Your Soul Mate in the Stars
How to make sure your love will last

By Isabelle Ghaneh

Finally it happened! Jasmine came rushing in to tell the good news to her friend Carmella, a beauty salon owner who specialized in the hair color that Jasmine loved. Jasmine and her longtime domestic partner had finally tied the knot and were now legally a couple! Jasmine had waited quite a while to marry her man, but she had waited even longer to find him.

Carmella knew all about Jasmine’s disappointments in the love game, since she often confided her love-life dilemmas during her hair cuts and colors. Jasmine had had a series of disastrous and unfulfilling love affairs starting from when she was in high school. She specialized in unhappy, melodramatic, and difficult relationships. She had also had her share of dud dates, not to mention unsavory and highly unsatisfactory boyfriends. Jasmine allowed her heart to rule her head, of course, something which is never wise, so she saw what she wanted to see in her paramours. She also lied to herself a lot about who she was and what she wanted out of love.

Given all that, she didn’t have the best love scorecard. Though there are many and varied reasons for her romantic problems, there are some very specific astrological indicators that show why her relationships didn’t work, so let’s take a look at some of them. First of all, Jasmine is to all appearances a charming Libra, yet despite this, her rising sign is in intense and extremely emotional Scorpio. Mars is the ancient ruler of Scorpio, and he still co-rules the sign along with Pluto. The zodiac sign that holds the planetary ruler of your rising sign gives that planet’s character an added emphasis, and it just so happens that Jasmine's Mars is in Pisces, an elusive and often self-defeating sign.

Jasmine had experienced several relationships that involved deceit, and yes, she should have known beforehand, since both of these associations were with men who were already involved with other women! In both cases Jasmine’s Mars was conjunct a Venus-in-Pisces placement of her lover’s, so while she had a strong sexual attraction to them, and vice versa, she was basing her decision to get involved in such risky situations solely on her feelings!

Mars and Venus are the planets that guide both our romantic feelings and our sexual response to others, and as we know, our feelings about sex are both physical and emotional! Mars indicates the way we express our sexual desires, so with Jasmine’s Mars in Pisces she had a tendency to want to “save” her sexual partners. Each of the unavailable men told her that he was unhappy in his current relationship, so between that and her physical attraction for them, she threw caution to the winds. Now you would think that Jasmine would have known better, no matter how attracted she was to either man, or what story he spun to her, but no.

As a Libra, Jasmine’s Sun sign is ruled by Venus, the planet of love, love, and more love. Her Venus is in Scorpio, the planet of passionate desires and strong and intense feelings, and conjunct her Ascendant, adding to the charm and allure Jasmine projects to others. It also adds to the fact that Jasmine has a deep desire to have a relationship in her life at all times, and at all costs as well.

Venus conjunct her Ascendant also means it is opposite her Descendant, the cusp of her 7th house (relationships and partnerships). Now we all know that we need to be alone at times, just to recharge our mental and emotional batteries, which is why it’s not a good idea to simply bounce from one relationship to another. When a relationship fails, often we need plenty of time to cleanse ourselves of the emotions, thoughts, and memories of our old association before we move on. Jasmine, however, would never allow herself to do that, since she was too afraid to be without someone around to fill her needs, even if it was just a part-time someone.

Pisces is a dualistic sign, so the first disastrous love affair of the two we’ve mentioned (it happened to be with a married man) wasn’t enough to convince Jasmine she needed to straighten herself out a bit in the love game. No, she needed to come around for seconds, which is why Jasmine really had her heart broken with her last lover. She saw a lot of Mr. Venus in Pisces #2, due to the fact his fiancee was across the country in a graduate studies program. Jasmine could almost believe that her lover would switch alliances and stay with her, and many times he seemed to imply that he would do just that! However, when the graduate program was finished, off Mr. Pisces Venus flew to his fiancee, and Jasmine was alone again.

At that point she finally took serious stock of her love and sexual desires, needs, and wants. After much soul searching (an activity Scorpio rising signs happen to be very good at), she finally realized that her poor choices and decisions had actually impeded her chances for romantic happiness. On her third go-round, her new lover was a bit older than herself, and was stable in his feelings, thoughts, and habits. Her new romantic partner, Jim, a practical Virgo, didn’t rush into the relationship with Jasmine and he didn’t promise her the moon and the stars. Instead he took time to get to know her, as she took time to get to know him.

Jasmine and Jim lived together for several years as domestic partners while Jim finished paying off his alimony to his first wife, and Jasmine got used to having a full-time live-in love, one who was honestly divesting himself of previous commitments. By the time of their wedding, Jasmine and Jim knew each other’s strengths, weakness and idiosyncrasies, and were fully convinced of the rightness of their decision. And they are still together.

Carmella's Story

Jasmine’s confidant, Carmella, had her own romantic story. An outgoing Sagittarius, she was uncharacteristically silent when Jasmine flashed her new wedding ring, a simple gold band with a few tiny diamond chips. Carmella had just ended a love relationship herself, and she was just a bit jealous of Jasmine’s new happiness, even though she felt quietly guilty at her reaction.

Carmella is the type of person who looks for a lot of excitement and stimulation in her love affairs, since she is of the Fire element, and she certainly received her wish with her last lover. In fact, her former lover, sizzling Andy Aries, was so emotionally volatile that Carmella was almost afraid of him near the end of their relationship, and that’s certainly not good! Carmella and Andy tended to egg each other on, pressing each other’s buttons continually—the irritating buttons, not the fun ones.

Carmella enjoyed the exhilaration of besting Andy in the physical sports and in the mental games they played together. But these contests quickly morphed into emotional games, a contest of wills that only led to discord and anger.

Carmella’s Venus was in Aquarius, directly opposite Andy’s Mars in red-hot Leo, an aspect that indicated they had a lot of sexual chemistry. Carmella and Andy certainly felt a strong and almost magnetic attraction, but they also dared each other in ways that were unhealthy, and which became downright dangerous at the end.

Carmella and Andy fought a lot too, which meant that she experienced a lot of ups and downs in her feelings for him. It just so happened that Andy’s Mars and Uranus were conjunct, meaning that Carmella’s Venus was getting an emotional “twofer” that was complicated and volatile. Andy had a tendency to blow up very easily when he was angry, and his ability to put the brakes on was almost nonexistent. As an ardent Aries, Andy lost his temper very easily, and while he was equally quick to forgive and forget, he could be quite destructive when his ire was aroused.

Carmella resolved at the end of her association with Andy (perhaps we should think of him as Mr. Volatile) to make sure that her next lover would have much more self control, and definitely would not have a hair-trigger temper. Listening to Jasmine bubble on about her new status as a married lady, Carmella strengthened her own resolve to take a second look at her own love and sex needs and come up with a plan to find a more congenial love partner in the future—and one that she could stick with for a good long while.

’Til Death Do Us Part

Taking some lessons from these two ladies’ tragedies and triumphs, let’s leave Jasmine and Carmella behind and look at a very well-known healthy relationship to see how two people whose lives we can read about managed to have a very long and fulfilling marriage, one that lasted for over 50 years in fact! This is quite an accomplishment, especially since this couple was internationally famous, very successful in their common profession, and were part of a scene in which they could have had limitless temptations to meet others, have affairs, and marry multiple times.

I am speaking of Paul Newman, the great American actor who recently passed away, and his equally talented wife, actress Joanne Woodward. Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward had a marriage that lasted long enough to be the envy of any town, much less Tinseltown, as Hollywood, with its throwaway romances, is often known. Both Paul and Joanne knew each other well, respected each other, loved each other, and gave each other space. They were both movie stars, yet there seemed to be no professional competition or jealousy between them. Not only did they stay together for over 50 years, but they raised three beautiful daughters.

They also had a blended family, since Paul’s two daughters and son from a first marriage came into the mix. Both Joanne and Paul spoke openly in interviews about how hard it was at first to incorporate his children into their relationship, but they kept trying until it worked.

Paul and Joanne and their daughters lived in Westport, Connecticut, where they owned an old renovated farmhouse in a secluded area. The Newman family was often seen around town or at the marina in Westport, enjoying themselves, shopping, and dining out. Paul and Joanne also had to cope with tragedies, as do many couples, such as the death of his son from his first marriage of a drug overdose in 1978. But no matter what happened in the life of Paul and Joanne, they stayed together, and they maintained their relationship until the day he died in September of 2008.

Paul Newman was one of the most gifted actors in American film and theater, and he received numerous Academy Award nominations, including those for The Hustler, Hud, Cool Hand Luke and The Verdict. His pairing with Robert Redford in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid produced one of the most popular and highest grossing movies ever made. He was also in Empire Falls, an HBO miniseries in 2005. Though he retired as an actor in 2007, Paul Newman was active in his nonprofit businesses and other aspects of his life almost until his dying day. As a philanthropist, he donated millions of dollars through his salad dressing and other food products to charity, including his camp for children with serious illnesses, The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp.

Joanne Woodard was and is one of the most noted actresses in film and stage. She won an Oscar in 1958 for her portrayal of a woman who had a multiple personality in The Three Faces of Eve, and has continued to win acclaim and garner award nominations for her roles in film, including an Oscar nomination for Mr. and Mrs. Bridge in 1991. In recent years, she has become the artistic director of the Westport Country Playhouse, and Paul starred there in her production of Our Town in 2002.

When asked about his long marriage to Joanne, Paul Newman stated on numerous occasions that he and she had nothing whatsoever in common, except that they both made movies. That may be more than a little bit of Newman modesty, so let’s look at the way their charts came together to see what kept them together astrologically, keeping in mind the enormous love and respect they had for each other in the first place!

Paul Newman was born on January 26, 1925 at 6:30 a.m. EST in Shaker Heights, a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, and Astrodatabank online affirms that this is birth certificate data. Joanne Woodward was born February 27, 1930 at 4:00 a.m. EST in Thomasville, Georgia, and this too is from her birth certificate. The two of them first met in 1953 when they were working together in the Broadway play Picnic. Paul and Joanne hit it off immediately, but he was already married and had a child, with another one on the way, so the relationship between the two of them went nowhere at that point.

In 1957 they were signed to work on the movie The Long Hot Summer, and at that point they fell in love. Paul asked his wife Jackie for a divorce, and he and Joanne got married on January 29, 1958, just days after Paul's 33rd birthday. One year later, in April of 1959, Joanne and Paul had the first of their three daughters, and their careers continued to hit the heights. He was her first husband, but she was his second wife, so she inherited three children when she married him. Joanne has stated in interviews that initially Paul's children would not speak to her when they visited, since there was so much tension between them.

Just from that last statement, you can see plainly that they had several obstacles to overcome early in their marriage. Given that, what made this relationship such a long lasting one from an astrological point of view? To begin at the beginning, Paul has his Sun in Aquarius, the sign of the humanitarian, and he has a Capricorn rising sign. Our rising signs determine our inner personality, so while it is true that outwardly Paul displayed the aloof and eclectic style of the airy Aquarius, inwardly he was a very practical, earthy and perhaps at times insecure Mountain Goat.

Joanne Woodward, an emotional and sensitive Pisces, also has Capricorn as a rising sign. She too outwardly gave the appearance of a very artistic soul, and in her work she often played the role of a mentally and emotionally fragile woman, but she has a very strong personality, a belief in herself, and a deep devotion to her family and to her relationship to her spouse.

Capricorn is a zodiac sign that loves the country, which is perhaps why Paul and Joanne lived for much of their lives together in an old country farmhouse in a secluded and woody area of Westport, Connecticut. Capricorns are big on family and tradition, so Paul and Joanne maintained their family in spite of any other distractions, including the challenge of making movies on location and thus being far away from each other for many days or weeks at a time.

Paul’s Moon, his emotional barometer, is at 1 Pisces conjunct Joanne's Pisces Sun at 8 degrees of that sign. Carl Jung, the noted psychologist, who had an interest in astrology, noted that many long-term married couples had a conjunction of the Sun and Moon. Paul and Joanne fit this observation.

Due to this aspect, Paul and Joanne shared a strong emotional bond. In essence, each knew where the other was coming from. Paul’s Moon conjunct Joanne's Sun added to the natural kinship they had between them due to their common profession, as did the fact that they both have the same rising sign, albeit in different degrees.

Interestingly, Joanne’s Moon is at 25 Aquarius and while it’s certainly not conjunct Paul’s Sun at 6 Aquarius, the body that represents her emotional gauge is in the same zodiac sign as his Sun. In other words, this couple has a double Sun and Moon conjunction by sign! Not only did this give them a very instinctive and intuitive knowledge of who they were as individuals, but it also instilled a strong rapport and understanding between the two of them.

Joanne’s Venus at 13 Pisces, is trine Paul’s Saturn at 13 Scorpio. Saturn is the planet of longevity, and a positive connection between Venus and Saturn gives many couples the desire to continue their association for a long time. Saturn can mean duty and responsibility, so if it had been in an unharmonious square or opposition to Venus, it would have indicated that the parties felt chained together. But in a harmonious aspect, such as a sextile or trine, the parties are happy to be joined together, and they enjoy their companionship and desire a long association.

Joanne's Mars at 16 Aquarius is in a wide conjunction with Paul’s Sun, since astrologically we should allow a larger orb allowed for an aspect involving the luminaries. With Joanne’s Mars conjunct Paul’s Sun, her sexual desire for him was strong. Paul understood her energy level and the way her drive and ambition worked. That’s important in a marriage, because if one person sees his or her partner as lazy or doesn’t understand why his or her mate wants to get up at 6:00 a.m. to go running, they will be at odds.

Paul and Joanne seemed to have instinctively understood that each one needed space, something they both stated in interviews. However, they also came together and had a family and an identity as a couple. They clearly spent a lot of time together and worked together often. Paul directed Joanne in one of her Oscar-nominated roles, Rachel, Rachel, in 1968, and she once said she wished he would direct all of her movies since he understood her so well.

Paul’s Mercury and Venus are conjunct in Capricorn at 13 and 14 degrees respectively, and also conjunct Joanne’s Saturn at 9 Capricorn. Joanne’s Saturn is in turn conjunct Paul’s Capricorn Ascendant. Obviously Saturn plays a large role in the charts of both Paul and Joanne, and in a variety of ways. Saturn and all he represents, namely longevity, stability, structure, and legality clearly played a central role in their famously long-lived marriage.

Since Joanne’s Saturn is in Capricorn, the sign it naturally rules, Capricorn is doubly magnified for her. Paul has his Mercury and Venus, his planets of the mind and heart, both in Capricorn, along with his Jupiter, the planet that details where he will find his good fortune. Joanne’s Juno, the asteroid of marriage, is in Capricorn at 17 degrees conjunct Paul’s 13 Capricorn rising sign.

So these are the astrological ties that bound this couple together. They had a rocky beginning, and due to the divorce and the children from the first marriage, they faced long odds. But Paul and Joanne celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary just eight months before Paul’s death on September 26, 2008, so there is no doubt that astrologically and otherwise they were meant to be together.

The ideals of family and the desire to keep their marriage bond intact made their marriage a long one. These two people genuinely wanted to be together, and in that there is a lesson for the rest of us. If we want to have a healthy relationship we must take into account our own personality, our partner’s personality and be sure we have the same ideals and values, as these, through the medium of our astrological connections, form the strong bonds that hold us together.