Astrology Twitter Is Losing Its Mind Over AOC’s Birth Chart

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Photo: Samantha Burkardt/Getty Images for SXSW

On Friday, October 13, 1989, current New York representative and then-baby Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was born in the Bronx, New York City, New York, U.S.A., Earth. She was born, specifically, at 11:50 a.m., a piece of temporal information especially salient to astrologers.

“In astrology, there is very little one can do without knowing someone’s time of birth, and a great deal one can do with it,” professional astrologer Arthur Lipp-Bonewits told me over email.

Back in January, one of AOC’s staffers confirmed the congresswoman’s birth time to the astrologer, who shared it in a tweet that has been recirculating this week and garnering fervent public interest among certain corners of the internet. (The original tweet has been liked nearly 800 times, and quote-tweeted extensively and effusively. “@BetoORourke release your birth time you coward,” reads one response.)

Lipp-Bonewits, an AOC constituent, told me he initially contacted her office about a policy concern unrelated to astrology, and then also asked for her birth time, explaining that, “I and many of my professional colleagues are fans of hers, and that the astrology community would greatly appreciate knowing her birth time.” After checking with the congresswoman to make sure that they could share the information, the staffer confirmed she was born at 11:50 a.m.

This means that AOC is a Libra sun, Aries moon, and Sagittarius rising, though her chart, like most everything she does, has been the subject of some debate. In the replies to Lipp-Bonewits’s tweet, some speculated that she had fabricated her time of birth (which would affect her rising sign), either because of carelessness, or for more nefarious reasons.

“There have been instances and rumors of politicians whom we presume believe in astrology giving false birth times in an effort to preserve their privacy and/or deflect criticism,” Lipp-Bonewits told me (see, allegedly: Hillary Clinton). “That being said, those of us who have been following AOC’s rise to prominence predicted a birth time which is more or less exactly the time she provided, so I’m confident in its accuracy.”

Also, back in February, astrologer GianPaolo DiCocco wrote that AOC’s was the birth chart of “someone who should NOT be in government whatsoever.”

“Look at all those Mercury squares!” he went on, referring to angles that the planet Mercury had made to other celestial bodies at the time of the congresswoman’s birth. “She is just mentally out of the loop, and absolutely, unequivocally unfit when it comes to government affairs.” (Though the post appears to have been removed, you can still see a screen grab of it here.)

Other astrologers disagree with this reading; Lipp-Bonewits notes, “DiCocco is very right-wing politically and that colors his interpretation of her chart.” (In an email to The Cut, DiCocco adamantly denied this description of his politics.)

“It’s an excellent chart for being a politician,” astrologer Anne Ortelee tells me over the phone. “She has a number of planets in the quadrant that’s here to be of service to the greater good of the world. So she really is a person who believes that she’s here to help and to serve.”

Ortelee also says that AOC was a queen in her last lifetime, “so she’s coming in, in this lifetime, to help the people.”

AOC’s chart, Ortelee also notes, is “really tied into the U.S. chart.”

Yes, the United States of America has it’s own natal chart, know as the Sibly chart, after its creator, astrologer Ebenezer Sibly. Born at the signing of the Declaration of Independence, on July 4th, 1776, at 5:10 p.m. (there is some debate around this), in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the U.S.A. is a Cancer sun, Aquarius moon, and Sagittarius rising.

The country, Ortelee explains, is undergoing what’s called a Pluto return, a phenomenon that happens every 250 years, and means we’re about to go through a major revolution in the country. AOC, she says, is here “as we’re getting ready to form the vision of how our country is supposed to be, as we’re speeding towards the next American Revolution, which is probably going to be internal.” Many of the angles in the congresswoman’s chart are also nearly identical to those on the Sibly chart, she says.

“She’s going to be the first president of the United States who’s a woman,” Ortelee asserts. “The next Ben Franklin in a dress.” (Benjamin Franklin, though a Founding Father, was never president.)

Lipp-Bonewits also predicts great things for AOC. “Her career in politics is likely to last the rest of her life. The public attention on her will probably calm down somewhat later this year in either July or December, and pick up again in a big way in 2022, likely after accomplishing major financial or tax-code reforms during a second term in Congress. Some of the most important work she does in her political career will be between March 2026 and May 2027.”

Updated, 03/27/2019, 5:20 p.m.: In an email to The Cut regarding his characterization in this post, DiCocco stated:

“I am a moderate centrist with leanings toward the right side of Truth. In our current politicized era, millennials who claim to be astrologers, like Lipp-Bonewits (among so many others), absolutely refuse to look at the truths and realities of the birth chart. They would rather provide heavily biased and positively glowing interpretations of any political candidate they unflinchingly support, like AOC. I’m sure we all remember the 2016 election when the vast majority of astrologers predicted Hillary Clinton would win the Presidency. Meanwhile, I was one of the very few who predicted the win for Donald Trump, which was clear as day in his birth chart. In the most recent incident of bias, we had all those YouTube astrologers who forecasted ‘Mueller doom’ for Trump. They certainly got another heavy dose of reality. When you remove the lens of bias and start interpreting charts accurately, you will see astrology truly come alive and achieve plenty of self-growth in the process.”

At Long Last, We Have AOC’s Full Birth Chart