A very frequent question!
My Answer:
During nearly twenty years of teaching astrology classes, I found that the above questions came up very frequently.
It is important at this point to emphasise to readers who are familiar only with Sun Signs that to get ‘beyond the Sun Signs’ requires an individual’s horoscope to be drawn up for the date, place AND time of birth. Human beings are complex and contradictory. It’s not possible to approach any satisfying symbolic exploration of that complexity through the Sun or Star Sign alone.
A number of years ago, I decided to address the typical questions students asked about twins via one of the tutorial classes I ran for my more advanced students, all of whom had a good grasp of the basics of astrology, and some of whom were already practitioners in their own right.
One student – let’s call her Anna – was the devoted aunt to a set of twins in their mid teens, a boy and a girl – let’s call them Angus and Miriam. These two had been born less than fifteen minutes apart and had almost identical horoscopes.
I had formulated a theory about twins and astrology which I wanted to test out, so I obtained permission via Anna from Angus and Miriam’ s parents as well as the twins themselves, to calculate their horoscopes and discuss them anonymously in class.
My method was to put up on the board only one horoscope since there was so little difference between the twins’ horoscopes, and ask the students to take an hour to prepare along with me a basic outline of the key characteristics revealed by this one horoscope. We did the preparation as though we were preparing a birth chart for just one person.
The class knew nothing about either of the twins, and I asked Anna to observe us, but not to make any comments at all.
Once we had written up the outline, we spent the next hour discussing our findings with Anna, who knew her nephew and niece well.
I am writing this after a gap of about twenty years and no longer have the notes for detailed reference, so can only give a summary of the essence of what emerged from our discussion.
Anna found our summary from the one horoscope of the basic characteristics of both her nephew and niece to be very accurate. What was very clear was that certain traits were held in common, but that the rest were, as it were, divided up between the twins. To put it very simply, looking at a range of traits: 1,2,3 and 4 were recognisable in both; Miriam manifested traits 5,6 and 10 whilst Angus lived out traits 7, 8 and 9.
This very interesting and enlightening experiment does not of course constitute any kind of proof: but it bore out my impressions from reading about the similarities and differences in the lives of twins about whom I had read, as well as my own observations of twins I had come across from my own experience, as well as the few horoscope readings I had done for individuals who were twins.
What was this impression? Coming back to the analogy of the horoscope revealing the characters poised on life’s stage, waiting for the moment of birth to kick start the action of the play, it seemed that twins unconsciously chose which characters on their joint stage they were going to live out jointly – and the ones which they were going to live out separately.
The experiment which I did all those years ago with my students, Anna and her nephew and niece certainly bore out my theory….
After writing this piece I googled ‘astrology and twins’ to see what came up, and was pleased to find on my favourite astrology site, Astrodienst, that other astrologers including Dr Liz Greene had come to much the same conclusion.
As far as two people born at the same time in the same place is concerned, yes, they would in effect have the same horoscopes. You would certainly see considerable similarities if you studied both their lives over time. But each character on the stage at a given moment in time has a range of possible modes of expression. Thus the influence of different family circumstances and different opportunities, etc, would call forth a range of possible responses from the same basic character.
To read much more on this topic, do go over to the late master astrologer Donna Cunningham’s excellent blog Sky Writer, where she has an excellent piece on the astrology of twins.
Then come back and let me know what YOU think!
800 words copyright Anne Whitaker 2019
Licensed under Creative Commons – for conditions see About Page
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13.9.19:
Paula J Butler:
Good luck with it all.
Many thanks, Paula!
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13.9.19:
Leslie Hoffman:
Fascinating twin chart theory. Happy publishing!
Leslie, many thanks for your good wishes. Think I might publish the one about astrological twins next…
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13.9.19:
Itiina Stewart Murray:
Very interesting. I have one experience of a ‘twins chart’. In short the 10 minutes birth-time difference changed the MC from Leo for one and Virgo for the other. Virgo MC twin is a nurse and the Leo MC twin a self-employed businesswoman, very different natures. Other experience is my birthday twin, known from school, who is around 2 hours younger than me. Lost touch for 10/12 years after school then I was moving house, went to view a house for sale, it was her house. Discovered we both had baby girls 2 months earlier, born on the same day of the same year, hours apart. Didn’t buy her house, bought another one and lost touch again. Then 11/12 years later when I sold that house, it was the partner/girlfriend of my birthday twin’s now ex husband that bought my house! Weird or what?
I love this, Itiina – great illustration of the mysterious interconnectedness of all things!
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13.9.19:
Sellieve Neptune:
in elementary school there was a boy born an hour or two after me, we didn’t see each other for a decade then ran into each other at traffic school when we were 19! we both have likely the most massive capricorn stellium you will ever see. i have it in the 12th and 1st house (capricorn rising), he would probably have it in the 11th and 12th house, or maybe just in the 11th. he has an aquarius rising and i remember him having a zany personality, whereas i was a very serious child. perhaps he’s more rebellious than me with our time difference. he had to go to traffic school because he had a DUI and i had a minor traffic offence.
Interesting feedback, thanks, Sellieve! I think I’ll post next on astrological twins, which you may find of interest.
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17.9.19:
Rebekah Hirsch:
When I was new to astrology, had just finished training, one of the first charts I ever did professionally was for a pair of male identical twins. They were born fairly close in time but I think it did make quite a difference, one of them had the Moon in the 1st House and one of them had the Moon in the 12th. However, everything else was the same – no other planet changed Houses. They had personality traits that were unnervingly similar but, like most twins, there were qualities that they had kind of divided up between them, one of them dominant and outgoing and the other more nervous and retiring. What really helped me to make sense of the dilemma was one of the most important things ever said to me by my beloved teacher Howard Sasportas – “A horoscope is just a snapshot of a moment in time. There is nothing in the chart that says exactly who or what the chart belongs to. So it can be the chart of a human being but it could also be the chart of a chicken or a factory etc.etc. The one thing that is NOT in the chart is the soul or the Self (in Jungian terms) that is coming through this chart.” That was 30 years ago so I have probably paraphrased some of it but it is one of the basic tenets of my approach to astrology. It explains why people express difficult placements in very different ways – some going for the enlightened end of the spectrum and some going for the really heavy difficult stuff.
Many thanks for this most helpful and enlightening addition to the discussion, Rebekah. The subject of twins always comes up for students early on in their studies, and it is important for us to have a view which can help people to understand that most important point which Howard expressed so well: namely the fluid nature of the archetypes which are represented in a birth chart, and the many branches of expression which can arise from each one or each combination. Not everything is fated…
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17.9.19:
Jessica Anne:
I have identical twin girls born just one minute apart. Their charts are identical even down to the dwads. I have said for a few years now (as they’re only 12) that they split the chart. I’ve actually sat and studied aspects to the planets and whatnot and can pinpoint which child “owns” which part of the chart. It’s quite interesting. Glad I am not the only one who believes this theory holds truth.
Thanks, Jessica! I’m glad that what I found in my research – and the work of other astrologers tackling this challenging topic – supports your conclusions.