Linda Goodman

Few people brought astrology to the everyday kitchen table the way Linda Goodman did. Born Mary Alice Kemery in Morgantown, West Virginia, in 1925 (a year she guarded so fiercely she swore even her father to secrecy), she wrote "Sun Signs" in 1968, the first astrology book ever to reach the New York Times bestseller list, and it sold over five million copies. Fittingly, her own Sun blazes in Aries, the pioneer among pioneers, a double-leader placement of a Ram who is first to do a thing and cannot be talked out of it. With Aries also rising, she walked out the front door wearing that warrior's mask: determined, intense, explosively tempered, a self-starter who left a lasting mark wherever she went.

Yet her Moon rests in Libra in the 7th house, the beautiful, Venusian Moon whose peace of mind is found through others, through partnership, harmony and generosity. That was the softer engine beneath the fire: the woman who lavished cars and jewellery on friends, who lived her emotional life through her bonds. Warrior and diplomat in one chart, she carried astrology into millions of hearts and never stopped writing until her death in 1995.