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, and in the Chinese zodiac they were a Fire Dragon, with Life Path 6 in numerology.
Aries, and in the Chinese zodiac they were a 
Fire Dragon, with 
Life Path 6 in numerology.How compatible are you with Herb Caen?
Your birthday, just below, gives your match percentage with Herb. Under a minute.
Your AsterNym Match
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Two details and you have your number with Herb. Under a minute, and it is real astrology, not a quiz.
Your result includes:
- · Your compatibility percentage
- · What attracts you to each other
- · What you would bring to the match
- · Where you might clash
- · Whether you share lucky numbers, colours, stones or seasons
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 1880
1947
its peak year
US Social Security Administration public records
Herb’s lucky numbers, colours and stones
Traditional correspondences calculated from AsterNym’s astrology, wuxing and numerology system.
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
The same wuxing & numerology correspondences as your own print. One tradition, read for everyone
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, not guessed. The full working is below.
Where Herb sits
Six lines. Tap where you sit on each.
Herb’s dot is placed from the chart. Yours is wherever 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.
No public birth time is available, so this is a 9:00 p.m. reference evening sky for that date and place. It is connected to the night of birth; it is not the sky at the birth minute, and no other reading on this page uses that time. Dedications are commemorative AsterNym records and do not rename or confer ownership of stars.
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. Traditional Aries readings associate the sign with initiative, directness and a preference for acting before the plan is finished. Astrologers describe it as the cardinal fire sign: the one that starts things. The corresponding tension is impatience, with the classical caution that what Aries begins quickly it may leave for someone else to complete.
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. Traditional Dragon readings emphasise confidence, luck and scale: the only mythical animal in the cycle, associated with ambition and with attention that arrives whether or not it was sought. The Chinese almanacs describe the Dragon as the sign of large gestures. The corresponding caution in the tradition is arrogance, and a difficulty with tasks too small to be seen.
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. Traditional Life Path 6 readings associate the number with care, responsibility and beauty: home, family and the instinct to support the people nearby. Numerologists describe it as the path of the nurturer. The corresponding tension is over-responsibility, with the caution that carrying other people's burdens can become a way of avoiding one's own.
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
No documented birth time exists for Herb Caen, so the positions below are checked across the whole birth date, not fixed at noon. The Moon ranges from 21° to 4° Aries or Taurus depending on the hour. The wheel's houses are a solar chart, counted from the Sun's sign, because the Ascendant needs a time.
No birth time, so the houses are a solar chart: the Sun’s sign counts as house 1. A documented time would place them from the Ascendant instead.
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
Stable aspects hold for any birth hour. Possible ones depend on the hour, so their orb is a range rather than a number. Orb policy western_v1.
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
Herb’s core identity and growth act as one.
stableMercurytrineNeptune1.7° to 3.6° orb
Herb’s mind flows straight into their imagination.
stableJupitersquareSaturn1.9° to 2.1° orb
Herb’s growth grinds against their discipline. The friction is lifelong. Worked with, it builds real strength.
stableSuntrineMars2.0° to 2.8° orb
Herb’s core identity flows straight into their drive.
stableSunsquareSaturn3.2° to 4.2° orb
Herb’s core identity grinds against their discipline. The angle that irritates, and the one that teaches.
stableMercurysextileVenus4.0° to 4.8° orb
Herb’s mind opens doors for their affections. An easy alliance, and it pays off when it is used.
stableMarsoppositionUranus7.3° to 7.4° orb
Herb’s drive pulls against their need for freedom from across the wheel. A see-saw looking for balance, often played out through other people.
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
Four minor bodies and the mean lunar apogee, placed in the same tropical zodiac as the planets above. None of these feed the chart signature, the rarity score or any ranking on this site: they are listed for readers who use them. Chiron, Ceres, Eros and Hygiea positions come from JPL Horizons; Black Moon Lilith is the mean apogee, the point most published Lilith tables use. The readings are the modern tradition’s, not AsterNym’s. Without a birth time the degree is the noon value and the day's movement is shown alongside it.
⚷ ChironPisces 23°28′ (moves 0.06° over the day)
centaur (2060) · the wound and what is learnt from it
Chiron in Pisces is read as a wound around boundaries and faith. The reading has Herb absorbing more of a room than most, and needing somewhere to put it down.
⚳ CeresGemini 5°37′ (moves 0.36° over the day)
dwarf planet (1) · how a person nurtures and wants to be nurtured
Ceres in Gemini is read as nurture through talk and attention. The tradition has Herb feeding people with information and feeling fed by conversation.
♡ ErosPisces 12°51′ (moves 0.60° over the day)
near-Earth asteroid (433) · what draws them and how they desire
Eros in Pisces is read as desire as dissolving: the wish to merge, and the trouble that follows. Herb is read as easily moved and hard to pin.
⚕ Hygiea ℞Libra 22°58′ (moves 0.19° over the day)
main-belt asteroid (10) · health, routine and what keeps them well
Hygiea in Libra is read as health that depends on balance and company. Herb is read as someone who wears out in conflict and recovers in harmony.
⚸ Black Moon LilithCancer 5°46′ (moves 0.11° over the day)
mean lunar apogee · the part that refuses to be tamed
Black Moon Lilith in Cancer is read as the refusal to be tamed by the role of carer. The reading has Herb guarding a private self that family did not get to name.
Aspects to the asteroids and Lilith
Major aspects only, at a tight 3° orb. The Moon is left out because its position moves 13° across an untimed day.
- Eros trine Saturn 2.8°
Method: JPL Horizons heliocentric vectors, 1700–2100, cubic Hermite interpolation; geocentric, true ecliptic of date, tropical; geometric (no light-time or aberration); Lilith = mean lunar apogee (Chapront/Meeus mean perigee + 180°).
Herb’s dominant planets
Scored from rulerships, dispositors and aspect count. Without a birth time there is no Ascendant or house to score, and the Moon's sign is left out where it could change with the hour.
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
A Mars-led chart is read as drive setting the pace: Herb is read as acting first and reflecting after.
How the score is built
- Rules the Sun sign, Moon sign or Ascendant sign: 3 points each (traditional co-rulers of Scorpio, Aquarius and Pisces score half).
- Sits in a sign it rules: 2 points.
- Disposes another planet (that planet sits in a sign it rules): 1 point each.
- Angular: 2 points in the first or tenth house, 1 point in the fourth or seventh (timed births only).
- Every major aspect it makes: 1 point.
Dominance scoring is an AsterNym method. Other sites weight differently and can name a different leader for the same chart.
Configurations in Herb’s chart
Closed shapes among the ten planets under the site’s one aspect-orb policy. The Moon is excluded without a birth time, so a shape that needs it is not claimed.
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 30° (orb 2°), semi-square 45° (orb 2°), quintile 72° (orb 1.5°), sesquiquadrate 135° (orb 2°), biquintile 144° (orb 1.5°), quincunx 150° (orb 2.5°). Pairs already in a major aspect are not repeated. Moon excluded without a birth time.
- 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°
Houses need a birth time. None is documented for Herb Caen, so no house placements are claimed for the planets or the minor bodies above.
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
Every card is computed from April 3, 1916, none chosen. Tap one to flip it.
♂ Ruled by Mars
Iron Fe
Tap to flip
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
No birth time is on public record for Herb Caen, so this chart has three pillars rather than four. The hour pillar, the rising sign and the birth-sky star all need a time, and we would rather leave them out than invent one.
Where this data comes from
Herb’s birth date and birthplace come from Wikidata Q3091058, released under CC0, as do the occupations, works, teams and awards in the biography above. No documented birth time is available, so this chart is rated X on the Rodden scale, the astrological convention for how well evidenced a birth time is. Time-dependent results use a clearly labelled reference time and should not be read as their exact birth chart. Entries are matched to Wikidata by entity id rather than by name, kept only at day precision, and dropped where sources disagree on the date.
Portrait by Nancy Wong, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
The same Herb Caen at Wikipedia.
Roster last reviewed September 10, 2026. Every entry is checked against its Wikidata record; where a person shares a name with someone else, the entity id is what settles which of them this is. What we will not tell you sets out the claims this site refuses to make.
These are traditional interpretations, not facts or predictions. AsterNym is not affiliated with or 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. That is the Western star sign. In the Chinese zodiac they were a Fire Dragon.
- 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 time was Herb Caen born?
- No reliably documented birth time is public, so AsterNym does not calculate an Ascendant. This chart uses date-only positions: the wheel shows a reference solar chart (the Sun's sign as house 1), and the Ascendant is left uncomputed instead of guessed from an unverified time.
- What was Herb Caen's Life Path number?
- Life Path 6, calculated in numerology from the April 3, 1916 birth date.
- What was Herb Caen's Chiron sign?
- Chiron in Pisces at 23°. Position from JPL Horizons for the April 3, 1916 birth date.
- 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.
