Mary Schmich
Mary Schmich (born November 29, 1953, Savannah, United States), aged 72, is an American columnist. Schmich's honours include Pulitzer Prize for Commentary.
Mary Schmich’s zodiac sign is Sagittarius, Chinese zodiac is Water Snake, with Life Path 4 in numerology.
Sagittarius, Chinese zodiac is 
Water Snake, with 
Life Path 4 in numerology.Your match with Mary
Mary Schmich’s AsterNym identity
The Evergreen Explorer
Wood represents growth. Wood-led charts are associated with patience, adaptability and the drive to keep developing. Life Path 4 represents structure: foundations, systems and the patience to continue after the first enthusiasm fades.
Wood Day Master (BaZi) × mutable Sun × Life Path 4, on the physical plane.
How common is the name Mary in the U.S.?
#125
US rank in 2025
~4,156,654
Americans share it since 1880
1921
its peak year
The SSA recorded 64,389 American girls and 146 boys named Mary in 1953: 1st among girls and 599th among boys for the year.
US Social Security Administration public records
What Mary’s name adds up to
Worked from the name as published, letter by letter.
3
Expression · expression and voice
1
Soul Urge · independence
11
Personality · perceptive
The name opens on M (4) and closes on Y (7).
Pythagorean letter values · A=1 to I=9, then J=1 again
Mary’s lucky numbers, colours and stones
Traditional correspondences, calculated not chosen.
Lucky numbers
4 · 2 · 8 · 9
Lucky colours
Blue & Black
Lucky day
Thursday
Direction
↑ North
Season
winter
Stones
Topaz, Yellow Sapphire, Aquamarine
Flower constellation
🌼 Chrysanthemum · 🌸 Peony · 🪷 Lotus
Gold · Rose-gold · Soft pink
Eight Mansions · Kua number
Kua 8, trigram Gen 艮, West group. Best direction Southwest, worst South.
A different tradition from the Direction above, and a different question: feng shui reads it from the solar year 1953, which turns at Li Chun rather than at New Year, and from sex, which Wikidata records as female. Work out your own →
The record
What sets Mary apart
The Pulitzer Prize for Commentary came in 2012, when Mary Schmich was 59.
Study took Mary Schmich to Pomona College and Harvard University.
Wikipedia files Mary Schmich under Writers from Phoenix, Arizona, Journalists from Arizona and Pomona College alumni.
Chadwick Boseman (1976) and Anna Faris (1976) share the birthday in another year, so the sun sits where it sits here.
- Educated at
- Pomona College and Harvard University
- Awards
- Pulitzer Prize for Commentary (2012)
- Citizenship
- United States
- Wikipedia editions
- 13
What the chart says
Mary, according to the stars
Core essence
Mary is the friend who says "let's just go" and means today. The core of Mary is faith that the world is bigger and better than the room they are in, and a restlessness to go and check. They are honest to the point of it being a sport, funny by accident, and impossible to keep small. Freedom is not a preference, it is oxygen.
The vibe
Underneath, Mary is quietly running a checklist, and half of it is about you. The Moon in Virgo feels care as responsibility: did you eat, did you get home, is the thing you were worried about handled. What Mary needs to feel safe is order and the sense of being useful. Let them help, and thank them properly.
How Mary wants to be loved
Mary wants to be loved completely or not at all. Venus in Scorpio is intense, private and all in, and wants the same depth back: no games, no half measures. Trust is the whole thing. Be honest with Mary even when it costs you, and they will be the most devoted person you have ever met.
How Mary creates
How Mary makes things happen: they grow upward. A Yang Wood day master is the tree, the one with a direction and the patience to keep at it through a bad season. Mary builds in the open, wants to be useful, and is at their most creative when there is something to reach for. Bend rather than break is the lesson they learn a few times.
Instinct
Instinct: Mary is wise and watchful, a Snake year, and their gut reaction is to observe before moving. Elegant, intuitive, private, and usually right about people long before saying so. The Water year softens it: intuitive, adaptable, feeling their way through people.
Purpose
Purpose: Life Path 4 is the builder. Mary is here to make things that last, to put structure under other people's dreams, to be trusted with the real work. Loyal, practical, honest, and learning that the plan can bend without breaking.
Triggers
Triggers: unfairness, and being forced to pick a side. Mars in Libra hates open conflict and will negotiate for hours to avoid it, then dig in absolutely when a principle is at stake. Mary fights for balance. The lesson is that sometimes the fair thing is to just say no.
Computed from Mary's birth date. Working below.
Where Mary sits
Six lines
Mary’s dot comes from the chart; yours is where you put it.
You likely balance a tight inner circle with a wider orbit you dip into.
You likely weigh most decisions but can move fast when it matters.
You likely share some feelings openly and keep others to yourself.
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 likely warm up at a pace that depends on the person and moment.
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 Mary Schmich
Three stars chosen from the real sky above Savannah 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 Savannah that night
Computed for 32.05°N, 9 p.m. local sky.
Overhead at Savannah at 9 p.m. that evening: Mirach of Andromeda, within 3.4° of the exact zenith.
Vega was the brightest thing up that night, one of 100 catalog stars above the horizon.
Savannah sits at 32.1°N, low enough that no headline star is circumpolar: everything bright rises and sets there.
The trade is at the other end of the sky: nothing south of −57.9° declination ever rises from here, which puts Rigil Kentaurus, Hadar, Acrux, Mimosa and Toliman permanently out of view.
The Moon, 34% lit at last quarter, had already set; the Sun sat 46° below the horizon.
How unusual Mary's chart is
Chart pattern score
60 / 100 · Unusual
2 unaspected planets · A bowl chart · No Earth planets
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 →The quick version
Sagittarius Sun
Sagittarius SunSays the quiet part loud.
Mary Schmich's Sun was in Sagittarius for the whole of November 29, 1953, so no birth time is needed to settle it.
What Sagittarius means →Water Snake
Water SnakeWatches. Waits. Then precisely.
Mary Schmich was born on November 29, 1953, which falls in a Water Snake year of the Chinese calendar.
What the Snake means →Life Path 4
Life Path 4Builds it properly or not at all.
Mary Schmich's birth date, November 29, 1953, reduces to Life Path 4 under the numerology method AsterNym uses.
What Life Path 4 means →What stands out in Mary’s chart
- The tightest major aspect in Mary Schmich's date-only chart is Neptune sextile Pluto, with an orb of under 1°.
- Three planets, Mercury, Venus and Saturn, sit together in Scorpio, which astrologers call a stellium.
- Mary Schmich combines a Wood Day Master in BaZi with a mutable Sun and a Life Path on the physical plane, the combination AsterNym calls The Evergreen Explorer.
Mary’s birth chart
Reference chart · birth time unknown
Positions are checked across the whole date. The Moon ranges from 16° to 27° Virgo 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
stableVenustrineUranus0.0° to 0.8° orb
Mary’s affections flow straight into their need for freedom.
stableNeptunesextilePluto0.1° orb
Mary’s imagination opens doors for their depths. An easy alliance, and it pays off when it is used.
stableJupitersextilePluto1.7° to 1.8° orb
Mary’s growth opens doors for their depths.
stableJupitertrineNeptune1.8° to 1.9° orb
stableVenussquarePluto1.9° to 3.2° orb
stableUranussquareNeptune2.4° to 2.5° orb
stableMarssquareUranus5.0° to 5.6° orb
stableMercuryconjunctionVenus5.1° to 5.5° orb
stableMercurytrineUranus5.1° to 5.9° orb
stableMarstrineJupiter5.5° to 6.3° orb
possibleMoonsextileMercuryorb from 0.0° to 10.4° depending on birth time
possibleMoonsextileVenusorb from 0.0° to 5.7° depending on birth time
Chart signature
Elements
- Fire2 of 10
- Earth1 of 10
- Air3 of 10
- Water4 of 10
Modalities
- Cardinal3 of 10
- Fixed4 of 10
- Mutable3 of 10
Counted across the ten planets by sign: Water leads this chart.
Mary’s Chiron, Ceres, Eros, Hygiea and Lilith
What astrologers make of these five, at noon values.
⚷ ChironCapricorn 18°14′ (moves 0.08° over the day)
centaur (2060) · the wound and what is learnt from it
⚳ CeresVirgo 28°21′ (moves 0.35° over the day)
dwarf planet (1) · how a person nurtures and wants to be nurtured
♡ ErosVirgo 22°12′ (moves 0.93° over the day)
near-Earth asteroid (433) · what draws them and how they desire
⚕ Hygiea ℞Leo 0°30′ (moves 0.03° over the day)
main-belt asteroid (10) · health, routine and what keeps them well
⚸ Black Moon LilithLibra 8°00′ (moves 0.11° over the day)
mean lunar apogee · the part that refuses to be tamed
Aspects to the asteroids and Lilith
- Eros sextile Venus 0.3°
- Eros sextile Uranus 0.5°
- Black Moon Lilith sextile Sun 0.8°
- Chiron square Mars 0.9°
- Chiron sextile Mercury 1.1°
- Eros square Jupiter 1.1°
Mary’s dominant planets
1. ♃ Jupiter7 pts
rules the Sun sign, Sagittarius; disposes Sun; 3 major aspects
2. ♇ Pluto6 pts
disposes Mercury, Venus, Saturn; 3 major aspects
3. ♀ Venus5 pts
disposes Mars, Neptune; 3 major aspects
Configurations in Mary’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.
- Mercury biquintile Jupiter 0.1°
- Mercury semi-sextile Mars 0.2°
- Sun sesquiquadrate Uranus 0.5°
- Jupiter semi-sextile Uranus 0.6°
- Venus quincunx Jupiter 0.8°
More people like Mary
Other columnists
- Cynthia Tucker1955
- Maureen Dowd1952
- E. R. Shipp1955
- A. M. Rosenthal1922
- William A. Caldwell1906
- Richard Strout1898
Born in United States
- Jonathan WeinerAmerican nonfiction writer, Professor of Journalism
- Victor AmbrosAmerican developmental biologist
- David E. HoffmanAmerican journalist
- Tom HulceAmerican actor and producer
- Frances ConroyAmerican actress
- Kim BasingerAmerican actress (born 1953)
More charts like Mary’s
Fellow Sagittarius suns
- John HarbisonAmerican composer
- Carolyn KizerAmerican poet
- Alfred UhryAmerican screenwriter (born 1936)
Born in Snake years
- João PedroBrazilian association football player (born 2001)
- Khvicha KvaratskheliaGeorgian footballer (born 2001)
- Louis Rees-ZammitWelsh rugby and American football player
Also born on November 29
- Chadwick Boseman1976
- Anna Faris1976
- Russell Wilson1988
- Rahm Emanuel1959
- Andrew McCarthy1962
- Don Cheadle1964
Fellow Yang Wood day masters
- Matthew LillardAmerican actor (born 1970)
- Tara LipinskiAmerican figure skater (born 1982)
- Megan MoroneyAmerican country music singer
Other Sagittarius Snake charts
- JJ PeguesAmerican football player (born 2001)
- Chaz LanierAmerican basketball player (born 2001)
- Jalen JohnsonAmerican basketball player (born December 2001)
- Chris MañonAmerican basketball player (born 2001)
Other Evergreen Explorers
- Oprah WinfreyAmerican talk show host, actress, producer, and author
- Nicole KidmanAustralian-American actress, producer, and model
- Keanu ReevesCanadian actor and musician
- Desmond TutuSouth African churchman, politician, archbishop, Nobel Prize winner
Famous people with Life Path 4
- Lennon StellaCanadian singer and actress
- Alisha Marieactor, YouTuber
- Patrick StarrrAmerican make-up artist
From the journal: Is astrology a science? · Every sign's ruling planet and what it governs
Mary’s cards
Computed from November 29, 1953. Tap to flip.
Birth tarot card
The FoolAsterNym identity card
The Evergreen ExplorerWestern zodiac
SagittariusChinese zodiac
Snake 巳Life Path
4 · Architect♃ Ruled by Jupiter
Tin Sn
The working: BaZi pillarsshow
BaZi pillars
Day Master: yang Wood.
Year
癸
yin Water
巳
Snake
Fire
roots & early life
Month
癸
yin Water
亥
Pig
Water
work & drive
Day
day master
甲
yang Wood
申
Monkey
Metal
you & partnership
Where this comes from, and how it is worked out
Mary’s birth date and birthplace come from Wikidata Q6780687 (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 Mary Schmich at Wikipedia, X and MusicBrainz.
Roster last reviewed September 10, 2026. The full method: how it works.
Traditional interpretations, not facts or predictions, and not endorsed by Mary Schmich.
Quick answers about Mary Schmich’s chart
- How old is Mary Schmich?
- Mary Schmich is 72 years old, born November 29, 1953 in Savannah, United States.
- What zodiac sign is Mary Schmich?
- Mary Schmich is a Sagittarius: born November 29, 1953, which puts the Sun in Sagittarius for the whole of that day.
- What is Mary Schmich's Chinese zodiac animal?
- The Snake, with the Water element, from the Chinese lunar year of the November 29, 1953 birth.
- What is Mary Schmich's Life Path number?
- Life Path 4, calculated in numerology.
- What is Mary Schmich's Chiron sign?
- Chiron in Capricorn at 18°. Position from JPL Horizons.
- Where is Mary Schmich's Black Moon Lilith?
- Mean Black Moon Lilith in Libra at 8°. This is the mean lunar apogee; the osculating Lilith some tables use can sit up to 30° away.
- What is Mary Schmich's dominant planet?
- Jupiter, on AsterNym's dominance score (7 points: rules the Sun sign, Sagittarius; disposes Sun; 3 major aspects). Pluto is second and Venus third. Other sites weight rulerships and aspects differently and can name a different leader.
