Oprah Winfrey has the Sun and Venus in Aquarius, the Moon in Sagittarius and Sagittarius rising: a broadcaster who made a career of talking honestly to millions of people, and a chart built around ideas, faith and hard-won stability.

She was born at 4:30 in the morning on 29 January 1954 in Kosciusko, Mississippi. Her first name was spelled Orpah on her birth certificate, after the figure in the Book of Ruth; people said Oprah, and that stuck. Astro-Databank rates the time A, from memory, which is reliable but not from a birth record. She grew up in poverty, and has spoken publicly about abuse in her childhood. The Oprah Winfrey Show, broadcast from Chicago, ran in national syndication for 25 years, from 1986 to 2011.

Sun and Venus in Aquarius, in the 2nd house

Aquarius is the sign of the crowd, ideas and the future. Her Sun and Venus are joined there to within a tenth of a degree, with Mercury in Aquarius close by, all in the 2nd house of money and what we value. It describes a person who could talk to a mass audience as if to one friend, and who turned that into one of the great self-made fortunes: Forbes first named her a billionaire in 2003. She called her production company Harpo, her own name spelled backwards.

Sun and Venus square Saturn

Both the Sun and Venus make an exact square to Saturn, the planet of discipline, hard lessons and authority, which sits at the top of her chart in the 10th house. It is a demanding aspect, and it often belongs to people who meet great difficulty early and build their own structure from it. In her case the structure became an institution: a daily show, a company and, from 1996, a book club that could send a novel to the top of the bestseller lists.

Sagittarius rising and a Sagittarius Moon

Sagittarius is the sign of faith, teaching and the search for meaning. Her Moon is there, in the 11th house of community, and her Ascendant sits at the very last degree of the sign. It is a fitting placement for a career that moved from celebrity interviews towards books, spirituality and self-improvement, and for her acting role in The Color Purple (1985), which brought her an Academy Award nomination.

Compare your chart with hers

If you share her Aquarius Sun or her Sagittarius rising, you may know the wish to reach a great many people and to say something true when you do. Add your details below to see how your chart meets hers.