This question is a surprisingly common one. Just in the past few months, it has come up several times:
If a Birth Chart is supposed to represent the uniqueness of each individual Soul, what about people who are born at the same time in the same place – for example twins, or two babies born of different mothers in the same hospital? How can you say that the Birth Chart is a unique map for each Soul, when some people have similar (if not identical) placements of Planets, Signs, and Houses?
First off, let’s establish that in Evolutionary Astrology the concept of free will is foundational.
When I give a Reading, I am never giving a description of a person’s “fate” or “THE answer” as decoded from their Birth Chart. Rather, I am translating for them the range of potentials of any given set of energies as mapped on the chart. It is then – always – each individual’s choice as to how they express those energies at different levels within that range. And the choices are either made consciously (mindfully) or unconsciously (reactionary).
To give an example: let’s say two people with the “same Birth Chart” have their Natal Sun in Pisces, Moon in Leo, and a Libra Ascendant. (Of course there are the Houses and other Planets too, but let’s just stick with the Signs for the moment as things simply fractal out from there.) Each of those Signs – Pisces, Leo, and Libra – has a wide spectrum of potentials. It’s not that Pisces = Healer, period. Leo = Entertainer, period. Libra = Diplomat, period. Pisces energy ranges from compassionate to delusional, with a whole lot in between. Leo energy can express as that gregarious and enthusiastic lover of life but also can show up as the self-centered performer who always needs to be the center of attention. Someone with Libra Rising can be so tolerant and focused on group harmony they become selfless to a fault – the proverbial doormat.
Since I happen to be repainting certain areas of my house right now and color is at the forefront of my mind, let me use a color analogy: Let’s say Pisces = green. There’s a huge range of greens – from deep forest green to lime green to celadon, just to name a few specific ones. They all fall within the spectrum of greens. So if two people have a Pisces Sun, they both might express as “green,” but one might be a definitive chartreuse while the other may be a rich dark seaweed green. I think we’d all agree there’s an almost infinite number of ways that a “single color” can be expressed, on account of the full range of light to dark, hue, saturation, etc. And it’s not that one is inherently “right” and another is a “wrong” type of green; it depends on context, whether olive green happens to work better than pea green for the dining room accent wall, right?
The same can be said for the expression of Pisces, Leo, Libra and every other Sign of the Zodiac. Same goes for the almost infinite range of expressions within each of the Planets and each of the 12 Houses.
In Evolutionary Astrology, the different elements that make up a Birth Chart are considered archetypes. An archetype is an essence, with nuance. Not a single detail or a simple factoid.
As an Evolutionary Astrologer, when I give Readings (and in the context of our human society today) it’s helpful to think of the range of expressions as “secure” vs. “insecure,” or more on the positive vs. negative ends of the spectrum. So continuing with the examples offered above, someone with a more secure Pisces Sun may express themselves as a compassionate healer who sees how we’re “all One,” while someone with insecure Pisces energy perhaps can’t help but be totally overwhelmed time and time again as a helpless victim feeling that everything is out of their control.
And then of course there’s everything in between those two extremes of Pisces energy. Most people probably experience a good amount of the range within their lifetime.
And then there’s the range of high and low expressions of that same person’s Natal Moon, and all their other Planets, etc. It goes on in fractals…
So going back to the other person who has the exact same Birth Chart? Their Zodiac, Planetary, and House energies have the same wide range of potentials.
The key is that each individual Soul has different ways in which they want to play with the potentials in this lifetime. They use their free will to choose; their choices will be more conscious or more reactionary depending on their stage of evolution. Each is always going to be unique and specific to that Soul.
One choses emerald. The other: shamrock. Both equally beautiful greens.
And that, in my opinion, is what makes the spectrum of Astrological potentials infinitely fascinating – and beautiful.