If Our Birth Charts Say So Much About Us, Why Am I So Different From My Twin?
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When I first read my birth chart at age 13, I was disappointed to see that my Sun (Capricorn), Moon (Virgo) and Rising (Libra) signs matched my fraternal twin’s exactly. How could my chart provide unique information about me when it looked just like hers?
It turns out our planetary zodiac signs are the same. But the stars shifted enough during the 24 minutes between the time my sister and I were born to alter the planets' placements among the astrological houses, which divide the birth chart into 12 sections. Each house represents two hours of the 24-hour cycle and provides insight on a facet of identity: self, value, communication, home, pleasure, health, balance, transformation, purpose, enterprise, friendship and subconscious.
“The planets are the actors in our chart, and they each have a function to express,” says Celeste Brooks, who runs Astrology By Celeste and offers chart readings, classes and coaching. “The signs they're in are like the costumes they wear—how they express that function, and there are 12 different areas of life, the houses. They speak to where the action takes place.”
My Capricorn Sun is in the 3rd house of communication. My sister’s Capricorn Sun is in the 4th house of home. I study journalism, and she majors in human development. For us and for many twins, tiny shifts in celestial bodies’ positions can help explain major life differences.
Since multiples’ birth times often vary by mere minutes, faster-changing placements hold the most power to distinguish charts. The Rising sign changes by a degree every four minutes and by a zodiac sign every two hours (compare this to Moon signs, which shift every two and a half days, and the Sun, which stays in the same sign for four weeks). The placement of the Rising sign marks the cusp of the 1st house, and the other houses fan out in 30-degree increments, so even the smallest difference in degree can drastically change which part of life a planetary placement describes. For example, if your Jupiter is in Leo and resides in the 10th house, it indicates success driven by personal goals, but in the 11th house, it's linked to flourishing by way of social status and friendships.
Tali Edut and her identical twin Ophira Edut, astrologers and authors known as the AstroTwins, share a Capricorn Rising sign, but Tali’s is at nine degrees and Ophira’s is at ten. Tali Edut says she brings in numerology to parse angular differences.
“She's much more likely to go forward and initiate business connections,” Tali Edut says. “She loves to network, and my nine-degree Capricorn Rising tends to be a little more on the creative side—brand building, more observational.”
Signs and houses aside, a lot is up to interpretation, too. While many twins have almost identical birth charts, Tali Edut says, that’s where nature versus cosmic nurture comes in. “It really depends on what situation you find yourself in,” she says. “Twins may find themselves in two totally different relationships—that's happened to me and my sister before. One of us is going out with a great guy. The other one is working through some drama with someone, and we'll see different parts of our chart get activated.”
What’s more, birth chart analysis offers a wealth of information, ranging from timing career moves to approaching romance. Twins often seek different directions, so Tali Edut says she tailors birth chart readings to each sibling’s wants. "I'll talk to the twins together about each of the planets in their chart, but invariably, when it's time to actually give them the reading, they're going to show up with different things that they're each wondering about," she says. "Twins are separate autonomous beings who just happen to have a lot of similarities." As Brooks explains, an inner desire to individuate can also push twins toward different qualities.
Even so, some experts use different zodiacs to create completely separate charts for each twin. María Blaquier, an astrologer, author, and lecturer who has studied the horoscopes of twins for over 20 years, says she’s found the best results by using the tropical birth chart system for one twin and the draconic birth chart system for the other. (To get technical, topical astrology birth charts start at zero degrees of Aries, while the draconic zodiac originates at the North Node.)
Blaquier uses timing techniques to determine which chart best represents major events in each twin’s life. "One is inclined towards the solar—our psychological traits," she explains. "The other one has to do with our lunar traits. It's more about emotions and past experiences and how we feel deep inside, behind the scenes, but we do not always show openly."
While the tropical chart always works, Blaquier says, the draconic chart more precisely fits one twin’s life experiences. She uses methods like transits, progressions, and solar returns on the draconic chart to time events for the twin whose experiences aren’t encapsulated by the tropical chart.
Solar arc progressions also fluctuate with any variance in birth time—and the difference increases over twins’ lifetimes. Used to predict upcoming life events, the solar arc chart is created by turning the natal chart by one degree for each year. "The aspects are the same, but when planets from the solar arc chart, which is theoretical, aspect the natal chart, this is when big things pop into our lives," Brooks says. "With twins, they can have similar events, but years apart if they're born a significant amount of time apart. Some of their placements with this technique will get wider and wider as they get older."
And, of course, personal differences can always cause destinies to diverge. Twins lead different lives despite sharing similar birth times. "We will always have this cosmic wiring and for twins, it is really identical," Tali Edut says. "However, we are human beings with free will. We're always co-creating with the universe. The astrology chart is not this sentence, it's not this fate."
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