Who’s Demanding to See Hillary’s Birth Certificate?

Wall Street Journal article suggests frustrated astrologers might be at the top of this list

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, reporter Yogita Patel says there is one crucial detail Hillary Clinton hasn’t divulged to the American people, and it’s driving some astrologers crazy.

On September 29, Ms. Patel’s byline story describing candidate Clinton’s apparent unwillingness to share her time of birth with the astrological community was published on the front page of the prestigious business journal.  After months of checking things out with New York City astrologer Shelley Ackerman and others the reporter came away with the idea that Donald Trump is not the only candidate acting like he has something to hide.

For astrologers, an accurate birth time is essential; there are important things that can’t be sorted without it.  But the Clinton campaign had not been forthcoming when asked for this information, Ms. Patel said.

Michael O’Reilly of Bend, Ore., is one of several astrologers she interviewed for her story. He noted that Donald Trump was born at 10:54 a.m. in Jamaica Hospital in Queens, N.Y., on June 14, 1946.  From this information it’s possible to divine that the GOP candidate “has a very strong Mars vibe going on,” Mr. O’Reilly said.

The red planet’s position in Mr. Trump’s natal chart – the precise layout of the heavens at the moment of birth – resonates with Americans fed up with Washington, O’Reilly said.  Mars exudes the Roman war god’s temperament and Mr. Trump “is basically channeling that energy.”

Ms. Patel notes that Mrs. Clinton was born Oct. 26, 1947, at Edgewater Hospital in Chicago, Ill., according to the Cook County clerk. After that, astrologers must play gumshoe to get any closer.  But there’s decent historical evidence for two times at either end of the day.

Astrologers agree that candidates’ birth charts are critical to understand their personalities, foresee how they may respond to adversities, and perhaps forecast who will win. But, as astrologer O’Reilly puts it: “The craft of forecasting is impossible unless we have an accurate birth time.”

Astrologers agree that when casting birth charts even mere seconds matter. For example, at a political event in Concord, N.H., in the 1980s New Hampshire astrologer Celeste Longacre said she approached Mrs. Clinton, who told her she was born at 8 p.m., Ms. Patel said.

“Astrologers say the resulting evening chart shows strong Gemini-Uranus influences, suggesting an erratic or unpredictable nature. Yet fast-forward the chart to 47seconds after 8 p.m. and that could indicate a nurturing disposition,” she points out.

Ms. Patel writes that New York astrologer Arlene Nimark got a different answer in 2003 at a Manhattan Barnes & Noble store, where the former first lady was signing her book, Living History. Others in line were asking are you going to run, but when Mrs. Nimark got to the front she asked Mrs. Clinton for her birth time.

“Her (Mrs. Clinton’s) aura was so large, and she was laughing so hard, and it just rolled off her tongue: 8 a.m.,” Mrs. Nimark reportedly said. That time jibes with a quote astrologers often attribute to Mrs. Clinton’s mother that her daughter arrived in time for breakfast.

Ms. Patel says the morning time astrologers use shows Mars in the sector that rules her career along with influences from Mercury, which can indicate a politically ambitious individual with a strong public presence.  It could also suggest she is scandal-prone.

The 8 a.m. timing makes Mrs. Clinton a double Scorpio with both the Sun and the astrological rising sign in Scorpio.  Astrologers say this could indicate extra secretiveness, she added.

According to the WSJ story Mr. Trump divulged his birth certificate, including birth time, to ABC News in 2011.  At the time he demanded President Obama do the same as part of an effort to sow doubt about the President’s status as a U.S. citizen.

Ms. Patel says astrologers have been into politics for as long as politicians have been into astrology. In the 1980 presidential campaign Nancy Reagan consulted astrologer Joan Quigley and passed advice to her husband’s aides, Mrs. Reagan wrote in her 1989 memoir, My Turn.

During the 1992 campaign, Ms. Patel reports that Shelley Ackerman created Bill Clinton’s natal chart after getting his birth time on a handwritten postcard from his mother. Ms. Ackerman saw the makings of a president and a period of change centered on growth in business.

“She could see his outlook wasn’t completely rosy and predicted back then the President was going to run into some rough waters. That year, former Pentagon worker Linda Tripp began secretly taping her conversations with Monica Lewinsky,” she said.

For astrologers, presidential elections are momentous focal points, Ms, Ackerman says.

“They direct us to not only gauge the charts of the candidates as individuals but to also place those charts against the backdrop of the chart of a nation and the collective’s evolutionary moment in time. It makes sense that this meaningful conversation be covered by the media, and especially the controversy surrounding full disclosure of candidates’ accurate birth data.

“The astrological community would like to see all members of congress share this important information with their constituencies,” she added.