Best-selling author, web publisher, and businesswoman, Susan Miller’s achievements and contributions to the field of astrology have made her the authority to the stars, quite literally. From Wall Street to Fashion Avenue, New York to New Delhi, people everywhere turn to Susan to teach, lecture, and lead them toward success in both their personal lives and business endeavors. Her readers include cat walkers to Hollywood A-listers, not to mention Wall Street icons. Her devotees include actors Molly Simms, Cameron Diaz, Kirsten Dunst, Kate Bosworth, Orlando Bloom, Mary-Kate Olsen, Drea DeMatteo, model Carolyn Murphy, and others too numerous to list.
A second-generation astrologer, Susan Miller’s professional research and scholarship stems from her mother, who encouraged her to develop her gift for writing and reading people their charts. In 1995, Susan launched her award-winning website Astrology Zone® www.astrologyzone.com that Susan licensed exclusively to Time Warner’s then-website, Pathfinder, and later worked exclusively with the Walt Disney Company before going independent in September 2001. At the prompting of Warner Books Susan wrote her first trade hardcover in 1996, “The Astrology Book of Days.” Its sold-out success made Susan an overnight sensation and another book, her favorite, “Planets and Possibilities,” followed. Today, she’s written 8 books, including her latest, “The Year Ahead 2011.”
At the Center: Astrology Zone®, Susan’s website http://www.astrologyzone.com/
Since 1995, Astrology Zone® has been on the Internet and has received worldwide acclaim for its accurate, comprehensive monthly forecasts. Susan, as editor and publisher, accredited astrologer, and writer of her site, has generated a following of six million unique readers per month, serving 10 million forecasts a month. In addition to hosting a highly popular message board, which alone receives one million posts per month, her website contains 500 pages of original content, all written by Susan.
Ask a New Yorker: Susan Miller just arrived with a care package with all kinds of goodies inside, including “The Year Ahead 2011–An Astrological Calendar,” which is beautiful calendar by Susan with paintings by fine artist Phyllis Kapp. Also inside are her books “The Year Ahead 2011” and “Planets and Possibilities,”all for Ask a New Yorker!!
Ask a New Yorker: Thank you! What a kind, unexpected gift.
Susan: Well, first of all, thank you so much! I was so excited about being interviewed by Ask a New Yorker, a site that is both cosmopolitan and street smart. I was born in New York City, in the heart of Manhattan, and have always lived here. Your site speaks directly to me!
Ask a New Yorker: What a beautiful calendar!
Susan: Each year I publish a calendar, and it’s quite a detailed labor of love. You will quickly see which days are best for your key initiations, and which days to be careful. This calendar is for all signs, and can be used in conjunction with my website, Astrology Zone®. Each year I look at dozens of portfolios to choose an interpretative landscape artist to describe the ethos of the month. Mother Nature is the great teacher, for by looking at the state of the season when we are born, we learn about ourselves. Indeed, you are product of the year, season, and geographic place of your naissance.
Carl Jung, the great Swiss psychiatrist, who loved astrology, said it best:
“We are born at a given moment in a given place and like vintage years of wine, we have the qualities of the year and of the season in which we are born. Astrology does not lay claim to anything else.”
Astrology also teaches us that your natal chart is completely unique in the world–no other individual, not even your twin, if you have one–would have precisely the same chart as you. When drawing up a natal chart, an astrologer will always ask the precise time of your birth as well as the city of birth, and will convert your longitude and latitude to Greenwich Mean Time, England, which is the common denominator astrologers use to create a chart. This way, it does not matter if you were born in Tokyo, Istanbul, Rio de Janeiro, or New York–Greenwich Mean Time conversion will account for time differences. Every tiny mathematical degree counts in astrology, which is why it is mathematically impossible to have two people born with the same natal charts.
Your chart will never be duplicated in time, space, or geography. No one has ever had your exact chart going back in time, such as, for example, when Cleopatra lived, or going forward, say, in the future, say, 3056. Knowing that your life is a unique gift, you see the reason that each of us must sing our own song, not the song someone else urged us to sing. Speak from the depths of your heart, passionately, and trust the validity of your perspective–share your gifts with the world! There was a reason for you to be born, and it will be up to you to find the best way you can make your contribution to the world. It can be in a small but loving way, or on a grand scale–there are no right or wrong answers.
Some people mistakenly assume astrology is about predestination. It is not. Astrology is an excellent tool for planning, for the aspects tell us when to act and when to hold back. We are more productive using astrology, because without the signposts that astrology can give us, we could easily let time go through our fingers. The universe wants us to be productive and happy.
Ask a New Yorker: I’ve got to ask. What’s your sign?
Susan: I don’t talk about my sign. My work is about my readers, not me!
Ask a New Yorker: Where did you grow up?
Susan: I was born in Lenox Hill Hospital. I grew up on 75th and Second Avenue on the upper east side of Manhattan, and I have lived here my whole life. My father had an Italian specialty grocery store that he ran with my Uncle Charles. My grandfather started the store at the turn of the 20th Century, and my father and uncle continued the business years later.
When Grandpa came over from Sicily, he couldn’t find a large enough apartment for his family (at least, not one large enough that he could afford). At first, they were living on Elizabeth Street, where all the “action” was taking place in New York back then. Things were too cramped, so he took his family, including his wife–my Grandma–and their seven children, which included my father and my uncle, uptown to 75th Street to an apartment that was located between First and Second Avenues. As my father would recount, laughing, when they were little, there were three kids in each bed, but it was fun! The Upper East Side was undeveloped–almost farmland back then–and my father used to tell me he remembered that a brook that ran down 75th Street!
I am told everyone in the neighborhood had a family horse in those days, and my grandpa did, too. People kept their horses downstairs in a stable, in a place that today might be thought of as a garage, at street level. It is hard to imagine, but not everyone had a car or could afford one. I am sorry that I never met my grandfather, for he died years before I was born–well before my father married my mother. My father married for the first and only time, to my mother, at age 40. She was 29. No one in my family was in a hurry to marry!
My grandfather was 16 when he first landed in New York, and had a dream to open a retail Italian specialty store. At first my grandfather sold lemons and limes from a sack on his back–he was only 16 then. My father would tell me ladies would throw coins down to my grandfather, and he would walk up the steps to give the lady her fruits. In time, he had enough money to sell fresh produce on a pushcart. He kept growing, and when he was ready to expand, he opened a beautiful fresh fruits and vegetables shop in a local butcher’s meticulously clean, well-lit cellar on the NW corner of 75th Street and Second Avenue, where Eastmore Cleaners is found today
A few years later, my grandfather, in conjunction with his family members, saved up enough money to buy a brownstone on Second Avenue, between 74th and 75th Street. The clan moved into the brownstone, on all three floors. Italians liked to buy property, especially if they run a retail store, for they felt owning the real estate could give them greater financial security. The family lived in the three stories, and my family’s fine Italian imported food store occupied the storefront. When my father and uncle took over the business, I had already been born, and we lived upstairs, over the store. I saw my father and my relatives all day, and I knew all the customers in the neighborhood. It was like a small town to me. It took years before I understood that not every city was like New York! My father’s store was the topic of many articles, including a major story in the “New Yorker Magazine” in the late 1970s. He had many amazing, famous customers! The store is closed now, for my father died in 1989.
Ask a New Yorker: So how did Astrology Zone® begin?
Susan: I started in December 14, 1995. Actually if you look up Alexa.com, a free traffic matrix site, Alexa lists the wrong date as my start, December 26, 1996. That’s when I won the rights back to my name, Astrology Zone®, which an Israeli pornography group had tried to swipe form me–I had to go to the World Intellectual Property Association to win it back. I did, a year later, but the true inception for Astrology Zone® was December 14, 1995, the date I appeared on Time Warner’s site.
I first licensed my material exclusively to Time Warner’s Pathfinder. For people who don’t know Pathfinder, it was Time Warner’s website before AOL entered the picture in 1999. At the time, I started Astrology Zone®, I was working on commission as a successful self-employed agent for commercial photographers and fully supporting my two daughters, who were then little and in private school, Convent of the Sacred Heart, on 91st and Fifth Avenue. (This is a fine private school, the same one Caroline Kennedy and Lady Gaga attended.)
Editors of Time Warner were aware of my knowledge of astrology and urged me to share what I knew with the world. I was hesitant to do so because I loved the photo world. I was considered one of the top ten agents in the field, and I worked not only in the US, but also on assignments for my overseas photographers, too. In fact, several of my ace photographers were British automotive shooters, living in London.
The then-creative director of Warner Books, Jackie Meyer, set up the meeting for me to meet the web master. I’ll never forget that day. I remember the taxi pulling up in front of the Time Life building at 1271 Avenue of the Americas. I remember what I was wearing, and I recall the color, the light–it was about 1:30 PM on a beautiful, balmy summer day in New York on July 13, 1995. I sensed my life was about to change forever–and it did. It really was a defining moment.
I went upstairs and met the Time Warner web team—three men I will nickname “Harvard,” “Yale,” and “Dartmouth.” Very distinguished young men who managed the website. “Vassar”–my pretty “editor to be” named Anne–was sitting off to the side. They told me they were looking for a short, daily astrological forecast written just for women. An emphasis on short, concise content did (and still does) conform with conventional web wisdom, but I knew that people would respond better to long pieces for each of the signs if they were well written. I told them, “My portal would be called Astrology Zone®, and it would be directed not to just women, but to both men and women. Interest in knowing the future is not a merely a female concern, it’s a human concern.”
Mesopotamia, the so-called cradle of civilization, is where astrology was born in 2,500 BC. Back then, and for centuries, astrology was the privilege of only heads of state and wealthy families. The king or wealthy patron would summon the mathematician of a nearby university in his region for advise of upcoming astrological trends. Now, with the invention of the Internet, astrology is available to one and all and often for no cost.
The rest is history now–that day I sold my concept to the web team at Pathfinder of Time Warner, and Astrology Zone® was born. To be very clear, however, I always retained 100% ownership of AstrologyZone.com and still do to this day. My deals were always exclusive, time-limiting licenses, never full or partial buyouts. I do not want to sell all or any part of AstrologyZone.com ever.
Ask a New Yorker: There was a big news story recently that shook up the astrology world, something about a possible shift of the signs? Am I still an Aquarius?
Susan: Yes, you are still an Aquarius! Everyone should continue to read for your classic Sun sign. What is happening is this:
The belt around the middle of the globe where all 12 of the constellations are found, is shifting 23 degrees. Scientists associated with the planetarium in Minneapolis issued a press release talking about the gradual shift of the constellations, and reported it as if it were news. The scientists also said signs should change due to this shift–no, that’s not true–and that we should add Ophiuchus, a 13th sign. Again, no we should not.
Actually, astrologers know of this constellation shift, for Hipparcartus of Nicea wrote about this concept in 130 BC. Astrologers have had 2,000 years to study it. While it is true, the constellations are indeed shifting, this has no effect on your astrological chart. Astrologers don’t work with the constellations–we work with planets and the nodal points that correspond to the four seasons. Today, for example, the day you and I are meeting, is the summer solstice. This solar equinox happens on the same day every year. Astrologers work with the fixed points of the four seasons, so the shifting constellation belt does not concern us.
Astrology is based on supreme symmetry. Plato and Ptolemy (the Greek mathematician who is considered to be the father of astrology) felt that Scorpio was the dominant constellation not Ophiuchus. There are at least 88 constellations in the heavens, so it’s not as though we didn’t know about the others–astrologers have to study astronomy!
Anyway, if you were to add Ophiuchus, you would also have to add Cetus, the Whale (formerly a sea monster). You need to have counterbalancing constellations. Plato wrote that although Ophiuchus was a far larger constellation, Scorpio was the more powerful and relevant. You also need a planet ruling for each sign, and associate it with each constellation. Without a ruling planet, you would be Casper the Ghost, or a little empty egg shell, with no personality!
On my computer program, I can shift a natal horoscope 23 degrees quite easily. This whole area of astrology is called Sidereal astrology. We have found that when you move the planets 23 degrees however, astrology does not become more accurate, but less so! We are keeping things the same.
One more point: Actually if you added two constellations, including Cetus the Whale, you would have to change the whole calendar we use today. You would have to have extra months, for astrology is symmetrical. Additionally, we have three groups: cardinal, mutable, and fixed signs, and four elements: fire, air, earth, and water, and 3×4=12 months. Change that and the whole equation goes out of whack–you’d have to come up with more subdivisions, which would not be correct. This meditation is unnecessary. Here is the kicker: in thousands of years into the future, this shifting constellation belt will return back to where it originally was when astrology was born–precisely the same place! It will take about 25,000 years for this to happen, so we feel in the meantime, there is no need to turn astrology inside out.
The reporters went back to the scientist and asked, “The astrologers are saying this is theory is not new, but rather 2,000 years old, Is that true?” The scientists had to admit, “Yes, it’s a very old concept.” The reporters asked, “But you decided to issue a press release about it NOW?” The scientists shrugged their shoulders–they said they didn’t think astrologers knew about this. We did! In the end, the scientists were forced to retract their comments, admitting they didn’t know a shred of astrology.
Ask a New Yorker: My brain hurts!
Susan: You know I’m thorough. I don’t ever want to give the reader only half the story. It’s so easy to misunderstand, so in astrology, less is not more–it’s less, and possibly misleading.
What you should be finding out is your rising sign, which can only be determined by your date, precise time, and city of birth. Once you have your natal chart done, you will never need to it again. It will never change–your natal chart is your blueprint for life. While the transiting planets will keep moving, your natal chart remains fixed.
The rising sign is critical to know—you then should read for your Sun sign AND your rising sign for the rest of your life. For information on this, go to my other website, www.MyPersonalHoroscope.com and order the purple-yellow cover book to have your chart done ($49.95 plus applicable tax and shipping). I will write a custom book for you that you will have as a keepsake for the rest of your life.
As a New Yorker: How did you get started on astrology to begin with?
When I started studying astrology, my mother, who was quite a scholar on the subject, didn’t want to teach me. She kept saying no; I was fourteen. My mother was studying astrology with amazing, famous teachers in a special correspondence class based in California, long before I was born.
She always lived in New York. My whole family comes from New York. I had a very major surgery, which I wrote about in a little in “Planets and Possibilities.” I don’t like to talk about myself, but my publisher asked me to do so. I think it’s boring for people.
I was born with a birth defect that reached a crisis when I was fourteen. No one knew what it was. Doctors were baffled, and some even went so far to say I was making it all up. One prominent doctor suggested it was a bone problem, but I kept saying, “No it’s liquid, it’s like chocolate syrup, thick.” I feel we are born with an internal camera, and I am never hesitant to say what I think. As things unfolded, it turned out I was bleeding internally.
I was to be in the hospital for eleven months. During the operation, the doctor had to put a tourniquet under my knee very tight to keep me from bleeding out, to death. He knew it would damage the nerve, and I would lose all feeling and control from the knee down and I did.
Although we had not anticipated any of this, I was just happy to be alive.
Ask a New Yorker: When is astrology useful and valid?
Susan: Astrology is excellent for creative brainstorming and to find areas of gain and expansion in a chart. Astrology can help you find answers to questions that might not have occurred to you any other way.
Ask a New Yorker: What’s the biggest misconception about astrology?
Susan: Many people assume astrological predictions refer to predestined events, but this is not true. You have free will. I have no idea what you will choose to do. I can tell you the influences that will be at play, but what you choose to do will always be up to you. For example, I would never give an opinion of whether to marry this person or that, or to take the job or not. That’s your choice. I can comment on a specific problem, such as, if you worry your mother-in-law will be too mettlesome, or that your new boss will not permit you to hire adequate staff to get the job done. Specific questions can be discussed in detail. In the end, though, the choice will always be up to you.
Ask a New Yorker: What do you think of the concept of Ask a New Yorker?
Susan: Love it, love it, love it! Your website speaks to the ethos of living here in New York, which you can’t quite explain unless you have actually lived here for a few months. It’s like trying to describe chocolate pudding to someone who never heard of it, tasted it, or saw it. I think there are a lot of misconceptions about New Yorkers–that we’re cold, or always in a rush and too busy to help others. That’s not true at all! Just the opposite, New Yorkers have big hearts and are always eager to help one another. It is true that we value time, so if you present an idea to a New Yorker and the New Yorker feels there’s nothing “there” for the other person, he’ll say very directly, “Hmm, no, I don’t think we will work together.”
A person who doesn’t live here might be offended with such a direct response, but a New Yorker would understand that the person he is speaking to is simply trying to save you both time and effort. His next sentence might be, “I have a friend who may be able to help you. I’ll give you his number. Give him a call and use my name.” In Los Angeles, many people will strive to keep their options open and not give you a direct answer at the end of an interview. They’ll say, “I have to think about this and get back to you.” But then they won’t. In LA, you often can’t get a clear yes or no answer because Angelinos want to be polite, even when they know they won’t be working with you. A New Yorker lives by the axiom that “time is money” and will cut things off if there is no future. I feel that’s the difference. I think these cultural differences between the two coasts are changing a little now because the recession is making it vital that we all be more realistic, and more time sensitive.
I love the honesty of the typical New Yorker. We are street savvy and practical because we have to be that way! There are nearly 9 million of us squeezed into one tiny metropolis, with no space other than to build straight up toward the heavens. We have to be very good at what we do or die! As they say, “If you stop and put your feet up, someone will steal your shoes.”
I know I’m only as good as my last column. When you have had a website, like I have had, for almost 16 years, things happen occasionally in that space of time. I’ve broken my wrist. I’ve been in the hospital. I’ve had pneumonia. I have traveled, gone to weddings and other family events. Things come up in your life, both good and bad, but you have to remain disciplined and focused. I have to say to myself, “I don’t care what happens to be going on in my life, my readers expect the best from me, and I feel a responsibility to give it to them.
When my father had the store, near the end before he closed it, he had a very serious case of walking pneumonia. I went past his delivery truck, and noticed he was taking a rest with his head down, in his arms, which were folded over the steering wheel. He was quite sick, and had lost weight–and he was thin to begin with. I opened the passenger side door and slid into the seat next to him. “Daddy, go upstairs and sleep! There’s a soft bed waiting for you! You need rest!” My father said if he went upstairs he would fall asleep and not come down to help my uncle again that day. He knew my uncle needed him desperately to keep working to get the orders out. No, he told me, he was going to opt to be less comfortable and simply take a little short doze despite how tired and weak he felt, and then return to work in a half hour. That day inspired me to my bones. To this day, when I don’t feel well and wish I could simply take days off, I, too, “sleep in the truck”–there are no excuses for not doing your best in New York!
Ask a New Yorker: Thank you Susan.
