ask jeanna: on romantic compatibility, birth chart interpretation, & book reviews
stick around for spicy hot takes
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It is our second edition of Ask Jeanna, where paid subscribers in the Discord get to ask questions for me to answer publicly in the newsletter. There were so many to choose from, but because I tend to run long (Midwestern, Mercury in Sagittarius, hi hello), I am keeping it to three questions per issue at the present moment!
Today, we are discussing compatibility in astrology and if that’s a thing you should care about (with Valentine’s Day around the corner, this question seemed especially timely). And also: if there is an order of operations to birth chart interpretation when I work with clients (a doozy of a question); and, last but not least, on the publishing side of things, if it’s gauche for authors to write critical reviews of their fellow authors.
Let’s go!
What's your general advice, or some guidelines to follow, when seeking astrological compatibility in a partnership — romantic or professional! Maybe "compatibility" is a loaded word, but what framework do you follow when approaching synastry?
My honest to god answer is that I don’t advise deliberately seeking or prioritizing astrological compatibility in relationships.
In part, I have arrived at this opinion after writing extensively about astrological compatibility — something that I have come to believe really only exists in the realm of theory. The idea that “compatibility” between two people’s birth charts can be judged and weighed prior to a relationship’s lift-off is a theoretical exercise that quickly falls apart in practice when applied to living, breathing human beings. A birth chart is only a snapshot of potential: one that is inevitably informed and shaped by someone’s epigenetics, environment and culture, positionality, life experience, and so much more.
At the end of the day, compatibility is compatibility. Maturity is maturity. Above all: someone’s willingness to be vulnerable, to learn how to communicate, to apologize and to learn and to grow in partnership: that is either there, or it straight up isn’t. And a birth chart, frankly, can’t capture that. You’ve got to experience someone in real time to learn them. That’s just being human, baby.
Astrology can’t help you hack your way out of the demanding work of intimacy.