Katharine Merlin apprenticed with renowned astrologer Isabel Hickey of Boston, studied psychology at the Jung Foundation in New York and has been a practicing astrologer for over forty years. Fascinated by this ancient art from a very early age, she discovered, only recently, that her maternal lineage traces back to a great-great grandfather, Dr. Charles Winterburn of New York (1815 -1881) who was both a physician and a highly respected astrologer in his time. Katharine, or “Kate” as she is known, is the author of both The Private Lives of the Sun Signs (Glitterati Incorporated, 2015) and Character and Fate, the Psychology of the Birth Chart, (PenguinArkana 1989). Astrology columnist for Town & Country magazine since 1989. What I wanted to do with this book was to tell the truth about what—in my eyes—Astrology is really about. People often come to me to get their fortunes told and it really is possible to get a sense of how life can work out for them from their birth charts. What their charts actually show, though, is who they are. Looking at someone’s chart is like coming into the middle of a story. And the story is being written by them. Each story is a mélange of ancestral patterns, past lives, and an indefinable blend of the inner self and free will. It is fascinating to see how these stories and patterns show themselves in people’s charts and how they live them out. I believe that the debilitating idea that the stars beam down on us and determine our fate is one that needs to be totally dispelled. The planets don’t directly affect us, it’s a matter of “As above, so below”—The stars act like a cosmic mirror, which helps us to discover what and who we are. And it’s up to us to decide what kind of story we’re going to write. Most people misunderstand the ancient art of consulting the stars. “Astrology’s Magic Mirror” is not about a fate that’s laid out for us to live. It is about the story of our own lives that we are writing. The starry cosmos acts like an amazing mirror in which we can find a picture of who we are and what we are born to do. And the stories our charts tell about ourselves can bring us home to ourselves. Find out more about Katharine Merlin here: https://www.katharinemerlin.com/