Libra Neith is usually the one who writes about synastry, so you might have expected that she would do our Valentine’s Day post. Well, Libra also is religious about taking turns, and this week it’s my turn!

I started thinking about the greatest love stories of all time and then ran across a Live Science feature in the news headlines that began like this:

Nothing celebrates Valentine’s Day quite like a good love story. And by good, we mean tragic, of course.

How true! When you think of the greatest love stories of all time, do you remember the ones with the happy endings? Of course not. We remember those where the heroine poisons herself, the hero dies after one night of passion, or someone betrays the lovers, dooming them to remain separated forever.

The Live Science story cites five tragic tales from the history books, but fiction is just as tragic, if not more so. When we think of star-crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet come immediately to mind. In Celtic mythology, we have Tristan and Isolde, and we might think of Lancelot and Guinevere as well. In contemporary film, there’s Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio in Titanic, Nicole Kidman and Jude Law in Cold Mountain, and Winona Ryder and Gary Oldman in Dracula. Indeed, in Francis Ford Coppola’s rendition of that age-old tale, the hero is cursed with becoming a monster through betrayal that results in the death of his true love.

As an astrologer, I’m always looking for the astrological angle in these stories. Are there markers to indicate a tragic love? Unfortunately, our fictitious lovers don’t have birth charts, nor do we have precise data for couples from ancient history. However, I’ve seen enough charts to make some observations.

Venus rules love, while the Moon rules emotional attachments. For sexual desire and passion, we look at Mars and Pluto. Any of these planets in conflicting aspect to Saturn in a synastry chart between two individuals can mean trouble, as Saturn limits and also carries karmic implications. So, for example, a conjunction of Saturn and Venus might indicate a love affair that is hindered in some way. Likewise, a Moon-Saturn square could indicate great emotional suffering, while a Mars-Saturn square might indicate a violent breakup.

It’s also useful to look at the lunar nodes and chart angles, including the Vertex. For chart angles and also for the exact degree of the Moon, we need a birth time. The nodes and the Vertex in particular give us an indication of karmic connections; in other words, whether these two are soul mates.

As I’ve commented many times before, having a soul mate may sound romantic, but it’s hard work. Add to that the potential for a tragic ending, and you may start wishing that you never meet yours!

Happy Valentine’s Day.
Pat
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Happy Valentine’s Day from Neith

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