Wellness

How to Use Your Birth Chart to Understand What You Really Need in Love

Written by:Maressa BrownPublished on: September 2, 2026

If you’ve ever consulted astrology to navigate your compatibility with a potential or existing partner, you likely looked up how your sun signs fare. While this does offer insight into your identity, self-image, and how you experience confidence—sun sign compatibility is just one piece of the nuanced, complex puzzle that is your birth chart.

A birth chart “maps the entire architecture of who you are,” says Grace McGrade, co-founder and Head Astrologer at Stars Align, a dating app that leverages your natal placements to find your match, “including the parts you don't show anyone, the hidden hungers and unspoken needs that determine whether a relationship sustains you or depletes you.”

Not only does understanding a birth chart help you understand a partner, but it also helps you better understand yourself and what you need in a relationship. That’s why McGrade says it can be a great tool for finding someone to build a life with—especially if you know where to look.

Of course, birth charts are complex and multi-faceted, but there are some key areas to focus on when it comes to romantic compatibility.

Look at Your Seventh House of Partnership or Descendant (DC)

Every birth chart is split into 12 slices, referred to as Houses, which represent various areas of your life from your family and home to your career and public image. (You can determine your full birth chart here.) The Seventh House of Partnership, for instance, involves all manner of one-on-one relationships: romantic, platonic, or professional.

By noting the zodiac sign that sits on the cusp of the Seventh House, also referred to as your Descendant (DC), you can get a read on how you approach relationships, your ideal qualities in a partner, the type of partner you’ll magnetize, and how you behave in your partnerships. (If you don’t know your Descendant, you can use a Descendant calculator.)

For example, if your Descendant is Aquarius—the air sign known for its need to strike out against convention—you gravitate towards, and magnetize, partners who are humanitarian, eccentric, and possibly even contrarian. You crave the opportunity to connect with a lover in an intellectual, individualistic way where both parties have plenty of free rein to be uniquely themselves. And if your Descendant is in Cancer, you desire and attract partners who are deeply caregiving, emotionally astute, and sentimental. You’ll thrive in a relationship that’s cozy, committed, and centered on building a home life together.

Worth noting: The zodiac signs that sit on the cusps of the axis of the First House and Seventh House also offer helpful lessons on how your sense of self relates to your bonds. How do you show up in the world, see yourself, and nourish your own identity—and how does that relate to what you’re looking for and attract in romantic partners?

Consider Your Mars Placement

Mars, the planet of action, energy, sex, ambition, and passion, tells you how you pursue your needs in love. It also offers intel on the qualities in a partner that turn you on.

“In compatibility, Mars matters enormously for physical chemistry,” notes McGrade. “But it also reveals your fighting style, how you assert your needs, what it looks like when you don't get what you want.”

Refer to your Mars placement for insight into how you act on desire and what you need to feel fireworks with a lover. (If you don’t have your birth chart handy, you can use a Mars sign calculator.)

For instance, if your Mars is in Leo, you’re confident and bold when pursuing a romantic connection, happy to ask a potential partner out first and direct about your fantasies. And you’re drawn to a partner who’s similarly fiery and full of joie d’vivre. On the other hand, if you were born when Mars was in Gemini, you go about chasing down your desires by gathering information, having lively conversation, socializing, and traveling. And you’re instantly attracted to someone who stimulates your mind and can flit from one fun-filled activity to the next with you.

What You Need to Feel Fireworks, Based on Your Mars Sign

Aries: An action-oriented partner who wastes no time getting down to business
Taurus: A down-to-earth lover who excels at slow-burn seduction
Gemini: A brilliant, enthusiastic conversationalist with an exceptional sexting game
Cancer: A fellow homebody who enjoys walks down memory lane, snuggles, and laughter
Leo: A charismatic optimist who knows how to command the spotlight
Virgo: A service-oriented intellectual who aims to please
Libra: An idealist who brings beauty, peacefulness, and balance into the bedroom
Scorpio: A bold, courageous partner who matches your thirst for a challenge and high sex drive
Sagittarius: A jovial adventure-seeker who believes in going big or going home
Capricorn: A high-achieving pragmatist who values sensuality
Aquarius: A progressive lover who strikes out against convention
Pisces: A creative type who understands their sensitivities and dreaminess

Take Note of Your Venus

Named for the Goddess of Love, your Venus placement tells a story about how you experience and define beauty, pleasure, romance, and harmony—so it’s undoubtedly integral to uncovering what will bring you the most bliss in your relationships. (If you don’t know your Venus, you can find your Venus sign calculator to pinpoint it.) It’s the placement that reflects your love language, so when you’re acquainted with it, you’re more aware of how you show love and which displays of affection resonate most with you.

The Most Compatible Venus Signs

Finding someone whose Venus sign matches your own is a win-win. A couple of other signs you’ll hit it off with:

Aries: Leo, Sagittarius
Taurus: Cancer, Virgo
Gemini: Libra, Aquarius
Cancer: Taurus, Virgo
Leo: Gemini, Libra
Virgo: Taurus, Cancer
Libra: Gemini, Leo
Scorpio: Cancer, Capricorn
Sagittarius: Aries, Aquarius
Capricorn: Taurus, Scorpio
Aquarius: Gemini, Sagittarius
Pisces: Taurus, Scorpio

“Your Venus sign describes what you naturally attract, often without trying, and what you're instinctively drawn to,” points out McGrade. “If Mars passionately pursues, Venus receives. It's also how you express love when you're not overthinking it—the instinctive, uncontrived version of your affection.”

If you were born when Venus was in Pisces, for instance, you “dissolve into people and want a fantasy,” notes McGrade. Or, say, you were born when Venus was in Virgo, you express love by leveraging your attention to detail and research savvy and through acts of service, and you’ll appreciate a partner who is equally precise, thoughtful, and who excites you intellectually.

The Love Languages and Venus Signs

Learn which Venus signs are most likely to practice each love language.

Physical Touch: Aries, Taurus, Scorpio
Acts of Service: Virgo, Capricorn, Aquarius
Gifts: Leo, Libra
Words of Affirmation: Gemini, Leo
Quality Time: Cancer, Sagittarius, Pisces

How to Make the Most of This Celestial Wisdom in a Relationship

When you begin a relationship with someone, your chart interacts with theirs, creating a whole new experience that reflects how you two connect and clash. The study of compatibility in astrology is called synastry, and there are a bevy of layers to explore. Maybe you discover that your sun is conjunct your partner’s moon, which promotes harmony between purpose and emotions. Or perhaps you have a fated-feeling bond because your North and South Nodes, linked to the past and karma, are activated.

“Synastry can show you the texture of a connection, where the friction exists, what a person activates in you that no one else does,” shares McGrade.

If you’re single, familiarizing yourself with the type of partner who turns you on and feels like home can guide you to a match. Or, if you’re already in a relationship, this knowledge can empower you to speak up for what you need from your partner. No two charts will ever be entirely aligned—but having a sense of what you require to feel seen and satisfied in love, based on your own placements, can make it easier to go to bat for your desires.

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