Natal Chart
Synastry
Definition
Overlaying two people's natal charts to see how their planets contact each other. It is the traditional technique for reading the dynamics between two real, separate charts, rather than generating a single blended chart for the pair.
What it means
Synastry takes each person's planetary positions as fixed and checks the angles, or aspects, between one person's planets and the other's: a conjunction (close together), a square (tension), a trine (ease), and so on. Because both charts stay intact and separate, a synastry reading describes a specific contact point between two people rather than dissolving either chart into a shared third one, which is what a composite chart does instead.
How it shows up in a chart
The planets most commonly read in synastry are the personal ones, Sun, Moon, Venus, and Mars, along with the Ascendant, since these describe identity, emotional needs, affection, and drive most directly. A Sun-Moon contact between two charts is considered one of the more significant synastry aspects, often read as a strong sense of mutual recognition between the two people's core identity and emotional instincts.
A worked example
KURT COBAIN · 20 FEBRUARY 1967 · 19:20 · ABERDEEN, WA COURTNEY LOVE · 9 JULY 1964 · 14:08 · SAN FRANCISCO, CA Kurt Cobain's Moon at 13°13′ Cancer sits 4°26′ from Courtney Love's Sun at 17°39′ Cancer, close enough to read as a conjunction between the two charts. A Moon-Sun conjunction in synastry describes his emotional instincts and her core identity landing in close, same-sign alignment, a contact often read as an immediate, almost familiar sense of mutual recognition between the two people. Synastry describes this kind of contact point; it does not, on its own, predict how a relationship unfolds.