Marriage between a man and woman has been around for a very long time. Its primary purpose is to establish a family but now, in the somewhat weird Aquarian Age, Marriage.com will tell you that there are at least 25 different types of marriage.
There’s the traditional church marriage that’s falling in popularity due to people being raised without religion, the common-law marriage, the companion-based marriage, the living apart marriage, the parenting marriage, the financial marriage, the arranged marriage, the monogamous marriage, the polygamous marriage, the interfaith marriage, the shotgun marriage, the left-hand marriage, the same-sex marriage, the secret marriage, the zombie marriage and others. The happy marriage and the unhappy marriage don’t get a mention. The most popular are the traditional marriage and common-law marriage.
While some people have no interest or desire to marry most do take the plunge and make this major life-changing decision. What they don’t know is that marriage is the most complex of partnerships.
No matter its unique ID tag marriage is ruled by house 7 and in your birth chart the planet-sign format of house 7 maps a thought-cell pattern that was organized by your soul’s partnership experiences in lower forms of life.
Practically all creatures in the evolutionary scale more complex than those which reproduce merely through simple cell division, at times seek a temporary or more permanent association with the opposite sex. The methods by which fertilization is accomplished are widely varied.
They may be a remote association, as when pollen is carried by the wind or insect from the male to the female blossom, or as when certain male fish pass over the beds of eggs previously deposited by the female and cloud the water with the impregnating milt.
On the other hand, they may be accompanied by a close companionship during a portion of the year in which, as is common with birds and many mammals, both male and female work in close cooperation and make great sacrifices, each for the other, in the interest of the offspring.
And some creatures, such as the eagle, some ants, the lion, the ostrich and the beaver, mate for life. And all such experiences with partnerships in its evolutionary past have built thought-cells into your soul which are mapped in your birth chart by house 7.
These house 7 thought-cells work for and desire marriage and it’s a complex partnership that’s associated with other departments of life.
This was observed by the first astrologers who associated marriage with Libra and house 7.
Their sky-art pictures the Scales to represent Libra, the sign having the strongest affinity with house 7, and a marriage-partnership, like the scales, is a constant balancing of forces.
In addition to weighing up and balancing options in order to maintain harmony and equilibrium, the Scales and its two dishes present an image of two distinct souls united by a common purpose; each dangling free to move in its own orbit, yet united by a beam to which both are attached.
In marriage the character, abilities, desires and accumulated experiences of one partner are balanced against the character, abilities, desires and accumulated experiences of the other.
The ancients looked upon marriage as one of life’s noblest opportunities. It was a mental, spiritual and physical relationship that could be used to elevate the lives of both partners. It was an opportunity to build character and to bring into the world, through its proper duties, a higher type of offspring. It could, through cooperative effort, realize the greatest happiness.
You should know and understand the various factors that are generally considered to contribute to or detract from marital success, but your birth chart provides valuable information pertaining to your marriage prospects and opportunities to marry. So, let’s consider the detail.
House 7, the opposite sex planet and Venus
The zodiac signs map the various zones of your astral body where the thought-cells of consciousness reside; and there’s a unique relationship between the signs and the departments of life mapped by the houses.
The planets in or associated with house 7 in your chart map states of consciousness, organized as thought-cells, that desire and work for marriage. Its position on your chart’s house power summary reveals the relative importance of partnership/marriage as a life experience and its harmony or discord score reveals its fortune or misfortune potential.
However, there are several birth chart factors to consider when determining the amount of success you may expect in marriage and the type of partners you’re inclined to attract.
The first is house 7. A planet in or associated with house 7 places its signature on your marriage-partnership life experience. It indicates a type of partner you can attract and its harmony or discord indicates if their influence inclines to be fortunate or unfortunate.
Then consider the influence of the opposite sex planet: The Sun if you’re a woman and the Moon if you’re a man. Sun discord inclines towards difficulties when associated with men; and Moon discord inclines towards difficulties when associated with women. In both instances high-level discord ups the seriousness of the difficulty and strain.
And finally consider the harmony or discord of Venus and house 5 as indicating your potential to experience fortune where the affections in general are concerned, and with love affairs in particular.
It also pays to know the influence of children (house 5) as a life experience, for they are the natural outcome of marriage. Check the power, harmony or discord of house 5 on your chart’s house power summary and assess the planets in or associated with house 5 and their power, harmony or discord scores.
If nature takes its course progressed aspects to Venus and house 5 will stimulate your thought-cells to attract events involving affection and love affairs (and maybe marriage) but your birth chart is inviting you to assess your marriage prospects and to select your best type of marriage partner.
Marriage is a physical, mental and spiritual relationship
Marriage is primarily a physical union. It’s a physical attraction that involves the interchange of subtle energies between two people. Partners can be of the opposite or same sex but if their marriage is to survive the initial attraction, feeling of pleasure in each other’s company and sex phase they’ll need to have similar magnetic temperaments.
Your personal magnetism is not a simple force. It’s revealed by your dominant planet and the signs occupied by the Sun, Moon and ascendant in your birth chart. And you’ll only be physically compatible with a person who has a similar personal magnetism. Electromagnetic forces aka polarities that are too divergent jar apart and recoil from each other. They won’t fuse.
Fiery planets (Sun and Mars) and airy planets (Mercury and Uranus) do not blend well with earthy planets (Saturn) or watery planets (Moon, Venus and Neptune) and fiery and airy signs do not blend well with earthy or watery signs.
The magnetism of the fire signs blends well with fire signs and air signs; and the magnetism of earth signs feels comfortable with earth and water signs; but fire and air signs irritate the earth and water signs and vice versa due to their different temperaments.
Your personal magnetism, as indicated by your dominant planet and Sun, Moon and ascendant signs, will be a blend of planet-sign qualities and you’ll only feel comfortable with a person who has a similar magnetic quality.
If you and your partner have compatible personal magnetisms you’ll have similar attitudes, interests and goals; but incompatible magnetisms incline towards psychic irritation which can result in bickering, criticism, oppositional behavior and marriage problems.
Marriage is also a mental partnership so you and your partner should have kindred mental interests of some importance. A common interest in the home and family, sport, travel, literature, art or growing flowers has you chatting and exchanging thoughts.
Common interests are essential in the later life when the passions have cooled and many of the problems of daily life have been solved. Your home-life will be pleasant and enjoyable when you and your partner have joint interests to discuss or projects to work towards.
And marriage is also a spiritual relationship involving similar religious views and spiritual ideals. And tolerance and sympathetic understanding may not be enough to keep you and your partner together if your spiritual paths diverge and become incompatible.
Physical, mental and spiritual compatibility aka mutual understanding and shared goals inclines towards partners growing together and optimizing their mental and emotional development.
Marriage and you
Marriage isn’t for everyone. Some people with a high discord house 7 may never marry, being constantly confronted with difficulties and obstacles that frustrate their efforts. Others do marry, but the discord works out as marital problems and relationship difficulties.
Jupiter in house 7 inclines towards more than one marriage. Saturn is conservative and traditional and Uranus, Neptune and Pluto have a peculiar influence over marriage. Uranus in particular has a disruptive influence. In some instances when harmonious these planets bring the highest type of marriage, but there is usually some unusual circumstance associated with the partnership.
A progressed aspect to Venus can have you thinking about love and affection and a Venus-Mars progressions can really turn you on and get you excited but astro-research found that to marry you’ll have to have a progressed aspect to house 7 stimulating your marriage thought-cells.
This stimulation can be harmonious to discordant, but a discordant progression tends to attract an incompatible partner and an unfortunate marriage; (and a discordant progression involving Venus tends to attract unfortunate events involving your affections.)
That said the facts are: (1) people marry when there’s a harmonious or discordant progression to house 7; (2) a discordant progression tends to attract a marriage that ends in divorce; and (3) remarrying when there’s a harmonious house 7 progression attracts a fortunate second marriage.
Love may not be your dominant motive when it comes to marriage but it is the alchemical agent which will bind you and your partner together. Pure, unselfish love will strengthen the union and enhance your chances of success.
Love not only furnishes compassion, affection and refinement it also gives a joyful, pleasing influence to every phase of your life. When it is absent your marital relations will only last as long as the attraction and interests which originally brought you together.
Your success in marriage is intimately linked to the quality of your house 7 thought-cell desires and discordant desire that inclines towards marriage problems can be corrected by applying mental antidotes to the offending thoughts and attitudes.
A marriage doesn’t run itself. It takes thoughtful consideration and effort. It’s a balancing act between you and your partner and so long as the pans of Libra’s scales are kept fairly even your marriage will deal with the conditions of your daily life effectively and successfully.
But when your interests become too divergent or when love has been dragged down or permitted to languish, then the Scales are those of a court of law, where the ties that bind are severed permanently. Instead of balance there’s separation and divorce, that old implement of crucifixion, the cross of Libra.
Elbert Benjamine’s words are scattered throughout this article.
Astrology for Aquarius – sharing our knowledge
