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If you look at the placement of planets in your chart, you may see a concentration in one area. Or, your planets may be scattered around the chart. This is significant in chart interpretation. There are seven planetary patterns (or chart types) and they describe your overall temperament. This is based on where their energy is concentrated, and what planets are emphasized. When relationship planets and/or houses are involved, there is a significant impact on your love life. Astrologer Marc Edmund Jones first identified and analyzed these seven types, hence their name: “Jones Patterns.” Note that only the ten major planets are considered in these patterns.
Please view this image from The Sabian Assembly to get a visual for each of these patterns.
The Bundle
The most concentrated of all the chart types, planets are grouped within 120 degrees, or 1/3 of your chart. Five houses (at the most) are occupied. This pattern creates a focus on one area of life, to the exclusion of everything else. If these houses include the 5th (romance and children), 7th (committed relationships), or 8th (intimacy), romantic partnerships can become that focus. All your eggs, so to speak, are in the relationship basket. Your love life may go through cycles of intense activity, due to transits or progressions activating your planets. It can be very difficult to step back and gain perspective on what’s happening. On the other hand, if none of the relationship houses are included in your planetary bundle, relationships may be less important to you. Note that transits/progressions activating your empty houses will offer opportunities to experience the “excluded” portions of your life.
This pattern is associated with specialists. If your relationship houses are occupied, you have a gift that is based on your talent for one-on-one interactions.
The Bowl
Planets occupy 1/2 of your chart (six houses). This pattern indicates a self-contained temperament. However, unlike the exclusive concentration of the Bundle, the Bowl is associated with feeling that the unoccupied half of your chart is the missing piece. For example, if your ten planets are spread from the 4th to the 9th houses, you may find it easy to share (8th House), give (6th House), and consider the needs of others (7th House). Being a partner feels natural, but developing your personal identity outside of a partnership (1st House) is a struggle that you feel keenly. Likewise, if your planets occupy the 10th (career), 11th (groups), 12th (secrets/spirituality), 1st (personal identity), 2nd (personal resources), and 3rd (communication) houses, it’s easy for you to focus on doing your own thing and meeting your own needs. But the mysteries of partnerships may elude you, even as you feel that your life is not quite complete. The Bowl seems to create a yearning for the opposite side of the chart.
However, as with the Bundle, transits/progressions that activate the empty half of your chart are opportunities to activate that side of your life. So the other half of your chart is never completely out of reach.
The Bucket
This is the Bowl pattern (eight or nine planets in one half of the chart) with one (or two planets conjunct) in the empty half of your chart. The planet in the empty half is the handle of your Bucket. The handle planet is crucial, because the energy of the grouped planets are focused through it. It is your bridge to the world that lies beyond your self-containment. If the handle is made up of a relationship planet (Moon, Venus), your 7th House ruler, or the handle is actually located in your 7th House, relationships will take on magnified importance. For example, let’s say nine of your planets occupy your 10th to 3rd houses, and the handle (Saturn) falls in your 7th. Relationships may be difficult due to emphasized fears (Saturn) of giving up your independence (all that me-first energy is squeezed through Saturn’s limits). You may continually run into authority issues (Saturn) with your partner, until you can find a balance (7th House) between your independence and their rules.
A version of the Bucket is the Bundle with a handle. This places even more emphasis on the handle planet, with your special talent expressed through it. Let’s say your planets are grouped in the 6th (service), 7th (relationships), and 8th (intimacy) houses, but the handle (your Moon) is in the 11th House (groups). Maybe you’re able to reach out to the public (11th House) on an empathetic level (Moon) with your relationship know-how. Or, when your relationship turns into a pressure cooker due to a particularly tough transit, you can find emotional release through friends (11th House).
The Locomotive
So called by Jones because its shape is similar to the wheel of a locomotive. All planets are located within 240 degrees of the chart, or nine houses. The name says it all — it’s associated with driven personalities who speed towards their objective. The lead planet is important because it is the energy that drives you. Which planet is the lead? Look at the empty houses in your chart. The first planet you see while moving counterclockwise around the chart is the one. If it’s a relationship planet, is located in the 7th, or rules the 7th, you’ll be incredibly motivated to pursue a partnership (or relationships will be your driving force). How that motivation is expressed is described by the lead planet. Saturn as the lead could make your approach to relationships similar to a corporate take-over. Jupiter suggests you may gallop enthusiastically into the future, with your partner along for the ride.
The See-Saw
Opposite sides of your chart are occupied by planets, with at least two empty 60 degree sections (or three houses) on either side. For example, you have planets in your 1st, 2nd, and 3rd houses which are opposed by planets in your 7th, 8th, and 9th Houses (with no other planets in between). The name describes your temperament; you flip back and forth between two sides. If one of those sides involves a relationship house, you may vacillate between being in a partnership and exercising your independence (7th and 1st houses). Or, there may be a conflict between sharing emotions/resources (8th house) versus keeping everything for yourself (2nd house). Your partner can feel that they’re in a relationship with two different people.
The successful resolution of this tug of war is to accept that you will always see both sides of the issue. See if you can find a way to make this work to your advantage; you have the ability to be in a partnership without losing yourself.
The Splay
Planets are spread around your chart in clusters. For example, three planets in the 10th, one in the 7th, three in the 3rd, two in the 1st, and one in the 5th. This suggests multiple yet focused areas of interest, with a stubborn desire to do things your way. You like what you like, and follow your own rules. If one or more of those areas is a relationship house, there may be an on/off focus on your partnership (which will vary as transits/progressions activate your other houses). It’s never just about the relationship, and your partner should be prepared to share your time between him/her and your other interests. But your focus on each interest (including your relationship) is just as intense as the Bundle personality.
The Splash
Planets are scattered evenly around your chart, in at least eight different houses or signs. This gives you the most even temperament of all the chart types, but also the least focus. You can shift from one interest to the next with ease, but may have difficulty focusing on your partner for extended periods of time. On the other hand, this energy pattern makes you dynamic and flexible (as well as sociable), so you probably have no difficulties meeting partners.
Because of the spread out nature of your planets, at least one is (almost) always being activated by a major transit/progression. As a result, there may always be excitement happening somewhere in your life. Again, this can make it difficult to settle down in a partnership. However, this doesn’t make having a relationship impossible. Your lover should understand that just because your attention may wander, it doesn’t mean you feel less for them. It can help if more focused planets or signs (Pluto/Scorpio, Taurus, Saturn/Capricorn) occupy the relationship houses and provide an anchor.
Understanding your chart type can be another tool in your relationship kit. However, not everyone’s chart will perfectly match one of the above types; pick the one that is closest to your distribution of planets. Also, keep in mind that the occupied houses/signs, and the specific planets, have everything to do with how the energies of the chart types are expressed.
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