Specialized Inquiries: Friends, Casual Relationships

[Jim Eshelman]

GENERAL INTRODUCTION: Sidereal astrologers have rarely written at length about how to judge specific areas of life about which people may have recurring questions. Tropical astrologers dwell on this extensively, surely fortified by the idea (that may or may not be true) that different areas of life are "governed" by different houses.

Speaking for myself, I've not written about such topics extensively because my primary interest is exposing character and its unfolding. I disagree with the house-driven premise that we are drastically different in how we handle different parts of our lives. Instead, I find that, "How you are in one part of your life, so are you in all the parts of your life" - your inherent self ultimately shines through one way or the other. Therefore, my basic answer to any question of "How does this person act in the X part of his or her life?" or "Over the course of life, what is likely to happen to this person?" will always be: "Understand who this person is: That will tell you what you want to know."

Nonetheless, we do have ways of placing a magnifying glass over one or another area of life; we just haven't sharpened these tools. I propose to start a series of threads on different life areas. For each, I will post this introduction; then reserve the first reply space for me to post my primary answer (as I get around to it). The rest of the thread is wide open to discussion and contribution. (Over time, I will edit my premise-post with the idea of turning it into an instruction in the topic, fed by the discussion. You don't have to wait for my premise-post to post on the topic.)

Some will be tempted, based on the nature of these topics, to jump into the houses as a quick answer. As the thread is open to discussion, that's fine; but, as usual, my own opinion is that we should stick with techniques that we have proof work, which at this stage in astrology's unfolding would minimize or exclude the use of houses.

Everyone feel free to jump in!

[Jim Eshelman]

In assessing one's overall relationships with friends, one should, of course, assess all the main elements of the chart to get a general idea of the character and how one interacts with others in general. (I say this about each of these categories, of course.)

Beyond that (and within that general life-pattern), the first consideration is the strength and configuration of the benefics. To a great extent, whether one is viewed as primarily cooperative and connecting vs. competitive and conflictual is the relative balance and configuration of Venus vs. Mars. More generally, though, Venus and Jupiter people tend to be liked and socially included. (Venus is more "friends," Jupiter is more "the social group and larger society," but in practice they both seem pretty similar.) One can add Moon in a limited way since Moon is empathic, but a strong afflicted Moon doesn't usually connect as smoothly to others: Moon's aspects work mostly the same as if the aspecting planet were angular.

In contrast to the benefics, Mars and Saturn people are liked less by society at large, Saturn and Pluto people tend to withdraw or hold themselves back from others, etc.

The wider picture is that whatever planetary energies are strongest in the chart (by angularity or luminary aspect or dignity) will describe how one is in the world and, therefore, the type of friendships one will usually have. For example, Mars types are most comfortable with other openly masculine types such as 'jock' types. (You can generalize from there.) And, of course, not all personality types like to socialize, so keep an eye on background benefics and strong Pluto or maybe Saturn.