Yet another Oprah Winfrey project was launched on April 17. Her magazine, O, reaches more people and supports more staff! A great deal of Oprah's life-work is finding and making jobs for others, as well as shining the light on those who she feels bring life-lessons to the masses. However she can do it, her work is about bringing ideas and ideals to the broadest demographic she can create.

Aquarian Sense of Justice

Oprah Winfrey has the Sun and Venus exactly conjunct in Aquarius. A Sun-Venus conjunction is the archetypal female image—an earthy, sensual, practical, loving, nurturing, heroic feminine soul. This archetype is focused through the sign Aquarius, which defines that image further. Within that feminine soul, Oprah has a cool, crisp, humanitarian relationship with the world at large, but a highly selective, private relationship with the people in it.

With the Sun and Venus in Aquarius, Oprah has built a broadcasting career on truth, justice and fairness to all. By broadcasting (Aquarius) her values (Venus) through her personality and ego (Sun), she has touched a personal and collective chord in the U.S. television audience. Her Sun-Venus conjunction is square natal Saturn. It is no secret that she has come out of a hard place, and continues to slog through personal and professional challenges. The Saturnian yoke of inadequacy has plagued Oprah since her birth—first through her family of origin and secondly during her life experiences. She has worked against all odds—gender, race and caste. Saturn in her chart demonstrates that hard work. Facing the shadow and fighting depression and helplessness can bring out the best in one's character. The ancient alchemist's work was to turn lead (Saturn) into gold (Sun), and this is exactly what Oprah Winfrey has done, both psychologically and financially.

A Force to Be Reckoned With

The Sun being so intimately involved with Saturn really speaks of Oprah's life being a Titanic force. She has abdicated a life of privacy and domestic anonymity, and placed herself in a medium where she becomes part of many a household's daily life. Granted, the harshness of Saturn's influence has driven her to do this, with all its anxiety and guilts, pressures and achievement complexes. However, to have employed those psychological complexes for the better is an admirable example of turning lead into gold.

Her own emotional pain and suffering has become a useful tool. Her awareness of the value of catharsis—the theatre of life—has made her a millionaire many times over. People watch Oprah to learn about life skills vicariously—to “watch” others who may share their own issues—and through this meta-therapeutical technique, Oprah has opened many psychological doors, and expressed humanitarianism in a truly contemporary way.

She has seen, felt and experienced the darkest aspects of the human psyche (Mercury opposite to Pluto), hence her ease with the “dark night of the soul.” She has been open about her sexual abuse, her hard realizations about race-hate and gender inequality and her own insecurity and body-image problems. Her Aquarian honesty has helped many people face realities that have been shameful secrets for far too long. During Uranus’ transit to her Sun-Venus, she chafed under the bit of her established program when it became too focused on the misery of life, and altered the content to bring something she calls "Finding your Spirit,” developing her book club list, which includes books primarily by women and always about overcoming major hardship, difficulty or tragedy.

Oprah has made her mark by bringing issues that undermine individuals in society to light. Those issues are all about Saturn—oppression, restriction, the status quo, political pressures, poverty and developmental/psychological blocks. She's a black woman, so she has a perspective on working against the odds. She brings her instinctive and social values, her feelings and gut-instincts, to bear on social and personal issues, and has become world-famous and fabulously wealthy while doing so.