Co-Star is one of many astrological apps that generates your birth chart based on the time, date, and place of your birth. Along with daily horoscopes and cryptic, esoteric notifications with personalized life advice, Co-Star offers users to compare their charts to those of their friends. This can be a fun way to analyze the way you and your friends relate to each other and find better ways to communicate. Of course, people use birth chart comparison apps and websites to decide their romantic compatibility with a love interest.
Astrology has been used to calculate compatibility for years, and it can be an insightful scientific tool to help you understand your partner. You can compare Venus signs to see how you function in love, or Mars signs to compare your sexual nature, or Moon signs to compare the way you feel and express emotions. The options are endless once you go through all the planetary placements, then astrological houses, then aspects (information that can tell you what planets are conjunct, sextile, trine, square, or in opposition to each other and what this means for you and your partner). All of this can be illuminating, but sometimes overwhelmingly specific—how do you avoid becoming obsessed?
The truth is that while astrology is real and worth learning more about if it interests you, all friendships and relationships require work. The success of your connections with other people relies on the effort you both put in to make things work, and the paths that your lives are on. Astrology can help you understand why people behave the way they do, but it isn’t a complete picture of who they are or who they can be. If you are a Libra moon and your partner is a Capricorn moon, this doesn’t mean that you will never emotionally connect. It just means that in order for connection to happen smoothly, you will have to hold space for the more structured, logical, and reserved way that your partner feels things, and your partner will have to allow you the freedom that your heart desires.
Have fun with astrology. (And download other apps than Co-Star, ones that are run by human astrologers rather than artificial intelligence. Time Passages, Sanctuary, Time Nomad, or Nebula are good alternatives). It is there for you and your partner to enjoy, but it shouldn’t close you off from valuable connections.
In general, it is true that signs of the same element are more compatible. For example, Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius are fire signs and tend to interact well together. However, you and someone else can have fire Sun placements, but your moon signs are in different elements. Does this make you incompatible? No, it’s just another personal detail, another layer of your being that allows you to grow together both as individuals and partners.
There may be signs that you notoriously don’t get along with, but this doesn’t mean that you turn them away because of it—you may hate Geminis, but the Gemini you’re currently talking to may have placements in a bunch of other signs that work well with you. Or, the very reason why you hate Geminis is because there’s actually something you need to learn from the energy they offer, and the partner you’re suddenly turned off from once Co-Star pulls up their chart is actually the person who will bring needed insight into your life.
As consulting astrologer Diana Brownstone says, “The bottom line is that you should never dismiss a romantic relationship with someone just by their sun sign, moon sign, or ascendant—because they could have other planets in line with yours. It’s a whole science, and the longer you study it, the more quickly and precisely you can come to conclusions.”
Good luck, and don’t be afraid to give people a chance! You never know what kinds of connections you could make.