Two originals, one odd little club?

Are two Aquarius compatible?

Two Aquarius are the same sign twice: air meeting air, fixed meeting fixed. Astrologers call it a mirror, and Ptolemy counted it as a conjunction. Only the Suns are compared here. Venus, Mars, the Moon and the sign on the descendant carry the rest.

You're here because of someone.

The Sun signs say you’re the same. Two whole charts say far more.

Your card is worked out from the day, the minute and the place you were born, not from a sign you share with a twelfth of the planet.

Every Aquarius reads this page. Only your card knows you.

Find out your true compatibility.

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Admit one Aquarius Air · Fixed Jan 20 – Feb 18

=︎ Same sign · 0°Air · fixedA conjunction, the first of Ptolemy’s aspects

What it is: synastry, the art of comparing two charts

Comparing two people's charts has a name: synastry. Astrologers lay one chart over the other and look at the angles between the two sets of planets, the same angles the old books use inside a single chart.

Sun-sign compatibility is the shortcut version. It compares only the two Suns, and the angle between them is the aspect: four signs apart is a trine, two apart a sextile, three apart a square, six apart an opposition. Ptolemy called the trine and the sextile harmonious, and the square and the opposition disharmonious. ¹

Elements describe temperament (fire, earth, air, water) and modes describe pace (cardinal starts, fixed holds, mutable adapts). Two Aquariuss share both: air and fixed, twice.

Full synastry goes much further: whose Venus lands on whose Moon, where one person's planets fall in the other's houses, how the two descendants line up. Ptolemy himself compared the Sun and the Moon of both charts, not just the Suns. That is why one Aquarius can get on beautifully with another Aquarius and not at all with a third. ²

What happens when two Aquarius fall for each other?

The traditional portrait: the same for every Aquarius.

Aquarius in love

Aquarius, in the old portrait, falls in love with a mind. Friendship first, often for years, then something more, on its own terms. Traditionally an Aquarius needs space, honesty and a partner with ideas of their own, and has no patience for jealousy or rules made for the sake of it. Try to own one and it leaves the room, politely.

Together

Air with air. The old reading is a conversation that never runs out, and a fridge with nothing in it. Ideas first, feelings filed for later. Somebody has to land the plane.

Both fixed, the most stubborn pairing on the wheel by reputation. Loyal to the bone, the pair of you, and neither one keen to blink first.

Two Aquarians make a household that runs on ideas, with friends at the door at all hours. Both are Saturn's in the old scheme and both are fixed air: clever, principled and allergic to fuss. Tradition says they can be best friends for years before anyone mentions feelings.

Where it comes from: comparing charts, from Babylon to your phone

Era by era, with sources. More in the Reading Room.

Ancientc. 450 BCEThe Babylonian zodiac settles into twelve equal zones, the frame later comparisons of signs are built on. ³
Ancient410 BCEThe earliest known horoscopes, from Babylon and Nippur, date to this year. ³
Classical2nd century CEPtolemy's Tetrabiblos names the aspects between signs and calls the trine and sextile harmonious, the square and opposition disharmonious. ^4,1
Classical2nd century CEPtolemy's triangles: Aquarius belongs to the air triangle, which he puts under Saturn by day and Mercury by night. Two Aquarius share the triangle, the planet (Saturn) and the season: everything his system counts. ¹
Classical2nd century CEIn his chapter on marriage, Ptolemy compares two charts: the Sun and Moon of one against the Sun and Moon of the other, reading trines and sextiles between them as concord and squares and oppositions as friction. ²
Classical2nd century CEHis chapter on friends and enemies does the same with the Sun, the Moon, the rising degree and the Lot of Fortune of both people. ²
Medieval12th centuryAbu Ma'shar's introduction to astrology circulates in Latin; the University of Edinburgh holds a 12th-century copy. ⁵
1800s1890Alan Leo's Astrologer's Magazine offers its annual subscribers a free horoscope by post. ⁶
1930s1937R. H. Naylor's newspaper horoscope, begun in 1930, is organised by the twelve sun signs. ⁷
1970s1978Linda Goodman's Love Signs is published by Harper & Row. ⁸
1980s–90s1980–1999Chart services run by computer arrive: Astrodienst in Zürich sells birth charts from 1980 and goes online in 1996. ⁹
Today202430% of US adults consult astrology, tarot or a fortune teller at least yearly, mostly for fun, according to Pew Research Center. ¹⁰

Worked out, not guessed

A sign paired with itself shares everything: element, mode and polarity. There are 12 such pairs among the 78 possible sun-sign pairings.
Venus never gets more than about 47° from the Sun, so an Aquarius's Venus is in one of five signs (Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces or Aries). Which one is a matter of the year and the day.

Which of you is going to say it first?

The Sun can’t answer that. These four can, and your card reads every one of them.

Venus · how you love

How do you love, and how do you want to be loved?

That's Venus. It never strays far from the Sun, so an Aquarius's Venus can only sit in Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces or Aries. Two people with the same sun sign can want completely different evenings.

Your card reads your Venus.
Mars · what you want

Why do you both go quiet instead of fighting?

That's Mars: desire, temper, the way you chase what you're after. It can sit in any of the twelve signs, so two Aquarius born a season apart can want, and fight about, completely different things.

Your card reads your Mars.
The Moon · what you need

Why do they feel like home one day and a stranger the next?

That's the Moon: what you need when the door's shut and the day's gone wrong. It changes sign every two and a half days. If their Moon falls in your sign… well.

Your card reads your Moon.
The descendant · who you’re drawn to

Why do you keep falling for the same type?

That's your descendant, the edge of the seventh house: the sign setting in the west at your birth minute. Tradition reads it as the partner you keep noticing. It needs your birth time and place.

Your card reads your rising sign and your descendant.