Synastry and Sun sign profiles
Once you recognize the history you bring into the relationship, you can look more closely at the person you love. There are gestures that bring you closer and ways of enjoying time together that are worth knowing. There are also needs different from your own: something that expresses affection for you may mean something else to your partner.
A synastry compares two birth charts to see how the traits astrology attributes to each person relate to one another. Here we read it with the love bond between those two people in mind, whether they follow a traditional model of partnership or have agreed on another way of relating.
The system I describe is Germán Rosas’s, as I learned it in my training with him and as I apply it in my consultations and in teaching. The descriptions belong to that interpretive approach.
As you read them, keep in mind your partner’s history and what really happens between the two of you: that is where what is proposed here gets tested.
What inventory 2 is
Inventory 2 is our astrological nature: what we bring with us as children of the solar system. It is represented by the positions of the planets on the date, at the place and at the time of birth. To return to the image of the great cosmic tapestry, it is the seed we arrive with in this incarnation to weave our story into it.
The first reading of inventory 2 is called the password: an access key. It helps you come closer to the person in front of you, beyond the image you have formed of them.
It guides you as you observe how they express themselves, what they need and how they organize their experience. Understanding those differences can make the relationship flow more easily.
The password is made up of the positions of the Sun, the Moon and Mercury in the twelve signs of the zodiac at the moment of birth. Each one offers a different perspective:
- The Sun and territory. The Sun describes the territorial being: how a person defends their space, meets their basic survival needs and positions themselves in relation to others. It speaks of what we usually call personal space. The sign the Sun occupied at birth is the natal sign.
- The Moon and fantasy. The Moon describes the nature and mode of fantasy: the thoughts, feelings and sensations that populate the inner world. Those impulses influence how a person uses the time available to them. To recognize this dimension in your partner, notice what they spend their time on and which experiences they want to prolong or repeat.
- Mercury and communication. Mercury describes the gestures and sounds through which a person expresses their presence and their needs. Some people speak little; others are boisterous. Some accompany their words with many gestures and others hardly use any. The position of Mercury in a sign helps interpret these differences.
Your partner according to their natal sign
The natal sign is the one the Sun was in at birth. Each of the twelve profiles offers a general description, suggestions for drawing closer, and traits that may be lived as strengths or as difficulties.
Read them while recalling concrete situations from your relationship: some traits will feel familiar and others perhaps not. Reading the full chart broadens these first points of observation.
From the profile to the encounter
After reading the profile, go back to one of the moments you enjoy with your partner. It might be a shared meal or a conversation neither of you wanted to end: what did each of you value in that encounter? That observation is also part of getting to know the one you love.
The Sun offers a first description, but your partner may imagine, use their time or communicate in ways that profile cannot fully explain. Those differences can be followed through the Moon and Mercury, and the Ascendant adds something more: the way they show themselves to you.
Planetary relationships in synastry
The planetary relationships of synastry help you explore what two people awaken in each other. With the person you love, you can enjoy a conversation you never want to end, seek the closeness of their body or feel that their presence moves you to do things. You can also meet a silence whose meaning you don’t know, or reactions you find hard to understand. When you consult these relationships, always come back to the experience you share.
As with the planets and emotions, in the astrological system I use the planets are studied from two perspectives: as generators of emotions and as generators of events. The first refers to the way we feel. The second, to how we interpret the experiences and happenings of life.
In an individual chart, each planet expresses itself according to the sign it occupies and the relationships it forms with the others. This reading follows the rules of Germán Rosas’s system and corresponds to what we call inventory 2.
In synastry, the charts of the two members of the couple are laid over each other. New relationships then appear between one person’s planets and the other’s. They can be facilitating or obstructing, and they are studied on the same two levels. Two charts are compared at a time, and the bond is seen in the light of the agreements its members have chosen.
On the emotional level, we take three things into account: the nature of the planet, the expression it takes on in its sign and whether the aspect is facilitating or obstructing. In this way we see the pleasure or displeasure the interaction may awaken in each person.
To interpret the possible events associated with a planetary relationship, the system considers several factors:
- The house each planet occupies in its own individual chart.
- The house or houses it rules, based on the sign or the two signs it rules.
- Whether the relationship between the planets is facilitating or obstructing.
This second perspective explores which areas may flow more easily for the couple and in which difficulties may appear, even when both bring intention and good will. It is an astrological reading of experience. The facts and their causes also call for other ways of understanding.
In my own case, with my first husband I was unable to have children, even though we tried insistently. At the time I came to think I had fertility problems. Later we each married again: he had two children and I had three. I needed no treatment and made no investment to become pregnant.
I have also met couples who came to my practice after spending thousands of dollars on fertility treatments.
In other cases I saw something similar to my own story: the two people separated, formed new unions and had children with their new partners.
When I reviewed those synastries, I interpreted as adverse certain aspects that, within this system, relate to the possibility of having children. That was my astrological reading of those experiences.
But a coincidence seen in hindsight does not establish that two people cannot have children together. Fertility cannot be diagnosed through a synastry. This interpretation must not replace a medical evaluation or be used to decide whether to begin or abandon a treatment.
Another case that caught my attention was that of a couple of architects. Each had a company that was doing well. When they married, they decided to merge them, hoping the sum of their abilities would strengthen the business. The opposite happened: the joint company began to do poorly.
In their synastry I saw aspects that I interpreted as unfavorable for a financial partnership between them. Later they separated their activities, and their companies prospered again. I keep this example as part of what I have observed in my practice. On its own, the case does not show that the planetary relationship caused the business outcome.
Here I describe the relationships between planets from the emotional level. For an interpretation of events within this approach, I recommend turning to an adviser trained in Germán Rosas’s system, who can examine the synastry as a whole and explain their criteria. That reading is astrological guidance, not a guarantee of what a couple will or will not be able to achieve.
A single aspect does not define a whole relationship. But if the couple concentrates its time and activities in the area of that aspect, it can give that aspect more weight and leave other possibilities in the background.
Notice what happens when you talk with your partner, when you come close physically or when you try to do something together: these experiences don’t all have to feel the same. Telling them apart helps you choose how to share.
Some descriptions mention aggression or control. Those references do not justify those behaviors. Interpreting an aspect does not remove the responsibility of the person who acts, nor does it oblige the other person to tolerate harm.
The letters A and B tell the two people apart. In each heading, A is the one who has the first planet mentioned, and B the one who has the second planet or point of the chart. This lets you recognize the direction of each description without assigning fixed roles to the members of the couple.
From the encounter to daily life
After reading the relationships between the two charts, go back to a concrete moment with your partner: a conversation you both enjoyed, a moment of closeness that felt good or an argument that keeps repeating. Ask yourself what made the closeness possible and what interrupted it. That experience lets you compare the astrological reading with what happens between you and recognize what you want to keep or change.
Knowing what you awaken in each other opens another question: how do you want to make room for that encounter? The wish to be together lives alongside each person’s own rhythms and different needs for activity. How two ways of moving through life meet has its own guide.