Robert Hand's Planets in Composite is still the only book that lays out a composite reading as a procedure rather than as a set of delineations, and the procedure is nine steps long. Everything below follows his sequence, because the sequence carries most of the technique.
His own preamble is worth taking at face value. Reading a composite is not very difficult for anyone who can read a natal chart, and the only real adjustment is that you are working with a relationship rather than an individual.
The two places practitioners most often go wrong are mechanical rather than interpretive: the composite Ascendant is not the first house cusp, and a house is never read on its own.
Hand's Reading Order
| Step | What to do |
|---|---|
| 1 | Before you look at the composite at all, evaluate the two natal charts for their inherent capacity to have relationships. See what each person seems to want and the kind of person they are attracted to |
| 2 | Check the composite for any strong house emphasis, meaning a house with four or more planets in it |
| 3 | Check the houses of the composite Sun and Moon |
| 4 | Check the aspects to the composite Sun and Moon |
| 5 | Check the house positions of and aspects to Venus and Mars |
| 6 | Check the aspects involving planets near the four angular house cusps |
| 7 | See what is happening in the first, fifth, seventh and eleventh houses, the principal houses of relationships |
| 8 | Check the house position and aspects of Saturn |
| 9 | Check whatever is left over |
Hand says each of the first six steps is very critical, and that step nine is not a trivial step, because a great deal may be left over. He also releases you from the order in the same breath: an experienced astrologer knows there is no set pattern to reading a chart, the schema is given because it helps the student, and you should not hesitate to abandon it if a chart requires something else. He warns against becoming a slave to this or any routine.
One honest note about his own practice. Of the five case studies in the book, only the first walks all nine steps. He says doing it in each case would have been too tedious.
Step 1: The Two Natal Charts, First
The composite stands alone quite well as a technique. But you will meet relationships that make no sense in terms of this or any other method unless you check the natal charts.
Hand asks you to find out from the couple what kind of relationship they actually have, and then read specific natal houses for that type, with the signs on the cusps, the rulers, the aspects and the occupants: the 5th and 7th for love or marriage, the 7th, 2nd, 6th and 10th for business, the 11th and 5th for friendship.
This step has its own page. See capacity for relationship in a birth chart.
Step 2: The Cluster Rule, And The Weighting Nobody Expects
This is the single sharpest weighting statement in the book, and it is worth stating in his own shape because it inverts what most people assume.
In determining the basic thrust of a relationship, a house with many planets in it usually takes precedence over the houses containing the Sun and Moon.
He restates it independently in his chapter on the houses: the Sun and Moon houses are usually the most important in a composite, and a large clustering of planets in one house may very well be more important than either of them.
Four or more planets is his threshold. When you find one, the issues of that house are the issues of the relationship, and you read the general meaning of that house to find out what those issues are.
If there is no cluster, then the houses of the Sun and Moon, in that order of significance, describe the most important issues that will arise.
Steps 3 And 4: The Lights, And The Division Of Labour
Houses and aspects are doing two different jobs, and Hand keeps them apart.
House emphasis describes only the most important issues. The aspects to the Sun and Moon begin to describe how the couple will deal with those issues, and he says these aspects can very often make or break a relationship.
That is the whole engine of a composite reading in one sentence. Houses set the agenda. Aspects to the lights say how it goes.
He splits the two lights the same way, in the opening statement of his Moon chapter. The Sun shows what the relationship does. The Moon indicates the subjective feelings of harmony and empathy the two have for each other, even in difficult times. A well placed and well aspected composite Sun, in his terms, will help a relationship survive difficult periods, and the relationship is experienced as free and spontaneous self expression requiring little effort.
Step 5: Venus And Mars
Their energies are most relevant to sexual relationships, but because the success of any relationship depends on the partners' ability to complement each other, Hand says Venus and Mars are always important. In a sexual relationship he calls aspects between Venus and Mars, Sun and Venus, or Moon and Venus ideal.
His division of labour holds here too. The house of composite Venus shows how far the relationship will let both people express themselves through love. The aspects to it show whether the attraction operates without external compulsion, and he adds, without apology, that a good Venus is not necessary for a relationship to survive but is what makes it worth having.
Step 6: Planets Near The Angles
Hand ranks angularity by proximity rather than by any orb. In his case studies he reasons that Neptune is the most angular planet and therefore matters most, or that Pluto is the planet closest to the angles and therefore one of the most powerful. The criterion is comparative, which planet is closest, not a threshold you can look up.
This step also carries his one rule for the outer planets. Their house positions are as important as those of the inner planets. Their aspects are the same for everyone within an age group, so he thinks those probably signify how whole generations interact, and his stated position is that they count only when one of the pair is within orb of a conjunction to one of the four angles. The delineations in his book are written assuming that condition is met.
Step 7: The First, Fifth, Seventh And Eleventh
His ranking of the houses for a personal relationship, from his reading order chapter:
| Tier | Houses | His comment |
|---|---|---|
| Best to have emphasised | 1, 5, 7, 11 | The best houses for the Sun, Moon or a strong cluster in a personal relationship |
| Next | 3 and 9 | Not specifically about forming relationships, but they keep vital communication alive |
| Good for marriage | 4 | Where a couple must share their most intimate personal lives and perhaps property |
| Professional | 2 and 10 | Meaning for professional associations rather than personal ones |
| Special case | 8 | Not necessarily difficult, but often signifies a very fateful relationship |
| Least desirable | 6 and 12 | Even these can have quite positive effects if the aspects involved are good |
Two of those entries are contradicted by his own later chapter. It says the fifth may not be the best house for a marriage, because a fifth house relationship is two people enjoying being themselves in each other's company rather than operating as a single unit, and the staying power a marriage needs may not be there. It also says a tenth house relationship is not likely to be a professional one. Both statements stand in the printed book alongside the table above.
Why the first house is on the top tier at all: in an ordinary chart the first is not a house of relationship, but in a composite Hand calls it very important. It is the persona of the relationship, the impression it makes on its surroundings, and the extent to which the couple are regarded as a unit in their own right.
Step 8: Saturn
Saturn gets a step to itself because it can tell so much about the strengths and weaknesses of a relationship. Its house shows what areas are most likely to be structured, and rigidified if left unchecked. Its aspects show whether Saturn appears as endurance and reliability or as near impossibility, and Hand says that either way it is a reality that has to be accepted.
The Composite Ascendant Is Not The First House Cusp
This is the mechanical point most composite readings get wrong, and Hand is explicit about it in two separate places.
| Point | How it is obtained | What it is used for |
|---|---|---|
| Composite Ascendant | The nearer midpoint of the two natal Ascendants, by the same arithmetic as the planets | A sensitive point in the chart that can be aspected. Not used as a house cusp |
| Composite first house cusp | Derived from the composite Midheaven, at the latitude where the two people live | The actual cusp of the first house |
He calculates the midpoint Ascendant and then says he will not use it as the cusp of the first house. He does not discard it either. He keeps it in the chart as a point in its own right and supplies fifty delineations of planetary aspects to it.
The consequence people miss: the composite Ascendant may not fall in the first house at all. It can land anywhere from the eleventh house to the second, depending on how different the latitude of residence is from the birthplace latitudes.
Two further rules attach to it. It increases the importance of any planet conjunct or opposed to it, and through its aspects it describes the ways the energies of the relationship affect each partner. And it is read as an axis, a line running right across the chart, because its symbolism already includes the composite Descendant. A conjunction and an opposition to it are therefore not opposites in the ordinary sense.
Read Every House Against Its Opposite
Hand calls this the major difference between composite houses and natal ones, and it applies to every planet in every house in his book.
There are always two midpoints for any pair of planets, exactly opposite each other, and the nearer one is the one used. But the farther midpoint also has some effect, and that effect increases as the two natal planets approach opposition. So when reading the description of any composite planet in a house, it is a good idea to read it in terms of the opposite house as well, and where the natal pair is near opposition it is essential to take both houses into account.
His own summary: it is almost as if there were six paired houses in the composite chart rather than twelve separate ones, and the traditional twelve are retained only because one house in each pair is stronger.
The practical version is that a composite house placement is a two house statement every time, weighted by how far apart the two natal planets were.
The 150 Degree Rule
Related, and more specific. If the two planets being combined are more than 150 degrees apart on their shorter arc, the two midpoints are nearly equal in strength and both should be taken into consideration. Hand calls this the 150 degree rule, and once, in a case study, the quincunx rule.
Using both midpoints produces a permanent opposition between a pair of composite Suns, or Saturns, or whichever pair it was. He notes the precedent already exists in a natal chart, in the Moon's nodes. How to aspect a doubled body:
| Situation | What to do |
|---|---|
| A planet is conjunct either the nearer or the farther midpoint | Treat it as a conjunction |
| A planet is trine one midpoint and sextile the other | Blend the two readings, which he says are not that different |
| A planet is square both midpoints | Treat it as an ordinary square, nothing further needed |
The same doubling can happen to the whole house structure. If the two natal Midheavens are more than 150 degrees apart you get two complete sets of house cusps. His practice is to label both, read the nearer, and hold the farther in reserve as supplementary information, which is exactly what he does with two composite Ascendants in his Duke and Duchess of Windsor study.
Do The Signs Mean Anything In A Composite?
This is the one question about composite charts where the honest answer is that the source contradicts itself on a single printed page, so here is both halves.
The body text. Hand supplies no sign delineations at all: no rising sign, no planets in signs, no sign based house rulership, and he says this is not an oversight. Earlier astrologers using the technique felt that in a composite the signs are not real signs and the zodiac is only a measuring device, which he reports without asserting. His own position is that the matter has not really been settled, that the signs may have the same importance in composites as in other charts, that neither he nor anyone else has reached a firm conclusion, and that he leaves it to the reader. He omits them anyway, on the grounds that it would be unwise to delineate a component whose effect is unknown.
The footnote on the same page. It says that many recent experiences suggest the signs on the Ascendant and the signs containing the Sun and the Moon are important, that they have exactly the influence one would expect, and that the use of signs in a composite seems identical to their use in a natal chart.
Both statements are printed in the same book and he never amended either. What can be said with certainty is that he never retracted the body text, never supplied a single sign delineation, and that the footnote's endorsement is narrow: the Ascendant sign and the signs of the Sun and Moon, nothing more, and still no sign based house rulership.
One side effect of the omission that he does state cleanly: because signs are not used, everything in the book works in either the tropical or the sidereal zodiac.
What Hand Does Not Give You
Two absences worth knowing before you go looking for them.
Orbs. No orb table, no per planet or per aspect orb, no aspect strength scale, no rule for when an aspect is too wide to count, and not even an index entry for orbs. Any orb scheme you use on a composite is somebody else's.
Chart rulership. Because signs are not used for house rulership, there is no composite chart ruler, no composite house ruler and no dispositor logic. The book never says what replaces them.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Do You Look At First In A Composite Chart?
Not the composite. Hand's first step is the two natal charts, read for capacity for relationship. The first thing you look at inside the composite is any house holding four or more planets, and only if there is no such cluster do the Sun and Moon houses take the lead.
Are Composite Houses More Important Than Composite Aspects?
They answer different questions. The houses describe the most important issues the relationship will revolve around. The aspects to the Sun and Moon describe how the couple deals with those issues, and Hand says those aspects can make or break a relationship.
Is The Composite Ascendant The Same As The Composite First House Cusp?
No, and Hand names them separately for exactly that reason. The composite Ascendant is the midpoint of the two natal Ascendants and is used as an aspectable sensitive point. The first house cusp is derived from the composite Midheaven at the latitude of residence. They can differ by a whole house or more.
Do You Read The Sign A Composite Planet Is In?
Hand gives no sign doctrine and says the effect of signs in a composite is unknown and unsettled. A footnote on the same page says the Ascendant sign and the signs holding the Sun and Moon behave exactly as they do natally. He never resolved it, so neither should a reading pretend to.
Can A Composite Chart Tell Me Whether A Relationship Will Happen?
No, and he says so directly. If you cast the composite of two people who have just met, house occupancy alone cannot tell you whether the relationship will go anywhere. What a strong first house tells you is conditional: if it does go beyond the initial meeting, it will be an important one.
How Many Planets Make A Stellium In A Composite?
Four or more in one house is Hand's threshold for strong house emphasis, and it is the trigger for the weighting rule that puts that house ahead of the Sun and Moon houses.
Recommended Reading
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- Robert Hand, Planets in Composite: Analyzing Human Relationships (Para Research, 1975). Chapter Two, pp. 31 to 37, for the nine step reading order, the cluster rule, the house ranking, Venus and Mars, Saturn, the outer planet aspect rule, the 150 degree rule and the signs question with its footnote. Chapter One, pp. 11 to 18, for the two midpoints, the casting procedure and the two Ascendants. Chapter Four, pp. 71 to 80, for the general meaning of the composite houses, the paired house rule and the composite Ascendant as a chart factor. Chapters Five to Fourteen, opening pages, for the division of labour between each planet's house and its aspects.
Continue Learning
Next: What Is a Composite Chart and Composite Chart Placements. See also Capacity for Relationship in a Birth Chart, Synastry vs. Composite vs. Davison, What is a Davison Chart and How to Read a Davison Chart.