Overly Personal Synastry
An empire and a love match: Maria Theresa and Francis Stephen, Rulers of the Holy Roman Empire
Like many astrologers, synastry is how I really got into astrology. Even if you have moved on to other interests and techniques, I think that the spark of astrological connection between people cannot be denied. Synastry is the study of two charts, or more, and how they interact with each other not theoretically, but in real life. The bi-wheel, or two charts on top of each other is mostly used in astrological compatibility analysis.
I wrote for the Association of Young Astrologer’s blog about forms of relationship astrology, along with my fellow AYA board member, Mo Olufemi, who is presenting her research on Davison composite chart method at NORWAC this year.
But I want to go a little deeper with my studies of synastry. I’m going to start with romantic couples, but I will also discuss non-romantic synastry in other profiles. Because of my Sagittarius stellium, I’m going to lay down some moral guidelines for romantic and relationship astrology. I don’t care how perfect you think a chart is to illustrate an aspect of synastry, if the example you’re using is not modeling a healthy relationship, you need to be extremely explicit about that in your analysis. We need to stop romanticizing and rationalizing the behavior of abusers with our astrological interpretations.
Also, synastry is for people who have interacted in some deep or daily or cyclical way. I say deep because I know some people believe in love at first sight and may quickly move through the stages of their relationship. I say cyclical to indicate that there is some sort of routine or regularity to your meeting. You see your work nemesis who takes credit for your work every Wednesday at the budget committee meeting, for instance.
After examining many relationships and charts, I feel that luminaries, angles, and a mixture of personal and outer planets in an orb of 0° to 5° denote a deeper connection, and that what planets and points connect, and how closely the connect is what reveals the nature of the relationship.1 I don’t believe that there is one or even three combinations of planets that make or break a relationship. Rather, all of the planetary connections felt in two natal charts act together, making them extremely complex and nuanced, just like life.
In casual internet synastry observations, I notice that there is a tendency to focus on the lack of aspects rather than what aspects are actually in the bi-wheel chart. I think oftentimes fans of a celebrity are looking for proof a relationship is perfect or will fail, as if astrological compatibility trumps reality and experiences. We must look for the actual nature of the relationship, which could be short or long, good or bad, based on the overall charts and life circumstances and desires of the individuals within a relationship.
I understand, if you have a weekend fling, you may want to understand if it will turn into something more, or why it didn’t last. However, if this person responds to your texts with one-word replies or ghosts you, but you want to keep hope alive, synastry can lead to unrealistic expectations grounded in the potential of the charts rather than reality. It’s the same for people you’ve never met, whether they are celebrities or a friend of a friend. I think the exception to synastry with someone you’ve never met is a dead relative. Interpreting the charts of my grandparents who died before I was born has been very comforting, and ultimately helped me to understand my own family dynamics.
The Star-Crossed Lovers
Now, to our first couple. I will always and only use timed charts, and I wanted to find a long-lived relationship that by society’s standards could be considered successful and faced hardships within their relationship and outside of it. The Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa of Austria-Hungary and her consort Francis Stephen I, fit these parameters and fortunately the Empress was a prolific writer not only to her husband but to their numerous children, with thirteen out of sixteen children surviving their infancies. The most famous of them was Marie Antoinette, the last Bourbon Queen of France. But Marie Antoinette’s parents led lives just as dramatic as hers but were more fortunate and, in many ways, more suited to rulership, especially Maria Theresa.
To understand the biographical details and historical context of Maria Theresa and Francis’s lives, I have read and re-read Nancy Goldstone’s book In the Shadow of the Empress: The Defiant Lives of Maria Theresa, Mother of Marie Antoinette, and Her Daughters. I have not yet read the newly published Maria Theresa: The Habsburg Empress in Her Time by Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger, but I know that it is an exhaustive biography at over 1,000 pages. Both go into great detail about the geopolitical and personal circumstances of the couple. While I have not cited it directly, my chief source is from Nancy Goldstone’s book, but all historical errors are on me.
Maria Theresa was never supposed to rule the Holy Roman Empire. Her father, Charles VI, was the younger brother of Holy Roman Emperor Joseph I, whose young daughters were supposed to be next in line after Charles VI. However, Charles wanted his own children to succeed, even after his oldest son died and Maria Theresa was his heir, he rallied diplomatic support for her succession, thinking that she could marry a strong, Catholic prince who could be her consort and lead the empire. This agreement between European powers was the Pragmatic Sanction, and after Charles VI’s death, it failed to stop the landgrab that was the War of Austrian Succession.
The strong-willed Maria Theresa had other plans, and opinions about her future partner that would end up shaping our world today. She was stubborn, and in many ways, stuck in the past. She’s not unique amongst her royal peers for having to deal with the chaos of religious wars, the emergence of capitalism, and the rise of secularist philosophy and culture—all movements that were deeply intertwined.
While the concept of monarchy as a form of government still exists, Maria Theresa contributed to its eventual downfall when she agreed to a marriage alliance between her daughter, Marie Antoinette, and the heir and grandson of King Louis XV, the dauphin Louis who would be the last Bourbon king of France. Years later, this irony would be stretched as the Habsburg’s chief rival, Napoleon, would marry Maria Theresa’s great-great granddaughter, Marie Louise of Parma, after he forced her father, Francis II, to dissolve the Holy Roman Empire rather than become a vassal to France.
Maria Theresa’s contradictory world view, that she and her family were ordained by God to rule over a vast Central European empire and her acceptance of the subordinate role of women in all other aspects of society was the tension of her life. For better or for worse, her strong beliefs and convictions behind her personal decisions had a global impact that is present in her natal chart.
Maria Theresa is a Cancer rising, with an exalted Jupiter in the 1st house, which by degree opposes her Sagittarius Mars in the 6th. Her moon in Gemini in the 12th house also opposes her Mars and speaks to her endless mental and physical energy. During the majority of her numerous pregnancies, she worked up until going into labor.
The Habsburg dynasty ruled the Holy Roman Empire from 1440 to 1806, shifting what was an elected role amongst German princes into a hereditary title. While many Habsburgs married their cousins (yes, the famous Habsburg jaw and other genetic abnormalities due to inbreeding were a problem) Maria Theresa’s parents and grandparents were not closely related, and she was an extremely healthy and beautiful child, again pointing to Mars in its joy in the 6th house.
As with many monarchs, her 4th house and its ruler is key to understanding her chart. With her Libra 4th house with Saturn and her north node, Maria Theresa absolutely believed that she was destined by God to rule and used her dynastic ties to gather allies in difficult times. Her faith could be extreme and zealous, especially in her terrible persecution of her Jewish subjects, who she was pragmatically advised to keep rather than expel because of the government’s reliance on Jewish creditors.
Although Maria Theresa would not hesitate to invoke her faith and family to protect herself, her Taurus stellium of Venus, Neptune, the Sun, and Mercury in the 11th house speak to the way she practically and yet dazzlingly kept her empire together. Faced with a war over her succession to the throne, she sought support from her Hungarian nobles, who had always disliked being subject to an Austrian ruler. She flattered them and learned their customs and traveled to Hungary to ask that they crown her in Hungary. She already spoke Latin, the formal language of the Hungarian court, and promised never to tax the Hungarian nobility, which of course, she later regretted. However, the Hungarians were loyal allies and subjects throughout her reign.
I could go on and on about her statecraft, but Maria Theresa as a practical Taurus Sun with Saturn in Libra, had the graciousness of a Venus in Taurus native to employ a councilor to criticize her. Count Emanuel de Silva Tarouca became her closest advisor because his criticisms allowed her to see the holes in her plans and strengthened them. She didn’t care for ceremony, and her private life revolved around her ever-growing family, the husband she adored, and her personal love of music, painting, and the dramatic arts.
Her reign, by contrast, was under a near constant threat of war with Prussia’s King Frederick the Great, and his ever-shifting cast of allies as the French, Spanish, and British vied to play the central European powers against each other.
Frederick the Great, in his own success and ruthlessness, saw that religious institutions were rivals rather than allies in power. Frederick despised and mocked the church, both his own Protestant clergy and the Catholic church. A problem not just for Maria Theresa at this time, but for other contemporary rulers such as Elizabeth of Russia, many young noblemen sought to emulate Frederick the Great and also to read the contemporary philosophical thought that aligned with anti-religious sentiment coming out of France in particular with the philosophes.
Both Empress Elizabeth of Russia’s heir, Peter, and Joseph, Theresa’s heir, admired Frederick and Joseph also read the banned Encyclopédie. During his own reign as the Holy Roman Emperor, after the death of his father, Joseph clashed with his mother as he was thwarted in modernizing the Holy Roman Empire. He had vision, but not his mother’s talent, practical zeal for bureaucracy, and most importantly he did not possess the courage to defend his ideas and put them into action.
Maria Theresa’s consort, Francis Stephen, Duke of Lorraine, grew up partly in the Austrian court in Vienna. His father was a cousin of the Holy Roman Emperor through their grandparents, and his mother was a French Princess. Francis, like Maria Theresa, was not the first born, and while he was intelligent and interested in natural sciences and philosophy, he was not the strong leader that Charles VI thought could steer his daughter and the empire. The couple met as children, when Francis was sent from Lorraine as a 14-year-old to see if he could be a suitable husband for Maria Theresa, who was only six years old. Francis’s father was a general and his troops and land stood between the Holy Roman Empire and France. At the time, his support meant a safe border. Later, when Charles the VI tried to find a better husband for Maria Theresa, it was too late, she was a teenager who was hopelessly in love with the dashing Francis who saw the Vienna court as his home and also grew to love Maria Theresa.
Before his marriage to Maria Theresa, Francis was sent by her father, Charles VI, on a diplomatic tour of Europe. His charm and kindness, his passion for learning, made him a popular guest at every court he visited. The Royal Academy of Sciences in England made him an honorary member after he visited and attended their lectures as a fellow natural scientist. King George IV thought he was wonderful, and personally wrote him an introductory letter to other heads of state. Francis understood people and liked to hunt and attend parties. He was the perfect guest, and his interactions at minimum helped his wife understand the characters of her inevitable rivals in first the War of Austrian Succession and then the Seven Years War.
Francis’s alliance with the Habsburgs, however, led to a series of complicated military and political situations in which his ancestral home and his claim to the duchy of Lorraine, a semi-autonomous region between France and Germany, was lost. He was always regretful about this, especially when the new territory of Tuscany he gained upon his marriage was grabbed by rivals and barely secure at the best of times. This would come back to haunt Maria Theresa and her unequal relationship with her husband and what he sacrificed to be with her.
Now that we’ve covered the historical background, let’s take a closer look at the couple’s biography through their natal charts and synastry.
The Angles
Planets on the angles in synastry bi-wheel charts are felt heavily by both parties in a relationship. Maria Theresa’s exalted, retrograde Saturn and North Node on Francis’s ascendant represents the duty and seriousness of their bond. It’s not the kind of romantic signature that astrologers of today would look for, but it perfectly symbolizes the longevity of their union, and the way their descendants continued to play a role in European politics for the next two hundred years. His Jupiter and moon in her 4th house in Libra point to a big contrast in their roles, speaking to his ability to make her feel emotionally and philosophically at home while she ruled. Their values are aligned, but Maria Theresa, by her nature, responsibilities, and abilities would always take precedent. This was the chief conflict in their relationship.
At home, with their children and extended family, Francis was the head of the family, and had a good relationship with all of his children. Maria Theresa, when she was free to, could be an obedient wife and a stern, but loving mother. But everyone knew that this was not the reality, and especially in her instructional letters to all of her children after they were grown, about how to navigate their own perilous marriages and political alliances, this is incredibly apparent. She begged her daughters to do everything they could to keep their husbands faithful, urging them to forgive all indiscretions and to learn from her own mistakes.
The literal crowning of Francis I as Holy Roman Emperor, a figurehead of state, and not the actual leader, is also in this chart. Maria Theresa’s exalted Jupiter in Cancer falls in Francis’s 10th house and interestingly, conjoins Francis’s Saturn at 29° of Gemini. Maria Theresa’s ascendant in Cancer is applying to Francis’s midheaven in Cancer, again highlighting this sort of political theatre where his job is to represent her office and person.
On a personal level, conjunctions of the angles are one of the most binding aspects in synastry. If you just look at their suns, in aversion, and their widely trining moons, you may think that this relationship won’t last long. And while their relationship did wane in a romantic sense, the conjoined angles speak to their 30-year relationship and for better or worse, their dynastic legacies.
The Luminaries and Mercury
Maria Theresa and Francis have some but not all of the key luminary aspects that astrologers consider essential for a good relationship, but even one aspect between two people’s luminaries, if it is sufficiently strong, can be testimony. Maria Theresa’s moon in Gemini is opposing Francis’s Sagittarius Sun and Mercury. Oppositions are points of vital tension, and while they can provide a provocative spark in the beginning of a relationship, over time it can feel exhausting to navigate their seesaw nature. Some couples can handle the give and take, and some don’t have the support system to. In this case, Maria Theresa’s moon is her chart ruler, and along with her husband’s Mercury in detriment, combust, and retrograde, her feelings and decisions overrule his thoughts and feelings.
The poor condition of Francis’s Mercury also shows up in his inability to fully master German, and as a result, Maria Theresa decreed that French was the official language of the court. Her Saturn, sitting on his ascendant, sextiles his Sun and Mercury, and again, represent his ability to participate in court life is facilitated by his wife’s authority. Historians have noted that Marie Antoinette was similar to her father, including her lack of enthusiasm for reading and writing, with some historians attributing learning disabilities to both Francis and his daughter that made languages and writing difficult.
A headstrong Taurus Sun and Mercury, Maria Theresa felt no compunction in sharing her honest opinions, even when they were harsh. The injunction of their suns and Mercuries made this much more difficult to manage. When asked his opinion on a political situation by a visitor to the court of Vienna, Francis replied “Don’t mind me, I am only a husband.” The very real international crises of war, smallpox, and famine that the couple faced as rulers of the Holy Roman Empire overtook the dramas of their personal lives, and when Maria Theresa realized that her husband couldn’t offer any helpful insight, she sought out the best experts she could find to help her govern. Even though she loved her husband deeply, the imbalance in power would always be present.
Chart Rulers and Dispositors
Maria Theresa was raised to be a loyal wife rather than as a strong ruler and her education was no different than other young noble ladies in central Europe. Great emphasis was placed on religion, etiquette, conversation, and the arts instead of battle strategy, taxation methods, and imperial and local forms of governance. Maria Theresa learned through crisis and then experience. Because all of her father’s ministers, and even her father himself, were such ineffective rulers, it was evident that she must do the opposite of whatever they had done to govern effectively. Maria Theresa’s moon in the 12th house, without context of the rest of her chart, speaks to the kind of powerless life she could have led, and how many men, including Frederick the Great underestimated her.2
Fortunately, Maria Theresa’s Mercury that rules her moon is in the 11th house along with her Taurus stellium. With her Sun and Mercury in the term of Saturn, and her Venus with Neptune in the term of Mercury, she had grit and glamour to achieve her goals. Her moon in Gemini and its final dispositor of Venus in Taurus also speak to her wish to rule peacefully disrupted by hidden enemies. She often said that if it weren’t for Frederick the Great and Louis XV trying to conquer parts of the empire, she wanted to improve the lives of her subjects.
Despite the distractions of war, Maria Theresa threw out ineffective leaders at the universities, replaced them with experts to train knowledgeable doctors and lawyers in particular. After losing children to smallpox and contracting the virus herself, she became an advocate for vaccination and endowed hospitals to provide adequate care. She tried with mixed success to implement compulsory schooling until the age of 12, which raised literacy in the cities considerably. During the difficulties of war, she pawned and melted down her own jewelry to feed citizens suffering from famine. And she did everything she could to raise revenue from an empty treasury, and tried not to drain it again to raise and keep armies across the empire to defend it. Her motivations were usually stemming from personal experience, but with her 11th house stellium ruled by Venus in Taurus in the 11th house and exalted Saturn in Libra in the 4th house, the empire itself was her family.
In contrast, Francis’s chart does not have the strength that Maria Theresa’s does. His Libra ascendant is ruled by Venus in detriment in Scorpio. Unfortunately, his Mars is in Cancer, meaning it is in fall, and also is retrograde. Francis, like Maria Theresa, has Jupiter in the first house along with his moon and closely conjoined his Venus in the first degree of Scorpio. Benefic planets together speak of big appetites and appreciation and need for beauty. I also believe that they are given to people who experience hardships in order to make their burdens lighter. A sort of cosmic compensation to help deal with very difficult lives.
For Francis, having Jupiter and the moon in the first house, ruled by a Scorpio Venus speak to his identification with his family’s duchy of Lorraine and his difficult decision to give it up when he married Maria Theresa. When his wife couldn’t help him or nurture his abilities and interests, he didn’t have the strength that she did to find help to improve himself. Instead he sought out gratification and pleasure elsewhere. In many ways, this pattern repeats in the chart of his most famous daughter, Marie Antoinette. (Perhaps we will discuss this in another newsletter!)
One area where his wife had total trust in his abilities was in the finances of the empire. Francis’s chart ruler Venus is in Scorpio in his second house of possessions and values. With Francis’s financial guidance, the drained treasury was slowly built up again and the empire was more economically stable than the other major European powers.
The Fertile 5th House
This couple is a perfect example of how the 5th house represents both children and pleasures of all kinds. Maria Theresa’s 5th house is in the fertile water sign of Scorpio. While she doesn’t have any planets in Scorpio, her Mars is in Sagittarius in the 6th house at 26° and as mentioned before, forms an out of sign opposition with her Jupiter at 1° of Cancer. Her moon at 21° Gemini is also opposing Mars. With an exalted Jupiter ruling Mars in 6th, it’s no wonder Maria Theresa spent her early adulthood in unending cycle of pregnancy and birth. She loved her children, but often could not devote her attention to them if she also wanted to rule well and take care of herself.
With Francis’s Scorpio Venus in Maria Theresa’s 5th house, this again reinforces their desire for one another and their fertility. Francis’s Venus exactly trines Maria Theresa’s Jupiter, a wonderful configuration in a relationship that also has an expansive quality that combined with her 5th house indicates many children.
Francis’s 5th house is in Aquarius, ruled by Saturn in Gemini at 29° that is conjoined his wife’s Jupiter at 1° of Cancer! This abundance of children and their legacy cannot be escaped. His Saturn also opposes her Mars and is separating at 2°, so even though they only have a separating, out of sign sextile between his Venus in Scorpio and her Mars in Sagittarius, the testimony of a passionate relationship is there.
Retrograde Malefics and Opposing Venuses
While Mars and Saturn rule their respective 5th houses, both Maria Theresa and Francis both have retrograde Mars and Saturns. Their early marriage was marked by war, diplomatic intrigue, invasion, personal loss of three children and their respective parents, and not much money. With Maria Theresa’s strong constitution, and Francis’s permanent cheer, they made it from one crisis to the next. Their malefics also speak to their pride, and inability to resolve their personal issues, while both being deeply committed to their family and empire.
Maria Theresa often overworked herself, against the advice of doctors, trusted government officials, and family members. Her most trusted advisor became so alarmed by her unending workdays that he demanded that she take time every day to ride her horse, which she loved, and to listen to or play music every evening. For years she kept this up, but with an endless cycle of pregnancies and running an empire, at a certain point her appearance lost its bloom, and she was very critical of herself.
A big part of this sensitivity came from the wandering attentions of Francis. The court at Vienna was filled with beautiful young women who were charmed by Francis’s attention and manners. He may have not known how to plan a battle, but Francis was the consummate Libra rising, a flirt. A series of humiliating affairs led Maria Theresa to punish her husband in the only ways she knew how, by enacting an inquisition of morality who jailed and fined women accused of adultery and lewd behavior. This inquisition did not have the desired effect. Francis continued to have affairs. The real brunt was felt by the court and high society of Vienna, who were restricted in their dress and entertainments. Casanova happened to unluckily visit Vienna at this time and left immediately rather than be jailed or exiled. This experiment lasted only six months, but this inquisitional force was later reassembled into a secret police force.
The Deaths of Francis I and Maria Theresa
During the wedding festivities of his second son, Leopold II, in 1765, Francis suffered a stroke and died. His unexpected death shook Maria Theresa, who wore black for the rest of her life and retired from society. She said “I have lost in him the most affectionate friend, the most dearly beloved companion during a union of thirty years, and the only joy of my life. During the harassing times of the first twenty years of my reign he soothed my cares and anxieties by sharing them.” In her grief, she even extended her compassion to Francis’s longtime mistress, speaking to her on the night of Francis’s death and even honoring the payment made out to her in her husband’s will.
Although Francis wasn’t a leader, he was Maria Theresa’s confidante and in many ways her fuel. His Mars, in her first house, exactly sextiles her Sun, providing the motivation and energy to get things done. Even through their difficult times, Maria Theresa still took hope that Francis would be faithful to her again, and she loved him faithfully for her whole life. After his death, she lost her purpose in many ways. Her health issues, compounded by contracting smallpox in 1767, kept her mostly homebound, and her subjects were very unkind in their comments about her appearance.
The one thing that she could not let go of after her husband’s death was the ruling of the empire. While a more retiring ruler would have abdicated in favor of her son, Maria Theresa made Joseph II her co-ruler. Although her counselors often agreed with her son, the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, they were loyal to Maria Theresa and her proven leadership. After 15 years without Francis, Maria Theresa, refusing her last rites and working up until almost the end, died in 1780. She was spared the anguish of the family during the French Revolution and the rise of Napoleon, and for all her faults Maria Theresa had tried, in her way, to steer her difficult children through difficult times. But most of all, she found her strength and purpose in the world to reign, and she found happiness and some success in it because of her partnership with Francis, however imperfect they were together.
I’m trying to clarifying that two people who only have close generational planets, such as Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto will not feel the same spark as say Sun trine Venus. The personal planets are vital in this equation.
Frederick the Great was very surprised by the alliance of Empress Elizabeth of Russia, Madame de Pompadour, the powerful mistress of King Louis XV of France, and Maria Theresa formed to defend themselves against Prussia. Goldstone outlines their success in the chapter titled The Sisterhood of the Three Petticoats.