Books: "You Were Born For This" By Chani Nicholas

You Were Born For This: Astrology for Radical Self-Acceptance
By Melinda Mullin
HarperOne; hardcover, $24.99; available Tuesday, January 7

Chani Nicholas is a Los-Angeles based, Webby award-winning astrologer with a community of over one million monthly readers. A counseling astrologer for over 20 years, she has guided people to discover and live out their life's purpose through understanding their birth chart. She has been featured on Netflix and in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and The Atlantic.


With the rise of social media and the zodiac being perfect for memes, astrology is enjoying its latest revival, which has promoted many of the ancient art's culturally relevant aspects, but often does not get to the depth that the craft has to offer.

In her first book, You Were Born For This, Chani invites all her readers to take the next step in their astrology study. Renowned in the LGBTQ, creative, and activist communities, Chani explains how your birth chart, which is a snapshot of the sky at the moment of our first breath, reveals our talents and growth edges.

By coming to accept who we are, we're more able to heal from our past, realize our potential, and move clearly and definitively toward our life's purpose. Chani takes the traditions of astrology and merges them with a modern-day approach to unpack one's birth chart in an easy to use, choose-your-own adventure style.

You Were Born For This is interactive, as it has journal prompts, reflection questions, and affirmations personal to our astrological makeup. It offers readers the tools to "connect the dots, to find poignant astrological descriptions of the toughest and most tender parts of your personality."

Chani makes the wisdom of birth charts accessible with three foundational keys, including: The First Key: Your Sun (Your Life's Purpose), The Second Key: Your Moon (Your Physical and Emotional Needs), and The Third Key: Your Ascendant and Its Ruler (Your Motivation for Life and the Steersperson of Your Ship).

Astrology can be very therapeutic, a perfect antidote to these turbulent times. In a world in which we are taught to look outside ourselves for validation, this book will teach you to look inward to commit to ourselves and our purpose.

Author Appearance: Chani Nicholas will be appearing at the Brooklyn Museum for a Brooklyn Talks event on Thursday, January 9 from 7 to 9 p.m. Chani will be discussing the intersection of astrology and storytelling with the filmmaker Tourmaline.