Q&A Friday: Reading the Charts of Twins
This is the first post of what will be a question-and-answer forum for astrology. I’ll post a new one every other Friday, and it will be on the free tier.
The Why
Now that it’s so easy to calculate a chart for free on the internet, I think astrology should become as much a part of an esoteric education as Tarot. Like Tarot, it’s also a remarkably effective method of self-inquiry and personal healing, both of which are essential to a magickal education.
There are a lot of wonderful astrology books and classes out there, and I hope you take advantage of them. But I know when I’m studying something and go looking for a quick answer to a specific question, I’m often stumped about where to find the answer in all my books and class notes.
After 50+ years of studying astrology and 30+ years of practicing professionally, I still consider myself a student. But I do have quite a bit of knowledge at my fingertips, and I figure that answering questions will be a good way to encourage more people to learn at least enough about astrology to study their own chart. So bring me your questions!
The How
You can ask a question by commenting on this post, or email me here: https://www.uraniaswell.com/contact/. Put Q&A Friday in the subject line. Your question must be of general interest, not about your own chart. I will not publish your name, so your questions will be private.
Now, on to the first question. A mother of twins — born only a minute apart! — wanted to know why the two were different in many ways. Here’s my answer.
Reading the Charts of Twins
There are both philosophical and technical aspects that are important to consider when reading the charts of twins, whether fraternal or identical. Let’s start with the philosophy, which applies to all natal charts, not just twins.
If you are an astrologer or aspiring astrologer, read this, remember it, put it in your own words, but never forget it.
The soul drives the chart, not the other way around.
Our souls choose to be born into a life where we are gifted with a body, particular strengths and challenges, surrounded by specific people and the environment of a particular time and place, with individual soul-level goals for this lifetime.
The chart tells us a lot about those strengths and challenges, about the people and the environment, the timing of certain events, and the individual goals. All of those things will influence this life. Culture and parenting and the actions of others will imprint on our growing brains and shape our personal development. But we have choices to make every day. Those choices determine how our lives unfold.
The chart is a map and an itinerary our soul drew up as a plan and a packing list for this life. It points out our strengths and weaknesses, as well as our paths to growth and creativity. It indicates how certain energies are likely to come together at certain times. But we get to make choices about how we follow this itinerary. And we will live with the results and consequences of the choices we make.
The itinerary may show us where we need to be and when to get on the boat that will cross the ocean to another country. And if we choose not to take that boat, our lives will almost certainly end up far away from someone who had the same itinerary up to that point but chose to take the boat.
While the chart may indicate certain events, it does not tell you what is going to happen to you. It is a map of the territory you began navigating the day you were born, and just because your map looks like someone else’s map does not mean the journey will be the same.
This is particularly important to remember when you are reading the charts of twins. There are usually — but not always — deep soul connections between twins. There are life events that are sometimes astonishingly similar. But each twin may work with the chart in a different way.
For instance, let’s say both charts have Sun in Capricorn sextile Venus in Pisces and square Neptune in Libra in the 6th. Jupiter is in Sagittarius, sextile Neptune, with Aries rising and Mars in Aries in the 1st.
These placements could describe a professional dancer known for their athleticism and grace who is ambitious and has a goal to create a traveling dance company.
They could also indicate a missionary who travels to foreign countries as part of an organization dispensing aid, or a surgeon who indulges her musical interests outside of her work.
You must fit the chart to the person, not the person to the chart. Each twin will express the planetary patterns in that chart, but they may or may not express them in identical or even particularly similar ways. As an astrologer, your job is to help them make choices that lead to their goals and dreams by using the strengths, traits, and timing indicated in the chart. It is not your job to tell them what those goals and dreams are.
A Matter of Degrees
Now let’s look at technical indicators that will help you identify some of the differences in the ways each twin approaches life.
Occasionally, the Moon and (rarely) other planets will change signs before the second twin is born. But for the most part, you’ll be looking at two charts where the planets are in the same or possibly an adjacent degree. The differences will be found in the angles, which advance approximately one degree every four minutes (though that varies depending on the sign ascending and the location).
There are also subdivisions of each sign that are important in any chart, especially when working with twin charts. One of these subdivisions is called decans, which are 10° divisions of a sign. Another is variously known as dwads (from dwadashamsa in Vedic astrology), dodecatemoria, or twelfth-parts. These are all different names for 2.5° divisions of a sign.
I’m not going to explain them now — a little research on Google will give you some insights — but I do suggest learning about them, as they provide some important nuance to your chart interpretations.
Here’s an example with twin charts. Let’s say that both twins have Pisces rising, but they were born 22 minutes apart in New York. First twin has 15°22’ Pisces rising, second twin has 24°50’ Pisces rising, giving a 9°28’ difference in their ascendants.. The first twin was born in the decan of Pisces that is ruled by the Moon and in the Virgo dwad while the second was born in the decan ruled by Mars and in the Sagittarius dwad. (Advanced students: For the decans, I use the triplicity method with traditional rulers).
Can you see how the first twin may be more emotionally vulnerable/defensive and timid while the second is more likely to express fearlessness and a sense of adventure, all within the fundamental expression of a Pisces ascendant?
There will also be differences in timing events for twins. Just one-degree difference in the angles can make a year’s difference in timing for solar arcs when the arcing planet is aspecting a natal angle. (The solar arc and progressed Sun are identical and move approximately one degree for each year of life. The solar arc planets move the same distance as the Sun.)
So, as an example, solar arc Uranus opposing the Midheaven could result in a job change or a sudden move for one twin, and it could be years before the same aspect affects the other twin. And when it does affect the other twin, the transits will be different as well, so the outcomes are likely to be quite different.
I hope you found this post to be helpful in your study of astrology. Don’t forget to leave your questions for me!