Herb Caen
Herb Caen (born April 3, 1916, Sacramento, United States; died 1997), was an American newspaper columnist. Caen's honours include Pulitzer Prize Special Citations and Awards.
Herb Caen’s zodiac sign was Aries, Chinese zodiac was Fire Dragon, with Life Path 6 in numerology.
Aries, Chinese zodiac was 
Fire Dragon, with 
Life Path 6 in numerology.Your match with Herb
Herb Caen’s AsterNym identity
The Gilded Diplomat
Metal represents precision. Metal-led charts are associated with standards, boundaries, discernment and the ability to remove what is unnecessary. Life Path 6 represents care: home, responsibility, beauty and the instinct to support the people nearby.
Metal Day Master (BaZi) × cardinal Sun × Life Path 6, on the emotional plane.
How common is the name Herb in the U.S.?
—
outside the current top list
~2,007
Americans share it since 1884
1947
its peak year
In 1916, 11 American boys were registered Herb — 2,452nd on the SSA's list that year.
US Social Security Administration public records
What Herb’s name adds up to
Worked from the name as published, letter by letter.
11
Expression · sensing what is coming
11
Soul Urge · insight
9
Personality · generous, worldly
The name opens on H (8) and closes on B (2). The value it repeats most is 5, which numerology reads as movement.
Pythagorean letter values · A=1 to I=9, then J=1 again
Herb’s lucky numbers, colours and stones
Traditional correspondences, calculated not chosen.
Lucky numbers
6 · 1 · 7
Lucky colours
Red & Orange
Lucky day
Tuesday
Direction
↓ South
Season
summer
Stones
Diamond, Red Coral, Carnelian
Flower constellation
🌼 Daisy · 🌺 Red Dahlia · 🌺 Poppy
White · Crimson · Flame orange
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 1916, 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 Herb apart
The Pulitzer Prize Special Citations and Awards came in 1996, when Herb Caen was 80.
The schooling ran through Sacramento Charter High School.
Cause of death is recorded as lung cancer.
On Wikipedia the categories read Writers from Sacramento, California, San Francisco Chronicle people and Pulitzer Prize winners for journalism.
Marlon Brando (1924) and Jane Goodall (1934) share the birthday in another year, so the sun sits where it sits here.
- Educated at
- Sacramento Charter High School
- Awards
- Pulitzer Prize Special Citations and Awards (1996)
- Cause of death
- lung cancer
- Citizenship
- United States
- Languages
- English
- Wikipedia editions
- 11
What the chart says
Herb, according to the stars
Core essence
Herb leads with the body. First in, first to speak, first to say the thing everyone was thinking, and honestly a little surprised when the room needed a second to catch up. The core of Herb is courage that does not look like courage from the inside, it just looks like Tuesday. They would rather be wrong fast than right slowly, and it is why people follow them.
How Herb wants to be loved
Herb wants to be loved slowly and for real. Venus in Taurus is touch, food, the good blanket, the plan that does not change. They are sensual and steady and they want to be shown, not told: the small physical kindnesses count double. Once Herb is yours, they stay, and they expect the same.
How Herb creates
How Herb makes things happen: they cut to it. A Yang Metal day master is the sword, decisive, principled, allergic to nonsense. Herb creates by clarifying, by deciding, by being the one who says what the thing actually is. Sharp with themselves first. The work is remembering that not every problem needs a blade.
Instinct
Instinct: Herb is larger than life, a Dragon year, and their gut reaction is to go big. Confident, lucky, a natural at the centre of things, and warm-hearted underneath the spectacle. The Fire year turns the volume up: warmer, bolder, more expressive, harder to overlook.
Purpose
Purpose: Life Path 6 is the nurturer. Herb is here to care, to make a home wherever they are, to be the person others come to. Responsible, warm, a little too willing to carry everyone, and learning to let themselves be looked after.
Triggers
Triggers: being ignored, or being made small. Mars in Leo means Herb fights with pride and flair and needs the win to be seen. Generous in victory, dramatic in defeat, and never, ever petty for long. Give them the stage and the fire becomes warmth.
Computed from Herb's birth date. Working below.
Where Herb sits
Six lines
Herb’s dot comes from the chart; yours is where you put it.
You may draw energy from a wide network, many doors, lightly held.
You may leap first and adjust as you go. Waiting can feel like losing momentum.
You may wear your feelings openly. What you feel tends to show.
You may want to resolve tension the moment it appears, rather than let it sit.
You likely balance practical steps with room to imagine further.
You may feel connection fast. Chemistry can arrive before the details do.
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 Herb Caen
Three stars chosen from the real sky above Sacramento 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 Sacramento that night
Computed for 38.58°N, 9 p.m. local sky.
At 9 p.m. the star closest to straight overhead at Sacramento was Tania Australis, in Ursa Major, 82.6° up.
Of the 102 catalog stars above the horizon, Sirius was the brightest.
Sacramento sits at 38.6°N, low enough that no headline star is circumpolar: everything bright rises and sets there.
Nothing below −51.4° declination clears the horizon at this latitude, so Canopus, Rigil Kentaurus, Achernar, Hadar, Acrux, Mimosa and Toliman were never visible from Sacramento on any night.
The Moon, 3% lit at new moon, had already set; the Sun sat 27° below the horizon.
The name and the places
- Born in
- Sacramento, United States
The death is recorded at San Francisco, California in 1997.
No birth time is on record, so no astrocartography map can be drawn for Herb Caen: the lines move about fifteen degrees of longitude an hour. Shared Places can still draw yours.
How unusual Herb's chart is
Chart pattern score
47 / 100 · Quietly distinctive
3-planet stellium in Aries · A bowl chart · 1 planet at a critical degree
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 →Aries Sun
Aries SunStarts the thing. Then plans it.
Herb Caen's Sun was in Aries for the whole of April 3, 1916, so no birth time is needed to settle it.
What Aries means →Fire Dragon
Fire DragonSets the standard, then raises it.
Herb Caen was born on April 3, 1916, which falls in a Fire Dragon year of the Chinese calendar.
What the Dragon means →Life Path 6
Life Path 6Feeds the room, forgets to eat.
Herb Caen's birth date, April 3, 1916, reduces to Life Path 6 under the numerology method AsterNym uses.
What Life Path 6 means →What stands out in Herb’s chart
- The tightest major aspect in Herb Caen's date-only chart is Mars trine Jupiter, with an orb of under 1°.
- Three planets, Sun, Mercury and Jupiter, sit together in Aries, which astrologers call a stellium.
- Seven of the ten planets fall in Cardinal signs, making Cardinal the strongest modality in this chart.
- Herb Caen combines a Metal Day Master in BaZi with a cardinal Sun and a Life Path on the emotional plane, the combination AsterNym calls The Gilded Diplomat.
Herb’s birth chart
Reference chart · birth time unknown
Positions are checked across the whole date. The Moon ranges from 21° to 4° Aries or Taurus 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
stableMercurysquarePluto0.3° to 2.2° orb
Herb’s mind grinds against their depths. The friction is lifelong. Worked with, it builds real strength.
stableMarstrineJupiter0.7° to 0.8° orb
Herb’s drive flows straight into their growth. A talent so smooth it can go unnoticed.
stableVenussextileNeptune1.2° to 2.3° orb
Herb’s affections open doors for their imagination. An easy alliance, and it pays off when it is used.
stableSunconjunctionJupiter1.3° to 2.0° orb
stableMercurytrineNeptune1.7° to 3.6° orb
stableJupitersquareSaturn1.9° to 2.1° orb
stableSuntrineMars2.0° to 2.8° orb
stableSunsquareSaturn3.2° to 4.2° orb
stableMercurysextileVenus4.0° to 4.8° orb
stableMarsoppositionUranus7.3° to 7.4° orb
possibleMoonsquareNeptuneorb from 0.0° to 8.7° depending on birth time
possibleMoonsextilePlutoorb from 0.1° to 10.1° depending on birth time
Chart signature
Elements
- Fire5 of 10
- Earth1 of 10
- Air1 of 10
- Water3 of 10
Modalities
- Cardinal7 of 10
- Fixed3 of 10
- Mutable0 of 10
Counted across the ten planets by sign: Fire leads this chart.
Herb’s Chiron, Ceres, Eros, Hygiea and Lilith
What astrologers make of these five, at noon values.
⚷ ChironPisces 23°28′ (moves 0.06° over the day)
centaur (2060) · the wound and what is learnt from it
⚳ CeresGemini 5°37′ (moves 0.36° over the day)
dwarf planet (1) · how a person nurtures and wants to be nurtured
♡ ErosPisces 12°51′ (moves 0.60° over the day)
near-Earth asteroid (433) · what draws them and how they desire
⚕ Hygiea ℞Libra 22°58′ (moves 0.19° over the day)
main-belt asteroid (10) · health, routine and what keeps them well
⚸ Black Moon LilithCancer 5°46′ (moves 0.11° over the day)
mean lunar apogee · the part that refuses to be tamed
Aspects to the asteroids and Lilith
- Eros trine Saturn 2.8°
Herb’s dominant planets
1. ♂ Mars9 pts
rules the Sun sign, Aries; disposes Sun, Mercury, Jupiter; 3 major aspects
2. ☉ Sun4 pts
disposes Mars; 3 major aspects
3. ♀ Venus4 pts
in its own sign, Taurus; 2 major aspects
Configurations in Herb’s chart
Stellium in Aries · Sun, Mercury, JupiterThree or more planets in one sign (four, or three with a luminary, by AsterNym's count): a concentration astrologers read as that sign's themes dominating the chart.
Minor aspects
semi-sextile, semi-square, quintile, sesquiquadrate, biquintile, quincunx.
- Sun semi-square Venus 0.6°
- Mercury semi-square Uranus 1.1°
- Venus semi-square Jupiter 1.1°
- Venus quintile Mars 1.2°
- Mars semi-sextile Saturn 1.3°
- Neptune semi-sextile Pluto 1.4°
More people like Herb
Other journalists
- George Weller1907
- Meg Greenfield1930
- Relman Morin1907
- Frank Peters Jr.1930
- Price Day1907
- David S. Broder1929
Born in United States
- Arthur MillerAmerican playwright and essayist
- Frederick Chapman RobbinsAmerican doctor
- Earl Wilbur Sutherland, Jr.American pharmacologist
- Richard HofstadterAmerican historian and public intellectual
- Harold C. SchonbergAmerican writer
- Peter ViereckAmerican historian and poet
More charts like Herb’s
Fellow Aries suns
- Dhanin ChearavanontThai businessman, senior chairman of Charoen Pokphand Group
- Leonid FedunRussian businessman
- Low Tuck KwongPresident Director, PT Bayan Resources Tbk
Born in Dragon years
- Arthur Holly ComptonAmerican physicist
- Frank B. KelloggAmerican politician
- Roger Y. TsienAmerican biochemist
Also born on April 3
- Marlon Brando1924
- Jane Goodall1934
- Eddie Murphy1961
- Nigel Farage1964
- Cobie Smulders1982
- Amanda Bynes1986
Fellow Yang Metal day masters
- Jasmine PaoliniItalian tennis player
- Elena RybakinaKazakhstani tennis player
- Noah JupeBritish actor
Other Aries Dragon charts
- Wangari Muta MaathaiKenyan environmentalist and politician who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004
- Russell CroweNew Zealand actor
- James WatsonAmerican molecular biologist, geneticist, zoologist and Nobel Laureate
- Reese WitherspoonAmerican actress
Other Gilded Diplomats
- Malcolm RodriguezAmerican football player (born 1999)
- DJ UiagaleleiAmerican football player (born 2001)
- Justice HillAmerican football player (born 1997)
- Jalyn HolmesAmerican football player (born 1996)
Famous people with Life Path 6
- Sean BuntingAmerican football player (born 1997)
- Austin SchlottmannAmerican football player (born 1995)
- Jordan ElliottAmerican football defensive tackle
From the journal: Inner, outer and secret animals: the Four Pillars connection · The twelve Day Officers, and how Chinese date selection works
Herb’s cards
Computed from April 3, 1916. Tap to flip.
Birth tarot card
The DevilAsterNym identity card
The Gilded DiplomatWestern zodiac
AriesChinese zodiac
Dragon 辰Life Path
6 · Guardian♂ Ruled by Mars
Iron Fe
The working: BaZi pillarsshow
BaZi pillars
Day Master: yang Metal.
Year
丙
yang Fire
辰
Dragon
Earth
roots & early life
Month
辛
yin Metal
卯
Rabbit
Wood
work & drive
Day
day master
庚
yang Metal
午
Horse
Fire
you & partnership
Where this comes from, and how it is worked out
Herb’s birth date and birthplace come from Wikidata Q3091058 (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.
Portrait by Nancy Wong, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
The same Herb Caen at Wikipedia.
Roster last reviewed September 10, 2026. The full method: how it works.
Traditional interpretations, not facts or predictions, and not endorsed by Herb Caen.
Quick answers about Herb Caen’s chart
- What zodiac sign was Herb Caen?
- Herb Caen was an Aries: born April 3, 1916, which puts the Sun in Aries for the whole of that day.
- What was Herb Caen's Chinese zodiac animal?
- The Dragon, with the Fire element, from the Chinese lunar year of the April 3, 1916 birth.
- What was Herb Caen's Life Path number?
- Life Path 6, calculated in numerology.
- What was Herb Caen's Chiron sign?
- Chiron in Pisces at 23°. Position from JPL Horizons.
- Where was Herb Caen's Black Moon Lilith?
- Mean Black Moon Lilith in Cancer at 5°. This is the mean lunar apogee; the osculating Lilith some tables use can sit up to 30° away.
- What was Herb Caen's dominant planet?
- Mars, on AsterNym's dominance score (9 points: rules the Sun sign, Aries; disposes Sun, Mercury, Jupiter; 3 major aspects). Sun is second and Venus third. Other sites weight rulerships and aspects differently and can name a different leader.
