Twins in Modern Times
A REVISED STUDY OF TWINS IN MODERN TIMES
I have always been interested in finding out how come twins with virtually the same chart can look and behave so differently, or with identical twins how come they behave differently. In this article I am researching the difference in the temperament of the twins.
Twins are either Fraternal or (dizygotic) meaning twins resulting from the simultaneous fertilization of two egg cells, or Identical or (monozygotic) twins resulting from the fertilization of a single egg the subsequently divides to give two separate fetuses.
With the fraternal twins the different temperaments are obvious, with the identical twins genetically they will seem the same, but during the pregnancy alterations to the individual DNA structures are evident and documented. (Inherited Epigenetic Traits – Alicia Mae Prater. There is another interesting article written by Robert Roy Britt – Identical Twins not so Identical.) Further studies are available via the internet.
Increasing multiple births pose a challenge to Astrologers world wide. The reason for this is that the babies are literally born 1 to 2 minutes apart. The degrees and minutes on the angles in their individual radix charts are so close that it is very difficult to use the tools we have on hand to determine the difference in nature and temperament of the twins.
The temperament is a mixture of elements that can tell us more about the native than anything else in the chart. The temperament is the aura through which everything else in the chart is read.
Temperaments:
According to the Traditional and Medieval Physicians
- Sanguine is Hot and Moist (H M), intelligent well read and social. (Scribes)
Illnesses of the mind, anxiety and danger of strokes
- Choleric is Hot and Dry (H D), action driven. (Soldiers)
Illnesses of an acute and violent nature, acute fevers and heart attacks
- Melancholic is Cold and Dry (C D), practical, careful and takes time to do things. (Farmers)
Illnesses like melancholy, depression but generally blessed with good health
- Phlegmatic is Cold and Moist (C M), needs others, clingier, caring and can be lazy. (Nurses, healers and servants)
Illnesses where there is phlegm, respiratory infection etc.
I read an article called ‘Discerning the differences between twins with Jyotish’, written by a fellow Vedic astrologer Richard Fidler. What interested me was his use of the houses, to quote Richard; the third house describes siblings, more specifically the domain of the next born sibling. His theory rests largely on the idea that the third house represents the next born sibling. The first house (yourself) is the third from the eleventh making you your older sibling’s ‘next born sibling’.
We still look at the birth chart, also known as the radix, as it is the actual chart of the twins, but to work out the differences we need to turn the chart and add this individual information discerning the differences to the information gathered form the birth chart. Deriving one house from another is called turning the chart.
The ascendant of the birth chart will still describe the twin’s characteristics, but to discern the differences turning the chart comes in handy. The older twin will be three houses from the ascendant in a clock wise direction so the older twin’s ascendant would be the eleventh house. The younger sibling will also be measured from the ascendant of the birth chart and as this sibling is the younger we turn the chart by three houses from the ascendant in an anti-clockwise direction. The third house will represent the ascendant of the younger twin. Simply put to see the differences we turn the chart three houses above the ascendant for the older and three houses below for the younger.
Using this method I have looked at the temperament of twins where the ascendant degree is the same, to see if the differences are evident. Firstly I work out the temperament of the radix (Natal chart) then I add the sign on the cusp of the eleventh house and its ruler to the temperament of the radix for the older twin. For the younger twin look at the sign on the cusp of the third house and its ruler then add this to the temperament of the radix. This will show the difference in temperaments describing the different personalities, illnesses and even in the ‘identical twins’ the difference in their looks and bodies.
Case studies of two sets of Identical twins and one set of Fraternal Twins
In these case studies I have used conventional methods to discuss the differences of the twins. Then I turned the charts as discussed above used to discern differences in twins born minutes apart, to see if this shows the events that cannot be found in the twin’s birth charts as well as correlating to the differences in their temperaments and way life has treated them.
Case study 1
Female Fraternal Twins born over an hour apart
Twins that are born over an hour apart have charts that are different, it is very easy to work out events and individual temperaments as the signs on the angles are all different. This is evident with the charts for the fraternal twins born over an hour apart.
They work for the same doctor and have identical voices, it’s impossible to tell who is answering the phone. If we look at their third houses both are ruled by Jupiter and combust. No one, not even their parents, could tell who was who when it came to talking, the Sun hiding their voices. Jupiter is combust.
There are some noticeable differences in their appearances and temperaments if one really looks for them, but at a glance they seem identical.
The older twin has a Choleric temperament with a touch of Melancholy. She is action driven and inclined to be slimmer than her twin. She enjoys sport and activities. She has been the same all her life as well as married to the same man, the melancholic side of her needs this stability. She is practical but bright in the clothes she wears, prefers reds and earth colors. She is the more action driven of the two, motivating her sister and helping out when ever she is unable to cope.
The younger twin has a Sanguine temperament with a touch of phlegmatic temperament added. She prefers studying, socializing and reading to sport and exercise so is inclined to carry more weight than her sister. She has had a few careers in her life and the work she does requires more skills than her sister has. They are now working together and she loves the stability her sister gives her in the work place so has remained in this job for years. She has had two marriages, the first husband did not give her enough attention, but the second husband is the love of her life.
As you can see we have two different charts here, there are some similarities as would be expected, but it is easy to work out their differences.
I know of sisters that were always mistaken as identical twins through out their schooling years even into their adult years, totally different temperaments but evidence in their charts showing the similarities in features.
Twins born with different signs on their angles will show similarities, or not, just like other siblings born a year or more apart
Case study 2
Female Twins born 13 minutes apart
These twins were born 13 minutes apart they have the same sign on their Ascendant and Descendant. In their case there are different signs on the Mid heaven and the Imum coeli or fourth house cusp. The different natures of areas in their lives are obvious, tertiary education, careers, their homes and daily routines.
In appearance they are identical, luckily the degrees on their ascendant fall within the range of different Dwads.
DWADS: In Astrology a dwad also known as a dewadasama or duad is one twelfth of
a zodiacal sign. Dwads were developed by Hindu astrologers 2001 BC; they broke the thirty degree sign down into twelve equal parts, two point five degrees each. It is based on the principle of ‘the part being a reflection of the whole’. The twelve signs of the Zodiac are placed within the confines of one sign. For your reference I have added a dwasasama or dwad table below.
DWAD OR DWADASAMA TABLE
AR TR GE CA LE VI LI SC SG CP AQ PI
0 – 2.5° AR TR GE CA LE VI LI SC SG CP AQ PI
2.5° – 5° TR GE CA LE VI LI SC SG CP AQ PI AR
5° – 7.5° GE CA LE VI LI SC SG CP AQ PI AR TA
7.5° – 10° CA LE VI LI SC SG CP AQ PI AR TA GE
10° – 12.5° LE VI LI SC SG CP AQ PI AR TA GE CA
12.5° – 15° VI LI SC SG CP AQ PI AR TA GE CA LE
15° – 17.5° LI SC SG CP AQ PI AR TA GE CA LE VI
17.5° – 20° SC SG CP AQ PI AR TA GE CA LE VI LI
20° – 22.5° SG CP AQ PI AR TA GE CA LE VI LI SC
22.5° – 25° CA AQ PI AR TA GE CA LE VI LI SC SG
25° – 27.5° AQ PI AR TA GE CA LE VI LI SC SG CA
27.5° – 30° PI AR TA GE CA LE VI LI SC SG CA AQ
These signs within a sign by virtue of their rulers account for subtle expressions found with in the different degrees of that sign.
The temperament of both sisters works out to be Melancholic. By adding the sign of the dwad on their ascendants to this temperament we will be able to discern the difference in personality and nature.
For example we have the older twin who has an ascendant of eleven degrees forty four minutes of Capricorn; the dwad is Taurus adding more cold and dry to the Choleric temperament. She will have more of Melancholic nature.
The younger twin has an ascendant of sixteen degrees five minutes of Capricorn; she has a different dwad to her sister. The dwad is Cancer, cold and moist adding a more Phlegmatic flavor to her personality.
For the older to further discern the difference in temperament and to see if there was a correlation to what the dwad showed, I turned the chart.
Taking the eleventh house sign Scorpio a Cold and Moist sign, and Scorpio’s ruler Mars, who is occidental, rising after the Sun, and in the sign of Pisces giving Mars a Cold and Dry temperament. We can add cold and moist and a cold and dry to the Melancholic temperament of the birth chart, the older twin remains melancholic.
Looking at the younger twins birth chart, the third house has the sign Pisces on the cusp. This is a cold and moist sign. Pisces ruler is Jupiter also rising after the Sun is occidental so moist in the hot sign of Sagittarius giving the Sun a hot and moist temperament.
Add cold and moist as well as hot and moist to the melancholic temperament in Susan’s birth chart and we get a cold and moist or phlegmatic temperament. This method of turning the chat and working out the temperament correlates with her dwad, the younger twin is more phlegmatic in temperament.
The older more practical twin works quietly in the background as an accountant. Her younger twin, who also works as an accountant in the same company, deals directly with people as she is a lot more sociable and needs interact more with people than he older sister.
By using the craft of rectification I was able to find the events in the charts including the turned charts.
The younger twin was the first to get married only to be tragically widowed just over a year later. She re-married two years after the loss of her first husband.
The older twin has been is the same marriage, to see the differences in their marriages it is important to look at the ruler of marriage, the Moon, as Cancer is the sign on the seventh house cusp of both charts.
In the older twins chart her Moon is three degrees away from the cusp of her fourth house cusp. In traditional astrology if a planet is on the cusp of a house it has power over that house. The fourth house signifies our root, our security, showing that the marriage gives her the security her melancholic nature desires.
The younger twin on the other hand has a different sign on her fourth cusp so the Moon does not have any power over her security.
Utilizing the dwad’s as well as turning the chart I further explored their marriages to see how theses methods worked in discerning the differences in their marriages.
Scorpio is the dwad on the seventh house cusp of the older twin, adding fixedness to her marriage. If we turn the chart taking her Ascendant as the eleventh house, her marriage would be seven houses from eleven which would be the fifth house. The sign on the fifth house is Taurus another fixed sign.
She is not ecstatically happy in her marriage, she feels its safe and secure so she is afraid to let go of it. Thoughts of leaving are overruled by the security her husband brings to the partnership. It is interesting to note that the Moon in a mutable sign would be restless, yet her dwad and turned sign ruling her marriage are fixed and with the Moon having power over her fourth house she will find it difficult to leave her marriage.
The younger Twin on the other hand has Sagittarius as the dwad of the seventh house in her birth chart. This is a double bodied sign and can show more than one marriage.
By turning her chart and taking the third house as her Ascendant, the seventh house from the third will be the ninth house. The sign on the ninth house is Virgo another double bodied sign. She has had more than one marriage.
Being an astrologer I was curious to find in the charts where the tragic death of the younger twin’s first husband was shown. It was not evident in the birth chart but when I looked at Mercury the planet that rules her turned seventh house with Virgo on the cusp, I noticed that not only is Mercury in detriment it is conjunct the fixed star Acules.
Acules is a malefic fixed star associated with Orion, blindness and death. Fixed stars can color an event if they are closely conjunct to a planet.
If one reads up in the Literature about Orion, this fixed star has the nature of blindness and violence as it is situated in the joint of the Scorpions tail. Orion had his eyes burnt out by Bacchus for the way Orion treated his daughter. Orion great, strong and arrogant lifted his head to the Sun and his eye sight returned making him feel immortal to all earthly beasts. Yet he was slain from the sting in the Scorpions tail.
The younger twin’s first husband like Orion was an overconfident young man. Investing blindly in the market and living well above his means got him into such deep debt that he ended his life. By using the dwad and turning the chart I was able to pick this up this event, whereas in the radix it does not show.
Both are melancholic in their appearance, the Capricorn rising perfectly describing their appearances, not easy to tell apart. Both enjoy a practical sense of dress and appearance. A small difference in appearance shows in their choice of clothes. The older is the more practical plain but smartly dressed of the two.
The younger twin prefers accessories and sparkles, pleats and lace (Pisces does not like boundaries so will prefer more accessories). She wears more white clothes (Moon rules white). Her turned ascendant is Pisces and her dwad is Cancer.
Case Study 3
Male identical twins born 10 minutes apart
What is common in all twins is the closeness and connection they have with each other. Though these boys banter and tease each other their love for each other is extremely powerful. Should one get hurt the other will actually feel the physical pain. They will pick up if their twin is feeling unhappy or anxious even if they are at the opposite ends of the world. Their mother had a very hard time raising them, never knowing who was at fault for any misdeed as neither would blame the other, so they both got punished together. They are identical twins.
Both have a choleric temperament, by turning the chart and looking at the temperament of the eleventh house the older twin will become more melancholic with a touch of phlegmatic added into his nature. Of the two he is the more careful. He has Aquarius as the dwad on his ascendant and this is a fixed sign adding fixedness to compliment the turned melancholic nature. He was the first to be married three and a half years before his younger twin. This can be seen by the difference in the degrees on the midheaven.
The younger twin remains choleric when we add the turned third house temperament to the choleric temperament of the birth chart. His dwad on his ascendant is Pisces and he is the less stable of the two. More impulsive and less inclined to respect boundaries.
The younger twin feels he is very handsome and with Pisces ruled by Jupiter the benefic as the dwad on his ascendant, he is a good looking chap. Both are and as they have gotten older the differences in appearance have come out. The older twin has Aquarius ruled by Saturn as his dwad on his ascendant, has a thinner, older look to him.
The older twin with Cancer as the sign on his turned ascendant, the eleventh house has a more caring nurturing nature and softer towards woman and his mother. The younger has Scorpio as the sign on his turned ascendant, the third house and is the more intense and action driven of the two. Mars is the natural ruler of Scorpio and the younger has more affinity to men and his father.
The younger more impulsive twin has had a child out of wedlock, the dwad on the fifth house cusp of his chart is Cancer, a fertile sign, and conjunct the fixed star Wega in this case giving an element of changeability and unusually lascivious to the affairs of that house. His turned fifth house the seventh house has Pisces a mutable sign on its cusp. Pisces knows no boundaries.
To compare with the older twin I looked at the dwad on the older twin’s fifth house and it is Gemini a less fertile sign but is a sign that can show twins, he may be the one to produce twins! Scorpio is the sign on the turned fifth house, the third house, and though this is a fertile sign it is of a fixed nature.
The dwad’s on the tenth house, together with the twins different temperaments describe the total difference in their careers.
The older twin sells retirement policies, his tenth house dwad is Saturn ruler of old age. With his melancholic temperament he is very good at convincing clients the benefits of being financially careful, enabling them to retire in comfort. Mercury is the natural ruler of sales and ruler of the twin’s tenth house cusp.
The younger on the other hand is an electrician with his own business, he has employed his dad. The dwad on his tenth house cusp is Aquarius which is the ruler of electricity. This career choice goes well with Sean’s choleric temperament. If we use the turned chart method and look at his turned tenth house the twelfth house is ruled by the Sun and Mercury who rules electricity is just on the cusp. The Sun rules solar power, an area he is very interested in. Mercury also rules the radical tenth and this is further testimony of a career in electricity.
Case Studies for twins born Minutes apart
The rapid progress in studies on infertility, a rising problem in both species and humans, is advancing enabling couples with fertility problems to conceive and have children.
During the process of IVF several ovum are collected from the ovaries of either the birth mother or a surrogate ovum donor. These eggs are then fertilized by either the partner’s sperm or a donor’s sperm. The eggs that become fertilized with the sperm are implanted into the uterus of the mother. To be on the safe side several of the fertilized eggs are implanted.
Statistics are showing more often than not that more than one of these fertilized eggs grows to full term. This method of conceiving is physically taxing on the woman as well as being very expensive. The option of being able to have more than one child in one pregnancy is appealing and practical.
The mothers carrying the implanted twins or multiple babies are carefully monitored by their fertility specialists. When the time is right a caesarian section is performed.
Caesarians can be performed in twins conceived naturally by choice of the mother or due to an emergency.
These babies come out within one to two minutes of each other. Leaving the astrologer a challenge as the charts are similar. They are born with the same degrees on all cusps with only a small difference in minutes not enabling us the use of fixed stars and dwad’s. Now this is where turning the chart comes into good use.
This is the situation we are dealing with more and more today, we need to have our wits about us and be trained enough to use every tool we have in our box to be able to delineate and give individual readings for each twin.
These twins are not all identical and are often different sexed. I worked with several sets to test the method of using the eleventh house to represent the ascendant of the older twin and the third house to represent the ascendant of the younger twin.
In all these cases this method accurately describes the differences between the twins as far as temperaments and illnesses are concerned. The majority of the twins born 1 -2 minutes apart that I have studied are still too young to have had any events or careers. This method gave me good results with the few older twins I have managed to use it on.
Case Study One
IVF Male and Female fraternal twins
The birth charts show both brother and sister to have a phlegmatic temperament.
The little boy is the older twin so we turn the chart by three houses from the ascendant in a clockwise direction and add the sign and ruler of the eleventh house, Capricorn and Saturn, to the shared phlegmatic temperament. This shows him to have some extra melancholic temperament to add to the basic phlegmatic temperament.
For the little girl, as she is the younger we turn the chart by three houses from the ascendant in the anti-clockwise direction and add the sign and ruler of the third house, Aries and Mars, to the shared phlegmatic temperament. She has a more choleric temperament added to the basic phlegmatic temperament.
So when the chart is turned we can discern the differences between the two, he will be more melancholic and she will be more choleric.
According to the parents the boy is strong and solid like a little tank the one needing. I have met these babies and have seen how they look and behave. He is dark in coloring, bigger and stronger than his sister with dark hair and brown eyes. His health has been better than his sisters.
Due to the cramped conditions during the pregnancy it seems as if his foot was squashed and he was born with a bit of a club foot. Saturn is the ruler of L11 and Pluto is conjunct the cusp, showing the outside problem causing this problem. In the turned chart his foot is shown by the radical tenth house which is his turned twelfth house. It has been repaired and the little boy is as sturdy as ever.
The little girl is tiny and delicate, her coloring is lighter, strawberry blond hair and blue eyes, gets red in the face when upset or crying. She suffers from the onset of acute attacks of illness and high fevers. Looking at her turned ascendant the third house it has Aries on the cusp and is ruled by Mars. She chirps all the time like a little bird and is very interested in all going on around her.
Case Study two
Fraternal twins born by C Section
This set of twins I have included as there was a query as to why the older sister was so much more successful than her brother.
The temperament for both sister and brother is Melancholic.
By turning the chart the younger male remains the same, melancholic, and his sister is blessed with a lighter sanguine temperament.
The sister is the more successful of the two and there are many factors showing this. Her turned ascendant the eleventh house has the Sun shining on the cusp, she will be noticed. Sanguine temperament will give her a well read intellectual slant. Her turned second house is ruled by Mars who is exalted, so she is resourceful. There is also the fixed star Bungula, a benefic giving her an air of position and honor.
Now if we turn the chart to see why the brother is not as successful as his sister, first off he remains melancholic so inclined to be slow and careful before in moving forward. He has a malefic fixed star Sadulsuud on his turned ascendant, the third house. Sadulsuud though showing a gentle side to a person also shows a contentious side causing ruin, trouble and disgrace. His turned second or resourceful house the fourth house is ruled by Jupiter who is in fall when in the sign of Capricorn.
I went as far as to look at the South Node. The South Node identifies memories of where we come from. To get individual memories for the twins it is once again necessary to turn the chart.
For the older female twin the South Node falls into her turned first house. This gives her a good sense of self as well as being self motivated and a fighter.
By looking at the turned chart for her brother the South Node falls into his turned ninth house where he feels that things need to adapt to him and can be uncompromising and stubborn.
There is just so much information one can glean from turning the chart in twins. The differences are discernable.
Wrapping up with some interesting points
Where we do not have the luxury of different degrees on the cusps, we need to use the traditional methods available to predict events and to be able to advise on timing of events for these twins. I feel that by turning the chart and using the above methods, we will be able to predict the different timing for the twins. This was successfully achieved in twins old enough for events to have occurred.
Looking at the Degrees and minutes on the cusps in the charts of twins born minutes apart, we will notice that the degrees are the same but the minutes are different. When timing events where the degrees are the same, it is important to look at the minutes on the cusps to see if the time between events is significant. There have been the cases where the one twin would get married a followed shortly by the other.
A set of twins old enough for me to have events to work with came to me for a consultation, with their permission, I added them to my research group. They were born two minutes apart due to complications resulting in an emergency caesarian section. The brother was the first born and he finished his qualification six months before his sister. As they started their studies together one would expect them to complete and graduate together, this did not happen as the sister had to repeat a subject.
He had a difference of thirty one minutes on the cusp of his ninth house, the house of higher learning as well as his tenth house of profession. Thirty one minutes in a progressed chart works out to be about six months.
As the Solar return and progressed Moon will only change by one degree in the individual charts. These can be used to show timing for events, by turning the chart we can see how the event will be different for each twin. By understanding their temperaments we will get an idea as to how they individually will react or handle the event.
When working with relocated charts it is very important to remember that the original birth chart is still the main chart describing the twin. For events we need to look at the relevant house rulers of the relocated chart.
I have looked at the Antiscia of the planet to see if they play a role in discerning the difference, this was not successful; neither was looking at the opposite signs. There are those times when we all will live in our shadows, twins included.
Conclusion
In conclusion looking at the above mentioned studies I feel by turning the chart and working with the different temperaments will get us good results in discerning the differences of twins born minutes apart.
This article is just the beginning of research to look at the situation we are all facing when presented with a chart for a client who is a product of a multiple birth. As well as where the time for the twins is the same. I am hoping that my fellow astrologers will take up the challenge and see if this method works for their clients. Keep records and share the information, future astrologers will find this research greatly beneficial.
