The Sun has already crossed into the sign of Libra, standing in opposition to a retrograde Saturn in Pisces, with Neptune chasing it from Aries.
The rulers of this tale are the two lovers, harmoniously aspected toward one another and bound together to sustain some kind of cray' catharsis:
Venus in Virgo, squaring Uranus in Gemini.
Mars in Scorpio, squaring Pluto in Aquarius.
I remember, at five years old, sitting in a school classroom after hours because, for whatever blessed reason, I had told my parents I wanted to sign up for after-school English classes:
- What's your favourite movie?
- ¡Titanic!
- Ah! And what is it that captivates you so about that film, Mar?
- I'm in love with Jack!
- But... he's a bit older for you, don't you think?
- It's all good! When I die, I shall reunite with him in heaven, and we shall wed!
Anyway… the truth is that, to me, Jack Dawson was dead and buried deep in the sea (and how! 'cause that's my name's translation). Sometime later, I discovered that, in real life, he was another kind of man named Leonardo DiCaprio, still very much alive and kicking. Years after that, I found out his Sun and Venus are conjunct my Scorpio Pluto in my 8th House -you cannot fathom how energetically literal that 'in love with a dead man buried deep in the sea'truly is in this case. Furthermore, my Ascendant falls near his Descendant and vice versa (there lies the matchmaking vibe). There are a thousand other things we have neither the time nor space to name, and though to you it may all sound like an alien language, to me, it is the perfect introduction -as an initiation into the concept of Synastry.
Why? Well, because I will not pull on the typical thread of partners, couples, friendships & co to introduce it; the cosmos demands vibes with a slightly more dark&crazynuance, yet carrying a harmonizing effect, so we are heading straight into the realm of mysticism.
In fact, it seems to me the best way to make you realize how it works: if we start talking about those closest to you… well, there is far too much grounded history there for your mind to get distracted by'they did to me' and 'they said to me'; and I intend to place the raw energy of the obvious right before your eyes.
I deliberately intend to get as close as possible to revealing the apparently absurd: you actually do not know that person.
An actor you have watched portray a character; a celebrity who only reveals their public face; the speaker who gave a lecture at that weekend conference; the colleague of a colleague of your first cousin; someone with whom you shared a few hours on a plane; a fleeting crush you caught this morning, walking down the street...
Whoever they may be, and however it may manifest: there is something within that someone that triggered a clear reaction inside you -even if it left your mind bconfused- marking a sharp contrast to the multitude of others who leave you entirely indifferent.
‘I don't know why, but they get on my nerves‘; ‘I don't know what it is about them, but I love it‘; ‘the second they open their mouth, I feel like slapping them‘; ‘the second they open their mouth, I feel like devouring their lips'; and let us not forget the legendary dichotomy 'I cannot stand them, so I keep haunting their Instagram‘.
We astrologers hold an advantage over those WTFmoments: first, because the gathered knowledge has granted us a deeper awareness of these various human follies, letting us know they are the most natural thing in the world; and second, because if we can secure that person's birth data, we gain a pathway to clear our minds regarding what on earth just happened here.
the natal chart
Yes, yes, yes… I know, I know: I ought to unpack how a Natal Chart works first and foremost. I DO KNOW, but if you have read anything I have published thus far, you will know I hold a close bond with the heart. The article is in the making; it will emerge from the oven in due time.
I will write a brief introduction below -as visual as my mind can conjure- and we shall dive deeper when the time comes.
We all emerge from our biological mother’s womb, somewhere in this world, at an exact hour and minute, within a precise day, month, and year. At that very precise and exact moment, the solar system was also arranged in a precise and exact configuration: the Sun, the Moon, Venus, Saturn, Uranus & co surrounded us from somewhere within those 360º, wrapping the Earth in a blanket of fertility.
Your Birth Chart is the drawing of that wheel, of that single instant, and it places the Earth -and you, consequently- at the very heart of all the hustle and bustle.
You have probably believed, until now, that your zodiac sign has everything to do with the location of its constellation in the sky. Bzzzt! False: astrology does not function that way; at least, not the Western or Tropical branch -which is the one I practice.
Within the 360º that surround us, there is a 30º space reserved for each of the twelve signs; and this is no random layout. They are arranged in an order studied by our ancestors throughout years, centuries, millennia -I'm not entirely sure, but a profound coherence resides within that succession. If you possess a desire to peer into it, if that kind of information magnetizes you like a sweets: try googling the twelve steps of the hero's journey.
USTED
*in your Natal Chart, you will find various little symbols drawn inside that blank space; this is merely the rendering of the zodiac wheel that surrounds us.
The gaze of the humanistic | psychological | evolutionary astrologer understands the concept of the Natal Chart as a sort of mirror. Every object, celestial body, planet, symbol, or call it X, drawn inside it, represents a facet of yours: because what was out there when you were born became anchored deep within; or, that which was above became anchored below
Since each of those facets is located within one of those 30º spaces occupied by the twelve signs, it becomes deeply tinted by its energy: that is to say, it aligns with its requirements or inherent characteristics.
For instance, the placement of Mars will speak of your inner warrior and conqueror: if it was within the 30º occupied by Libra when you were born, it will act far differently than if it had been within the 30º of Aries.
*I will speak to you often of 'my Mars' and 'your Mars'; it is simply our astrological slang , for it takes too long to say 'the placement of Mars at the exact moment of our birth‘.
*that zodiac sign that everyone knows is that of their Sun: meaning, the location of the Sun when they were born.
THE SYNASTRY
In that mandala, the charts of the two individuals in question are overlaid (for instance, you and the celebrity) in such a way that both remain distinct; THUS, we can observe how each facet of each person interacts when facing the other, according to their mathematical placement in relation to one another.
From this, we get an interpretation (rigorously studied, neither channeled from the ether nor glimpsed within a crystal ball: the astrologer be a diviner, but is not defined by it. Each of us was shaped by a school of learning, and it was no Hogwarts. IF ONLY.)
So: I’d love to pull the thread on five-year-old Mar and dead Jack , but truth be told, this man triggered a lot of our Plutos -through Titanic. It’s not exactly a fast-moving planet through those 360º, so a lot of us millennials have it placed right where his Sun and Venus are. And since I’m not going to write a full synastry reading in this article -because there's no way in hell it would fit into a 10-minute read- I’m just going to make up another example instead:
Let’s say, by some fluke in an imaginary world where the stars aligned (heh, heh), that your Mars and mine were in tension -meaning they were close to a 90° or 180° angle from each other within that wheel, (because, yes, I repeat, it’s all math). And let’s say, by another fluke, that we crossed paths on the street at a moment when my Mars was activated: for instance, while I was in the middle of an argument with someone(warrior!!).
Most likely, you’d have some sort of martial reaction when noticing me: either because you'd be feeling your Mars undermined and my own expression of it made you uneasy, making you want to run away as fast as possible; or because you felt it reinforced and were irritated by the way I argue, so maybe a hater comment would come straight from your gut to shut me up -from afar and apparently pout of nowhere. Meanwhile, I don't know, the person standing right next to you wouldn't care less about the whole thing.
You don't need to develop a bond for synastries to emerge from the subconscious; you just need to put another person in front of you.
the mastery of the mirror
I'm going to pull slightly on the Jungian thread
There’s been an overdose of the Mirror Law lately, so I’m going to share the AI's definition while highlighting two super important words that make up the concept:
This principle suggests that what we perceive or what bothers us in others -or what attracts us to them-, COULD BE a reflection of our own qualities, even those we haven't recognized or accepted.
The fact that it could be means it's not always the case, okay? This needed to be clarified before moving forward, because -speaking of dark and crazy- I've heard a lot of people reduce anything to everything around me is me and that's just not healthy for the mind, folks.
That being said...
Sometimes, yes: life will bring our very own Mars through someone else (in conjunction: around 0° apart, or simply in the same sign) as a mirror, so we can see outside the potential we are failing to see inside. This never means we are doing -or should be doing- the exact same thing with our Mars as the other person, nor in the same way (we are not meant to be clones, my friends). That is to say: life, through astrology, is not telling us things like 'mimic their fighting style‘.
Have you ever found yourself more lost than Icarus by the Nile while facing an exam sheet? There’s always the classmate next to you whose answer you can sneak a peek at: you could copy it word for word, but you could also use their wording for inspiration and, building from there, create your very own.
Besides, we might cross paths with the best version -admired and envied- but also with the worst one (so far, from what I’ve experienced, we haven't reached the level of always acting from our highest virtue, even if that's the ultimate goal), which is probably feared. And I’ll say it again: it doesn't mean you have to follow their lead, just as it doesn't mean you are, by definition, that much of an assh*le. They are reflections of something similar to what we are capable of doing, depending on which path we choose to take.
*advice: sharpen your discernment well
To top it off: if the Mars -that another person brings- is not the same one you have in your chart the mirror effect is reduced. It might be in a sign of the same element (fire, earth, air, water), the same modality (cardinal, fixed, mutable), or the same polarity (yin | feminine | in, yang | masculine | out), but there are a gazillion features that diverge.
*si quiere profundizar, le dejo con uno de mis grandes maestros: video in spanish
*I stand by my advice: sharpen your discernment well; ot even we astrologers always have access to synastry to decode the message wmore clearly and quickly. Though we might have a head start and more awareness, we are bound to take the very same road
the mastery of coexistence
and here, I'm pulling the thread of my Master’s in Conflict Mediation from the UB,
which taught me so much
There is this thing called interaction, which carries the human condition of coexisting with an Other -and which, for some unknown reason, most spiritual, self-knowledge, and personal growth discourse forgot, getting stuck in me-ism; and it is another human virtue that is still VERY much waiting to be developed.
Libra serves as a reminder.
There is such a prowess in the mere fact of learning to cooperate with energies that are uncomfortable to us -at first-; actually pulling it off is next level. Even the exact same Mars placement can be a total pain in the a*s in certain situations.
Let’s say you and a stranger, with whom you share a Mars placement, are assigned to push a new project forward together (leaving aside the ease or difficulty that the sign they are in might add). First of all, you have to accept that the martial facet will always lean toward competition (#godofwar -dun-dun-dun-daaa...) in order to redirect it toward useful places.
Bad move to focus all the attention on the mirror effect in this case, because if we only see what we share, competitiveness will do nothing but increase (as in the that’s what I’m good at; stay out of my turf, biatch). Therefore, it will be much more interesting to place the focus on the differences: what skills -from that Mars- have I developed that the other person hasn't, and vice versa, so each of us can bring something useful to the table? After all, what’s the point in having two identical people bringing the exact same thing to a project when a single person could handle it?
It is no easy task learning to hold the tension that may arise between facets in conjunction (0°), square (90°), and opposition (180°). Crossing paths with someone who triggers that kind of internal reaction is challenging; yet, it is also manageable once we realize complementarity exists. That dynamic of where you fall short, I step in and vice versa.
Sometimes, we focus so much on what bothers us about the other person that we forget all the positive aspects of what doesn't unite us, set us apart; that it’s okay for each of us to keep our own space; to understand that we don't have to crowd it all; to give some ground. I'LL SAY THAT AGAIN, but in the form of a question: do you really want everyone doing what you do, and the way you do it? Clones, clones, clones…
Virtue can sometimes be hidden before our sight: doing something differently doesn't automatically imply vice, malice, or illness. On many occasions, we lack information about the context; these are scenarios where I indeed understand, from my own gaze, the projection Jung speaks of: our reaction has more to do with us than with the other person.
the free will
all of it sends us -automatically- back to the game between destiny and will
In a synastry, then, we can observe a tendency, or a high and low probability, for certain events to happen between two people or, at the very least, on the part of one of them toward the other. That is to say: we can see what card destiny plays.
EVEN SO, the predictability with which they play their cards will diminish as they expand in consciousness. That which is not made conscious, manifests as fate -they say. Free will will always remain available for whoever is willing to do the work of realizing. Even more so, if applied to each unique case individually -refusing to reduce everything to a single pattern, tool, or way of looking at life.
*in other words: no synastry is doomed to failure; it’s just that some involve more challenges than others. Astrology reveals the whys; a gifted astrologer can unveil the wherefores. From this point onward, everything depends on the willingness to make and unmake held by the parties involved.
Libra plays at balancing opposites: destiny and free will; you and I, or focus within, focus without; a recognizable problem versus a new one; a reusable solution VS let us get creative…
Let me tell you that you do not need astrology to come to an understanding. Yes, it smoothens the path, so it is ever welcome; yet within the human body lies far more wisdom than meets the eye.
I'm dropping that one that says seek, and you shall find.
Ask, and it shall be given you.
Life always provides.
a little bit of art, to close
There is a video on Instagram that sums up, very briefly, a work of art created from the interaction between two beings in a very peculiar way: how the one observes theother while she merely observes herself [I leave the link here (btw, thank you Shuan <3)]. The first uses photography and the second uses writing, and even though the conclusion the Instagrammer announces diverges slightly from what we are exploring here, I believe you will find much of what I'm talking about -in it.
There are realities that are shared -by the entire world or by more than one person- yet there are others that are peculiarly personal. When two divergent realities interact, magic happens; those wonderful things that we can only see if we pay attention and leave the space open, allowing room to observe both the inside and the outside.
It is those small details that only you see in that other person and sometimes, if you're lucky, that other person sees in you -that bring about a change, a step forward, an evolution, no matter how tiny it may be, in each being. For no, not everything is a mirror effect: we are also capable of catching foreign nuances that are not in us and treasuring them; and that also says a lot about the person who knows how to see.
Synastry tells us a great deal about all of this, yet nothing compares to living it.
I'm also leaving you with a movie you can find on Filmin these days, and which -I guess- is also on Amazon Prime. If you're feeling very rebellious you can always look for it on some pirate website.
I invite you to realize how each pair of characters shares a different relationship, how that very bond interacts in relation to the others, and how all of it activates, deactivates, and reactivates archetypes or facets, along with their consequent crossings and partings: beliefs confronted, shared, taught, and learned; different ways of interpreting and facing the exact same situation… and love is in the air! Just as much as Aquarian madness, descending to the depths of Scorpionic drama. Meaning it is dark&crazy, but in a way that makes you laugh. It is delightful, I promise.
In my personal view, I think we have the sky well represented in it:
Also, I'm a fan of Woody Allen, so Patricia Clarkson usually pulls my thread; just like the trine (120º) that her Scorpio Venus makes to mine, located in Cancer. And Cillian Murphy's Leo Mars landed right where mine is, since 2005, so I always find myself between envy and admiration regarding his performances-. Y eso ya son confesiones de una astróloga con síndrome de Stendhal.
Leave a Reply