Anne Massey’s astrology blog

Astrology of Relationships

Sunday, December 28th, 2008 | Ask Anne

There are three different charts to analyze in order to look at what kind of relationship we are most likely to have. The first one is, of course, our own natal chart. Even if you don’t know much about astrology and read horoscopes you have discovered that the seventh house in an astrological chart is about relationships including marriage. Primarily we look at the seventh, fifth and eighth houses and their rulers for relationships. Some of us may use the marriage part—there are a few of these. The houses give us areas of life, fifth is about romance, creativity, and children; the eighth house is about shared resources and sexuality and through the seventh house we meet people. The planets ruling the house give us indication about the partner. A few simple examples might be that if the ruling planet of the seventh house is in the eleventh house, the person whose chart it is might marry for friendship. If we find the seventh house ruler in the ninth house, the spouse might be a foreigner or we might meet him/her in a foreign land. If the ruler of the seventh is in the third house we might marry for camaraderie and potentially someone who is similar to a sibling. If we have many planets in the seventh house, the description of the potential partner becomes more intricate, and our need for a relationship that much strongerIn order to analyze a relationship, the most common system is called synastry. In synastry we compare the relationship between the planets of two individuals. This will give insight into how the two people relate to each other. Most articles about relationships talk about the two Suns; Fire signs will fare well with other fire signs as well as with the Air signs; Air signs get along with other Air signs and with Fire signs. Air and fire signs are masculine and are connected by harmonious aspects—namely trines and sextiles. The exceptions would be the signs that oppose one another: Aries-Libra, Gemini-Sagittarius, and Leo-Aquarius. Then we might talk about how opposites attract. The reality is that our Ascendant, which represents our persona is always opposite the Descendant, which represents our spouse/partner—others are a reflection of our own qualities, some of which we own and others which we choose to ‘reflect’ onto another. Similarly Water signs share affinity with Earth signs; and those oppositions would be Cancer-Capricorn, Scorpio-Taurus and Pisces-Virgo. However, synastry goes far deeper than that… in reality, we tend to marry someone born within 30-60 days of our own birthday and the Sun sign has little bearing on the strength of the relationship—we are growing into the potential of our Sun sign. I find that the Moon is of vital importance, it represents our need for safety and security as well as our emotional habits. It is the aspect between the Moons that helps us live with the love of our life. It also helps if we have harmonious cross aspects between our planets, such as a Venus sextile/trine Mars, Mercury trine Venus, etc. I don’t think we can skip the synastry and leap into a relationship chart and hope to have adequate insights. Without synastry between two charts we don’t have compatibility as a couple.

For an established relationship we can cast a composite chart, which takes the midpoints between the planets in the charts of the two individuals and calculates a ‘composite’ for the planet. For example if one person has Mercury at 15 Libra and the other has Mercury at 20 Aquarius, the shared Mercury will be at 17 Sagittarius. The composite Mercury tells us how the couple communicates; this little tidbit of the chart might tell us this couple loves to travel and explore the world and life, they might be into learning about foreign cultures, languages or metaphysical concepts. A composite chart describes how a relationship functions when you are together.

A reader asked if the composite Mercury in the seventh house might be an indication of heated arguments; and I would have to say, ‘no, not on its own’. We would need to look at what is influencing that composite Mercury, if it were Mars we might find that this were true. A better indication would be found in the synastry between the planets of the two individuals. A Mercury-Mars connection between the two charts would be more likely to produce fireworks with communication and resultant action. Neptune in the 7th house of a composite chart is likely to indicate that as a couple you are likely to meet people whom you idealize or who are capable of deceiving you. If we dig deeper, the left half of the chart represents masculine energy in the relationship and the right side is the feminine energy—then the statement might be that the woman idealizes the man.

It is important to note that we need to know the purpose of the astrological chart when we begin to delineate the potential within it. Naturally we still have another two charts for the relationship—the chart of our meeting and a marriage chart. These two are primarily event charts and help us gain insight into the events. A marriage chart is great for looking at what kind of life the couple can create and whether children are likely. In India it is commonplace to have a chart chosen for the ceremony to ensure prosperity and offspring.

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