The Charts · Inside the birth chart
Sun signs are where compatibility starts. Venus is where it gets interesting.
What is a love chart in astrology?
A love chart is the part of a birth chart astrologers read for romance: the signs of Venus and Mars, the Moon, and the Descendant, the sign setting in the west when you were born, which opens the seventh house of partners. It comes from your own chart, before anyone else's is compared with it.
On your card: page 4 Your love chart, Your Descendant: who you're drawn to, Your love matches
What it is
There is no separate love chart in the sky. It is a reading of four points in your own birth chart that tradition ties to love and partnership: Venus, Mars, the Moon and the Descendant.
Venus stands for attraction and affection in the old books, and Mars for desire and pursuit. Ptolemy, in the 2nd century, already judged love matters by Venus and Mars, and marriage by the Moon in a man's chart and the Sun in a woman's. 1
The Descendant is the point setting on the western horizon at your birth, directly opposite the Ascendant. With whole-sign houses that sign becomes the 7th house, which the old scheme gives to partners and marriage.
Comparing two people's charts point by point is called synastry, and it comes after this. Your card works from your chart alone and names the signs that fit it. The traditional pairings of sun signs are laid out on the compatibility chart. The zodiac compatibility chart →
How it is worked out
- Venus. Seen from Earth, Venus never strays more than about 47° from the Sun, so its sign is always within two signs of your sun sign, either way. The date is enough.
- Mars. Mars can be anywhere in the zodiac and sometimes spends months in one sign while it loops retrograde. The date is enough here too.
- The Moon. As on the moon sign page: with no birth time, the machine uses it only if it stayed in one sign all day. Moon sign →
- The Descendant and the 7th house. Like the rising sign, they need the birth time and the birthplace. Rising sign →
- Matches. The machine weighs every sign against your Descendant, your Venus, your Moon and your sun sign's traditional pairings, and names the closest fits.
Love chart or compatibility chart?
The compatibility chart compares two sun signs by the angle between them: trine, sextile, square, opposite. It is the quick version and needs only two birthdays.
The love chart is about one person: who they are drawn to and how they go about it. Two people with the same sun sign can have Venus in different signs, Mars somewhere else entirely and different signs setting at birth, which is why sun-sign matches so often miss.
Love in the chart, era by era
Era by era, with sources. More in the Reading Room.
- Roman Egypt2nd century CEPtolemy's Tetrabiblos gives marriage its own chapter, looking to the Moon for men and the Sun for women, and to Venus and Mars for love matters in general. 1
- Roman Egypt2nd century CEPtolemy also sets out the five aspects, the angles later astrologers use to compare one chart with another. 2
- Medieval Englandc. 1390sChaucer's Wife of Bath blames her stars for her love life: Venus gave her desire and Mars her boldness, with Taurus rising and Mars in it. 3
- Modern1978Linda Goodman's Love Signs, a book-length guide to sun-sign pairings, is published. 4
- Today2025Pew finds that 30% of US adults consult astrology, tarot or a fortune teller at least once a year, mostly for fun. 5
Asked at the booth
Do I need a birth time for a love chart?
For Venus and Mars, no: the date fixes their signs. For the Moon, sometimes. For the Descendant and the 7th house, yes, along with the birthplace.
Is the love chart the same as synastry?
No. A love chart is read from one person's chart. Synastry lays two charts side by side and looks at the aspects between them, such as one person's Venus and the other's Mars.
Why do sun-sign matches so often get it wrong?
Because the Sun is one point out of a dozen. Venus, Mars, the Moon and the Descendant are the points tradition actually reads for love, and two people with the same sun sign rarely share all of them.
Can a love chart say who I will end up with?
No. It describes tendencies the way the tradition sees them, for fun and reflection. It is never a forecast about a real relationship.
Go deeper
That's how it works for everyone. Your card works it out for you.
This page explains the method and where it comes from. What it says about you is sealed on your card, worked out from the day, the minute and the place you were born.
What your card covers
See all six pages, sealedFold the pages back
1 Who you are
2 The machine says
3 Your sky
4 Love & your people
5 Work & money
6 Your year ahead
Sources
- Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos, Book IV, chapters 5–7 (Of Marriage; Of Children; Of Friends and Enemies), LacusCurtius, University of Chicago (Loeb Classical Library translation by F. E. Robbins, 1940). Read on .
- Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos, Book I, chapters 10–19 (aspects, houses of the planets, triplicities), LacusCurtius, University of Chicago (Loeb Classical Library translation by F. E. Robbins, 1940). Read on .
- The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale (interlinear translation), Harvard University, Geoffrey Chaucer Website. Read on .
- Linda Goodman's Love Signs (first published 1978, Harper & Row), Open Library (Internet Archive) catalogue record. Read on .
- 30% of Americans Consult Astrology, Tarot Cards or Fortune Tellers, Pew Research Center, 21 May 2025 (Chip Rotolo). Read on .