Astrology Zone's Susan Miller Has the Stars on Her Side

Susan Miller's official stance on astrology seems surprising: "It's not a gift," she argues, but instead a practiced skill set. "You can learn it."

The millions of regular readers of Miller's website, Astrology Zone, many of whom view her monthly horoscopes as gospel, may argue with the New York born-and-bred mother of two—at least on this point. Surely, they'd contend, no one but Susan Miller can provide them with the services that she does: page after page of tailored advice and suggestions, written in the same whimsical optimism that she uses when she speaks. The astrology expert updates her website every month with a total of 40-50,000 words, and each individual horoscope takes approximately seven hours to write—no small feat for a woman who provides this guidance to her readers for free.

But for Miller, her website—created in 1995 as an outlet for that astrological skill set of hers—has paid off. A career of analyzing the stars has turned into a life surrounded by them: Cynthia Rowley and Raf Simons, Cameron Diaz and Gloria Vanderbilt. She's taught astrology to Emma Stone and had dinner with Pharrell. When Miller's mother passed away in 2012, an event so traumatizing to the astrologist, she deemed it necessary to share it with her readers, and the likes of Jennifer Aniston sent their condolences.

It is Miller's mother, in fact, who eclipses all other names on a list of readers she has been most proud of acquiring over the years. "Right before she died, I went over to her house and I said, 'What are you reading? You're reading AstrologyZone Gemini!'" Miller imparts as if retelling a fairy tale—the same mesmerizing way she recounts every story. "'Wait, you don't have a computer; you don't have a printer. How are you reading this?' And she said, 'Your sister prints it out for me because I want to see how you're doing.'" (Her mother's final verdict: "Pretty good!" Miller says with a laugh.)

Anyone who has ever had a conversation with Miller, even one that is supposed to be an interview, knows it is like having a tête-à-tête with a close friend. She legitimately is interested in other people (their astrological sign; where they grew up; their family)—and has no problem reciprocally sharing similar information about herself. Miller often brings her two adult daughters—Chrissie, a former fashion designer who is now a creative consultant for Warby Parker and Allbirds, and Diana, a talent executive for The Late Late Show with James Corden—into the conversation; she talks openly about a childhood illness that has shaped her entire life ("I was born very damaged with my leg and the doctors didn't know what it was," she says ominously); and she speaks fondly of her late mother, who taught her astrology over the course of twelve years, beginning when Miller was just 15 years old. "I desperately wanted to learn astrology," she says, as she recounts how it took over a year to convince her mother to teach her. "I desperately wanted to know if this all was going to have a happy ending."

Whether this was precisely the future her teenage self predicted she would be living—one filled with enduring endorsements from celebrities and fashion designers, and a dizzying churn of work opportunities—Miller doesn't say. She does, however, admit to being "a hopeless romantic," an attribute that carries over into the monthly forecasts she provides for her readers, whether on her website, through her app (which has garnered about half a million paying subscribers), or via a number of regular columns she writes for a handful of different International magazines.

She also has leveraged her career into yearly wall calendars (which can be purchased on her site for $26.99); books (she's currently working on her twelfth edition, entitled The Year of 2020) and collaborations (her most recent being with Jung Lee's china site and shop Slowdance.com; and in early 2020 she'll debut a yet-unannounced project with Bergdorf Goodman). For those who worry that their favorite astrologist is perhaps spreading herself thin and that the quality of her work could potentially suffer, Miller is adamant this will never be the case. "A change is as good as a rest," she proclaims. And besides, she rationalizes, when asked about the near-novella length of each of her horoscopes: "If I have it inside me, why wouldn't I write it down?"