Harry's Horoscope

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I received an anonymous e-mail just before Christmas and didn't give it much thought at first. But now, deep into reading the Harry Potter books, I find the content of the message fascinating. I have checked out the claims of "AD" against JK Rowling's "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone." In short, she does give us enough information to calculate a birth chart for Harry Potter! The most important clue is on page 43 in "Sorcerer's Stone":

"Monday. This reminded Harry of something. If it was Monday--and you could usually count on Dudley to know the days of the week, because of television-- then tomorrow, Tuesday, was Harry's eleventh birthday." And, upon Hagrid's appearance, Harry sends his acceptance to Hogwarts, by owl, on the last possible day according to Professor McGonagall's letter (July 31, p. 51), and has to spend one more month with the Dursleys (p. 88) before he departs on the "First o' September" (p. 86).

Bingo! Harry has a real birth date. Now we are on the trail. A check of the ephemeris, the book of planetary positions, shows that there are only two July 31 dates that fall on a Tuesday in the time span we are considering--in 1979 and 1984. Both dates have astrological possibilities. (Astrological charts need the date, time, and city of birth. I had the date, but I don't know where "Little Whinging" is, so I used Surrey (County), England, for a birthplace and a sunrise birth time. This is standard practice for astrologers when the exact time is not known--close enough!)

According to an interview with Harry's creator, JK Rowling, Harry was conceived (it almost sounds like he was "channeled") about seven years before the 1997 first publication date of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone." Since he is described as an 11-year-old boy at the time of the story, and since other details (for example, Dudley's birthday presents include "a video camera...16 new video games and a VCR" ) suggest that the times are reasonably current, a birth date near 1979 makes sense. This first possible horoscope for Harry has his sun in Leo conjoined by Mercury and Jupiter.

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The planet Mercury, always present in acts of magic, is the messenger between the ordinary and non-ordinary worlds. In this version of Harry's chart, both the sun and Mercury come under the philosophical, expansive, and positive influence of Jupiter. This gives us a character somewhat like Disney's "Lion King"--the lion is the symbol of the astrological sign of Leo--who must meet many challenges before assuming his rightful place. In this chart, too, Harry's Jupiter has an exact trine (positive aspect) to Neptune in Sagittarius, suggesting his place in a royal lineage of magicians as one with vision and the magical power to achieve the improbable. (It doesn't hurt his Quidditch game, either!)

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