Chart connections

When we wish to compare charts relative to identifying a relationship or the potential for a relationship we can utilize several approaches.

ASPECTS
A planet in one chart (by sign and degree) that makes a major aspect to a planet in another's chart signifies a linkage. If takes more than one such connection to make a relationship. When we consider a loving relationship (which can include the range from friendship to infatuation to lust to love) we typically find the following combinations:
* MC to Sun, Moon, MC or ASC.
* ASC to Sun, Moon, MC or ASC.
* Sun to Moon, ASC, Venus, Mercury.
* Moon to Sun, ASC, Venus, Mercury, Mars.
* Venus to Moon, Mars.
* Mars to Venus.

What we are generally looking at here are personal planets/angles and their interaction between charts. The angular contacts tend to signify a couple with a similarity to attitudes about life and life style. The Sun contacts tend to show one inspiring the other. The Moon brings great empathy, emotion and nurturing approaches. Venus and Mars tend to emphasize the physical side of things. Mercury will enhance communication, especially if contacting the ASC or Sun of the other person.

Business relationships and friendships/mentor-student relationships often tend to include the angles, Sun, Jupiter, Saturn and Mercury.

HOUSES
Sometimes there are few actual sign-degree aspects. In such cases, a seasoned astrologer might look to house positions. Forget about aspects, look to see what is at the angles and what lies in mutual houses. Often these links are less powerful than aspectual relationships but they do establish a similarity of experiences and ways of dealing with life -- qualitities that can form a relationship basis.

ADVANCED BUT POWERFULL ALTERNATIVES
** MIDPOINTS
When aspects and house positions are not evident, charts may have many similar mid-points. Use the same planets as noted in the aspect section, but recognize that mid-points are powerful. There are TWO FORMS OF MIDPOINTS that can be considered . . . person A can have Sun = Moon/Venus while person B might have Moon = Sun/Venus. Transpositions bring similar energies although if person B also had Sun = Moon/Venus that would be stronger and more evident.

** EQUAL ARCS
Most computer programs provide a feature for listing angular seperation lists for planetary pairs. Run such a list for both people and compare them for similar angles between a given pair. You can treat these equal arcs as a form of generic aspect. They become especially powerful if they rise-culminate-set-bottom at the same time. This last statement relates to the time of the day when a planet is angular at a locality . . . when one planet rises while the same planet of the other person's planet culminates (as an example) then the energies seem to join or attract. This feature is sometimes identified in a software program as an aspectarian or as a rising and setting chart.

** COMPOSIT CHARTS
A Composit Chart can be generated by any software program although some public-free sites might not offer these as an option. Although there are some small calculation differences between some programs (and these can be often be chosen by the user) they essentially blend the charts such that they find the mid-point between each Sun position and develop the composit chart showing the Sun at that mid-point. In some such charts Venus or Mercury may not show up close to the Sun but may be located at the far side of the chart. You can choose to treat oppositions in this case as conjunctions or just pencil in the opposition point to bring the planet to a place near the Sun. You have to modify your chart interpretation to reflect the relationship and not either of the people.

SUMMARY
Now that we have covered several approaches to chart connections I would expect that most of those responding to this thread will use the ASPECTUAL approach. Might I suggest the following guidelines when responding to this thread.
1) Concentrate on the angles and personal planets. Don't list everything in your chart, just list the connections you find.
2) If you wish you can post your chart on one of the public calculation sites and give the access link in your posting.
3) If you are referring to another person's chart, note that person/chart in the first line of your posting.

Have fun. Dave

Let me see if I got this straight....going with aspects- first technique.
I'm looking at my chart and that of my S/O. The first thing I see:
My Capricorn Sun at 9'55" and my partners Moon at 8'00"....making it a pretty close opposition.
I don't know if our AC or MC are close enough.
AC- 21'22" Virgo & 28'35" Virgo....this puts my Moon in a Trine with his Rising
MC's in Gemini are simular in numbers.
Our Suns are approx 7 degrees apart also. (both in Capricorn)
My AC is a near exact trine with his Mercury in Cap.

I jumped around, just looking at what connections jumped out in the charts.
I have not gone through each individual aspects mentioned...but will after I get word I am on the right track.

Hi!
Dave, thanks so much for this overview... it's most valuable...

I'm not sure if this is the place where we'll put our duos of charts, or in another thread?

and I just want to briefly bring up the issue of synastry vs composites. I have been foing composites for a while, and find that they tell a lot regarding teh theme of the relationship (I do mostly by what planet in what house rather than aspects).
Which one are going to use here?
i sit best to run both if we are looking for something more in depth?
What is youe experience with these?

ok, more later... got to run

For Lunalafey and M-Press

Luna, the aspectual approach you used is just fine. The Sun conj. Moon connection is classical and strong and should initially be interpreted in many broad ways -- Sun being "guiding, directive, inspiring, willful, 'male' in its activism and self-confidence characteristics", while Moon is "receptive, fluid in responses, accepting, 'female' in its emotional and nurturing characteristics." Together, these two "marry" a whole range of complementary traits, attitudes and approaches to living. This is what makes this aspect so strong for a couple. The generally close Ascendants and Suns bring similarity of life expression -- probably significant of very close friends in that both pairs of aspects are present. This brings a comfort level, something that is important in some loving relationships, boring and not seen as a driver of diversity in other relationships -- if it works, great. The Mercury trine to the MC is good as it helps in communicating goals and ideas.

M-Press, composit charts are very insightful and you are quite right in that they show the theme of the relationship but not the way each reacts to the other (as aspectual views would show). When doing composits I try to not include asteroids, uranian hypotheticals or other elements that have long orbital periods. These items, in a composit chart, always tend to emphasize conjunctions and take the focus away from the personal and social planets. You are also right in your use of "houses" and not of "signs" as the houses where the composit planets are located show where that energy works best. The one thing to always be careful of is when, in a few cases, the chart has Mercury and Venus opposite of where the Sun is located -- I always bring them back to their opposite points although this is just a matter of personal preference. And finally, yes, I do run both aspect comparisons and the composite chart. There can be "wrinkles" in how each person reacts to the other in terms of one or two aspects -- these are easy to see. However, the composit chart shows also the compromises and working-it-out side of the actual relationship as the couple experiences it. So, both are valuable tools and I think its great that use both of them together.

Now, some comments on my chart and my wife's chart:
* My ASC and her Moon are conjunct at 0 Cancer. (She expects me to react to her feelings about every issue -- of course, I don't)
* My Sun and her Sun are square from Virgo to Sag. (I operate as a Virgo would, she plunges ahead as a Sag would -- not always very comfortable).
* My Jupiter and her Sun are conjunct in Sag. (She expects me to fulfill her social, travel, family and home aspirations -- that sort of works out well)
* My Venus is opposed by her Saturn. (We used to fight a lot about sex and values -- now we just avoid the whole issue and follow our own personal interests while continuing with all of the things we have in common)

So, you can see that a relationship can take many twists and turns and find many ways of working out common and personal issues. You can't take anything for granted when exploring charts for couples. Rember this single piece of advice -- symbols tend to express themselves at many levels and in many ways, so don't jump to shallow conclusions. Dave

The strongest aspects I have w/the current are:

- My sun opposing his sun (I just can't get enough of you moody Cancers lol!)
- Moons in opposing signs, but not aspecting. (It feels like we're coming from opposite directions, as I will think in broad, sweeping terms and he will come from the itty bitty details and enjoys wrangling over stuff like definitions.)
- My moon conjunct his ASC (He told me his face is unreadable, but I know exactly how he feels by how he looks. Ha! Actually, I am usually thick as a block when it comes to "energy" but can pick up his instantly.)
- My Venus oppose his Mars, his Mars oppose my Venus. (Delicious fun!)
- His Venus and north node exactly conjunct my DC (We trusted each other immediately, it was very very weird.)
- My Saturn/Jupiter conjunction exactly square his sun. (His friend called me the current's "rock". He's pretty Neptunian and moody and lacks earthly grounding.)
- His Saturn/Jupiter conjunction trines my Mars/ASC conjunction.
- His Venus opposes Mars/ASC, trines (out of sign) my MC/Uran conjunction.
- His MC conjunct my Saturn/Jupiter, sextile moon, trine ASC.

lunalafey said:

My Capricorn Sun at 9'55" and my partners Moon at 8'00"....making it a pretty close opposition.

Click to expand...

I left out the word CANCER....with his Moon....
a conjunction would be nice....but actually it's an opposition...
With the way our charts play out....it seems that every two weeks we have some sort of 'issue'.....nothing bad, sometimes not good....but other times it's comical. It is like that commercial where the lady says something over the cell phone about bringing home a 'movie, something old' & her husband brings home a 'Monkey with a cold'
Now that I know I'm looking at this right....I'm going to check all the aspectual points & report back

Some more comments

Luna . . . Moons in opposition . . . wow. You guys can feel and argue about both sides of every/any issue. The common links I noted earlier will have to be thrown out the window. While you can enjoy the same environment, you have a broader emotional environment to keep things stirred up.

isthmus nekoi . . . Suns in opposition . . . Moons in opposite signs . . . Ohhh!
We may have the basis for writing a new book on relationships here. Views and a sense of self expressed in conflicting (?) ways due to the Suns, plus a degree of Luna's emotional relationship style. This requires two strong people with good self-confidence. I need to ask about your Mercury's if I may -- do they work together or have major links into each other's charts? Perhaps with the Venus-Mars configurations there is no need for direct conversation.

Some more comments on synastry. I know Astrid O will be looking in on this thread as I baited her with some comments in the "naughty" thread. All of my clues here should help her there. I have a very dear friend that shares several aspects between our charts. Her Sun on my IC (opposite MC), her Venus conjunct my Sun and Neptune, my MC on her Saturn. When you have a lot links between charts you either share a lot of common interests and approaches to life or you have a "mortal enemy" situation BUT YOU NEVER HAVE A VOID. If anything ever "proves" that astrology works it is this area of relationships. I have a chart that is almost identical to Noel Tyl's (he is a prolific astrological writer in the US as well as an opera singer) chart in terms of angles and planetary placements -- it is amazing to see the similar events and interests in our lives -- we even look alike. So, continue to have fun with this exploration. And everyone should feel free to jump in. Dave

Well. well... the time has come...
i have been exploring laterly, quite heavily, a relationship that didn't seem to evenyually work out, although it could have, and i try to see through astrology whether it was doomed from the beginning...

I will combine synastry and composites here, as it's through the composites that I found more "warning signs"...

Our suns trine: me Scorp , he Pisces
- His Moon in Scorpio (like my sun)
- We both have Taurus ASC
- I also have Saturn in Taurus, not far from his ASC. (telling him what to do...)
- we both have Pluto in the 5th, in Virgo
- we both have Neptune in the 7th, in Sadge
- My Venus in Scorp conjuncts his Moon in Scorpio on the exact degree (this is the only "exact degree we have)
- My sun squares his Mercury, and his Mercury squares my Sun (there goes communication...)
- No aspects between our Mars & Venus, although by sign, my Libra Mars trined his Venus in Aquarius.
- also, my Mars trines my Mercury in aquarius, and also trined his Saturn in Gemini.

so, this is the synastric stuff...

Composite wise, there were few things that ringed a bell:
- Composite Sun, North Node, Mc and Part of fortune in the 9th. if this is the "theme" of the relationship, then the 9th is not exactly marriage material... Significant yes, close, but no cigar, as they say...
- Composite Neptune, in the 7th (AHA!!!!)

other than that,
- composite Moon and Pluto in the 5th (really nice...)
- composite Mercury, Venus, Jupiter in the 8th (seems like we could have inherited...)
- composite Mars in the 3rd
- composite saturn on the 1st

i did the Composite using Midpoints method, and there was one thing that also striked me: although we are both water signs, and definitely quite watery in general, our composite chart had NOTHING in a water element!!! Plenty of Fire, Air and earth, but no water? Our MAIN THING????
btw, I just saw this now... How we know how to "miss" things...

Once some one that knew astrology asked about my venus, and when i said it's in Scorpio, I heard him say: "My condolences". Talking about let go. Or, not let go, to be more acurate...

Venus in Scorpio

M-Press. This can be an overly strong placement in terms of its impact on the "other" person. Here, Venus loves secrets and wants to know everything. This can relate to being a "control freak" if other things support it. Women with Venus in this sign often use sex as a bargaining weapon. You say this is because of my personal experience. Yes, true, but Evangiline Adams of early 1900's fame notes the same thing in her book "Astrology for Everone", page 164. Of course its just one planet in one place -- there are a lot of other things to deal with. Your Venus conjuncting his Moon probably makes him "jumpy" and emotionally distraught at times -- whoever thought these two astrological planets could not get along just fine? However, most books will point out that these two do get along just fine. I've just had some contrary experiences with the charts I've done. Dave

Interesting Dave, your comment, on things not working "exactly right" whe they are supposed to...
I actually though, that this conjunction is what made us feel so intimately close. i'm not talking about sex here, but about enjoying being physically together-there was a very emotional bond there.

About venus in Scorp and control freak... Well... yes and no. On one hand I'm definitely dominant, on that other I'm really looking to be dominated. or maybe i'm too sure that my way is the "right " way?

On that note, there is what i read one about Scorpio women/Venus in Scorp:
That they are defintely possesive, but there is nothing better than to be possesed by a Scorpio woman!!!

maybe there is still some hope...