Barry Bearak
Barry Bearak (born August 31, 1949, Chicago, United States), aged 77, is an American journalist. Bearak's honours include Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting, George Polk Award and James Aronson Award.
Barry Bearak’s zodiac sign is Virgo, Chinese zodiac is Earth Ox, with Life Path 8 in numerology.
Virgo, Chinese zodiac is 
Earth Ox, with 
Life Path 8 in numerology.Your match with Barry
Barry Bearak’s AsterNym identity
The Tidal Storyteller
Water represents depth and adaptability. Water-led charts are associated with instinct, memory and the ability to find a path around obstacles. Life Path 8 represents mastery: ambition, resources and turning sustained effort into visible results.
Water Day Master (BaZi) × mutable Sun × Life Path 8, on the mental plane.
How common is the name Barry in the U.S.?
#1520
US rank in 2025
~182,036
Americans share it since 1883
1962
its peak year
The SSA recorded 4,607 American boys and 16 girls named Barry in 1949: 73rd among boys and 2,525th among girls for the year.
US Social Security Administration public records
What Barry’s name adds up to
Worked from the name as published, letter by letter.
3
Expression · expression and voice
8
Soul Urge · achievement
4
Personality · steady, dependable
The name opens on B (2) and closes on Y (7).
Pythagorean letter values · A=1 to I=9, then J=1 again
Barry’s lucky numbers, colours and stones
Traditional correspondences, calculated not chosen.
Lucky numbers
8 · 1 · 9
Lucky colours
Yellow & Ochre
Lucky day
Wednesday
Direction
• Center
Season
the turning of seasons
Stones
Peridot, Emerald, Citrine
Flower constellation
🌸 Gladiolus · 💜 Lavender · 🌼 Chrysanthemum
Coral · Lilac · Gold
Eight Mansions · Kua number
Kua 2, trigram Kun 坤, West group. Best direction Northeast, worst East.
A different tradition from the Direction above, and a different question: feng shui reads it from the solar year 1949, which turns at Li Chun rather than at New Year, and from sex, which Wikidata records as male. Work out your own →
The record
What sets Barry apart
The George Polk Award came in 2001, when Barry Bearak was 52.
The schooling ran through UIUC College of Media and Knox College.
On the family side, Barry Bearak was married Celia W. Dugger.
Wikipedia files Barry Bearak under University of Michigan fellows, Knox College (Illinois) alumni and American journalism academics.
Richard Gere and Hugh David Politzer shares the birth date exactly, so the chart below is nearly the same document for all of them. What follows the chart is where they part.
- Educated at
- UIUC College of Media, Knox College and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
- Awards
- George Polk Award (2001) and Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting (2002)
- Citizenship
- United States
- Wikipedia editions
- 3
What the chart says
Barry, according to the stars
Core essence
Barry notices. That is the whole thing: the detail everyone else walked past, the small fix that makes the day work, the way you looked slightly off when you said you were fine. The core of Barry is devotion expressed as usefulness. They love by improving things, and they are far kinder to other people than to themselves.
The vibe
Underneath, Barry is an optimist who needs the door left open. The Moon in Sagittarius feels best in motion, out in the world, laughing at the thing that went wrong. What Barry needs to feel safe is freedom and the truth, in that order. Try to contain them and they vanish; trust them and they come back every time.
How Barry wants to be loved
Barry wants to be loved beautifully. Venus is at home in Libra: romance, manners, the date that was actually planned, a partner who is fair and easy to be around. Barry gives a lot of grace and needs it back. Treat them like a partner in everything, including the small choices, and they bloom.
How Barry creates
How Barry makes things happen: they seep in. A Yin Water day master is rain, mist, the still pool that reflects everything. Barry creates by sensing, by imagination, by noticing what nobody else said. Their influence is quiet and total. The work is not dissolving into everyone else's weather.
Instinct
Instinct: Barry is steady under pressure, an Ox year, and their gut reaction is to keep going. Patient, stubborn in the useful way, the one still working when the others have gone home, and quietly very proud of it. The Earth year grounds it: practical, patient, someone people lean on.
Purpose
Purpose: Life Path 8 is the powerhouse. Barry is here to build something big and run it well: money, influence, a body of work with their name on it. Ambitious, capable, generous when winning, and learning that power is for lifting people.
Triggers
Triggers: feeling unsafe, or seeing their people treated badly. Mars in Cancer means Barry does not fight for themselves easily but will go to war for someone they love. The anger comes out sideways at first, then all at once. Protectiveness is the whole engine.
Computed from Barry's birth date. Working below.
Where Barry sits
Six lines
Barry’s dot comes from the chart; yours is where you put it.
You may run on a few close bonds rather than a crowd. Depth is your default.
You likely weigh most decisions but can move fast when it matters.
You may wear your feelings openly. What you feel tends to show.
You likely handle some friction right away and let smaller things settle.
You may favor what's proven and workable over the untested idea.
You may build trust slowly, letting closeness earn its way in.
Tap each line where you sit.
All twelve of yours, from your birth date →✦ A real star from their birth night
Dedicate a star to Barry Bearak
Three stars chosen from the real sky above Chicago on the night they were born. Choose the story that connects you.
A 9 p.m. reference sky, not the birth minute. Dedications are commemorative and confer no ownership of stars.
The sky over Chicago that night
Computed for 41.88°N, 9 p.m. local sky.
At 9 p.m. the star closest to straight overhead at Chicago was Vega, in Lyra, 85.9° up.
Of the 84 catalog stars above the horizon, Arcturus was the brightest.
Chicago sits at 41.9°N, low enough that no headline star is circumpolar: everything bright rises and sets there.
Nothing below −48.1° declination clears the horizon at this latitude, so Canopus, Rigil Kentaurus, Achernar, Hadar, Acrux, Mimosa and Toliman were never visible from Chicago on any night.
Sun 17° below the horizon, Moon up and 64% lit at first quarter.
How unusual Barry's chart is
Chart pattern score
10 / 100 · Reassuringly normal
A leaning bowl
An AsterNym index built from stelliums, yods, grand crosses and chart shape. It is not a population percentile, and a high score is not a better chart. Without a birth time the houses are left out of it.
Score your own chart →Barry Bearak at a glance
Virgo Sun
Virgo SunOrder first. Then rest, in theory.
Barry Bearak's Sun was in Virgo for the whole of August 31, 1949, so no birth time is needed to settle it.
What Virgo means →Earth Ox
Earth OxStubborn, and usually right.
Barry Bearak was born on August 31, 1949, which falls in a Earth Ox year of the Chinese calendar.
What the Ox means →Life Path 8
Life Path 8Power, and the bill for it.
Barry Bearak's birth date, August 31, 1949, reduces to Life Path 8 under the numerology method AsterNym uses.
What Life Path 8 means →What stands out in Barry’s chart
- The tightest major aspect in Barry Bearak's date-only chart is Venus conjunction Neptune, with an orb of under 1°.
- Three planets, Mercury, Venus and Neptune, sit together in Libra, which astrologers call a stellium.
- Six of the ten planets fall in Cardinal signs, making Cardinal the strongest modality in this chart.
- Barry Bearak combines a Water Day Master in BaZi with a mutable Sun and a Life Path on the mental plane, the combination AsterNym calls The Tidal Storyteller.
Barry’s birth chart
Reference chart · birth time unknown
Positions are checked across the whole date. The Moon ranges from 12° to 26° Sagittarius depending on the hour.
No birth time, so the houses are a solar chart: the Sun’s sign counts as house 1.
Placements
Tap one to light it on the wheel.
The working: aspects, Chiron and the asteroids, dominant planets and configurationsshow
Aspects across every possible birth time
stableMercurysquareUranus0.0° to 1.0° orb
Barry’s mind grinds against their need for freedom. The friction is lifelong. Worked with, it builds real strength.
stableVenusconjunctionNeptune0.0° to 0.8° orb
Barry’s affections and imagination act as one. Wherever one goes, the other is already there.
stableSunconjunctionSaturn1.0° to 1.8° orb
Barry’s core identity and discipline act as one. Each makes the other louder.
stableMarsoppositionJupiter2.7° to 3.4° orb
stableVenussextilePluto2.9° to 4.1° orb
stableSunsextileUranus3.2° to 4.1° orb
stableNeptunesextilePluto3.3° orb
possibleMoontrinePlutoorb from 0.0° to 9.2° depending on birth time
possibleMoonsextileVenusorb from 0.1° to 12.1° depending on birth time
possibleMoonsextileNeptuneorb from 0.1° to 12.5° depending on birth time
possibleMoonsquareSaturnorb from 3.3° to 16.7° depending on birth time
possibleSaturnsextileUranusorb from 5.0° to 5.1° depending on birth time
Chart signature
Elements
- Fire2 of 10
- Earth3 of 10
- Air3 of 10
- Water2 of 10
Modalities
- Cardinal6 of 10
- Fixed1 of 10
- Mutable3 of 10
Counted across the ten planets by sign.
Barry’s Chiron, Ceres, Eros, Hygiea and Lilith
What astrologers make of these five, at noon values.
⚷ ChironSagittarius 3°29′ (moves 0.04° over the day)
centaur (2060) · the wound and what is learnt from it
⚳ CeresLibra 1°15′ (moves 0.44° over the day)
dwarf planet (1) · how a person nurtures and wants to be nurtured
♡ Eros ℞Capricorn 28°27′ (moves 0.19° over the day)
near-Earth asteroid (433) · what draws them and how they desire
⚕ HygieaLibra 6°53′ (moves 0.39° over the day)
main-belt asteroid (10) · health, routine and what keeps them well
⚸ Black Moon LilithAries 15°13′ (moves 0.11° over the day)
mean lunar apogee · the part that refuses to be tamed
Aspects to the asteroids and Lilith
- Chiron sextile Mercury 0.4°
- Black Moon Lilith opposition Neptune 1.6°
- Black Moon Lilith trine Pluto 1.6°
- Black Moon Lilith opposition Venus 1.8°
- Ceres conjunction Mercury 2.6°
- Eros opposition Mars 2.6°
- Hygiea square Uranus 2.6°
Barry’s dominant planets
1. ☿ Mercury6 pts
rules the Sun sign, Virgo; disposes Sun, Saturn; 1 major aspect
2. ♀ Venus6 pts
in its own sign, Libra; disposes Mercury, Neptune; 2 major aspects
3. ☉ Sun3 pts
disposes Pluto; 2 major aspects
Configurations in Barry’s chart
No stellium, grand trine, T-square, grand cross, yod or kite — the common case.
Minor aspects
semi-sextile, semi-square, quintile, sesquiquadrate, biquintile, quincunx.
- Sun sesquiquadrate Jupiter 0.1°
- Mars semi-square Saturn 1.5°
- Jupiter sesquiquadrate Saturn 1.5°
Born the same day as Barry
2 other people here were born on August 31, 1949, the same date and the same year. With no birth time for any of them the chart is identical, not similar: the same Sun, the same pillars, the same Life Path. What the chart cannot reach is the birthplace. Chicago sits at 41.9°N, far enough north that Canopus, Rigil Kentaurus, Achernar, Hadar, Acrux, Mimosa and Toliman never clear the horizon. Same sky, different lives.
More people like Barry
Other journalists
- Stephen Kurkjian1943
- Jacqui Banaszynski1952
- Anthony R. Dolan1948
- Paul Gigot1955
- Serge Schmemann1945
- Craig Flournoy1951
Born in United States
- Phyllis HymanAmerican rhythm-and-blues singer
- Bruce SpringsteenAmerican rock singer
- Shelley LongAmerican actress and comedian (born 1949)
- Caitlyn JennerAmerican media personality and retired decathlete
- Alan MenkenAmerican composer (born 1949)
- Bill O'ReillyAmerican political commentator, television host and writer
More charts like Barry’s
Fellow Virgo suns
- John MulaneyAmerican comedian and actor (born 1982)
- Katie LowesAmerican actress
- Leah McSweeneyAmerican fashion designer
Born in Ox years
- George CarlinAmerican stand-up comedian
- Peter JacksonNew Zealand film director, screenwriter, producer and actor
- Olga TokarczukPolish writer and activist
Also born on August 31
- Richard Gere1949
- Queen Rania of Jordan1970
- Chris Tucker1971
- Jang Won-young2004
- Maxine Waters1938
- Debbie Gibson1970
Fellow Yin Water day masters
- Bernardo BertolucciItalian film director and screenwriter
- Melanie GriffithAmerican actress
- Bernadette PetersAmerican actress and singer (born 1948)
Other Virgo Ox charts
- Akeem Davis-GaitherAmerican football outside linebacker
- Benjamin St-JusteAmerican football players from Canada
- Alohi GilmanAmerican football safety
- Ja'Marcus IngramAmerican football player (born 1997)
Other Tidal Storytellers
- Smokey RobinsonAmerican R&B singer, songwriter and producer (born 1940)
- Alexandra DanilovaAmerican ballet dancer
- Ivan ToneyEnglish association football player
- Morten ThorsbyNorwegian footballer (born 1996)
Famous people with Life Path 8
- Micky van de VenDutch footballer (born 2001)
- Facundo PellistriUruguayan association football player
- Ismail JakobsSenegalese-German association football player
From the journal: Inner, outer and secret animals: the Four Pillars connection · The twelve Day Officers, and how Chinese date selection works
Barry’s cards
Computed from August 31, 1949. Tap to flip.
Birth tarot card
StrengthAsterNym identity card
The Tidal StorytellerWestern zodiac
VirgoChinese zodiac
Ox 丑Life Path
8 · Achiever☿ Ruled by Mercury
Quicksilver Hg
The working: BaZi pillarsshow
BaZi pillars
Day Master: yin Water.
Year
己
yin Earth
丑
Ox
Earth
roots & early life
Month
壬
yang Water
申
Monkey
Metal
work & drive
Day
day master
癸
yin Water
巳
Snake
Fire
you & partnership
Where this comes from, and how it is worked out
Barry’s birth date and birthplace come from Wikidata Q4864001 (CC0), as do the occupations, works and awards above. With no documented birth time this chart is rated X on the Rodden scale, the astrological convention for how well evidenced a birth time is. The banner above lists what that leaves out. Entries are matched to Wikidata by entity id rather than by name, kept at day precision, and dropped where sources disagree on the date.
Tropical zodiac, whole-sign houses, modern rulers. Aspects on the western_v1 orb policy; minor ones at 1.5° to 2.5°, skipped where a major already holds. Minor bodies from JPL Horizons heliocentric vectors, Lilith as mean apogee. Dominance is an AsterNym score — rulerships, dispositors, aspect count — so other methods can name a different leader.
The same Barry Bearak at Wikipedia.
Roster last reviewed September 10, 2026. The full method: how it works.
Traditional interpretations, not facts or predictions, and not endorsed by Barry Bearak.
Quick answers about Barry Bearak’s chart
- How old is Barry Bearak?
- Barry Bearak is 77 years old, born August 31, 1949 in Chicago, United States.
- What zodiac sign is Barry Bearak?
- Barry Bearak is a Virgo: born August 31, 1949, which puts the Sun in Virgo for the whole of that day.
- What is Barry Bearak's Chinese zodiac animal?
- The Ox, with the Earth element, from the Chinese lunar year of the August 31, 1949 birth.
- What is Barry Bearak's Life Path number?
- Life Path 8, calculated in numerology.
- What is Barry Bearak's Chiron sign?
- Chiron in Sagittarius at 3°. Position from JPL Horizons.
- Where is Barry Bearak's Black Moon Lilith?
- Mean Black Moon Lilith in Aries at 15°. This is the mean lunar apogee; the osculating Lilith some tables use can sit up to 30° away.
- What is Barry Bearak's dominant planet?
- Mercury, on AsterNym's dominance score (6 points: rules the Sun sign, Virgo; disposes Sun, Saturn; 1 major aspect). Venus is second and Sun third. Other sites weight rulerships and aspects differently and can name a different leader.
