History & development
Modern relationship astrology uses different constructions: synastry retains two charts, a midpoint composite combines their corresponding positions, and a Davison chart calculates an intermediate time and place. Liz Greene's composite reading is one psychological approach, not a universal interpretation of all three methods.
Mythology & symbolic world
The composite's imagined shared identity is a practitioner metaphor. The studio uses it to frame questions about shared activity, without turning the relationship into a literal person or assigning either partner a fixed role.
Provenance: where the rules come from
Person A is the active atlas birth profile; Person B is calculated independently from its own local time, place and time zone. Synastry compares their fixed longitudes. Composite midpoints use the shorter arc and an explicit ambiguity buffer. Davison uses the midpoint of resolved UTC instants and a spherical geographic midpoint, then recalculates a geocentric chart. Each birth keeps the selected zodiac convention at its own epoch.
How it is calculated
Choices that change the result: Four modes; seven detailed zodiac references, with tropical excluded from the native comparison; a second birth with its own time-zone fold; a 0–10° synastry orb and body filters; selected combined-chart body; native direction and source graha; conversation focus; Davison display time zone. Combined-chart contacts use a fixed 4° orb for five major Western aspects, or classical graha sign rules for the explicitly modern native-vocabulary layer. Download comparison exports both charts and the selected construction as JSON.
Inspect your calculated data →Uses & use cases
- Inspect a selected cross-chart contact and the two people’s natal context.
- Read directional whole-sign overlays without confusing the sending body with the receiving chart.
- Compare the midpoint composite with the declared spherical-midpoint Davison construction.
- Use the separate Jyotish comparison for sign-level graha drishti and Moon/Lagna counts.
Interpretation methods
Synastry: two perspectives
Select A's body, B's body and their displayed aspect. Use each person's own account before combining the two body roles with the receiving whole-sign house topic.
Composite: a declared construction
Inspect the source longitudes and the selected midpoint. Read its body, sign and available whole-sign house as a question about shared activity. An ambiguous Ascendant prevents a house reading.
Davison: inspect the reference event
Confirm the displayed midpoint UTC time and coordinates before reading its recalculated chart. Keep the spherical-location label when comparing a result with other software.
The display time zone changes the clock label, not the intermediate instant or geographic point. This result is not the corrected-MC or fixed-reference-place variant.
Native comparison and modern sidereal constructions
Use the Jyotish comparison for its stated sign rules. A sidereal composite or Davison may use the app's graha vocabulary, but the underlying construction remains modern.
A directional Jupiter fifth-sign contact is not a Western 120° orb test. Neither that contact nor a sidereal combined chart is a Kuta compatibility score.
Explore these reading approaches
Concepts in this tradition
Follow a term for its definition, word origin, evidence and connected ideas.
Disagreements & limits
- Birth-time uncertainty affects the Moon, angles and overlays. Both profiles must be checked before interpretation.
- Synastry uses five major longitude aspects and whole-sign overlays. Two fixed natal charts receive no applying/separating transit label.
- The composite averages corresponding planets and angles; it uses whole-sign sectors from a resolved midpoint Ascendant, not twelve averaged natal cusps. Its independently averaged MC need not be the tenth-house cusp.
- Composite source positions within 0.01° of opposition are flagged with both candidate branches. This numerical stability buffer is not a measurement of birth-time accuracy. No physical time, speed or retrograde state is assigned to the composite.
- Davison rejects antipodal, polar and unsupported extreme-latitude midpoint locations. It does not implement corrected-MC or reference-place alternatives.
- The native comparison does not supply Kuta scores, Kuja Dosha, degree-strength drishti, Navamsa matching or a complete kundli judgement.
- No aspect count or chart narrative can establish consent, trust, suitability or a relationship’s future.
- Combined-chart graha sign contacts are a modern interpretive layer on the chosen construction; they are not presented as a traditional Jyotish relationship technique.
Sources & evidence
Practitioner sources describe their own systems. Historical and astronomical sources support different kinds of claims. Reading exercises are editorial teaching examples.
- John Green and Chris Brennan: Synastry — The Astrology of Relationships ↗original practitioner interview
- Astrodienst: Composite Chart, Midpoint-method ↗first-party calculation documentation
- Liz Greene: The Composite Chart ↗original practitioner article
- Astrodienst: Davison Relationship Chart variants ↗first-party calculation documentation
- P. V. R. Narasimha Rao: Vedic Astrology — An Integrated Approach, §10.2 ↗original practitioner textbook
- Shri Jyoti Star 10: official help ↗first-party software manual