Sylvia Plath had the Sun in Scorpio, the Moon in Libra and Aquarius rising, with Mercury in a near-exact square to Mars: a chart of depth, precision and words with an edge.

She was born at 2:10 in the afternoon on 27 October 1932 in Boston, Massachusetts. Astro-Databank rates the time A, from memory, which is reliable but not from a birth record. She published her first poem at eight, studied at Smith College, and in 1955 went to Newnham College, Cambridge, on a Fulbright scholarship.

Sun in Scorpio in the 8th house

Scorpio is the sign of depth: what lies under the surface, and the urge to look at it directly. Her Sun sits in the 8th house, Scorpio's own house, the part of the chart that deals with what is hidden, shared and transformed. Her writing went where polite poetry of the 1950s rarely went, into family, marriage, the body and the mind under strain, and she wrote about it with a clear, unflinching eye. Readers still describe her poems as hard to look away from.

Mercury square Mars: the sharpest pen

Mercury, the planet of words, sits in Scorpio in her 9th house of higher learning and publishing. It forms a square to Mars, the planet of force, within a fifth of a degree. It is one of the most cutting aspects a writer can have: quick, precise, unafraid of conflict. Her late poems, written at speed in the autumn of 1962 and collected in Ariel (1965), are known for exactly that energy. Mars itself sits in Leo in her 6th house of daily work. She kept journals from childhood and wrote every day, often early in the morning before her children woke.

Moon in Libra in the 7th house, among four planets

The 7th house is marriage and close partnership, and hers is the busiest house in the chart: the Moon in Libra, with Venus, Jupiter and Neptune in Virgo. It describes a life in which a partnership carried enormous weight. In 1956 she married the poet Ted Hughes, whom she had met at a party in Cambridge that February, and for several years the two worked side by side, typing and sending out each other's poems. With Neptune in the same house, the marriage was also idealised, and the hopes placed on it were very high.

Aquarius rising, with Saturn in the 12th house

Aquarius rising comes across as clear, bright and a little detached, and people who knew her often described her as poised and high-achieving on the surface. Saturn sits in Capricorn in the 12th house, the most private part of the chart. Astrologers read Saturn there as pressure carried out of sight: high standards and private struggles that others do not see. Her novel The Bell Jar, published in January 1963 under the name Victoria Lucas, drew on her own experience of depression at 20.

A Sagittarius Midheaven

The Midheaven, the public role, is in Sagittarius, the sign of meaning, publishing and reputation that travels far. She died in February 1963, aged 30, and most of her reputation came after. The Collected Poems won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1982, the first time it was given to a poet after their death.

Compare your chart with hers

If you share her Scorpio Sun or her Aquarius rising, you may know the pull between a calm surface and a great deal going on beneath it. Add your details below to see how your chart meets hers.

If you are struggling yourself, please talk to someone you trust or contact a local helpline. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans answer on 116 123; in the US, call or text 988.