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In
October of 1992, a raging fire swept through
the hills of Oakland, California, wiping out innumerable beautiful homes
and causing millions of dollars in damages. One victim of the fire
was Joni, a lawyer who returned from work to find her home in ruins. Joni’s
loss was devastating. Though she was heavily insured, her family heirlooms
and photo albums, along with a valuable collection of first editions,
were gone forever.
On
the same block lived Henry, a single man who had also lost everything.
While before they had only been casual acquaintances, the tragedy brought
them closer together. They assisted each other in dealing with insurance
adjusters, contractors and furniture dealers. Often they would spend long
evenings together, talking for hours, helping each other come to terms
with their losses. Before long they became lovers.
According
to the rules of astrology, it was natural that
Joni, who had Venus in Scorpio, would be attracted to Henry, who had a
Scorpio Moon. Venus is associated with love, while the Moon affects the
emotions. Therefore, the blend of lunar and Venusian energies between
the natal charts of a couple can create a powerful romantic attraction,
particularly when placed in passionate Scorpio. However, when Joni and
Henry had finished rebuilding their houses, and their lives once more
assumed a semblance of normalcy, Joni was shocked to find Henry cooling
toward her. She didn’t see him for several weeks, and when she did, he
introduced her to his girlfriend!
The
two fire victims had experienced a crisis bond—the
type of romance glorified in Robert Ludlum thrillers. A man and a woman
meet under life-threatening circumstances and are driven together by their
mutual fight for survival. In real life, once the situation is resolved,
the romance often disappears along with the crisis.
How
Strong is a Crisis Bond?
This
type of relationship is more common than you would think, although the
circumstances are rarely as calamitous as the Oakland fire.
More often, the crisis involves coworkers undergoing vast upheavals at
the workplace, or neighbors who have both experienced nasty divorces.
When Joni met Henry’s new girlfriend, she immediately rang me up. “We
have so much in common,” she sobbed, “and now he’s left me!”
However,
when I studied their two natal charts, I learned that Joni and Henry really
didn’t have much in common at all. Like many couples that form crisis
bonds, a tumultuous event had thrown them together. Such an incident can
make it seem as if the two have a lot in common, but in reality, the crisis
is all they have.
The
Crisis Bond and Compatibility
When
contemplating the future of a love relationship, astrologers consider
the Moon and Venus, as we did above. Also, they study the placements of
Mars, Uranus and Pluto, which are all strong factors affecting sex, attraction
and passion. However, Mars is also associated with injuries or losses.
Uranus can bring about upsets and accidents; Pluto sometimes foreshadows
violence.
Astrologers
determine compatibility by studying the way the planets in one person’s
natal chart relate to the planets in the second person’s natal chart.
This process is called synastry, or chart comparison. In crisis bonds,
I often find that the Venus of one chart is connected in a stressful manner
with Mars, Uranus, and/or Pluto in the second chart. For Joni and Henry,
Uranus in Henry’s natal chart influenced their Moon-Venus connection in
a less than desirable way. The day of the fire,
transiting Pluto in Scorpio joined that Moon-Venus configuration.
Since
Mars, Uranus and Pluto are all explosive planets, this type of combination
hardly guarantees compatibility. Couples with stressful Mars, Uranus and
Pluto connections between their charts may have great sex, particularly
under pressure. However, they also tend to be habitually fighting. In
astrology, Mercury is associated with communication. Therefore, if the
Mercurys in the two charts aren’t connected harmoniously, the two won’t
have much to say to each other. The link between the two Mercurys in the
charts of Joni and Henry did not bode well for open, honest and amicable
interaction.
Are
All Crisis Bonds Doomed?
Not
all crisis bonds crash like that of Joni and Henry. If the Mercurys of
the two charts are in a harmonious aspect, the individuals probably have
interests in common. They can therefore communicate with each other in
a congenial way. Since Saturn rules stability, if there are strong Saturn
aspects between the natal charts, the relationship could indeed last.
However, most likely a crisis bond will always be a stormy one: hardly
the recipe for “happily ever after.”
Authors
of novels of romantic suspense end their books with the resolution of
the crisis and the thrill of victory experienced by hero and heroine.
However, they rarely reveal what happened to the relationship afterward!
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