Our families are one of the biggest influences on our life, whether we’re from peaceful homes or troubled ones, adopted, interfaith, close, split, together, or anything else. And so our families, for better or for worse, are part of us, and show up in our birth charts in different ways.
Some aspects in a chart describe how you saw your parents’s relationship with each other, some describe our early home life, some reveal which parent influenced you most and how.
There are some aspects in a chart, too, that simply echo our families; these describe ways we are like them (and perhaps are more similar to them than we want to be).
In each other’s orbit
In many relationships, two people will have some similar feature in their charts– part of the attraction is that the other person really gets how they think, or feel, or relate to the world. My own parents split up decades ago, but it wasn’t until I looked at their charts that I understood why they were together so long in the first place.
My own parents share a Virgo signature (Virgo sun/Mercury/ascendant for one, Virgo moon for the other) and each has a strong moon/Saturn conjunction. Two married friends of mine share a (highly unusual) sun/Venus retrograde conjunction. My husband and I share a prominent Mars/Venus square.
There are, of course, many intricate layers in relationships and their charts, but generally a few features stand out in particular; these are often the ones that become hereditary in some way.
Going backward
If you have birthdates for grandparents, great-aunts and uncles, and even great-grandparents, you can trace further back and look for emerging patterns in the family line. Even when there is no birth time (producing a chart without houses), hereditary aspects will emerge. Sometimes seemingly minor patterns are the common thread, so a professional astrologer can be helpful for this part. Don’t forget step-parents and -siblings, and adopted family members, as they will share aspects too.
In families with several siblings, there may be one or two in particular that pick up the “family aspect” and play a bigger role in generational issues. The aren’t necessarily the oldest, but the ones with the strongest echo of the family pattern will become more involved with the family’s intergenerational issues one way or another. This is one reason it is useful to have charts for all family members in a generation, because sometimes only one or two will display the family’s big aspect strongly, while the others will have a weaker signature.
This is correlation, not causation– I’m not saying people are enmeshed in family patterns because of aspects in their charts, only that there is an observable connection between those two things. The aspect indicates the tendency. You still have free will, and can create new patterns through your own efforts!
Going forward
Your own children, or nieces and nephews, will have aspects that reflect their parents as well. The charts of children are about potential, not the developed personalities of adults, so it is important not to limit kids by their family aspects. It is interesting and helpful, though, to see what is significant enough to be passed on, and to continue working on them in your own way.
For example, my family has a strong Plutonian thread and my young niece is no exception. While I cannot know the particular way hers will express itself, and there is no reason to fill my sister’s mind with doom-and-gloom prattle, I can make an effort to be a good role model of the higher expressions of Plutonian energy (healing, insight, willingness to change).
Unto the seventy-seventh generation
There is definitely a thread of family karma that can be traced through astrological family trees… sometimes it’s fairly clear what that is, and sometimes it takes a lot more detective work and picking at things until the true nature of it comes through.
Looking for karmic signatures in charts is one of the most interesting and descriptive ways to do generational work in astrology, because the undercurrents of emotional debt, family atmosphere, and obligation are invariably tied to that root issue. Families that are able to heal the troubled aspect in some way will experience a major shift in the way they relate to each other, instead of staying trapped in the same generational patterns and repeating them over again.
This relates to blended families too. Step-families and adopted family members that play a major karmic role for each other will be reflected in family aspects as well.
Clues along the trail
Some aspects that are commonly interlaced between family members:
- A prominent sign or house (lots of Leo/5th house)
- The total or near-total absence of certain signs
- Interlaced signs, rulers, or elements (dad has a lot of Aries, child has a strong Mars or fire element)
- Rising signs that echo a parent’s sun sign or stellium
- Rising planets that echo a parent (mom has a lot of Aquarius, child has Uranus rising)
- Shared chart aspects (sun conjunct Venus, moon in aspect to Pluto, moon on the ascendant, etc.)
- Related aspects (mom has Mars conjunct Mercury, child has Mars trine Mercury)
- Shared retrograde patterns (parents and children have the same planet rx, or have several planets rx in general)
- Shared or opposite lunar nodes (family lineage karma)
- Planets conjunct or aspecting lunar nodes (karma between family members)
No family has all these things, but some will be significant factors.
A quick example
I’ve worked with four generations of charts in my own family, and a few things stand out at different levels.
- the chart traits that relate to my parents specifically
- the “family karma” that stretches back further
My parents both have moon/Saturn conjunctions. My mother has strong Virgo with Mercury rising and a 2nd house Libra/Scorpio stellium; my father has sun conjunct Pluto in Leo, a strong Mars, and Mercury tucked into the moon/Saturn.
Throw all that into the cosmic blender…
Meet the parents
I have Leo rising with a strong Mars (hi dad!), and sun conjunct Pluto in Libra (paternal family aspect, with mom’s Libra). My moon is in the 10th house, which relates to Saturn (I “escaped” the moon/Saturn but the house acts as sort of a hangover effect of that). I have a strong Mercury on an angle (hi mom), opposite my moon (more dad) and conjunct Pluto (mom’s a Virgo with Scorpio moon/Saturn).
So I’ve ended up with my own remix of my parents’ major astrological traits, plus others of my own. I have a big 3rd house stellium, which relates to Gemini, siblings, and shorter travels, and neither of my parents have indications for that.
Climbing the tree
The big threads on my mom’s side are moon/Mercury/Saturn/Pluto entanglements; mainly Virgo, Libra, and Scorpio planets, weak or debilitated Mars, strong earth and water signatures, and Cancer-Capricorn lunar nodes. Moon conjunct Saturn in Scorpio is a hereditary trait in my family! We’re intense.
Counting my niece, we have four generations of Pluto tied to Cancer-Capricorn nodes, which reverse each generation. Heavy family karma there, which is its own post. It’s interesting that I have maternal family karma baked into my chart, but inherited reverse aspects (moon in Taurus instead of Scorpio… no one has Taurus in my family) and things from my dad’s side that neutralize a lot of the weaknesses (lack of fire and Mars energy).
Playing detective
Even if you only have birth dates for your parents, it’s very enlightening to compare your birth chart to theirs. You can get a free copy of your chart here. Astrological family trees, like any kind of genealogical research, are a long-term project, so don’t be discouraged if patterns don’t emerge clearly at first.
Are there certain aspects, even minor ones, that run in your family? Do you sense a strong common thread that you haven’t uncovered yet?
I loved this! Me, my mom, and oldest sister all have Capricorn Mars. My middle sister and middle niece have Sagittarius Mars. My Oldest sister and her husband are both Sag’s and their daughter is a lunar Sag. She and my sister both have Scorpio rising. I could go on and on, but I won’t hehe.
Wow, that’s pretty neat. Mars is exalted in Capricorn too, so it can be extra effective once you learn to use it. Plus everyone forgets that Mars co-rules Scorpio… that’s quite an intertwining. And Sag Mars for levity
Do you have other family traits that emphasize the Mars piece? Or does it seem to counterbalance something else?
Twitter: clover
Shannon, I think about this a lot. My mom, sister and I share Mars Pluto aspects. Mom has the conjunction, sis has the square and I have the trine. I got the fire in my chart from my mom’s side.
My dad gave me a Sun Pluto contact, and remnants of the heavy Virgo Capricorn stuff that he and his sister carry and his mom carried. All I got was Jupiter in Cap and a 6th house stellium though.
As for the two of them, they don’t make sense to me as a couple at all. Except that dad lacks fire and mom lacks earth. It drew them to each other, but it didn’t work in the long run.
Twitter: mollysastrology
Isn’t that strange? I think the elemental thing is enough for a little while, but synastry is a strange beast over the long term.
I don’t know if Pluto aspects are more readily passed on than others, or if they just stand out to us more because they tend to be the more dramatic family patterns. I never tire of hearing about them though- interesting that you each got a different flavor, too.
Twitter: clover
This concept is really interesting~ A few years ago, I noticed that everyone in my family has Pluto aspecting personal planets, and my mom, brother, grandmother and I have stressful Moon-Pluto. Frankly, I’m determined to transform this energy. It’s not healthy and shouldn’t be passed on. There’s a long line of women unable to speak their truths in my family that’s quite tragic. There is also a configuration, essentially a family square, of late-degree cardinal placements. My mother, dad and I slot into this family square- Mom has a cardinal T-square with Sun/Moon/Pluto, and a Saturn in Aries that is just out of range. It’s a lot of uncomfortable energy. My sun/venus lines up exactly on hers. So I get the pressure of my own Sun/Venus square Saturn, AND HERS, and also both my mom and Dad’s Plutos in Cancer/Leo cusp, in a Venus sandwich. Dad’s a Libra, so he drops right into this formation, too.
Weirder, though, is that my sister married a guy that my brother and I didn’t really care for, but whom my parents think is heaven-sent. His planets slot right into the family square; it’s uncanny. I guess it was “Meant to be.” My poor brother- I think the brother-in-law might be the son they always wanted. Go figure! ~Kerrie
I feel the same way about the moon/Pluto lines in my family. I’m going to write a longer post about moon/Pluto family dynamics (Judy Hall refers to this as the Hades moon; I’ve picked that up but I don’t like to overuse it and have it be misunderstood). Moon/Pluto situations are one of those aspects that are hard to comprehend if you aren’t part of them, and hard to escape if you are.
How funny that your brother-in-law fits into it in his own way, too.
Twitter: clover
Very interesting.
In sidereal…My mom has a Gemini Moon 12’33… I have Gemini Rising 4’40
She has an Aquarius rising….I have an Aquarius MC
Her descendant is in Leo ….my IC is in Leo
Her 7th house has 3 planets incl.her sun…my 5th house has 4 planets incl my sun
Her Venus in Leo is conjunct her descendant 6th house…my Venus in Sagittarius is conjunct my descendant,but in 7th
We have sun conj mercury, sun square saturn,moon square mercury,She has Moon sextile Venus I have Moon trine Venus,She has Moon semisextile Uranus I have Moon sextile Uranus, Moon square Neptune,She has Moon Semisextile Pluto I have Moon decile Pluto, both have Moon-Ascendant aspects, Mercury semisextile Venus,we have mercury-saturn;mercury-jupiter;Mercury-Pluto aspects,We both have Venus-Mars;Venus opposite Ascendant, we both have mars-jupiter;mars-pluto;mars-asc;mars-mc aspects, we both have Jupiter-Neptune;Jupiter-Pluto;Jupiter-MC aspects,She has saturn square Neptune and I have saturn trine neptune, we both have saturn-MC aspects, we both have Uranus-Neptune aspects,we both have uranus-Pluto aspects,she has uranus square ascendant and I have uranus trine ascendant
I think that’s about it…whew!
That’s a pair of pretty intense charts, too
I think inherited aspects that involve angles are fascinating, because the angle positions change fairly quickly over the course of a day. Seems particularly meaningful if those fleeting aspects, like lunar ones, are captured and passed on in a family.
Twitter: clover
I agree,with having the angles in common, it’s kind of spooky, huh?:-D
One of older sister’s has a gemini moon like my mom and she has libra rising like my Libra sun.
My oldest sister has a sagittarius sun 0 degrees like my descendant is in Sagittarius. She also has an Aquarius moon like my MC and my mom’s rising sign.
Sorry if my words are jumbled, I’m sort of out of it today.:-)
This is really cool. My sister has been telling me that she feels all this. One thing I wonder about is that I’m the first born and was born on the same day as my dad. Will that bring me more of the generational stuff?
Thank you for this post, Shannon. There are generational Moon/Pluto aspects and/or Moons in Scorpio on my mother’s side and I would definitely love to see what you have to say about those. I think our family is finally learning what that aspect has to teach us, but it’s been difficult. My niece’s birth (she’s carrying it on with a Moon conj. Pluto) has been healing for our family, and I feel heartened a little seeing that her Moon is involved in a grande earth trine that I hope will make Pluto’s influence a little easier to handle for her. I can relate to your worries about your own niece, though. When I first saw Moon conj. Pluto in her chart my own heart sank. Moon square Pluto has been very rough for me. My mother had a trine between the two and was extremely bi-polar. My twin aunts (one of whom raised me after my mother’s death when I was 11) had Moon in Scorpio with Pluto in square as well. My sister and grandmother have Moon in Scorpio with luckily no Pluto aspects. My Papaw had a trine from Moon to Pluto. Not an easy energy, Moon/Pluto. I do really think we’re figuring this karma out though… the last couple years especially
Also a LOT of Sun-Sagittarians! Plus Sagittarian-Sun anniversaries.
The above I knew already, but I looked further after reading this article and was surprised to find a lot of Venus/Uranus aspects. I had assumed it woulda been just me?
Also generational NN/SN Aquarius/Leo that switches generationally (as you said it often does). My mamaw and papaw had NN Aquarius, I have NN Leo, and my niece has NN Aquarius.
I don’t know my Mamaw’s (that’s eastern Kentuckian for grandmother) birthtime, so I don’t know exactly how much we share, but I was extremely close to her and am extremely close to my niece as well. My niece was born just months before my grandmother passed. It’s interesting now to see that my niece and I have our ascendants in opposition to each other with our suns in opposition as well (both of us with sun in the 10th house).
My mother and sister also have switching nodes on the Aries/Libra axis.