Kamala Harris’ meteoric rise to the top of the Democratic ticket was unexpected. Two months ago, no one could have predicted it.
Well, almost no one.
On June 6, 2023, astrologer Laurie Rivers, who goes by the name AstroLaurie on TikTok and hosts the Awake Space podcast, posted a video saying that Kamala Harris “has the best transits, but no one wants to talk about her.” It’s one of several videos where Rivers makes predictions about political events like the Republican National Convention, the US presidential election, and natural disasters. And on X, Amy Tripp, who posts under the username Starheal, reposted a prediction from August 2020 where she predicted Harris would run for president.
The astrology influencers online say they knew Harris was coming, and their followers are loving it.
Rivers and Tripp are just two of many astrologers who, over recent years, have built followings on social media. As the US hurtles through a chaotic political season, astrologers online have used this moment to build their platforms, offering political predictions and explanations of the current moment, and using the language of the stars, they say, to interpret events as they unfold.
The use of astrology for politics is nothing new—Ronald Reagan famously consulted an astrologer during his presidency—but using the practice to publicly discuss and interpret world events, particularly politics, is a more recent phenomenon. “The past four years, I would say, is when I think political astrology prediction started to become so popular,” says Indigo Selah, an astrologer who also creates astrology content on TikTok for her more than 743,000 followers. Selah says she does not consider herself a political astrologer, or someone who has the expertise to predict political events using astrology using the position of planetary bodies at any given time, but does use her platform to talk about pop culture, relationships, and current events. “I think a lot of people are turning to astrology because there is a lot of fear, and they feel like there is so much at stake.”
Discussing politics, particularly in such a contentious election year, can also be a strategy to gain visibility online, especially if the topic is one that’s already going viral. But Selah says she’s wary about people using political predictions to boost their profiles. “A lot of times you really have to think about, is this something the astrologer is saying to get boosted on the algorithm or is this something that they’re really dedicated to doing?” says Selah, who cited Rivers as a practitioner whose work she particularly trusted.
“Any kind of marketing you’re going to jump on, it’s not specific to astrology. You’re going to hit a trend,” says Rivers. Talking about politics, she says, “is to get people’s attention and show my accuracy.”
“You want to talk about what your audience is interested in,” says Tripp, who got her start on X before expanding to TikTok and Instagram. “The more eyes that are on you, the better you do, business-wise. Because this is my livelihood. Since I have gotten more followers, and I do talk about politics, I would say that has been one of the most engaging subjects I have brought up.” Like Rivers, Tripp says being right on predictions is good for business. Though she says she doesn’t like former president Donald Trump, she has predicted he will win the election.