These 6 Astrological Placements Can Show How Compatible You Are With Someone (Extended Version: Chart included for comparison)
Several months ago, I came to a realization on how relationships can be greatly affected by our astrological birth charts and found out there are 6 major planetary placements that contribute to our compatibility, not just our sun sign.
I’ve always been intrigued by horoscopes and astrology. Even though my daily horoscope would usually resonate with what’s going on in my life, I felt surely there was no way it could be accurate for EVERYONE since I know not everyone relates to their sun sign. Little did I know, it’s because there are other signs / planetary aspects in our birth chart that play such a big role in who we are as individuals.
For example, I’m a Cancer sun and I’m definitely an emotional, empathic, and nurturing Cancer, but I’m also free-spirited and like to be independent due to my Aquarius moon.
One thing I’ve always noticed is that I also relate a lot to Leos. My best friend is a Leo and I mesh well with them very easily and quickly, but I was always confused by this since water signs and fire signs supposedly don’t mix well. Upon this revelation, I found out why I was an exception to the rule.
This past fall I did my astrological birth chart online for what seemed like the millionth time. Only this time I did enough research that I actually understood what each planet represented. I found out my Mercury is in Leo which made a lot of sense to why I relate to Leos so much and here’s how.
Planet Mercury is all about how you express yourself. It’s how you communicate, think, and is your intellectual self. Hence why when Mercury goes retrograde, we go a little stir crazy because anything to do with communication goes haywire.
I’ve actually been asked if I’m a Leo because of the way I carry myself or communicate. I can come off confident and extroverted to people because I tend to have an optimistic and enthusiastic tone in the way I speak. That is how those who have Mercury in Leo tend to communicate or those who are Leo suns can come off as.
Side note: It turns out your Mercury sign is bound to be one of the three signs closest to your sun sign. For example, being that my sun is in Cancer, my Mercury could either be in Gemini, Cancer, or Leo, and mine happens to be in Leo. (FYI, you will need your birth date, time, and location to find out all your chart signs and exact house placements.)
Comparing the 6 signs: Sun, Moon, Ascendant, Mars, Venus, and Mercury
While digging into compatibility, one person told me: “It’s not just about your sun sign that shows you your love compatibility, but you also need to take your Moon, ascendant / rising, Mars, Venus, and Mercury into consideration.”
I went on and studied about those planets and why they’re the most important to look for in compatibility.
- The Sun rules our basic personality. It’s our ego and the “core” of who we are. It is the masculine element of our personality.
- The Moon rules our emotions, instincts, and how we express our feelings. It’s the feminine side of our personality.
- The Ascendant / Rising sign is essentially our physical attributes and style. It’s the first impression we give off or the image we project onto others.
- Mars is our masculine side of sex and symbolizes our passions such as our sex drive, energy, ambition, and war. It’s essentially our lustful and aggressive side. It’s also how we deal with confrontation & anger, so check someone’s Mars sign before picking a fight with them.
- Venus is our feminine side of sex. It’s how we view love, romance, leisure, and financial matters.
- Mercury is how we communicate, think, and express yourself.
Elements & Exceptions to the Rule
Although there are some exceptions, a good rule of thumb to check your compatibility is by looking at the element your signs are in for each planetary aspect.
Water signs: (Pisces, Cancer, and Scorpio) go well with water and earth signs.
Earth signs: (Taurus, Virgo, and Capricorn) go well with earth and water signs.
Fire signs: (Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius) go well with fire and air signs.
Air signs: (Aquarius, Gemini, and Libra) go well with air and fire signs.
There will always be exceptions to these things so please don’t be discouraged when reading this if the love of your life is an air sign and you are an earth sign for example.
Just for some perspective, as my sun is in Cancer, I tend to really bond with other Cancers, Pisceans, Tauruses, Virgos, Capricorns, and Scorpios because water signs go well with other water and earth signs. While most of my partners have been either Pisces or Cancer, ironically enough, most of my close friends are Earth and Fire signs. I think it’s good to have a balance. Don’t let one or two signs in your chart discourage you from being with the person you love.
Chart I Will Be Comparing:
Sun: Cancer vs Pisces
Moon: Aquarius vs Sagittarius
Rising: Scorpio vs Cancer
Mercury: Leo vs Pisces
Mars: Cancer vs Virgo
Venus: Taurus vs Taurus
Please take note: This was just a personal study for myself and may not apply for everyone. Take what resonates with you.
In the chart above, while we are both sensitive water Sun signs, which would make us understand each other on a surface level & other aspects of our personality, this person and I have very different communication and confrontation styles.
On a day-to-day basis, when it comes to communication, someone with Mercury in Leo likes to express themselves in an enthusiastic manner and can have bold conversations. They can seem very confident or optimistic. However, having Mars in Cancer when it comes to arguments, they tend to hide in their shell and absolutely hate confrontation. They need to be approached in a gentle manner to be able to come out of their shell and discuss things. They need time to process information before acting if approached with too much information or if approached in an angry manner, and this is so true for me. I tend to freeze up in confrontational settings especially if I’m caught off guard. I always wondered why I never had good comebacks until way later unless I was prepared for the situation.
In the other chart, this person has Mercury in Pisces which means they want their partner to know telepathically what they’re thinking or feeling instead of having to explain anything in a normal conversation and can be more sensitive to words. Doesn’t match very well with Mercury in Leo who wants to get straight to the point and have an open, honest conversation. However, their Mars is in Virgo which means when it comes to arguments and passions, they tend to be very confrontational, are good with strategic planning, ask lots of questions to catch you off guard, and they have to do things “the right way” when it comes to projects. This is very accurate for this person and he even confirmed this was him 100%.
As you can see by comparing our Mercury and Mars alone, it shows we have completely different communication styles, which to be honest, has always been the main issue.
But on the other hand, Mars in Virgo and Cancer can actually make a great team when it comes to passion and in the bedroom since earth signs go well with water signs.
Then there’s the Venus sign which is about love and finances. We actually both have Venus in Taurus which means we have the same love style and view financial matters the same, which is pretty accurate. We love to cuddle, enjoy similar romantic things, and like to save our money, but enjoy splurging from time to time on things that matter.
When I compared these two charts, it explained exactly why we have so much love yet have different communication styles just by looking at our signs in Mercury, Mars, and Venus, and being that our Sun signs are both water, we understand the empathetic nature of one another.
As far as the moon, mine is in Aquarius and this person is in Sagittarius. We have different ways of expressing our emotions but are very similar in our emotional needs. Aquarians tend to be very free spirited and playful, but hide from their feelings. This one is a bit tricky for me as I wear my heart on my sleeves due to being a sensitive Cancer. However, at the same time, it’s true that I’m free spirited and I do try to guard my heart and get scared of being hurt so perhaps I don’t fully open up as much as I’d like to in the beginning in fear of scaring someone away or getting hurt so I might play it coy to protect myself. As for Sagittarius moon, they are more fiery. They’re similar to the Aquarius moon as they are playful and light hearted, but they are more impulsive and express their emotions more which I feel can be a bit intimidating to an Aquarius moon.
As for the Rising: We both have have water signs, so again, it’s compatible. Mine is Scorpio, the one that comes off very sensual, alluring, and mysterious which can be intimidating to people first meeting them. It makes me laugh every time I see those type of words in a description for Scorpios, because I’m actually so bubbly and talk to everyone. I can see truth to this description in a way, but it’s crazy to me how Scorpio’s have such a sexualized reputation. However, we are some pretty sexy specimens. (kidding… kinda). As for Cancer rising, their home life is very important to them and they’re all about family and their personal space. They don’t care to make a big entrance when appearing somewhere, so in this comparison, a Cancer rising probably wouldn’t mind if their Scorpio rising took all the attention when walking in a room together.
Conclusion
Granted astrology might not be the tell-all of who we are because how we’re raised also plays into who we are as individuals, but it definitely helps and makes sense of a lot of things.
Comparing your chart with someone else’s can help you understand yourself and the other person, see what you can work on, and how you can grow and learn from one another.
There are several sites out there that can compare your birth charts for you or where you can just see one individually if you prefer. I like to use Cafe Astrology as it has so much information on their site that can help you learn about each sign and what each planet means, run a compatibility between two birth charts, etc.
