in any case.

17°04' Leo - PSSR EP-a
17°10' Leo - s Venus
19°01' Leo - r Uranus
19°45' Tau - PSSR MC
21°12'Leo - r Pluto
22°01' Leo - PSSR Asc
22°09' Aqu - t Saturn
22°49' Tau - t Jupiter
23°39' Leo - r Venus

If we accept the birth certificate time as exactly correct, this gives the following partile contacts:

PSSR EP-a = s Venus +0°02'
PSSR MC = t Uranus +0°44'
PSSR Asc = r Pluto +0°49', t Saturn -0°08', t Jupiter +48'

One doesn't want to screw with this too much. If we move back the birth time one or two minutes, most of this is kept - and much of it gets stronger - but moving back even one full minute costs the transiting Jupiter (and nothing gets rid of the transiting Saturn). I could be comfortable with any time very close to the birth certificate time, which might be exactly right; or, if not exactly right, we can't go more than one minute earlier.

For any other public figure, I wouldn't stress about this at all. For Kamala, that one minute makes the difference of her Ascendant sign and the duration and peaking time of her solar arc Asc-Jupiter aspect.

BTW, for those who care about such things, here is another minute difference in the one minute birth time difference:

3°24' Ari - Moon
3°29' Rim - Moon/Sun
3°34' Lib - Sun
3°55' Rim - Asc/MC 9:27 PM
4°10' Rim - Asc/MC 9:28 PM

[Jim Eshelman]

By the way... it's not often that we get crystal clear examples of Libra's original basic symbolism of the place of sunrise. And yet... did anyone else notice how often the convention speakers presented Kamala Harris in exactly those terms - new dawn, new day, daybreak... even drawing parallels (more in the press than at the convention) of Reagan's "morning in America."

Not since Libran Helen Reddy made famous the name Delta Dawn (prettiest woman you ever laid eyes on) do I recall getting my attention so drawn to this bit of zodiacal symbolism.

Also, I've said for over 40 years that the "airy" constellations - Gemini, Libra, and Aquarius - are distinctly attached to the future. This, of course, is at the heart of nearly all of Harris' campaign slogans. (Compare to Libra Hillary Clinton's "Building a Better Tomorrow," "Your Future is Her Fight," but also numerous Libran slogans about fairness and remaining connected such as the lead slogan, "Stronger Together.")

Sidereal Libra took decades to get more than a simple idea of what it was about. Sidereal astrology's founders didn't have most of these (though some of them were hinted at in Bradley's private notes). The real expression of the sunrise and futurism issues, the focus not only on the law but on social justice, the number of social activists in various forms and venues. Fagan (and, I think, Bradley) understood how important Saturn was to Libra, but never developed the idea of the strong swings between Venus and Saturn.

Throughout the convention, the portrayal - the selling, one might say - of Kamala Harris was almost entirely summarized in the polarity of her Libra Sun and Aries Moon. The Libra was easy: her career in law and as an agent of justice (plus the other themes mentioned above). Aries then appeared in her tough, unstoppable fighter elements in her earlier career and her readiness to stand with steely strength on the international field interacting (Libra-Aries) with world leaders and ready to serve as commander in chief of our military. These were easy parts of her character for the campaign to grab hold of and push, and yet the exact way they did it are right down the line of Libra + Aries.

But did the Ascendant have play? Usually this is the most superficial ("how you're dressed up") layer of someone's appearance but that does mean it often is a factor in how celebrities sell themselves and politicians are packaged. The problem is that Kamala's recorded birth time puts Gemini rising for less than a full minute before the recorded time. One minute earlier has the last minutes of Taurus rising. This rings entirely true (and remember that my wife has Sun rising in Taurus). The most personal elements repeated throughout four days about Harris described her repeatedly as loving, compassionate, empathetic, devoted to children (and able to talk to them respectfully at their level), how she is always in the kitchen and an amazing cook. Yes, a lot of these Venus-themed words might be Libran, though they aren't really Libran so much as Taurian. Even though I've been saying that I thought she probably had Taurus rising instead of Gemini (mostly from her physical build), I sat for a week listening to descriptions that seemed more Taurian than Libran and didn't put together than - oh - Ido think that probably she has Taurus rising.

I don't know if she really is like those Taurus descriptions. However, her packaging certainly includes a whole lot of that.