Astrology and the Mayor’s Race

Thursday, June 16, 2005 | I had this idea to publish astrology-based “destiny charts” for each of the mayoral candidates.

Some people thought it was a fun idea. Others were not so sure. They thought it would appear frivolous and flighty.

“Well,” I said to these. “I am a Pisces.”

The men said, “Huh?”

The women understood immediately. “What a totally Piscean thing to do,” they said.

It was many grades in school ago that I started to learn that as a general thing, women are smarter than men. At least the women I have known were smarter than me. I like to hang out with smart women, because if they are smart, they are probably also fun, and engaged in the world, which is where a good relationship begins with me.

I am also a Piscean, born March 6, 1943, at 11:27 a.m. (it was a Saturday), and therefore easygoing and introspective, but also dreamy and sometimes moody. I’m not much interested in data for the sake of data, and so my interest in astrology has always been peripheral.

With women I met, it meant I didn’t much care what their signs were. But the women were very interested in what my sign was. “Pisces,” I would say, and their gaze would shift into the middle distance, and I could see calculating going on as they spun Pisces into conjunction with Leo, or Virgo, or Capricorn, to make comparisons.

I knew they were not going to jump into bed with me just because I was Piscean, easygoing and dreamy. It was just a place to start, and it was a place outside linear thinking, which of course appealed to me. It was fun to hear what they knew about me before they even knew me, and some of it was on the mark. They would take my birth data and present to me charts not only from astrology, but from numerology and other destiny-based disciplines whose grounding I don’t remember. Always, there was the suggestion of an investigation into compatibility. Virgos were not good for Pisceans, or hardly anybody else, while Leos were better and Aquarians totally locked in, or suggestions to that effect.

It was not only the powers of Pisces and Capricorn that caused us to move in together last weekend (marriage in the fall, it looks like), but they were part of the place we started nine months ago, on her initiative. You have to start somewhere, deciding who you are going to live with.

Which, it now occurs to me, is the same thing we do with our elected officials. You have to start somewhere, deciding who you are going to live with as mayor, particularly in San Diego these days. If zodiacal information is useful to smart, engaging women whom I admire and love, why shouldn’t I try it?

I had dates and places of birth for all the candidates, so I went to astrology.com. But each chart cost $14.95. Now I have to decide whether to go ahead and purchase the charts, or if it would be better simply to donate the money to the Pension Fund Recovery Fund. You know us Pisceans. Back and forth.

Or I could just walk up to some smart women I know, give them the signs (Frye- Capricorn, Kolker-Libra, Ledford-Libra, Sanders-Cancer, Bell-Sagittarius, Shelby- Aquarius, Shea-Virgo, Rider-Leo, McMillan-Libra, Francis-Libra, Knapp-Capricorn), and wait for a reaction.

Journalist, author and educator Michael Grant has been putting his spin on San Diego, and the city putting its spin on him, since 1972. His Web site is at