Sample Relationship Reading
for the (now divorced) Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman
(SHORT interpretation-Yours will be much longer!)

Tom Cruise-born July 3, 1962, Syracuse, NY
Nicole Kidman-born June 21, 1967, Honolulu, Hawaii

THE SUN
The composite Sun, like the Sun in a natal chart, is the heart of the relationship and its primary drive and focus. The sign in which it falls will color the entire relationship, as many of the important events in the relationship will occur when transiting bodies are in this sign. If it is strong in its house position and supported by good aspects from other bodies, the relationship will have a solid center and will tend to sustain itself despite the buffets of adversity. If it is poorly aspected or in a difficult house position, the relationship will be easily damaged and difficult to repair as the natural cyclical transits will tend to reinforce negative qualities of the relationship rather than positive. The Sun's primary quality is restorative drive, the general impetus toward life and its sustenance, rather than any specific traits or areas of endeavor such as are represented by the planets. Therefore its placement will tell the overall thrust and style of the relationship and how well it bears up under fire, rather than give the details of just how it will do so. A badly placed Sun can mean a relationship that is almost certain to fail, because wounds to the partnership won't heal themselves. A very well-placed Sun can mean a relationship that sustains and resuscitates itself so well that it may even be difficult to get out of should either partner choose to do so (as might be the case if the planetary aspects were very difficult or if the two natal charts themselves were in great conflict). It is the driving engine of the relationship and everything else orbits around it and derives life from its energy.

SUN in CAPRICORN
A penchant for the practical makes this relationship a good one for getting business done by cutting away the chaff to see the grain. The key word here is limits - the ability to know where one thing ends and the next begins. The only thing you need to avoid is limiting your own potential to within the borders you envision at the moment. Once you believe you have done all you can, or should, take that opportunity to begin something new rather than resting on your laurels and repeating what you already know. In this way, your life becomes a series of complete, self-contained adventures, otherwise it might just stagnate. Resist the temptation to eschew the frivolous because it is unnecessary and feel free to waste a little time just having fun, which can be an enterprise in itself. You also have the opportunity to use your joint talents helping others to ground themselves and get a better focus on their affairs, if only through imitation of what you so naturally achieve. The same goes for the effect of the relationship on each of you individually, which will be to tighten up each other's acts and help clarify otherwise ambiguous situations. Select your direction and define your goals.

SUN sextile SATURN
You have a special stabilizing factor here which keeps you on course when seas are rough and you have to push extra hard to get ahead. Some may call you reticent or even conservative because you hesitate to leap into the breach when the opportunity arises, but it is not out of fear but of disinclination. Your are content to wait until the right time, then move ahead with deliberation. This is something that comes naturally, however, and is not a matter of decision, so it is equally as difficult to control as if it were a more troublesome aspect, except that you are unaware of the fact since it serves your convenience and therefore doesn't draw attention to itself. It works like a speed governor and will slow you down in situations where daring is the order of the day, and you may not be aware of it until you come in behind the leader in a competitive situation. That's OK, just stay out of places that require high speed and quick turns to make yourselves a success. At the other end, don't take your stability for granted either, though it will initially serve you well. If you assume you have nothing to worry about, eventually you will, and fence mending and house repairing is of critical importance not in the short run but over the long haul. The essence of a good defense is flexibility, and the two together allow you to use your natural inclinations to their maximum effect.

THE COMPOSITE MERCURY
Mercury in the composite chart represents the mutual meeting of minds, or lack of it, between you. It also represents your ability to communicate to others as a couple or as individuals. In the first instance, in which the position symbolizes the shore between two intellects, it will be important to know what kind of communication goes on: by style, substance, and action (sign, house, and aspect). A well-placed Mercury will mean that you can put clearly into words what you mean to say to each other, and such a position can be of great help in alleviating emotional problems that may not easily come to the surface. If you can both say how you feel, you've gone a long way towards being able to change. On the other hand, a badly placed Mercury can have the opposite effect, stirring up emotional problems where there were none by simply getting communications wires crossed. In a professional relationship this can mean all sorts of pointless starts and stops because of faulty information, particularly in an increasingly information-oriented society. The position of Mercury therefore becomes increasingly critical in relationships in general. Its placement also describes how you communicate as a duo with the public at large, so herein lies further opportunities for good or ill. Well-placed, it will mean that you may be able to get yourself across to the world at large through the relationship rather than on your own. Where there are difficulties here, it may be better to speak your own piece and not let the relationship represent you. Nevertheless, knowing the situation in advance can help enormously, as you won't have to learn the communications value of the relationship by trial and error or blame each other for problems that arise from what is essentially a third party with its own horoscope, the relationship itself. Rather, you can take advantage of the best that it offers and avoid what looks like trouble by one or both of you pulling back on your own to handle problems the relationship does not cope with well.

MERCURY in SAGITTARIUS
This relationship will never want for verbal expression; in fact, you may find that you have to edit yourselves in order to get to the point, since you have the inclination to go on indefinitely because there is always something more to say. This can be a tremendous advantage in communication with others and each other, because if you can't get the point across one way, another will immediately present itself, then another, and so on until you are properly understood. At this juncture, stop, for to continue will cause further confusion about the issue. But, then, you will always be guaranteed the last word! You will find all your approaches will be more on the general side with a broad and inclusive expanse, leaving the specifics to sort themselves out, which they won't do unless you assign them to someone. So make sure you do. That person might be either one of you individually or a third party; but when you get together, let it flow and you will be at your best and most inventive. Remember in the end that you will want to go back and decide which of the many paths you will both want to follow, or you will find yourselves going off in many directions without actually going anywhere. Variation, not brevity, is the soul of your wit, but establish a core of what you wish to communicate and elaborate around the edges of a focused interior. There your thoughts will blossom like a many petalled flower, with the seeds of the future well-lodged in its center.

MERCURY square MARS
This relationship can be verbally quite contentious and you may find yourselves getting into heated disputes over issues that are strictly mental and don't come from the heart at all. That won't prevent them from becoming emotional confrontations if you are not careful, as intellectual pride can very easily become mistaken for emotional honor. There are those who might say you will argue with a post, as you have an excess of energy that needs verbal outlet, which sometimes results in excessive discussion of subjects that can be disposed of with a few well-chosen words. Even when in a reasonably justified discussion, beware of circular reasoning where one concept leads to another and before you know it you are back where you began and wondering how you got there. The problem is, there is always one more thing to say, one more point to make, until you have worn out the subject and have lost perspective on it as well. The remedy is simply to refine your fire and say less that is more to the point. Omit needless words. Think out what you have to say before you say it. The extra time spent in aiming saves you a lot of wasted ammunition. Enjoyable as firing away may be to you, it may not be as enjoyable to others.

MERCURY square URANUS
Unusual ideas and opinions abound in your relationship, and the trouble will not be a lack of original views but sorting out which ones are useful and which are just gratuitously different. You can tend to get into a spiral that drives you from the new, to the strange, to well off the deep end. What you will need to do is choose a stopping place on the near side of practicality for your ideas and then cleave to it. The problem is, however, when inspiration strikes, who can deny it? It will be difficult to say no to what really looks like a good idea, but you will have to draw the line somewhere. Another manifestation of this aspect is simple argumentativeness - not in its purest form of argument for argument's sake, but honest dispute over what is the truth when in fact there is no reason to get into it so deeply. The fruitful approach to this is to know when to cut off discussion, to sense when you've got it honed down fine enough to be a reasonable facsimile of the truth. At first you may have to do that in a fairly arbitrary fashion, and you must be willing to accept your mistakes. In the long run, you will develop a precision that may astonish you, born primarily of your constant adjustments to reality judged between foresight and hindsight.

MERCURY square PLUTO
It can be very easy to allow purely intellectual issues to become a matter of serious confrontation between you, and where you seek dominance one over the other (or over your mutual surroundings) the mind will be the weapon of choice. The bottom line is that you are afraid you might be wrong. It is as simple as that. The effects may not be so simple, as personal concepts are often identified with the entire personality, so that simple crossed words can mean crossed hearts and bodies as well. It will be well to try to separate the matters of the mind and those of the heart, so if you must beat each other's brains out intellectually, you will know when to declare a truce and enjoy each other's company for a while at a more basic level. Much of the lesson here is to learn that what you think now is not what you will believe tomorrow and it is not worth going to the wall for something that won't outlive you. The bottom line of your life is not the child of your mind alone, but of a blend of mind, heart, and soul. To let the fears of one determine the fate of the others is a common mistake, but one against which you are hereby forewarned. Be subsequently forearmed, and when confrontation rears its head, chill out.

THE COMPOSITE VENUS
The planet Venus represents desire, attraction, what you physically and emotionally desire and as a composite position describes where your desires meet and either blend or conflict, or a bit of both. This is too often applied to love interests alone, although it covers them as well. It means everything you desire - money, position, beautiful things, property, friends, lovers, anything that you want and believe if you get it, will make you happy. It also has another side which is your ability to appear to provide just such fulfillment for others, thus symbolizing personal charm, beauty, attractiveness, wealth, and so on. It's the two-way wish fulfillment point where dreams are born. When this is viewed between two people as a composite point, it means how and whether you make each other's dreams, on a very basic level, come true. If badly placed, it can mean continual desire and constant disappointment. If strong by position, it will be a buttress to the relationship, as you know you will always get what you want when you come back to it. It is, of course, critical in telling how a sexual relationship will unfold and can spell repeated ecstasy or constant frustration, especially taken in tandem with composite Mars. It also represents how well the relationship as a whole will be able to realize its goals and desires, which will of course be directly connected with its ability to make itself desirable, both of which are described by this composite point. Thus, an afflicted composite Venus is a double indemnity, because it usually prevents either of you from getting what you want out of each other, and it means the relationship will not get what it wants, either. Conversely, a well-aspected composite Venus is like a gift from above, as it means mutual success and satisfaction all around. In judging the overall success of a relationship, this is indeed a very important position.

VENUS in SAGITTARIUS
A willingness to pursue your desires in an easygoing, friendly fashion marks this relationship and thus allows you to get what you want without a lot of confrontation. This is partially because your goals and aspirations are fairly wide-ranging and you've got plenty of room to get out of another's way. It's also because you're more cooperative and not so likely to fight over territory if you know there is plenty to go around. Others are likely to be much more limited, so this gives you a material advantage in the search for self-satisfaction and will allow you to achieve it with less strife and pain in the process. This may not be the case with either of you individually, so here the relationship can serve to ease a lot of tensions and broaden your horizons thus becoming all at the same time a wellspring of opportunity and a pressure release. You might watch out for the possibility that you may chase after desires and goals that are too broad and indefinite to implement tangibly and thus may escape you altogether or be too large for you to get a grip on. Better to decide upon a greater landscape and then decide on individual features to explore one at a time and enjoy each one as it comes thoroughly within your grasp and possession.

VENUS square URANUS
You are not only likely to have a taste for the unusual in terms of emotional or sexual satisfaction, you are also likely to have difficulty getting enough of it or exactly the right kind. There is a restlessness of desire that can be very difficult to handle and you will need to give each other a lot of space to learn the lessons you will need to make this work. If you try to confine yourselves within the bounds of a conventional relationship, you are asking for trouble and you won't get to first base in the way of solving the problem that this raises. That's because what seems to be the problem, isn't. It will seem at first that if you are allowed to go as far out as you want to satisfy one or both of you, everything will be OK. But when you allow yourselves to do so, you'll find that you're still not satisfied. The reason is that you are chasing the concept instead of living the experience. If you don't give yourselves the opportunity to try it out, however, you'll never have the opportunity to come to that conclusion. The remedy is neither inhibiting yourselves nor allowing yourselves excesses, but more fully experiencing whatever it is that you choose to do. Don't move on to the next space until you have fully enjoyed where you are.

THE COMPOSITE MARS
Mars represents physical and emotional energy, and as such the ability and inclination to get things done, to fulfill desire by taking action. By itself it is really just raw energy, and its placement, particularly in relation to the other bodies in the chart, describes where and how well this energy will be directed. As a composite point, it describes how your two energy directions mesh and whether they will reinforce each other or simply get in each other's way. It will tell whether sparks will fly, igniting random and destructive brush fires, or whether a controlled fire will blossom that will become the engine to power and fulfill your desires under your own direction. Its relationship to Venus, particularly in sexual relationships, is critical, as it will describe whether it will fulfill or deny your sexual needs. In both male and female it describes sexual drive as well as assertiveness and ultimately, aggression. Thus, a well positioned composite Mars allows the two of you to unite your energies naturally toward whatever goal you choose, while a difficult placing will put your efforts constantly at odds, wasting your efforts in mutual conflict or confusion when you should be utilizing them otherwise. As with Venus, this can be the greatest natural blessing or a terrible stumbling block. A strong composite Mars can energize and focus two people who are otherwise at sixes and sevens with themselves, and a troublesome one can throw the most balanced performers into disarray as they wonder what hit them to throw them so off balance. Thus, it will be wise to understand this position well so as to know whether to ride it or back off. It will also portray the power potential of the relationship as it exists in the outside world. A strong Mars has the energy to carry others along with it, whereas a disabled one will tend to break down already functioning operations in the relationships' social surroundings. None of this suggests that a difficult Mars means you should forget about the relationship, however, as if one of you is simply put in charge in certain areas, mutually compartmentalizing the energy flow; the ill effect can be largely disenabled, albeit at the price of local inequality. It is something to be considered with care and attention, however, as herein lies much of your self-empowerment and control over your lives.

MARS in VIRGO
Your joint ability to hit the nail on the head is characteristic of this relationship, and you will find that no job is too refined for you to accomplish together. You know what needs to be done, and you do it. You can be, for this very reason, too demanding on yourselves, and perfectionism sometimes turns into a revolving door where nothing is ever quite perfect. This applies to the way you treat each other as well as the tasks you address, so don't get too swept up in it. This talent for specifics can be a special blessing where one or both of you is better at seeing the forest than the trees. This way when you get together each tree gets attended to and the whole operation is a success. These Virgo tendencies may not be so helpful in emotional and sexual affairs, where broader feelings and the forgiveness of small errors is critical to mutual love and trust, so don't insist your partner, or yourself, be too perfect where you are dealing with such affairs. Be as tolerant of error between yourselves as you are intolerant of mistakes in the outside world and you will have the balance just right.

MARS trine JUPITER
You have a broad vision together and a great deal of the resources to make it come true. Growth is endemic to the relationship, and new worlds to conquer are the usual fare of the day. You have the energy to keep the ball rolling as you explore the ever-broadening possibilities of your lives. This is a great aspect for involvement in business of most kinds as you will be able to keep things expanding even when economic times are difficult. The secret is not so much your ability to be high rollers but your wisdom not to overextend yourselves beyond the capacity of your resources. That is a rare virtue and one worth paying for, so don't sell yourselves short. Even if you don't choose to follow up on the professional possibilities or simply don't have the opportunity to, the personal rewards of your relationship will be substantial, since being in it will always continue to open new doors for each other without closing the ones behind you. It will also give you the opportunity to open doors for others and help them grow and stabilize their own potentials in the same way you naturally handle yours. What you can help others understand better, you will better know yourselves and you will continue to keep your edge not only through practice but through self-analysis.

MARS conjunct URANUS
When the atomic bomb was being dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, this planetary conjunction was forming in the sky. It represents a sudden blast of energy, without warning, and of great and searing magnitude, and it can have great destructive import. It does not need to be a complete disaster, but will be if you do not recognize it and put it to peaceful use, just like atomic energy. The most obvious result of this in your relationship will be the inclination to make sudden, rash moves with such great vigor that they cannot possibly be taken back and you have to follow after them and cope as best you can with their implications. Worse, until you get the hang of it, it will always be shoot from the hip and miss - and now what do we do? The trick will be getting to know your energies and where they come from, so that hair trigger won't be pulled accidentally. It's kind of like handling a crossbow - you crank it up and then lay it down very carefully and don't disturb it until you're ready to fire it. Internally, as well as externally, you'll be up against the same thing. The only way you can bank your fires enough to control them is to find out what makes each other's passions tick in detail, and make no assumptions or arguments in the process. What you see there accept, because if you try to meddle, it will all go off prematurely. Once you get on the same track, have the target in you sights, then you get to see a show you'll long remember! Go into this one with your eyes open, ready for surprises.

MARS sextile NEPTUNE
You may have a feeling that you have come together to accomplish some higher spiritual mission and that may indeed be the case. In any case, you will have a high standard to hold yourselves to when you take action and the work you participate in together will have special meaning to you. If this is a love affair, you may tend to elevate it past the point of common sexuality, which may seem too coarse to express the way you feel about yourselves. This may cause you to abandon sexual expression entirely, or you may refine your sexuality so that it becomes a channel for your spiritual energy. In either case, yours will be a case beyond the ordinary. In general, the message of this aspect is tuning your energies up an octave to manifest yourselves on a higher plane. Because you will be forging ahead onto uncharted ground, you will have to keep your eyes open, as there can be a fine line between inspiration and illusion, idealized achievement and pure fantasy. It will be well to stop occasionally and take stock not just of what you intend to do, but what your previous intentions have already achieved. As long as the trail behind you is palpable, there is a good chance you are on the right course, or at least on the one you believe you're on. As when navigating at night or in patchy weather, you will need to learn the skills of dead reckoning.

MARS conjunct PLUTO
There is a very forceful side to your relationship which can lead to your working your will on others and using force as a substitute for reason if you are not careful in the way you use it. Mars energy and the extremity of Pluto don't take no for an answer and would prefer death to defeat, which is an internal trend which you may recognize. It's like having a battalion of berserkers lined up inside of you, ready to charge when the cause is right. You've got the power, and the willingness and capability of using it. The question is: where, when, and why - and can you keep it under control in the meantime? Professionally, you've got the financial hitman market sewed up, if that is what you want, because you can strike ruthlessly without restraint or remorse. But of course, that's only applicable in some areas of endeavor. Fundamentally, you've got tremendous striking power, but it will be difficult to direct it out of conscience rather than fear and insecurity. Personally and sexually, this can lead to pushing yourselves to the wall, finding out what the result of the ultimate test will be, which needs to be accomplished with open eyes and physically careful precautions. The limits you will seek are the limits of life itself, a dangerous but sometimes rewarding edge.

THE COMPOSITE JUPITER
Jupiter in any chart represents the capacity for growth and expansion in relation to whatever it is connected. It means bigger, better, newer, faster, higher, and more developed. It is usually looked at only in the positive aspect, but it also has the potential to get out of hand if not checked and directed. The composite chart is the area that your mutual aspiration and inventiveness meet, a point where creativity is strong but which may or may not bring its potentials to fruition, depending upon its placement and how you handle it. Well-aspected it allows you to view realistically and act effectively upon what you determine together to make the relationship a spawning ground of limitless opportunity, more than either of you could manage separately. Debilitated, it can mean overblown expectations that come to nothing, biting off more than you can chew, situations that spiral out of control, and projects that perish under their own weight. But these ills aside, Jupiter usually does more good than harm and under most conditions it is the place to look for blessings. A solid composite Jupiter will mean that you can always look to the relationship to pull each of you up another step when you are stagnating and it will mean that others can look to the two of you for inspiration and new ideas. Where it is difficult, you will have to take the opportunity to restrain yourself now and again and develop only that which you think you can use at the time to avoid wasting your energies on unrealizable goals. It will show you where the big picture is and provide the kind of life overview which the relationship teaches that you might not have discovered on your own. It can be the force that carries you both away with each other and raises you to heights you didn't know you had. Its only danger is allowing the relationship to take over you as individuals. Use it as a resource for each of you to draw on, not the other way round, and it will always pay off for you.

JUPITER in TAURUS
The growth processes within your relationship show a particularly regular and gradual quality which means you don't go through awkward phases of sudden spurts when you don't know exactly where you're at. It's really a good position for Jupiter, as it makes its burgeoning quality easier to control and plan. Conversely, you may chafe at its gradual pace and wonder if you're ever going to get there. Don't worry; you will. This applies to the inner evolution of the relationship itself and also to the style it presents to the rest of society as a resource for new ideas and invention. On the inner side, it allows you to be fairly confident that you know what's going on with each other, even as that changes, so you can lean on the relationship with greater confidence. From the outer view, others will see that you can responsibly develop new directions and your original thinking is not too risky to be relied upon. The only place where this will put you at a disadvantage is where very rapid development and deployment of radical new concepts is required, in which case you might not be able to keep up with the vanguard but would have to serve more in a support position. Where your own individual schemes border on the far-out, the relationship will make for a nice reality check and allow you both longer rein because you have the good sense of the two of you to fall back upon when things get shaky.

JUPITER trine URANUS
A natural inventive streak in this relationship means that you will not be the types to stick to the norm and toe the line of the usual rules. You will find new and sometimes distinctly unusual ways of personal relating and self-expression which might stretch the tolerance of more conservative types, but you will give yourselves enough space and freedom for them to work out. In a love relationship this can mean the willingness to go along with and enjoy practices that the more inhibited might disapprove. In fact, because you have an instinct of just how far to go, you'll get the good side out of whatever experiments you try while avoiding their risks. In a professional setting, you will cook up refreshing new approaches to solving problems that may already have standard solutions, but you prefer to substitute your own or add a new twist. Since this is a benefic aspect, you'll generally be able to succeed and be accepted for your original ideas because they are proposed in non-threatening ways and they work. Too often the truth is rejected because it frightens people or is presented too strongly, but you have the ability to put it forth in a firm but reasonable manner, which will usually get you your way. Public or private, this aspect will always have the effect of opening you up to the new and the wonderful.

JUPITER opposition NEPTUNE
You will have a good sense of where you would like to go with this relationship, but periodically it may escape you, and you will have to go through regular attempts to regain the vision you once had. The problem is, when you have the vision, it is pure and ideal and greatly inspiring, but the way to implement it is not apparent. Once you finally get underway and start making things happen, you lose track of the original dream, largely for lack of specifics, and things wind down to a halt, awaiting the next dose of revelation. The problem is that the nature of Jupiter and Neptune are both rather non-specific and both involve growth and the fulfillment of dreams, though Jupiter applies more to the physical and mental, while Neptune relates to the emotional and spiritual. You swing from one to the other, when what you need to do is combine the two into an effective operation. Moreover, you may find one of you identifies with the emotional/spiritual side and the other to the physical/intellectual, which can make it an adverse situation, complicating and debilitating progress. How do you do it? Be more specific, even write it down. When inspiration strikes, put it on paper as well as just reveling in its glory. When you come up with a plan, put that on paper. When you run out of gas, go back and read what you wrote. Tape or video will do just fine, too. The bottom line is that you can lose your most precious inspirations together because they drift away. Moor them, as you would a precious vessel, and they will be there for you when you need them.

JUPITER trine PLUTO
You can be powerful agents for change together, as you have an unshakable confidence that what you believe must be the right thing and that it will be implemented. Your intent is to transform the situation totally and your effect in the end will be to do just that. But you will not do it by steamrollering over dissenters or shoving your beliefs down people's throats. Rather, you will simply be so smoothly persuasive that it would not occur to anyone to contradict you. Why fight fate? Indeed, it sometimes may seem a fated relationship put together to achieve some greater end that only you can manage but is bigger than both of you. That may or may not be the case, but you will certainly feel something deep and important going on here, although you may not ever know exactly what it is. From a professional point of view, this will get you the reputation of folks who get things done and firmly but diplomatically won't take no for an answer. It may also seem to others like you can read the future, because things so often turn out like you say they will - but that may be because it is largely your influence and determination that makes it all happen the way it does. You become something of a self-fulfilling prophecy, fulfilling yourselves along the way.

THE COMPOSITE SATURN
Saturn is usually considered the bugbear among planets and has an evil reputation that it only partially deserves. It is associated with restriction, contraction, dearth, debilitation, and a host of other adjectives that add up to not getting what you want. That is, however, only partly true. It might be better to say that it describes extreme delineation, concreteness, and finality - reality in the most concrete sense. Much of our lives are comprised of hopes, plans, desires, dreams, wishes, and expectation, and Saturn describes what actually becomes of them. So in such a goal-oriented, future-driven society as ours, what actually happens is all too often a disappointment, the result of failed unrealistic expectations. Thus, Saturn in the composite chart is where you both get down to brass tacks and determine (or have determined for you) what actually is to be. If this point is well-situated, it means that you can rely on each other and the relationship as something that delivers every time. It will lend solidity to the relationship and make it something you can lean on when either of you need to be backed up. It will also make the two of you a haven for others in distress. In a difficult position, it will mean that you tend to fail each other, to bring each other down, and to sap each other's energies physically or emotionally. In this situation it can highlight the insecurities of the relationship and mark for failure what might otherwise have succeeded. But in either situation, like any other planet, it will not touch every aspect of the relationship and so you are free to be selective if you know what areas it is either supporting or restricting. You want to know what the bottom line is everywhere, however; and that is what Saturn will tell you. But you don't have to invest in stocks you think are going to depreciate, either. If you recognize early what the downsides and the support pillars of the relationship are, you can use one to stand on while you either avoid or make repairs upon the other at your leisure. If you do not, ignorance is the ally of the dark side and it will have much greater power to pull you in and cripple you. Find your foundation stones early, so your house will not be built upon sand; and, in time, your temple will rise to the skies.

SATURN in PISCES
This is a difficult position for Saturn, as its conservative, stability-seeking nature is literally afloat in the miasma that is the sign of Pisces. It therefore represents a physical and spiritual challenge concerning the methods you go about seeking your security together. If you look for the standard principles to lean on, ones that seem to work for everybody else, you will likely find yourself ill at ease with them and unable to make them work for you. Instead you will have to find a way of deriving your innermost stability from the results of inner growth and a faith in each other's ability to achieve it. If you ask for imposing results all the time, you'll seldom get them or, when you need them, they will disappear. If you cast your bread upon the waters, you will be buoyed up by hands unseen and carried on to broader vistas, like a ship caught up in a current and carried to foreign lands. This requires being willing to give up a lot of control that is taken for granted as necessary by most and can make you feel quite insecure until you get used to it. It is mainly a matter of style here, however, as the results will be the same, just not the methods you find most successful to go about getting to them.

THE COMPOSITE URANUS
Uranus is one of the three relatively recently-discovered outer planets, and all three are marked with a reality common to new experience and endeavor. They are not fully explored and thus not very much under our control. Uranus has been known the longest, (since 1786), and is a bit more familiar. It is associated with sudden events, shocks, realizations, discoveries, and other highly delineated events that sheer off quickly and completely from their previous states or surroundings. For creatures of habit, such as most of us are, this is usually upsetting and generally bad news. But it does not have to be. Your ability to use Uranus instead of letting it abuse you, is directly related to how flexible and quick on your feet you are. It also is linked to how willing you are to accept and welcome change as part of the nature of things. If you accept it grudgingly, then Uranus will always be a symbol of malice; if you welcome it with open arms, it will be a deliverance and an inspiration. In the composite chart, Uranus is where the two of you are repeatedly forced to rise to this occasion, and its contacts will tell in what areas of life it usually manifests. Well situated, it is a mutual window onto the future, flooding you both with light and clueing you into what is coming next. In such a position, it will make the relationship an eye-opener, which you come back to time and again for more. It will also tend to put you both ahead of the game emotionally and socially placing you in a leadership position among others where future thinking is concerned. In a difficult place, it will mean that you bring to each other incidents and accidents in areas where you are the most entrenched and you force each other to come to grips with ideas with which you refuse to deal. This can be a source of great mutual blame: "You made me get into this. If it weren't for you, this never would have happened. . . " and so on. This is particularly the case in sexual affairs in a society that is at heart so sexually conservative (even backward) and yet ruthlessly courts danger by flaunting it everywhere as if it were an everyday affair. Perhaps the only way to deal with this planet is to expect the unexpected, thus robbing it of harm and providing it with a welcome. If you are ready to harness it - like a wild horse - you can ride it far. If you turn your back, it will surely trample you. Where this occurs in the composite chart, keep your eyes wide open, your stance wide, and your tolerance level on maximum.

URANUS in VIRGO
You may find that the path to self-discovery and the leaps you must make when you have to rearrange your thought patterns will be quite demanding and that you will have to pay particularly close attention or you won't get to first base. This means when there is a problem or a discontent due to some special need or viewpoint of the other, it needs to be addressed specifically and in detail, not glossed over in hopes that a quick fix will solve it or make it go away. Special care must be taken to apply maximum tolerance of each other here, as each other's peculiarities will need to be addressed. This means finding a lot out about your partner and accepting what you find with understanding and compassion, however different that might be from your own style or expectations. In an exterior mode, don't look for universal truths but find out what reality is in your own special cases. Most of all, don't be annoyed if you don't get it right the first time. Impatience, next to intolerance, can be your greatest enemy. With time, you can work out the details; and once you've got them down, they can take you far and serve as a special kind of bond unique to yourselves to further cement the relationship.

URANUS conjunct PLUTO
This is a generational aspect and its significance is derived from the fact that you were both born in the middle 1960's or equidistant from that era. The symbolism of that era goes a long way to describe how it will work in your situation. During that time, the principles of Uranus (truth) and Pluto (force) came together and created a movement across the world where force was adopted in the interest of gaining change and the implementation of what people believed was truth. The same issues, at a basic level, will be operative between you and getting to the truth will have a somewhat compulsive aspect in the way you approach it. The necessity to speak out about what you believe is something you must leave room for in each other and tolerance will be the order of the day if you are to get along. More important is to understand that there is tremendous motivation here to do what is right, even if it is not expressed in a recognizable way. If you think it's not being done well or appropriately, avoid making an issue of it and consciously look for compromise because unconsciously that is the last position you will spontaneously adopt. Getting it right takes time, and what you first view as the ultimate truth can change and mellow with time, and you will need to allow yourselves the kind of space that will allow you to grow toward each other. Otherwise, you could look back later and see that you really agreed at a basic level, but didn't give yourselves the time to realize it.

THE COMPOSITE NEPTUNE
The effects of Neptune, another outer planet and a recent discovery, are often largely out of our control both by our unfamiliarity with its effects and the apparent nature of the planet which represents the uncertain, dreams, illusions, ideals, mystery, and the higher unexplored (and perhaps unexplorable entirely) plane of the spiritual world. Its nature is so uncertain, it's not even known exactly when it was discovered; various claims exist from 1810 all the way up to 1846, and we may never know for sure. It may be viewed from afar with a certain amount of analysis, however. When we find an area of mystery, it is our natural instinct to provide something to fill that void. Nature abhors a vacuum and our minds rush in to fill it with every kind of speculation and fantasy, if only to have something to act on in the area. Whatever is actually there will turn up eventually. In the meantime we provide ourselves with an image which may be close enough to the truth to better help us function or may be off in fantasyland and fail us utterly if we are unwise enough to lean on it. We know only in hindsight. Thus, in a composite chart, this point becomes the place where dreams, fantasies, hopes and ideals meet or clash, and inspire us or drag us down in confusion and conflict. Too many wars and personal battles have been fought over it needlessly, because none of these things actually existed until later. That's the crux of it: don't fight over what isn't there, at least not yet. Well placed, this planet will help you aspire to higher, more selfless goals but even they can make you take them more seriously than they are. Badly positioned, it can lead to lies, deceit, and mistrust based on mutual misreading of the unknown and the foolish action taken upon it. In the end, it is a gentle, diaphanous planet that can never be forced. Dreams and fantasies belong to each of you individually; and when they are similar enough to share, whether emotionally, sexually, spiritually, or even financially, they can be the greatest of joys. If one of you tries to enforce any of it on the other, however, everything will turn distasteful and there will be no dreams left; the mist will be blown away and only a charred landscape will remain. Where this point occurs, go gently, expect nothing, and everything will be returned to you.

NEPTUNE in SCORPIO
You will experience a certain dogged determination in making your dreams come true so there is a pretty good chance that they will. You, while keeping a fairly low profile so that others have less of a chance of interfering with your success, will tend to throw a lot of your power and ability here. As an initial strategy, this is a good one. As a lifelong approach, it can leave a lot out and cause you to miss some of your greatest potentials, so a little modification might be in order. It first might be well to consider that your aspirations and the ability to fulfill them are not wholly confined to you and your actions, either separately or together. It is the group experience of sharing your ideals that will give you the support to change and broaden them realistically and it will also give you the support to go on when your own specific expectations are not met. The good of one (yourselves) is much more dependent on the good of all. The more you confine your possibilities, the fewer results you will get. What you give away has the opportunity to come back tenfold, while what you keep for yourself stays where it is with only you to defend it. Retain your intensity, but let it circulate.

NEPTUNE sextile PLUTO
This is a rare aspect, happening only twice in five hundred years. It's most recent occurrence is happening as this is being written, beginning in the 1940's and ending in the 1990's, and applies to those born then or on opposite sides of it. Perhaps it is too soon to tell, but some educated speculation is worth while. Neptune is associated with aspirations and ideals, currently in conjunction with Uranus (shock, sudden change) which will also be making the sextile with Pluto (force, transformation) or close to it. It is, in short, a watershed period when a radical new arrangement of world order is being inexorably forced into being. Thus, this is a generational aspect, something you share in common with billions of others of your generation. Although in the sky it will have passed on, you will have it for life, which means it will be your inescapable task to be implementors of the new planetary culture born at this time. Therefore, where this is tied in to the rest of your chart by aspect and house, these will be the areas where you have to take your place in this order, to make your own personal contribution to what is perhaps the greatest transformation the human world has ever known. Heavy? Yes, but no different from everyone else your age. Do it well, knowing that you are the founding ancestors of an age undreamed of in human history. Your great-grandchildren will be looking back on you, hopefully with pride.

THE COMPOSITE PLUTO
Of the three outer planets, Pluto is the most recently discovered (1930) and least subject to our control. As such, it is even considered the planet of power and control, ultimately because it so controls us in our attempt to overcome it. It is, of course, appropriately named after the ancient god of death, the thing which in the last analysis we cannot control; and at the most basic instinctual level, all the control we try to exercise in life is simply a ploy to cheat death a little longer. It is called the survival instinct. The point at which Pluto occurs in the composite chart is thus, at a deep level, where we meet in our ability to face death. But it doesn't manifest itself that way on the surface. Instead, it shows up as the methods we use to keep control in order to avoid the certainty of personal annihilation. Well placed, it will mean a partnership that simply doesn't worry about keeping in control of the situation, secure in the faith that things will take care of themselves and when it's time to go, you're in God's hands. In a bad place or aspect, it will mean continuous attempts to gain power over each other and the environment (according to aspect, sign, and house) and a penchant for compulsive behavior that easily gets out of control. Or, rather, it was never in control to begin with. In some instances, particularly sexual, this can be heightened to mystic proportions, and though it can be playing with fire it can also be very revelatory. Where prominently placed, for well or ill, it will give the relationship an aura of inescapability and predestination, something that sweeps over you both (like sex or death) and takes you out of yourselves. Similarly, you may find the relationship itself has something of this effect on others, giving you a greater power (a power which you must be careful not to abuse) over those around you. In the end, however, it is the willingness to relinquish control as well as take it that resolves problematic issues. In the meantime, the ability to step away from the relationship and out of its sway, at least in Pluto-affected areas, can be an important safety measure.

PLUTO in VIRGO
The most fundamental issues, those that reflect your individual integrity and the survival of the relationship, tend to be quite specific and material in nature, and as such have to be handled with great care to avoid conflict of an entirely pointless nature. It is very easy to closely identify with the paraphernalia of life - possessions, status, physical territory, personal surroundings and the methods of handling them - and to defend them with a compulsive passion which they do not merit. When all is said and done, you can't take it with you, so don't try to defend more than you need at the moment. In good aspect this can make you both feel that you've got all you need, whatever that may be, and you will always have it, but when difficulties arise it can make you fight to the bitter end over issues that aren't important and which distract from the fundamental communicating and sharing that makes up a successful relationship. As difficult as it may be to remember sometimes, home is where the heart is, not where the house is, and if you look into your hearts, you'll find home. This is not to say that what you earn and possess is not imbued with a special value unique to yourself, especially the details of how you treat each other and your personal and physical exchange; most of these will pass while you still remain. Tend to that which endures and not what passes.

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