California Senator Kamala Harris

Kamala Harris, the junior Senator from California and subject of widespread speculation regarding her political future, was born on October 20, 1964 at 9:28 p.m. in Oakland, California. (1) I’m giving a few early thoughts about Harris as we just received the AA birth data and know that others in the astrological community will be eager to study it.

Kamala Harris
Oct. 20, 1964
9:28 p.m.
Oakland CA 37N37 122W16

The horoscope has 24º Gemini rising, with the true North Node exactly on the Ascendant degree. North Node–Ascendant is a mark of personal charisma and connection to the zeitgeist of the time, both of which are evident in her story.

Born 15 minutes before a Full Moon, Harris has the Sun in Libra and Moon in Aries.

The chart ruler, Mercury, is in early Scorpio, having made a superior conjunction with the Sun at 22º Libra five days before Harris’s birth. This is the mark of passionate mind and communication style: Mercury in Scorpio carries the relentless and penetrating qualities of the fixed water sign, and is also newly charged by its recent meeting with the Sun.

Harris was awarded a law degree in 1990 and sought a career in law enforcement because she wanted to be “at the table where decisions are made.” (2)

The image of making decisions is echoed in her horoscope by Saturn, which is strongly placed near the Midheaven (MC) — thus the most elevated planet — and in Aquarius, its traditional rulership. Harris began her career as a prosecutor and “has a near-obsessive, decadeslong interest in reforming incarceration.” (3) Natal Jupiter, traditional ruler of the Pisces MC, is in the 12th house (of prisons) conjunct the fixed star Capulus in the sword of the hero, Perseus. (Capulus is known for masculine strength and penetrating energy.)

Harris began serving as Attorney General of California in 2011. She was elected U.S. Senator in 2016, when Barbara Boxer resigned. Harris had acted quickly to throw her name into the pool of contenders for the Senate — what we might expect from Aries Moon trine its dispositor, Mars in Leo (4).

On January 13, 2015, when Harris made her precipitous announcement to run, transiting Mars was at 2º Pisces, conjunct the natal MC (2º24′ Pisces). Transiting Mars was also square to transiting Saturn (2º05′ Sag). Harris has natal Mars (21º Leo) opposite Saturn (28º Aquarius) — this often-formidable combination of planetary energy was familiar and accessible to her. Transiting Jupiter, MC ruler, was retrograde (as in the natal) at 20º35 Leo, within one degree of natal Mars (21º17′ Leo).

At the successful election, November 8, 2016, Harris was in the exact (partile) First Quarter square in the progressed chart (Moon at 20º06′ Pisces square Sun at 20º14′ Sag). (5) The progressed Moon was also applying to trine progressed Venus at 21º14′ Scorpio. (The trine is especially significant as the progressed Moon had just passed challenging oppositions to progressed Uranus, Pluto, and Mars in Virgo.) On Election Day, transiting Mercury, the natal Ascendant ruler, was at 24º Scorpio exactly opposite natal Jupiter (24º Taurus), ruler of the natal MC.

Further, on January 3, 2017, when Harris was sworn in as senator, transiting Venus was at 1º Pisces, conjunct the natal MC; transiting Jupiter, at 21º Libra, was applying to conjoin the natal Sun.

In June 2017, transiting Uranus in Aries crossed the natal Sun–Moon opposition for the first time (to be followed by exact passages in September 2017 and April 2018).

On June 7, Harris attracted national media attention in her questioning of U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein for his role in the firing of FBI Director James Comey (which, in many minds, was the beginning of a new chapter of serious trouble for the President). As noted above, Harris has a powerful and focused natal Mercury, ruling planet of the Gemini Ascendant. The “prosecutorial nature of her questioning” caused Republican committee members to interrupt Harris repeatedly and request that she “be more respectful of the witness.” (6)

On June 13, Harris questioned Attorney General Jeff Sessions on the same topic. She was again interrupted by Republican committee members. (Sessions even stated that Harris’s mode of questioning “makes me nervous.”) (7) Apparently, AG Sessions has not been questioned by such a persistent force as a female with an Aries Moon — currently being tweaked by Uranus — and natal Mercury in Scorpio in a close (1° orb) semi-square (45º) to Pluto in Virgo.

When describing her style as a prosecutor, Harris once said: “I like to go to the scene, and I do that with almost [any] project. I need to see it and I need to hear it — I need to feel it, almost, so that I can have some intuitive sense, as well as some theoretical or intellectual or academic sense, of what’s going on.” (8)

(Author’s note: Although I did not include sect in this short piece, Harris’ chart shows some basic principles. I.e., as a night birth, Saturn is out of sect but mitigated somewhat by its strong placement in Aquarius. Venus and Mars are the planets in sect at night, and they took turns by transit at the MC at significant career moments mentioned above.)

Footnotes:

(1) Birth certificate in hand, from data collector Steve Stuckey.

(2) Wikipedia: Kamala Harris

(3) Mother Jones: The Secret to Understanding Kamala Harris

(4) “Politically, in what’s become characteristic of her approach, she’d come to the conclusion that acting early and decisively was a smart way to get ahead of the pack.”
U.S. News: The Inevitability of Kamala Harris

(5) For further research: I think the progressed Sun–Moon aspects might be especially significant for her, since she was born at a nearly partile Full Moon.

(6) “Burr’s singling out of Harris sparked suggestion in the news media that his behavior was sexist, with commentators arguing that Burr would not treat a male Senate colleague in a similar manner. Other commentators suggested that treating Harris differently than other members of the Intelligence Committee is evidence of racism. In addition, when CNN pundit Jason Miller described Harris as ‘hysterical’, Kirsten Powers, who was taking part in the same on-air segment, told Miller that his use of the term to describe Harris was sexist, and that he would not describe male Senators in the same manner.” Wikipedia: Kamala Harris

(7) Wikipedia: Kamala Harris

(8) Mother Jones: The Secret to Understanding Kamala Harris