Identifying Characters and Interactions to Tell the Story of the Chart with Examples from Romeo and Juliet
The difference between knowing astrology and performing a chart reading for yourself or someone else is being able to find the story in the chart. Without the story, your interpretations sound flat, clichéd, and either barely relevant or, perhaps worse, true for everyone. You know this is the one thing that will make your chart delineations vital and inspiring, but this simple step is frustratingly elusive. Using illustrations from the story Romeo and Juliet, I’ll provide guidelines to find the story in the astrological chart by seeing planets as characters and aspects as their interactions.
There’s a video of me teaching this process with a lot of additional information, discussion, and chart examples! Check it out on my YouTube channel.
My Story
When I was learning astrology, I took a class. In one session, the instructor used my chart as the example. He was looking at the Moon, and kept saying, “you are… .” But it didn’t resonate at all with me. Because my Moon is square my Sun, those two basic parts of me don’t align with each other. In fact, I was upset that he didn’t try to address both contrasting qualities at the same time. I already knew that only by integrating the contradictory elements could we arrive at what ultimately approaches “me.”
At a later time, I got a professional astrology reading. The astrologer described me as having two sides, which he called twin sisters. One side was excited and eager (Aries Sun) and one was shy and reclusive (Cancer Moon). He was so much closer to describing me! But he still was off because he seemed to leave out Saturn conjunct my Sun (and square my Moon). He was describing a lightness and ease in my chart that is almost impossible for me to achieve. Nevertheless, I appreciated his interpretation because I had come up with something similar during my own work with my chart. But in the end, I felt like my own work with my chart went deeper and came closer to the true me.
What I Saw When I Looked At My Chart
When I got that reading, I already knew my chart pretty well because I had been working with it for a year or two. For whatever reason, it never even occurred to me to try to understand my chart one point at a time. This was perhaps due to my education and experience as a stage director. Or maybe it was because of the interesting symmetry to my chart (my chart has a kite shape and very few other aspects). Instead, from the beginning I saw symbols and characters working together to tell stories that related to me.
What Makes a Story?
In The Poetics, Aristotle defines the six parts of drama as Plot, Character, Diction, Thought, Spectacle, and Song. Character and plot (actions) are the most important. Choices determine a person’s innate character. How does this apply to the chart? The planets are characters and the aspects are how those characters interact. These interactions explore how the character responds to certain situations and ultimately allude to the choice made.
The Party Metaphor: A Fun Way to Describe the Sun-Moon-Ascendant
- Ascendant—when you first enter the party
- Sun—at the height of the party, most of your interactions with people throughout the party
- Moon—late in the party, perhaps you’ve found one person to get to know better, who you feel comfortable with and can open up to
Using the party metaphor introduces the Sun-Moon-Asc in a fun, relatable way while starting the reading with a focus on finding the person’s STORY and how they NAVIGATE THE WORLD AROUND THEM.
Watch this chapter of the video for an example of the Party Metaphor.
A Play Full of Characters
The chart is an individual seen through the facets of multiple characters. The chart is full of contrasting qualities, characters that are competing with or supporting other characters. But it also represents you as a complete, integrated individual.
Looking at the chart as a play full of characters, some of whom we like and some we don’t, gives us objectivity, letting us stand back from the chart and see it as an outsider. This provides understanding.
Resolving the chart back into a single, complete person is a more subjective experience as you feel how those disparate parts melt into a unity of you.
Just like the alchemical dictum “solve et coagula,” it is important to separate parts of yourself, purify each part, and reform yourself as a perfect whole. This is the spiritual experience of the chart.
Ultimately, using our imagination with the chart to tell inspiring stories helps purify and perfect the parts to create an integrated whole.
The Planets and the Roles They Play
I usually see the planets as the Cast of Characters, but also as ideals or archetypes. I have various ways of describing each planet, and allow the question asked or the planetary interactions to bring one or two primary meanings to come forward. Here a few examples I might use.
Sun ☼: Hero, Protagonist, Core Identity, Self
Moon ☽: Emotional Self, Mother, Intuitive, Comfort Zone
Mercury ☿: Communicator, Mind, Messenger, Speaker, Writer
Venus ♀: Lover, Aesthete, Peacemaker
Mars ♂: Fighter, Athlete, Warrior
Jupiter ♃: Leader, Teacher, The Wise One, Priest, Generous Authority
Saturn ♄: Old Man, Father, Strict Authority
Uranus ♅: Rebel, Revolutionary, Innovator, Genius, Eccentric
Neptune ♆: Escapist, Brain Fog, Meditator, Imagination
Pluto ⯓ or ♇: Power Monger, Control Freak, Transformation
Tips for Using and Developing Keywords
I recommend developing personal relationships with each planet through:
- Learning their myths and stories
- Reciting their Orphic hymns
- Doing planetary magic
- Meditating on them or with them, and/or
- Observing how they show up in your everyday life (through transits or simply by invitation and observation)
The keywords I list above are certainly not exhaustive and don’t even fully represent my take on the planets. But they are a basic starting place and grow as the story grows. I recommend that you work with the keywords that work best for you.
As to keywords, there’s a freedom that comes from simplicity. It’s more important to morph basic understandings based on how the characters show up in the chart and the interactions they engage in than to have a long list of keywords that don’t move you or play well with others.
Aspects: The Interactions
An aspect is defined as a geometrical configuration between two planets, points, or other objects. An aspect denotes a relationship or connection. They are indicated on a chart by a colored, connecting lines, such as the red and blue lines in the figure below. We’ll look at a table of keywords, then some dramatic images to help understand and interpret aspects.
Major Aspects and Their Interactions
Understanding aspects as interactions between planets is key to bringing the chart to life. More specifically, to imagine aspects as the interpersonal relationships between characters turns the astrological chart into a story. Below is a table of the major aspects along with my primary keywords and the interaction I see in them. Then I’ll provide illustrations from Romeo and Juliet to show these aspects in action. This will help you visualize how the planets interact in your chart.
The Conjunction: Embrace or Headlock
Romeo that killed him—he is banishèd.” The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. Act 3, sc 2. From Wikimedia Commons.
The Sextile: Holding Hands
The Square: Headbutt or Locked Horns
The Trine: Help From Afar
The Opposition: Tug of War or Going Completely Different Directions
Telling the Story
Remember Aristotle—find the characters and actions they take. I start with the character in question and discover what other character they are interacting with and the nature of that interaction (the aspect). Although this is primarily working with two or more planets and their aspects, I use every symbol available to me to round out the interpretation, including sign, house, sect, ruling planets, transits, etc. I keep adding additional characters and build an overall story that addresses who’s supporting the character being asked about or explored, who’s not, when and how to shift focus to get the desired outcome, and so on.
You can add in a little bit of fun and a nod to improvisation by making up voices for the characters and invent the things that they would say. Sometimes certain characterizations stick and become common interpretations (like Saturn in the 7th is the bouncer at the club), some will show up only for that one client and never return.
Tips
- I don’t explain everything all at once—I wait until the right time to talk about it
- I check in periodically to see if I’m on track and answering the relevant questions
- If I see something odd that doesn’t seem “right” for the person sitting with me—I might say, “this is not what I see in you, but this is what the chart placement says, so I’d like to explore how it might be relevant to you.” This has the bonus of opening hidden aspects of the personality and letting people understand things that sometimes don’t make logical sense about themselves.
- My goal is not to do a comprehensive analysis of the chart–more important to answer questions and to focus on what’s relevant, immediate, and helpful.
- I have a video of me doing an astrology reading on the Astrology page under Services.
Conclusion
To find the story, start with the characters (planets) and define their interactions (aspects). When you approach the chart from a story point of view, you gain the opportunity to use your imagination, which helps open intuition. By grounding the chart in what is, or the explanation of the present, but also looking at the chart as the full potential of the person, you can help them shift into their best self. At the same time, times of difficulty and challenge are easier to approach from a story perspective, which offers objectivity. I hope you play many great roles in your life!
How to Find the Story in the Astrological Chart Video
Watch the Full Tutorial with Example Charts on YouTube
Find Your Way
Joy Vernon Astrology * Tarot * Reiki can guide you when you’re lost, teach you to always find the path, and inspire you to go further than you ever thought you could.
