Situationship astrology: reading the in-between
A chart can describe how two people handle ambiguity. It cannot tell you what they intend.
3 min read · Published 31 August 2026
The short answer
Astrology cannot tell you what someone else intends, whether an undefined relationship will become defined, or whether they will come back. What a chart comparison can honestly do is describe how each person tends to handle ambiguity, commitment and directness — which is useful preparation for a conversation, and no substitute for having it.
The question people are actually asking
Almost always some version of: what does this mean to them, and is it going anywhere.
Astrology cannot answer either. The first requires knowing another person's internal state, and the second requires predicting a decision they have not made. Neither is available from a birth chart, and any reading claiming otherwise is telling you what you want to hear.
This is the same category as the questions on our refusal list — and it is worth being direct, because readings about someone else's intentions are among the most commonly sold and least defensible.
What a chart can describe
| Factor | What it might describe |
|---|---|
| Venus placement | How someone expresses affection and what they find valuable |
| Moon placement | What someone needs to feel secure — often the real issue in ambiguity |
| Mercury | How directly someone communicates, and whether they say things plainly |
| Fixed vs mutable emphasis | Tolerance for open-endedness and unresolved situations |
| Saturn contacts in synastry | Where structure and commitment become a theme, for better or worse |
| 7th house | What someone looks for in partnership and may project onto it |
Every row describes a tendency, not an intention. A chart suggesting someone communicates indirectly does not tell you what they are being indirect about.
The genuinely useful version
Turn the question around. Instead of asking what they want, ask what you are actually asking for and why you have not asked for it.
A chart is reasonably good at this, because it is a structured prompt for self-examination and that is the one thing it can legitimately do. Looking at your own Moon placement and asking what you need to feel secure is a real exercise.
The information you want is held by one person and it is not you. Every hour spent interpreting their chart is an hour not spent asking them, and the chart will never produce the answer.
Why astrology gets used this way
Because the alternative is uncomfortable, and because the situation genuinely is ambiguous. When there is no information available, a system that produces some feels better than sitting with none.
That is a completely understandable impulse and it is worth naming rather than mocking. Uncertainty about whether someone cares about you is distressing, and looking for a framework is a reasonable response to distress.
The problem is only that this particular framework cannot supply the missing information, and using it delays the conversation that can. AsterNym's match will describe two patterns and will not tell you what someone intends — which is a limit rather than a shortcoming.
Common questions
- Can astrology tell me if a situationship will become a relationship?
- No. That requires predicting a decision the other person has not made, which no astrological technique can do. A chart can describe how each person tends to handle ambiguity and commitment, which is preparation for a conversation rather than a substitute for one.
- What can a chart say about an undefined relationship?
- It can describe tendencies — how someone expresses affection through Venus, what they need for security through the Moon, how directly they communicate through Mercury, and their tolerance for open-endedness. All of these are tendencies rather than intentions.
- Is it wrong to read someone else's chart?
- It is worth noticing that running a chart for someone who has not consented, in order to work out how they feel about you, is a different act from reading your own. It is common and understandable, and the person concerned has no say in it.
- Why do people use astrology for situationships?
- Because the situation is genuinely ambiguous and a system that produces information feels better than having none. That is an understandable response to distress — the difficulty is that this framework cannot supply the missing information and using it delays the conversation that can.